The hurricane season opened Wednesday with a flourish, and more specifically, with the debut of its first named storm, Tropical Storm Alvin.
Tropical Depression 1-E was upgraded and named a tropical storm on Wednesday, which happens to be the first day of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center. The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts on June 1, and both seasons end November 30.
"Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours," the Miami-based hurricane center said, "and Alvin could become a hurricane in a couple of days."
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An Alaska volcano exhibiting "elevated seismic activity" has spewed ash clouds skyward - as high as 20,000 feet above sea level - an observatory reported Wednesday.
As was the case a day earlier, the Pavlof Volcano was on "watch" status on Wednesday because of heightened activity, and it was also under an orange code that relates to how its rumblings might affect planes flying over its summit. Both these alert levels are the second most serious out of four options, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory.
The same alert levels also continue to apply Wednesday to the Cleveland Volcano, which like Pavlof is in the Aleutian Island range southwest of mainland Alaska. Lava was reported flowing Tuesday at Pavlof and Cleveland.
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President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday to hold accountable those at the Internal Revenue Service involved in the targeting of conservative groups applying for federal tax-exempt status, beginning with the resignation of the agency's acting commissioner who was aware of the practice.
In a brief statement delivered to reporters in the East Room of the White House, the president announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had requested - and accepted - the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller.
The president said the "misconduct" detailed in the IRS Inspector General's report released Tuesday over the singling out of conservative groups is "inexcusable."
FULL STORYA jury Monday found a Philadelphia abortion provider guilty of three counts of first-degree murder.
Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, was accused of killing babies by using scissors to cut their spinal cords. Authorities alleged that some of the infants were born alive and viable during the sixth, seventh and eighth months of pregnancy.
Monday's first-degree murder conviction means Gosnell, who is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist, could be sentenced to death.
Gosnell also was accused in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, who died of an anesthetic overdose during a second-trimester abortion at his West Philadelphia clinic. In that case, the jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Gosnell was also found guilty of 21 counts of abortion of the unborn, 24 weeks or older.
In Pennsylvania, abortions past 24 weeks are illegal unless the health of the mother is at stake.
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Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister whose government was overthrown by a military coup more than a decade ago, appears to be back on top in Pakistan, election officials have said, despite claims by other parties of vote rigging.
According to unofficial results disclosed Sunday from the country's violence-marred elections over the weekend, Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), looks to have won most of the seats in the National Assembly.
One of the country's leading industrialists and richest men, Sharif has been prime minister twice before and was overthrown in a coup when Gen. Pervez Musharraf seized power in 1999. Sharif was subsequently jailed before going into exile in Saudi Arabia. He returned to Pakistan in 2007.
FULL STORYAriel Castro's brothers no longer refer to him as kin. Instead, they call him "a monster" who should rot in jail after being accused of kidnapping and holding three young women hostage in his home for a decade.
"I had nothing to do with this, and I don't know how my brother got away with it for so many years," Pedro Castro, 54, said when he and brother Onil Castro, 50, sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Martin Savidge this weekend.
When the story first broke, the world saw all three brothers as suspects after Cleveland police arrested them last Monday and released their mugshots. It was not until Thursday that Pedro and Onil Castro were freed and investigators said the brothers had no involvement in the kidnappings.
Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, remains in a Cleveland jail on $8 million bond. He's charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.
FULL STORYFirst came the pain – a decade of torture, torment and terror for three captive women and one of their young daughters.
Now comes the prosecution and – if there's a conviction – punishment for the man accused of being responsible for their hell.
Ariel Castro appeared silently in court Thursday, his head down, as he was arraigned on four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, accused of holding the women captive in his Cleveland home. Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lauren Moore ordered Castro held on $8 million bond – $2 million for each of the three women and the child born to Amanda Berry before they were freed Monday evening.
Hours later, the top prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, announced he'd press for more charges – "for each and every act of sexual violence ... each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault (and) all his attempted murders."
Furthermore, Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he'd try to persuade a grand jury to indict the 52-year-old Castro for "aggravated murder" for the termination of his captives' pregnancies. He cited a state law that a person can be charged with murder - a conviction that could lead to the death penalty in Ohio - for killing unborn children.
FULL STORYCrews working through the rubble at the Bangladesh building collapse site found a woman trapped in the wreckage and plucked her to safety Friday.
"I'm alive. Please rescue me," she said.
After she was pulled out of the debris, she was rushed to a hospital, an army official said.
The discovery comes more than two weeks after a building in a Bangladesh complex with factories full of garment workers caved in: South Asia's deadliest industrial disaster.
For the 17th day, rescue and recovery workers search through the nine-story building's tangled wreckage in Savar, a suburb of the capital, Dhaka.
FULL STORYSeldom does a daughter use such harsh words to describe her own father.
Ariel Castro's daughter called him "the most evil, vile, demonic criminal" she ever heard of during a CNN exclusive interview Thursday.
"He is dead to me," Angie Gregg said of the father police say kidnapped, held captive, raped and beat three young women in Cleveland for about a decade.
She had known her "daddy" as a "friendly, caring, doting man."
Now shocked and in disbelief, Gregg says she never wants to see him again.
FULL STORYAn Arizona jury Wednesday found Jodi Arias guilty of first-degree murder for killing Travis Alexander in June 2008. The conviction means Arias could face the death penalty. In the next phase of the case, prosecutors will have a chance to present additional evidence and jurors will decide whether Alexander's death was caused in a cruel manner.
In an unprecedented action, an Air Force commander has stripped 17 of his officers of their authority to control and launch nuclear missiles.
The 17 are being sent to undergo 60 to 90 days of intensive refresher training on how to do their jobs. The action comes after their unit performed poorly on an inspection and one officer was investigated for potential compromise of nuclear launch codes, according to Lt. Col. John Dorrian, an Air Force spokesman.
The story was first reported by The Associated Press.
FULL STORYMore than 30 arrests have been made in the diamond heist last February at Brussels Airport and some of the stolen diamonds have been recovered, a spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor's office said Wednesday.
Police arrested 24 people Tuesday in Belgium, eight in Switzerland, and one in France, said Jean-Marc Meilleur, the office's spokesman. Police in Belgium raided about 40 houses in Brussels on Wednesday.
Authorities discovered some of the stolen diamonds in Switzerland, and money in Belgium, Switzerland and France, Meilleur said. Luxury cars were seized in Belgium, he said.
FULL STORYTwo of the three women rescued from a Cleveland home where they'd been held for about a decade or more returned home Wednesday while police readied charges against the men accused of keeping them captive.
Well-wishers from the neighborhood cheered as a gray van carrying Amanda Berry and the 6-year-old daughter she gave birth to during her captivity pulled up. The porch was decorated with balloons and stuffed animals and draped with a red banner that read, "Welcome home Amanda."
"We are so happy to have Amanda and her daughter home," her sister, Beth Serrano, told reporters. "I want to thank the public and media for their support and courage over the years."
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After turning 50 years old, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie secretly underwent lap-band surgery in February for the sake of his wife and kids, a source close to the governor confirmed to CNN.
Christie (pictured) told the New York Post, which first reported the story, that the invasive procedure came after his family and friends urged him to start improving his health.
"I've struggled with this issue for 20 years," he said. "For me, this is about turning 50 and looking at my children and wanting to be there for them."
FULL STORYAmanda Berry was last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King in Cleveland in 2003. It was the eve of her 17th birthday.
Georgina "Gina" DeJesus disappeared nearly a year later, in April 2004. She was 14.
Michele Knight vanished in 2002, at age 19, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.
All three were found alive in a home in a Cleveland neighborhood Monday night, police announced in a development hailed as a miracle by their families.
"Help me, I am Amanda Berry," Berry told police in a frantic 911 call from a neighbor's house. "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here, I'm free now."
The state of California is set to fine Pacific Gas and Electric Company $2.25 billion for the deadly San Bruno, California, pipeline rupture in September 2010.
The Safety and Enforcement Division of the California Public Utilities Commission recommended the penalty for three cases arising from the Sept. 9, 2010, incident, which killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.
FULL STORYThe state of California is set to fine Pacific Gas and Electric Company $2.25 billion for the deadly San Bruno, California, pipeline rupture in September 2010.
The Safety and Enforcement Division of the California Public Utilities Commission recommended the penalty for three cases arising from the Sept. 9, 2010, incident, which killed eight people and destroyed dozens of homes.
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The Senate passed legislation Monday that would allow the 45 states (and the District of Columbia) that charge sales tax to require online retailers to collect taxes on purchases made by their residents.
The bill will now move to the House.
So how would the passage of the "Marketplace Fairness Act" affect your online shopping? A lot depends on where you live.
From California to New York, here's a look at what you can expect:
FULL STORYThe white stretch Lincoln was headed across San Francisco Bay, carrying the bride-to-be and eight of her friends for a bachelorette party.
Five of them, including the bride, never made it across.
Somewhere on the seven-mile San Mateo-Hayward bridge, the limousine caught fire. The driver and four members of the bachelorette party got out, but the bride – identified by a relative as 31-year-old Neriza Fojas – and four others died in the burning limo Saturday night, the California Highway Patrol said.
"The flames were gigantic," said Roxanne Guzman, who was crossing the bridge with her husband and brother about 10 p.m. Saturday (1 a.m. Sunday ET). "The flames were so big and radiating so much heat that I could feel the heat off of my face, and I was in my car the entire time."
FULL STORYA U.N. official says there are strong suspicions that Syrian rebel forces have used the deadly nerve agent sarin gas in the country's civil war.
Carla Del Ponte told an Italian-Swiss TV station that the findings come after interviews with doctors and Syrian victims now in neighboring countries.
Del Ponte, the commissioner of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry for Syria, said the notion isn't surprising, given the infiltration of foreign fighters into the Syrian opposition.
But rebel Free Syrian Army spokesman Louay Almokdad said rebels don't even have unconventional weapons, nor do they want any.
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