Southern Baptists are facing a membership decline that could shrink the nation’s largest Protestant denomination by nearly half in 40 years, its convention president said Tuesday.

The leader of the Church of Scientology struck his subordinates numerous times and set an example for physical violence among the tightly controlled religion’s management team, four former high-ranking executives told a newspaper for a story published Sunday.

A 23-year-old Auburn University student died after a tractor he was riding on a golf course went over an embankment.

Authorities are investigating how a man under arrest walked into a Tampa jail with a loaded handgun concealed in his pants.

An Alabama death row inmate who taunted his victim’s mother with grisly, graphic drawings and writings on the Internet was executed Thursday at Holman Prison.

Former President Jimmy Carter will visit Syria, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza this week to promote constructive dialogue on the Israeli-Arab conflict, a spokeswoman for the Carter Center said Sunday.

Investigators in North Carolina say a 17-year-old girl who ran away from home last week with a 9-month-old she was baby-sitting could be in Georgia.

A fraternity that traces its roots to the Civil War and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is again facing complaints over its antebellum-themed events.

A South Carolina restaurant employee has been arrested and accused of shooting a customer who complained about the service.

Bruce Windsor lived the life of a respectable family man — father of four, deacon in his South Carolina church, youth soccer coach, a volunteer who helped build orphanages in Brazil. Then four days after his 43rd birthday, authorities say, he donned a mask, wig and sunglasses and tried to rob a bank at gunpoint.