But in the days after the crisis ended, questions arose about whether the Taliban was actually part of the solution or part of the problem. Like the five unnamed hijackers, the extremist Islamic movement wants to expel India from Kashmir. Some of the 159 released passengers said that the hijackers acquired additional weapons after the plane landed in Afghanistan. During the standoff the gunmen also dramatically increased their ransom demands, asking for $200 million, among other things....

It has been 31 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer was unconstitutional. But Knox thought that he’d found some room to maneuver. Last year a federal appeals court ruled that students could lead prayers at a Texas high-school graduation. Therefore he concluded that students at Wingfield High could do the same–every day. When student-government leaders put the idea to the student body in early November, the vote was 490 to 96 in favor....

“Genome” is not a book about the efforts to sequence DNA. Rather, this “whistle-stop tour of some of the more interesting sites along the genome” is a book about the human condition, and the biology that underlies it. Ridley takes the common metaphor of genome-as-book more literally than most, structuring his volume in 23 chapters to mirror the 23 chromosomes in a human cell. But chromosomes are largely unorganized jumbles of often-unrelated genes, interspersed with reams of noncoding “junk” DNA (not unlike the advertising pages one has to wade through to get to the articles in a fashion magazine)....

Sixteen years later, her designs are on the racks at Bergdorf’s and Saks and on the backs of Julia and that other Reese. In the process, this 38-year-old Detroit native is doing something no black woman in America ever has–she’s thriving atop the fashion world. “It’s wonderful to see this chocolate girl doing her thing with the big guys,” says celebrity publicist Marvet Britto, who’ll be under the tent in New York City when Reese unveils her spring collection Sept....

Belknap County Attorney Edward J. Fitzgerald III says he has reasons for offering a plea bargain but refuses to elaborate. Even if he offers LaForest a deal, he adds, a judge could reject it. The issue will be discussed at a pretrial conference later this month. In the meantime Holway, whose jaw was broken during the attack, wants to use the publicity to roll back the stigma surrounding victims of rape....

This week’s release of the gross domestic product figures for the fourth quarter showed the economy growing at an anemic 1.4 percent, the lowest growth rate in five years. The stats confirmed what Alan Greenspan told Congress just a week earlier: that the economy has undergone a dramatic slowdown in the last four months, and may be idling at close to zero growth. We’re not there yet. The classic definition of a recession is six months of economic contraction, which means that 1....

However, it was the side in favor of AI that came out top, achieving a narrow victory by scoring votes from just over half the audience. According to Fortune, the AI’s arguments were extracted from over 1,100 submissions sent in to IBM the week before the debate, which were categorized as being in favor or opposed to AI, or discarded entirely as being irrelevant to the debate. From these, IBM’s Project Debater searched and condensed the strongest and most diverse arguments to repeat when given a short opening sentence as a prompt....

Is the windfall a “tax rebate”? If that’s what officials and the media call it, expect most of the dough to get stashed in bank accounts or to be used to pay down credit card balances, not for new spending. The latter is what Congress and President Bush hope for, since boosting consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the economy, may help avoid an economic downturn. But if the money is labeled a “tax bonus,” then it might indeed be used for a few splurges....

Unfortunately for New York, that seat got a lot less comfortable Wednesday. Henrik Lundqvist did not play against the Bruins Wednesday night as the team investiaged potential problems stemming from the literal shot to the throat Lundqvist took Saturday against the Hurricanes. Despite how bad the injury appeared at first glance, Lundqvist remained in the game. Lundqvist also started Monday’s Rangers victory over the Panthers, and had been scheduled to start against the Bruins....

In the two weeks that I was in Haiti, the armored vehicle parked behind General Cedras’s office wasn’t moved or maintained once. Its .50-caliber main gun was red with rust. The Haitian helicopter and aircraft fleet are inoperable museum pieces. The dozen obsolete artillery pieces haven’t been fired for years, and the 7,600-man Haitian military force doesn’t have the skill and dedication to fight its way out of a retirement home....

I used to explain, apologetically, that my spelling-whiz younger sister had inherited the family “spelling genes.” By the time I made it to college I was more assertive. I’d point out that President Andrew Jackson and F. Scott Fitzgerald were spelling-impaired. (At least one instructor responded that he’d never cared for Fitzgerald’s prose style.) Nowadays my preferred answer to complaints is that any lout with a spell-check can get the letter-arrangement right....

For decades, doctors have relied on conventional chemotherapy to poison cancer cells. The treatment has saved many lives, but because chemo attacks healthy cells, too, patients suffer a slew of toxic side effects. And they often become resistant to treatment or die from complications. Today, thanks to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of how cancer works, patients are beginning to benefit from a revolution in oncology: targeted drugs that home in on the molecular characteristics of cancer cells, leaving healthy tissue relatively unscathed....

Now a new generation of aviation entrepreneurs is seeking to change the air-travel equation. They’re the equivalent of today’s space mavericks, entirely rethinking how the big boys conduct business. Their concept is called the air taxi, and you can think of it as a friendly neighborhood Checker cab with wings, ready to drop you off at any one of the nation’s thousands of smaller airports, which aren’t used by the major airliners....

The number that jumps out the most is 231 yards of total offense, the fewest for the Eagles in a victory since 2005 and a 17-16 triumph in St. Louis. The Eagles had only 18 first downs all day, went 4-for-15 on third down and punted nine times. MORE: Week 3 surprise performers | Jets come crashing back to earth With the Jets faring almost as badly – 323 total yards, 19 first downs, 7-for-17 on third down and eight punts – it was a dismal affair to watch....

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said that he declared a state of emergency to “prepare for any potential motor vehicle fuel supply interruptions across the state and ensure motorists are able to have access to fuel.” The American Automobile Association (AAA) forecasted modest location-specific increases to gas prices this week due to the shutdown of the pipeline, which supplies around 45 percent of fuel to the East Coast....

He supports the improvements to the “student-athlete experience and student-athlete welfare experience” that will come with the NCAA Division I board of directors’ decision to grant the “Power 5” conferences more autonomy Thursday. Yet he’s wary of the competitive perceptions that come with it and the effects that will have on the AAC and other so-called “Group of 5” conferences. “The biggest concern is we would like to be in the room,” Aresco told Sporting News on Wednesday....

The moment seemed to be gut-wrenching for their parents. The brothers faced each other earlier this season, but the stakes Wednesday were the highest of their careers. The Phillies were leading the best-of-seven series 1-0 and Aaron was pitching well when Austin came up in the second inning. MORE: How to watch the Padres vs. Phillies NLCS Little brother Aaron got the better of his big bro in their first at-bat, getting him to ground weakly to third baseman Alec Bohm....

Winter storms in the Northeast have delayed the trial for at least another day. This is the second day in a row that the trial has been halted due to the weather, and the latest delay in a process that previously saw a missing juror hold up the proceedings on the opening day of testimony.