In a crowded hospital along the war-torn border in eastern Chad, 11-year-old Kaltouma shares a grim agony with her 3-year-old sister, Hilam: After the Sudanese government bombed and raided their village in Sudan's western region of Darfur last month, each little girl lost a leg.

Doctors amputated Kaltouma's leg first, removing the ruined limb above the knee. Days later, doctors conceded they couldn't save Hilam's tiny, shrapnel-ridden leg either.

When former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee conceded the Republican presidential nomination to Sen. John McCain on March 4, the two men had something in common: Few people thought either would get this far.

Just last summer, McCain's campaign had nearly imploded and Huckabee's candidacy was hardly off the ground. Only a few months later, McCain was making a remarkable comeback and Huckabee was making a remarkable surge.

As the world's worst refugee crisis enters its sixth year in the war-torn region of Darfur, one of its principal perpetrators is making a stunning admission: In a television interview with a British news program, a leader of the dreaded janjaweed militia says the group's weapons-and orders-came directly from the Sudanese government.

Voters trekking to polling places in Ohio today are no strangers to political drama: For years they've watched their Midwestern home live up to its reputation as a quintessential swing state and a bellwether in presidential elections.

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter thinks Sen. Hillary Clinton is "a creepy person," but she contends that Sen. John McCain is worse: "I would vote for the devil over John McCain."

Republican radio host Rush Limbaugh says that McCain will destroy the Republican Party by seeking the presidential nomination, and he offers this reason: The senator aims to exact revenge for a nasty primary battle he lost in South Carolina eight years ago.

On the campaign trail, McCain says he doesn't sweat the vitriol: "I don't even listen to Rush. . . . I'm not a masochist."

CHARLESTON, S.C.-On a brisk January morning in Charleston, S.C., a bundled-up tour guide stands at the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets, pointing out "the four corners of the law" to a handful of shivering tourists: Old City Hall, the federal courthouse, the county courthouse, and the 256-year-old St. Michael's Episcopal Church stand on each corner of the famous intersection.

Rescue workers in Jackson, Tenn., spent more than five hours digging through piles of twisted rubble last night before reaching 13 students trapped in dorms at Union University after a devastating tornado ripped through the Southern Baptist school's 3,200-student campus.

A cluster of deadly tornadoes tore through parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee on Tuesday night, killing more than 50 people and injuring dozens.