A candidate for the Republican National Committee chairmanship said Friday the CD he sent committee members for Christmas -- which included a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" -- was clearly intended as a joke.

Pakistani troops have been moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion, two Pakistani military officials told CNN today. Pakistan's armed forces have been on high alert in anticipation of a possible conflict with India following last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which killed 160 people. India believes the 10 men who carried out the attacks were trained at a terrorist camp in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir.

A Southwest Airlines plane slid off a snow-covered taxiway Friday at Chicago Midway International Airport in Illinois, but no one was hurt, aviation officials said.

Searchers from the U.S. Coast Guard joined the hunt Friday for a cruise ship passenger reported missing after employees of the Norwegian Pearl failed to find her.

Reality television featuring law enforcement officers on the beat is nothing new. A show featuring a lawman who makes jailed inmates wear pink underwear and uses actors to trick suspects, however, is a new twist.

The No. 1 movie of the year was also one of the bleakest: "The Dark Knight" showed a city terrorized by the Joker, with its main characters struggling with ethics. One of its actors, Heath Ledger, died in January. Seems that for every bright spot in 2008, there was a shadow.

Meagan McCormic faced television cameras on Christmas Day to plead for the return of her missing 5-month-old son.

Police in Long Island on Friday were looking into what caused a 78-year-old driver to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a building where a Hanukkah celebration was under way.

A baby who never uttered a word touched the hearts of nearly a million people.

During the presidential election, some Democrats demanded to know how I could defend Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

A few dozen Iranians threw shoes at posters of U.S. President George W. Bush in Tehran Friday morning, a demonstration of support for an Iraqi journalist jailed for throwing his shoes at President Bush two weeks ago in Baghdad.

Israel opened three border crossings with Gaza on Friday, allowing fuels and commodities into the Palestinian territory for the first time in 10 days.

Seven prisoners were killed Friday while attempting to escape from an Iraqi police station, according to an Interior Ministry official.

President-elect Barack Obama visited military personnel and their families enjoying Christmas dinner at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii on Thursday. Obama also highlighted the service of the country's military men and women now overseas in a holiday message to be broadcast on radio this Saturday.

Eight bodies were recovered in a suburban Los Angeles house where a man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas Eve party and then started a raging blaze, police said Thursday. Police said the suspect, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, who had recently divorced one of the women at the party, later committed suicide.

Four years since a 9.0-magnitude earthquake spawned massive walls of water that swept across the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 230,000 dead according to a United Nations estimate, improvements can be seen in many of the devastated areas, humanitarian groups said.

A skier buried by an avalanche was found dead Christmas morning at a California ski resort, authorities said.

Fourteen people, including children, were hospitalized Thursday afternoon after a driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a New York building where a Hanukkah festival was under way, police told CNN. Heshey Jacob, president of the Hatzolah Volunteer Emergency Medical Service, said the vehicle went through a play tent in the front of the building where children were playing.

German sailors foiled an attempt by pirates to hijack an Egyptian cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, the German Defense Ministry said.