Civil War

Ian White was taking his toddler son up into the hills above Altadena when he spotted the long-lost gravestone of abolitionist Owen Brown in a dirt patch off the trail. Owen Brown survived the ill-fated Harper's Ferry raid led by his radical abolitionist father John Brown and later retreated to a hilltop rancho in Altadena. When he died in 1889, he received a hero's funeral. His lonely grave site is in the scrub on a hill above Altadena named Little Round Top, after the strategic hill at the battle of Gettysburg.

TORONTO - Writer-director Andrew Adamson has made animated features such as “Shrek” and “Shrek 2” and large-scale adventure stories including "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and its first sequel. So the small-scale drama “Mr. Pip,” which premiered on Sunday afternoon at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto, is something of a surprise. The film stars Hugh Laurie as the last white man living on the island of Bougainville during the Papua New Guinea civil war of the late '80s and early '90s.

It's a pretty autumn day on an Ohio farm, and the leaves are changing into red, yellow and deeper shades of green. Apples ripen; grapes hang on vines. It's just rained, and the air is clear as a letter arrives from the farm family's son, Pete, who's been away at war. His brother calls to their father to come up from the fields to read it, and the boy's mother hurries over too. A glance shows the parents that the letter was not written by their son. It recounts the boy's wounding, in a gunshot to the chest, with a reassurance that he "will soon be better.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The handful of museum-goers who had come to learn about the region at the Levine Museum of the New South were a bit surprised Monday to be invited to taste several kinds of soda pop by Tom Hanchett, the museum's staff historian. Turns out the area is known for its production of sugary and caffeinated sodas, and Hanchett was making a point. Workers toiling in the cotton mills that dominated North Carolina in the 20th century needed stamina, he said, and they got it through sugar and caffeine.

TAMPA, Fla. - For Republicans, this week's national convention is a chance to put aside differences and give presidential nominee Mitt Romney a celebratory boost into the fall campaign. But behind the harmonious images that Romney aides have worked hard to produce, Republicans face a frightening demographic future and a party civil war. Polls show that the GOP is united today more by an intense desire to defeat President Obama than by enthusiasm for Romney. The former Massachusetts governor made it to the nomination after a long and bruising primary contest that exposed continuing strains within the party.

Syria has long had a diverse population that managed to live together in relative harmony. And the struggle to end Baathist rule drew together citizens from across class, economic, religious and ethnic lines. But now, in the fog of war, a growing sectarianism suggests that a stable Syria after President Bashar Assad's eventual ouster may prove to be elusive. Unfortunately, some at the forefront of the 17-month-long conflict are no longer championing inclusiveness as they did when the uprising began.

WASHINGTON - President Obama's vow to limit U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war is being criticized from a usually sympathetic quarter: the Democratic foreign policy establishment. Senior Democratic foreign policy figures, along with diplomats who have worked for Democratic administrations, are saying the administration needs to do more to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe and preserve U.S. influence in a key Mideast state. The views of these figures, including former Clinton administration Defense Secretary William Perry and former Obama administration officials Ann-Marie Slaughter and Dennis Ross, add to pressure on the White House from regional allies and Republican rivals as the Syrian conflict has intensified.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Naima Naggar stood in a Tripoli polling station Saturday, her index finger stained with indelible ink as she voted in Libya's first free elections in decades hoping to heal tribal divisions and bring this battered nation closer to democracy. She and other Libyans voted in high spirits to move beyond last year's civil war and the late Moammar Kadafi's 42-year repressive rule. Yet distrust and tension hang over the country, which has been marked by lawlessness and political schisms fueled by heavily armed militias.

Multi-star generals attended his Arlington National Cemetery funeral. His name adorns a fighter jet. His words echo in the halls of Congress. Since Marine Sgt. William C. Stacey, age 23, was killed Jan. 31 on a remote hillside inAfghanistan'sHelmand province, a letter he wrote to his family has gained much attention from politicians and the news media. "It's quoted by liberals, conservatives and generals and people across the political spectrum. They use it in different ways.

WASHINGTON - Spurred by recent battlefield gains, the Pentagon is making plans to send U.S. military aircraft to Yemen for the first time to help move government troops and supplies more quickly into battle against Islamic militants, U.S. officials said. Senior U.S. commanders responsible for the Middle East argue that deploying American cargo aircraft could be crucial to carrying on a U.S.-backed offensive that has driven members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and allied groups out of several cities and towns.