A small plane crashed outside Muncie, Indiana, as military F-16s trailed it Wednesday after its pilot failed to respond to radio calls, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said.

A major earthquake in Indonesia today killed at least 75 people, according to a Red Cross disaster report, citing an official report from the country's vice president. Earlier, Rustam Pakaya, the head of the Ministry of Health's crisis center, said thousands may be trapped by collapsed buildings and houses.

Rio, which would become the first South American city to host the Games, hosted the Pan-American Games in 2007 and will provide key venues for football's World Cup in 2014.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson refused to back down Wednesday from remarks made on the House floor the night before, in which he said the Republican health care plan calls for sick people to "die quickly."

John Travolta testified Wednesday that would-be extortionists threatened to go the media with stories implying "the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable somehow."

The videotaped beating death of an honors student in Chicago, Illinois, is "chilling" and one of the most shocking things "you can ever see," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

The would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, head of Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism efforts, hid his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation.

Dorm sex at Tufts OK if roommate is away

A Florida death-row inmate convicted of abducting and murdering 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in 2005 has died, prison officials said. John Evander Couey, 51, died of natural causes, the Florida Department of Corrections said. "I never dreamed it would happen like this," Jessica's father, Mark Lunsford, told CNN. "I'm relieved. I'm glad it's over with."

Residents of close-knit American Samoa are pulling together to help Pago Pago recover from Tuesday's devastating earthquake and tsunami, one resident told CNN today. "That's how we operate over here in American Samoa -- basically everyone is related," said iReporter Maneafaiga Lagafuaina, of Lu'uuli. "We have pulled together as one."