Rabbi Mendel Rubashkin held vigil at his computer for the better part of two days last week. Eager for Internet updates about terrorist attacks unfolding in India, he trolled frantically for evidence that his friend, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, had survived the violent siege at the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Center in Mumbai. "It was a roller coaster of emotions," said Rubashkin, leader of Chabad of Brandon, a sector of the Chabad movement, a network of Orthodox Jews with thousands of groups around the world. News finally came the day after Thanksgiving. Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka, 28, were among those found brutally slain at the center in Mumbai, where they had served the Jewish community since 2003. ...more

December 5, 2008

Transplanting faces may seem like science fiction, but doctors say the experimental surgeries could one day become routine. ...more

August 22, 2008

Like a religious relic, the heart of composer Frederic Chopin rests in a Warsaw church, untouched since it was preserved in alcohol after his death in 1849 at age 39. ...more

July 26, 2008

Nov. 9, 2004, at 11:31 a.m. That's when Ashley and Lewis Davidson learned their daughter Ava had spinal muscular atrophy. The condition is a genetic disease of the nerves affecting voluntary muscular movement, according to the Web site of Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. "I just started crying hysterically," Ashley recalled. "I wanted someone to hug me. I felt really alone." ...more

July 19, 2008

A popular burger chain restaurant is hosting a charity fundraiser on Monday to benefit the family of a Carrollwood teenager who died in a house fire. ...more

May 31, 2008

The picture of the smiling little girl on the flier was more than Laura Bolan could take. ...more

February 23, 2008

Researchers in the Netherlands have developed a drug that eventually may be used to treat children with a severe and fatal type of muscular dystrophy. ...more

December 30, 2007