Actor Dennis Hopper was taken to a New York City area hospital Wednesday morning for an undisclosed ailment, according to a publicist.

A Florida death-row inmate convicted of abducting and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005 has died, prison officials said Wednesday.

A major earthquake in Indonesia today killed at least 75 people, according to a Red Cross disaster report, citing an official report from the country's vice president. Earlier, Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Ministry of Health's crisis center, said thousands may be trapped by collapsed buildings and houses.

A small plane crashed outside Muncie, Indiana, as military F-16s trailed it Wednesday after its pilot failed to respond to radio calls, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

The case of a Tennessee man jailed in Japan for trying to snatch back his children from his estranged wife is not as clear-cut as it's been made out to be, authorities here said Wednesday.

In film and literature, the villains are the most entertaining characters. We root for good to triumph over evil and we're connected to the protagonist, but we're most interested in the bad guy.

Sometimes, even in Washington, there's no way around a central truth: that in governing, there are moments when real, tough decisions must be made. No waffling. None of the usual "on the one hand, on the other hand." No hiding behind the votes cast by others.

As lawmakers huddled this summer to put together the framework for health care legislation, it quickly became evident that the battle over President Obama's top priority would be neither quick nor easy.

Residents of close-knit American Samoa are pulling together to help Pago Pago recover from Tuesday's devastating earthquake and tsunami, one resident told CNN today. "That's how we operate over here in American Samoa -- basically everyone is related," said iReporter Maneafaiga Lagafuaina, of Lu'uuli. "We have pulled together as one."

Tracy Rodriguez is not a trained private investigator or police officer. But with a gentle tap on her iPhone screen, the mother of three can access information revealing the sex offenders who live within a 10-mile radius of where her children practice sports or watch movies. Since the iPhone launched, a handful of crime-fighting tools have emerged among the thousands of innovative apps.