LONDON, England, July 28. DANA Vollmer decided to kick it up a notch in prelims of the women's 100-meter butterfly at the 2012 London Olympics. Vollmer, who already held the American record with a 56.42 from the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials, a time which also stood as the textile best, put on the afterburners in prelims with a scorching time of 56.25. That swim not only bested her American and textile best time, it also wiped out the Olympic record of 56.61 set by Inge de Bruijn of The Netherlands...

Phelps on Saturday morning qualified for the eighth and final spot in tonight's final of the 400 individual medley. That puts him in an outside lane tonight. "A final spot is a final spot," Phelps said. "The only thing that matters is getting a spot in. You can't win a gold medal from the morning." No, but you can lose one if you don't qualify, and Phelps very nearly didn't. He won his heat in 4 minutes, 13.33 seconds, barely beating Hungary's Laszlo Cseh, who finished in 4:13.40. Cseh will miss...

When it comes to covering Syria, the fog of war is especially thick. For 17 months, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has severely restricted press access in the country as his soldiers first brutally cracked down on peaceful protests and now battle opposition forces in a war that has claimed more than 19,000 lives. Western journalists have occasionally snuck into Syria, but on a daily basis primarily rely on information provided by opposition activists, residents, state-controlled media,...

The Only Way Is Essex star Maria Fowler is calling for a campaign to stop internet bullies after she was taunted on Twitter for asking why Parkinson's stricken Muhammad Ali needed help walking during the Olympic Opening Ceremony. The TOWIE beauty was ridiculed last night by Olympic torchbearer and founder of youth broadcaster SB.TV Jamal Edwards after she posed the Twitter question. She wrote: "Ahhh wish I was there so bad. Muhammad Ali. No disrespect though but why can't he stand now?" Edwards...

In a instant, a tense situation escalated to an attack, and one lucky wildlife photographer managed to catch a violent moment between a lioness and a crocodile. "The sequence of six pictures of the real action were taken in one second," photog Pia Dierckx told The Daily Mail. Dierickx, 48, was observing the lioness and her pride as they prepared to cross a riverbed in Botswana. When a threatening crocodile appeared, the lioness sprung into action and grabbed the animal by its mouth. The two...

Friday's Opening Ceremonies mark the official launch of the 2012 London Olympics, and Britain called in a bevy of performances for director Danny Boyle's grand party. The festivities started with an illustrious trip through England's early years and the industrial revolution. Kenneth Branagh performed an excerpt from Shakespeare's "The Tempest," which Boyle had said inspired the show. Other characters figuring prominently included Daniel Craig's James Bond, who appeared in a pre-recorded skit...

Matthew McConaughey is the latest A-lister to go NC-17. He plays the title role in "Killer Joe," which carries the Motion Picture Association of America's maximum restriction because of "graphic disturbing content." Directed by Oscar winner William Friedkin, "Killer Joe" is only the second NC-17 theatrical film to be released in the U.S. this year, because no one under 17 can be admitted no matter who accompanies them and limited audiences mean limited revenues. Still, more and more of Hollywood's...

With its hilariously quirky Olympic opening ceremony, a wild jumble of the celebratory and the fanciful; the conventional and the eccentric; and the frankly off-the-wall, Britain presented itself to the world Friday night as something it has often struggled to express even to itself: a nation secure in its own post-empire identity, whatever that actually is. A maypole, still a staple of May Day celebrations in Britain, was part of the opening ceremony, conceived and directed by the filmmaker...

When you've ridden to the Opening Ceremony in a helicopter with James Bond, watching 500 athletes march into a stadium just can't compare. Queen Elizabeth, who appeared in an amusing short film with actor Daniel Craig during the kickoff to the London Games, wasn't too impressed with Team Great Britain on Friday night. As 80,000 fans roared at the arrival of the nation's athletes into Olympic Stadium, the Queen was shown on television intently picking her nails, seemingly oblivious to the pandemonium...

A citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith's store.Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith's employee Dorothy Espinoza says, "He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people."Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. "There is...