Today marks the anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne in 1952. A village school in Norfolk was given the honor of hosting the Queen and kicking-off the royal mum's diamond jubilee year. They performed music and a play based on her 60 years of service.
The Dalai Lama brought his message of peace and compassion -- and his trademark humor -- to Hawaii, celebrating the coming together of two native cultures. Similar to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the indigenous culture of Hawaii has its own inherent spirituality. He calls it compassion. We call it Aloha, said one participant at the events sponsored by eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar.
A judge told Tennessee officials on Monday to stop enforcing new rules that have been used to arrest dozens of Occupy protesters in Nashville. The decision was a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, which cited the people's right to peaceful assembly.
A North Texas police department is handing out gift cards instead of tickets, rewarding good traffic habits and living up to their motto, To Protect and Serve.
The United States Supreme Court ruled that an Alabama law that gave juveniles convicted of murder mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole was unconstitutional. To slap juveniles with a mandatory sentence, which does not allow a judge to take into consideration the circumstances of a murder -- such as lack of intent to kill -- violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Violent crime in the United States fell for a fifth straight year in 2011, dropping 4 percent, and the number of murders dropped to the lowest in more than four decades, the FBI said this week.
The Botswana High Court overturned a customary law which prevented women from inheriting the family home, calling it "an unacceptable system of male domination. 65 year-old Edith Mmusi and her two sisters have fought a five-year legal battle against their nephew who said he was the rightful owner of their house.
The rate of partner-to-partner violence dropped by a stunning 64 percent between 1994 and 2010, a recent Justice Department report has found. The trend, almost unnoticed, stems from a broad shift in attitude toward domestic violence.
Cuba will scrap much-reviled travel restrictions starting in January, making it easier for its citizens to leave the communist-ruled island in the first major reform to its migration policies in half a century.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that human genes cannot be patented, a decision that could shape the future of medical and genetic research and have profound effects on pharmaceuticals and agriculture. Simply because Myriad Genetics Inc. found the location of genes that were linked to breast and ovarian cancer, wrote Justice Clarence Thomas, doesn't mean they should be able to claim patents on them.
The Quincy Police Department was one of the first law enforcement agencies to distribute a drug called Naloxone, a drug used to reverse opiate overdoses.
In a rare show of unity, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that police need a warrant before searching the cellphone ,or personal electronic device, of a person under arrest.