The magnitude of the Holocaust came to life in the small room at the Tidewater Jewish Community Center as, one by one, the names were read aloud, throats cleared and tears began to flow. The reading of the names was in honor of Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day meaning "Day of Destruction."

ON a recent morning, Zelma Rivin gazed at the ruler-straight Hebrew calligraphy of a Torah on display in a former Effingham Street synagogue.
She marvel ed, not over the exquisite penmanship but the 1744 scroll's survival of time's passage, and humankind's capacity for evil.

We have quite a collection in here, in the Tropical Display House: several different varieties of begonias, bananas, gingers, hibiscus - what you would think of the tropics. I pick out the dead leaves, cut things back that need to be cut back, cut back spent flowers.

By Lia Russell The Virginian-Pilot Rufus leans his head in for more ear-scratching from his caretaker, his limpid eyes silently begging her not to stop. "He thinks he's a lap dog," Denise Luckey says of the 4,500-pound white rhinoceros she oversees as a keeper at the Virginia Zoo.

By Irene Bowers Correspondent OCEANFRONT Danette Crawford throws a Mother's Day Celebration each year that has grown to 1,600 guests.

 Ahmad Bah grew up with war.
One of six children, he was born in 1984 and raised in Saudi Arabia as the first Persian Gulf War raged.
At 14, Bah had another first-hand look at hostilities when his family moved to Sierra Leone, West Africa, during its civil war in 1996.

If you haven't visited First Landing State Park, you might never know that Virginia Beach is considered the northernmost habitat for Spanish moss. Once you are inside the park, you'll see the silvery gray moss hanging from trees whenever you are near water and sometimes when you are not.

By John Streit Correspondent When it came to recruiting players for their senior women's volleyball team, Cheryl Smith and Sam Meinecke ran into an unexpected road block. "The hardest part was going up to someone and asking if they were 50," Meinecke said with a laugh. "You weren't sure. You were like, 'Ah, are they 50?'"