National News

The Smithsonian Institution will officially begin construction Wednesday on a new museum dedicated to African American culture and heritage -- a complex committed to the celebration and study one of the central components of the American story.

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday in the trial of a former University of Virginia lacrosse player accused of fatally beating his ex-girlfriend.

Five people were killed in a suburban Atlanta spa Tuesday night in a shooting that police said appeared to be a murder-suicide.

An Indiana lawmaker who opposes celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Girl Scouts of America says the group "sexualizes" young girls, promotes homosexuality and is a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood.

A 29-year-old Moroccan man accused of attempting to bomb the U.S. Capitol building is scheduled to be at a court hearing Wednesday in Virginia.

Attorneys for country duo Sugarland say concertgoers' injuries from a deadly stage collapse last year at an Indiana State Fair were "their own fault" and they "failed to exercise due care for their own safety," according to court documents.

A 42-year-old immigrant from Rwanda, who is accused of lying her way into the United States after allegedly participating in the 1994 genocide that left up to 800,000 people dead, goes on trial Wednesday in a New Hampshire federal court.

The mother of Amir Hekmati, an American sentenced to death in Iran for espionage, visited her son last month, sources close to the family said.

A northwest Montana avalanche apparently triggered by a snowmobiler left him dead while a companion was able to escape, authorities said Tuesday.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday fired back at the president of Yale University and others who have suggested city police went too far in their surveillance of Muslims.

To watch Whitney Houston's powerful "going home" service on Saturday was to be reminded that she was a one of a kind talent, with a divine instrument that even in death soared above all the other famous voices that gathered at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, to celebrate her. But sadly, Houston was a dime a dozen in another aspect of her life: her dependence on drugs and alcohol.

A former southern California schoolteacher is set to be arraigned Tuesday amid allegations he bound young students, then photographed them with semen-filled spoons held at their mouths and three-inch cockroaches crawling across their faces, among other graphic depictions.

A customer inside a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Landover, Maryland, was killed Monday night after a vehicle left the road and drove through the large glass windows of the business, a fire official told CNN.

A former southern California schoolteacher is set to be arraigned Tuesday amid allegations he bound young students, then photographed them with semen-filled spoons and three-inch cockroaches crawling across their faces, among other graphic depictions.

Police on the Caribbean island of Nevis said Monday they have a suspect in custody in the recent armed robbery of vacationing Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

The close-knit community of backcountry skiing was in mourning Monday, a day after an avalanche in Washington state killed a prominent judge in the extreme sport plus two other experienced skiers.

Far from the glamour of Madison Square Garden, aboard a FedEx delivery truck in this small Oregon town, sits the one man who saw Jeremy Lin coming.

A convenience store owner in Waltham, Massachusetts, leapt into action Saturday when he saw flames engulf a home across the street.

A helicopter and a small plane collided over northern California Sunday evening, authorities reported. There were no serious injuries.

After an unexplained absence, "The Colbert Report" is expected to resume production on Monday, a spokeswoman for Stephen Colbert said.