FORT MEADE, Maryland (CNN) -- Pfc. Bradley Manning pleaded guilty Thursday to half of the 22 charges against him, but not the major one, in what the government says is the largest leak of classified documents in the nation's history.

A predictably divided Supreme Court appeared ready to strike down - at least in part - the key enforcement provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, with many conservative justices on Wednesday suggesting it was a constitutionally unnecessary vestige of the civil rights era.

New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel addressed service members and civilian employees Wednesday, vowing to always be "honest" and "direct" with his staff--and asking the same in return.

Winter storm hits Chicago and the Great Lakes area  with heavy snowfalls and power outages.New Hampshire to get 12 inches of snow

Transgendered first-grader Coy Mathis wants to use the girls' restroom at her Colorado elementary school. But school officials won't let her.

Salvage crews have removed the funnel, or smokestack, and mast from the former USS Guardian, the Philippine coast guard reports. The agency posted a series of photos on its website showing large parts of the minesweeper being lifted by a crane and transferred to a barge.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI has agreed to release portions of its files concerning civil rights-era photographer Ernest Withers' work for the agency as a secret informant to settle a lawsuit, according to representatives of the Memphis, Tennessee, newspaper The Commercial Appeal.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York Police Department officer is on trial in a federal case stemming from a bizarre online plan allegedly to kidnap, cook and eat women.

With the Oscars being handed out Sunday night in Los Angeles, The Onion called the child actress a derogatory term in a tweet that has since been deleted.

(CNN) -- The Daytona 500 ran as scheduled Sunday despite a jaw-dropping crash a day earlier that flung debris into the stands at the Daytona International Speedway.