L. Carol Ritchie

It's Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and I'm going with my kids.

"What?" you may ask. "That festival of drunken debauchery?"

That's where you're wrong. For the fourth year in a row, we were at the family-oriented, kid-friendly celebration that's joyous, musical, raucous — and entirely legal.

The kids mingle ...

This post was updated at 4:00 p.m. ET.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's opponents are moving quickly to take government power, although no one is certain how permanent those moves will be.

The Ukrainian legislature has voted to give the president's powers temporarily to the Parliament speaker, Oleksandr Turchinov.

On Sunday, ...

This post was updated at 3:10 p.m. ET.

Ukraine's parliament has voted to push President Viktor Yanukovych out of office hours after he fled the capital and denounced events in the country as "a coup d'etat" in a television interview.

The legislature also voted to release Yanukovych's jailed arch-rival, former ...

In Sochi this week, athletes are competing in a display of human grace and skill. Many will win. Many more will lose, and many tears will be shed.

In New York Saturday night, athletes of a different breed competed in a display of canine finesse and dexterity. Many won. If ...

First there were revelations — and an apology from the New Jersey governor — that his aides had punished the mayor of Fort Lee by closing lanes that lead to the George Washington Bridge.

Then came the claim that Chris Christie himself knew about the closures, ...

A suicide attack at a Kabul restaurant popular with foreign nationals killed at least 21 people on Friday, including the country director for the International Monetary Fund and four United Nations employees.

The attacker exploded a bomb at the restaurant gates, clearing the way for two gunmen to enter and ...

A massive post-Christmas package of precipitation is headed up the East Coast today. The storm is predicted to dump snow and ice from Boston on up and promises to vex residents already a week without power since the last winter storm.

The storm is carrying drenching rain through the Carolinas, ...

Updated 11:14 p.m. EDT

Reuters is reporting that the four American military personnel detained earlier Friday night have been released.

The Reuters report quotes an anonymous U.S. defense official.

More than two years after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi, Libya is plagued by security issues and awash heavy weapons in ...

Freezing rain has been creeping across Tennessee on its way to the mid-Atlantic as the stunning cold, snow and ice that gripped Texas and the west on Saturday advance eastward.

The storm is expected to turn Virginia and Pennsylvania into an icy mess today and scrabble north into New York ...

The vicious typhoon that raged through the center of the Philippines appears to have killed hundreds, if not thousands of people, and officials were reportedly struggling Sunday to distribute aid to survivors left homeless and destitute.

Deaths in the province of Leyte — mainly from drowning and collapsed buildings — ...

Former South African President Nelson Mandel was released from a hospital where he has been treated for a recurring lung infection since June 8.

His condition remains critical, but doctors feel he can still receive intensive care at home, the government said.

"Madiba's condition remains critical and is ...

Update At 12:40 p.m. ET:

A spokesman for the U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon says inspectors carried out a wide range of fact finding activity in Syria, but that it will take time to analyze the samples collected on the ground.

Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Martin ...

Keepers at the Smithsonian National Zoo, who were elated to report Friday that giant panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub, added a sad note Saturday with the news that a second cub was stillborn.

The second birth happened at 7:29 p.m. ET, reports Pamela Baker-Masson, communications director ...

(This post was last updated at 4:20 p.m. ET)

Egyptian security forces have stormed a Cairo mosque where supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi holed up for hours on Saturday.

Al-Jazeera reports that the Fateh mosque has been cleared of protesters opposed to the July 3 coup that ousted ...

The top of this post was last updated at 9:45 p.m. ET:

About 80 people have been killed and hundreds injured in bloody clashes overnight in and around Cairo after protests escalated into violence, with supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi saying police shot at demonstrators.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson ...