For several years, airports across the country have been using what many call "behavioral surveillance" to weed out potential hijackers by covertly examining travelers' facial expressions and body language as they go through security. Nearly 100,000 passengers were pulled aside by Transportation Security Administration behavior watchers last year. More than 3,000 "Behavior Detection Officers" will be at 161 airports nationwide over the holidays.
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A Kentucky census worker who was found dead in September committed suicide and staged the scene to look like a homicide, authorities said Tuesday. "Analysis of the evidence determined Mr. Sparkman's death was self-inflicted," police said in a statement.
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"Is the media out to get Sarah Palin?" Matt Taibbi asks. "She's getting it from all angles now and that wouldn't be happening if she still had any friends in high places. ... What the people who are flipping out about the treatment of Palin should be asking themselves is what it means when it's not just jerks like us but everybody piling on against Palin."
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President Barack Obama will go to Copenhagen next month to participate in a long-anticipated, high-stakes global climate summit, a White House official said Wednesday. Yvo de Boer, U.N. climate treaty chief, said that "the world is very much looking to the United States to come forward with an emission reduction target and contribute to financial support to help developing countries."
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Thirteen years since the last new nuclear power plant opened in the United States, nuclear power is emerging as perhaps the world's most unlikely weapon against climate change. From China to Brazil, 53 plants are now under construction worldwide. "It really is a question about the greater evil -- nuclear waste or climate change," said environmentalist Stephen Tindale. "But there is no contest anymore. Climate change is the bigger threat, and nuclear is part of the answer."
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For the first time in 10 years, the national credit card delinquency rate fell from the second to the third quarter, more evidence that Americans are trying to pay down their debt as the recession continues to claim jobs.
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The Air France Airbus A380 -- the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement -- has begun flights between Paris and New York's JFK Airport. The plane can hold 800 passengers, six bars, an electronic art gallery and cost the airline $300 million.
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Scientists have smashed together proton beams for the first time in the 27-kilometer Large Hadron Collider tunnel under the French-Swiss border. They hope experiments will provide clues about the origins of the universe in the coming months as the world's biggest particle collider starts moving to full power.
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Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. "Give me a chance to show that I can work. Just give me a chance," said Delonta Spriggs, 24, who is on probation for drug possession and sought job training to avoid going back to selling drugs. "I don't want to think negative. I know the economy is slow. You got to crawl before you walk.
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An offensive image of First Lady Michelle Obama photo-edited to resemble a monkey has turned up first on Google Image searches for her name, prompting the search engine giant to take out an ad distancing itself from the racist depiction. "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries," the company stated. "We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."
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A Belgian man who doctors thought was in a coma for 23 years was conscious all along, it has been revealed. After Rom Houben was paralysed in a car crash in 1983, it took 23 years before a doctor discovered that his brain was still functioning. "I was shouting, but no one could hear me," Houben told a German magazine using a special device invented by the doctor.
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Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina will face formal ethics charges on 37 counts of using his office for personal financial gain, according to a list of allegations issued Monday. A separate impeachment resolution also has been filed in the state legislature.
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