The Commercial Appeal (2007-Current)

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Most Read Sunday's most-read stories:

Right Vs. Wrong -- Offenders' Decisions at Heart of Therapy

Jeff Smith was an alcoholic when he tried heroin for the first time at age 17. "It used to take me three hours to get high when I drank. I could do the heroin and be there in three minutes," he says.

Alternative Medicine May Be Risky Route to Health -- Growing Acceptance - but Unproven in Safety, Benefit

BALTIMORE - At one of the nation's top trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive. They are doing Reiki therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields. The anesthesia chief, Dr. Richard Dutton, calls it "mystical mumbo jumbo." Still, he's a fan.

Waste Found in Spending On Wars -- Poor Management, Weak Oversight of Contracting

WASHINGTON - This is one Christmas gift U.S. taxpayers don't need. Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork. The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abortion Violence Threatened -- Suspect in Doctor's Death Warns of More 'Events'

WICHITA, Kan. - The man charged with killing a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days after a federal investigation launched into possible accomplices. A Justice Department spokesman said the threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics last week. But a leader of the anti-abortion movement derided ...

Briefly

Louisiana Flu quarantine snags mayor

Crowded Suv Crashes in Arizona, Killing 10

SONOITA, Ariz. - Ten undocumented immigrants "stacked like wood" in the back of a sport utility vehicle crammed with at least 22 people were killed when the driver lost control and rolled over on a remote southern Arizona highway, authorities said Sunday. The Ford Excursion had no rear seat and most of the men and women were ejected when the SUV crashed just before midnight Saturday near Sonoita, about 40 miles southeast of Tucson. Authorities said all the victims are believed to be undocumen...

European Voters Move to Right -- Left-Leaning Parties Punished in Elections

BRUSSELS - Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere. Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.

Kids' Deaths Stir Anger Over Safety -- Fire Alarm, Sprinkler Failed; Only One Exit

HERMOSILLO, Mexico - As the day care swiftly filled with smoke, caretakers, neighbors and parents fought to evacuate 142 children - many of them babies and toddlers - through a single working exit until rescue crews arrived. No fire alarm or sprinkler system had gone off, and one mother said a second door to the day care was bolted shut and nobody could find the key.

Pakistan / Seeking Shelter

Newsmaker / Alexander Statue Stirs Balkans

SKOPJE, Macedonia - As an exercise in nation-building, Macedonia's latest effort is audacious - an eight-story-high statue of Alexander the Great on horseback, in the center of the capital. Some Macedonians are aghast, saying the planned statue will ruin Skopje's skyline, cost more than this poor country can afford, anger a powerful neighbor and revive communal tensions in a country that suffered an insurgency by militants among the ethnic Albanian minority eight years ago.

No Fun in Acapulco: Shootout Claims 18

ACAPULCO, Mexico - It was a shootout straight from Hollywood in the former playground of its biggest stars: Masked and heavily armed Mexican soldiers battled outlaws holed up in a hillside mansion in a four-hour shootout that had tourists cowering in hotels nearby. Roughly 3,000 shots flew, and 50 grenades exploded during the raucous gunbattle late Saturday that killed 16 gunmen and two soldiers. Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.

Names in the News

"Billy Elliot" won the Tony Award on Sunday night as Broadway's best musical. The show won 10 awards, including for the three young actors who star in the title role. "God of Carnage," the satiric comedy by French playwright Yasmina Reza , took the best play prize.

Another 15 Bodies Found at Crash Site -- Search Ships Cruising Through 'Sea of Debris'

RECIFE, Brazil - Search ships methodically worked through a "sea of debris" from a doomed Air France jet Sunday, recovering 15 more bodies near the spot where the Airbus A330 is believed to have gone down a week ago. Two bodies were recovered Saturday, and Brazilian and French ships picked up 15 more Sunday afternoon after pilots participating in a grid search reported additional sightings. The bodies have been found in an area about 45 miles from where the jet sent out messages signaling ele...

America at War

Five contractors held in slaying BAGHDAD - Five U.S. contractors have been detained in the investigation of the slaying of another American in Baghdad's Green Zone, officials said Sunday, in what may become the first case of U.S. citizens facing Iraqi justice under a security agreement that took effect this year.