In Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, as many as 500 insurgents seized and looted a half-dozen police stations on Thursday, stealing police cars, hundreds of weapons and uniforms, and stunning American officials with the size and scope of their attacks.

The head of one troubled charter school left town in the middle of the night and took all the furniture, stunning officials, who suddenly had to accommodate stranded students thrown back on the public system.

A Syrian Air Force major flying a Soviet-made fighter-bomber landed in Israel today, stunning Israeli officials who said the pilot had asked for political asylum.

The stunning official and original record of Captain Scott's journey to the South Pole, newly restored.