CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - It took roughly 20 minutes to read the names of the 100 service members from the 5th Regimental Combat Team who died in Iraq the past year. A Marine called out each name in a somber voice, followed each time by the single chime of a giant bell. SALUTE - K'Ann Hines, of Ventura and the mother of U. S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Joshua MIichael Hines, one of the 101 ... [full story]

INDEPENDENCE, Calif. - It will touch deep into your soul, tangle with your conscience and, most certainly, break your heart. At least that's what it did to me. Manzanar National Historic Site - a 1-square-mile plot of desolate, windblown desertscape on the eastern edge of California's Owens Valley - was established by Congress in 1992 to tell the stories of nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans forced from their homes during World War II and confined at relocation ... [full story]

Smoking isn't the only cause for lung cancer. In fact, more nonsmokers are now being diagnosed with the dreaded disease than in the past. Lung cancer kills more than 180,000 Americans each year. It has a higher death rate than breast, prostate and colon cancers combined, according to Dr. Heather Wakelee, assistant professor of medicine at Stanford. And, according to the Feb. 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, female nonsmokers are developing lung ... [full story]

Once again this summer, Crystal Cruises mixes politics with pleasure. Husband and wife James Carville and Mary Matalin, returning lecturers for the cruise line, will present their opposing political views on the 2008 election onboard the Crystal Serenity as it plies the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas from Venice, Italy, to Rome. SET A COURSE FOR POLITICS - Crystal Cruises is offering more than just Old World cruising this summer. As part of its Crystal Visions ... [full story]

Is your child having trouble sleeping most nights? Does he or she walk, scream or wake up in a panic? Your child is not alone when it comes to these symptoms. Parasomnias, unnecessary physical activities that happen while sleeping, were found to happen more often in children than adults, according to a study in the Feb. 1 issue of the SLEEP journal. Dr. Thornton B.A. Mason II of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr. ... [full story]

A joint English-Canadian research team has discovered genetic markers that can identify people predisposed toward developing Type 2 diabetes. The group believes these discoveries will help them to understand up to 70 percent of the disease's genetic background, and can help prevent people from developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The research is published online in the journal Nature. Led by scientists from Imperial College London and Canada's McGill University, ... [full story]

It's supposed to get downright spooky after a while. Except it doesn't. Animal-control guy - that is, dogcatcher - Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) starts reading a tattered little self-published novel called "The Number 23" that his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), picked up in a used bookstore. 'THE NUMBER 23' - Virginia Madsen and Danny Huston are featured in the drama 'The Number 23.' CNS Photo courtesy of Christine Loss. Eerily, the plot of the book ... [full story]

"The Little Book of Plagiarism" by Richard A. Posner; Pantheon; 116 small pages; $11 Many, if not most of the sentences we speak and write have never been produced before, and will never again see the light of day or dark of night. They're unique, even though they contain familiar, even shopworn phrases like "light of day" and "dark of night." (Exceptions: ordinary "housekeeping" sentences - "Your mother called," "That lane's moving faster," "When are ... [full story]

"Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays" by Joan Acocella; Pantheon; 524 pages; $30. I pretty much read these 30 essays over the course of 30 evenings, and by the end of the first week it had become like returning time and again to a drop-dead thriller at about the second-to-last chapter. You know the feeling, or at least I hope you do: The sharp little leap of the heart as you collapse onto the bed ... [full story]

It's supposed to get downright spooky after a while. Except it doesn't. Animal-control guy - that is, dogcatcher - Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) starts reading a tattered little self-published novel called "The Number 23" that his wife, Agatha (Virginia Madsen), picked up in a used bookstore. 'THE NUMBER 23' - Virginia Madsen and Danny Huston are featured in the drama 'The Number 23.' CNS Photo courtesy of Christine Loss. Eerily, the plot of the book ... [full story]