Story Index

Hubby Busted for Hacking Into Cheating Wife's Email
Detroit Free Press | 14 hours, 48 minutes ago
(Newser) - A Michigan man faces five years in prison for hacking into his wife's email. Leon Walker, 33, was charged with a felony after he accessed his wife Clara's account—and discovered she was having an affair. The affair was with her second husband, who was once arrested for beating her in front of her son. So Walker, who is Clara's third husband,...

13 Things Made by Child Laborers You Probably Own
Huffington Post | Dec 26, 2010 2:30 PM CST
(Newser) - A staggering 115 million children worldwide are forced into labor, most commonly making one of 128 items contained in a newly released report from the US Department of Labor. The Huffington Post pulls out the 13 most commonly made products manufactured or harvested by kids, and the countries where the practice is common: Carpets: Afghanistan,...

Undertaker Sends Breathing Woman Back to Hospital
Daily Telegraph (UK) | Dec 26, 2010 3:12 PM CST
(Newser) - An 88-year-old Brazilian woman was being prepared for burial when the undertaker noticed an odd thing: She was breathing. The funeral parlor then sent her back to the hospital that had declared her dead hours before, reports the Telegraph . The woman, who has Alzheimer's along with blocked arteries, is recuperating while an investigation gets under...

Natalie Portman Engaged ... and Pregnant
PopEater | 7 hours, 52 minutes ago
(Newser) - Looks like Natalie Portman is taking her work home with her : The actress is engaged to choreographer/New York City Ballet principal dancer Benjamin Millepied, her reps confirm—and she's having his baby. The two met during the filming of Black Swan. As for the due date, People reports the very specific date of "in 2011." Click...

People Spend Night on NYC Subway as Blizzard Slams East
Associated Press | 12 hours, 50 minutes ago
(Newser) - Pretty much everything came to a grinding halt in New England yesterday as a massive East Coast blizzard canceled thousands of flights and snarled roadways. In Queens, a NYC subway stalled in snow drifts, trapping passengers on board since 1am without food, water, or heat. Central Park was blanketed with 20 inches of snow; parts of Connecticut saw...

'Ivory Queen of Soul' Teena Marie Dead at 54
CNN | 14 hours, 38 minutes ago
(Newser) - R&B soul singer Teena Marie was found dead in her bed at her California home yesterday. She was 54. Known as the "Ivory Queen of Soul," Marie signed with the legendary Motown label in the '70s; recorded 13 albums, including hits Lovergirl , Fire and Desire , Square Biz and I'm a Sucker for Your Love; and collaborated with Rick James....

Palin No Intellectual Match for Obama: Juan Williams
Huffington Post | 8 hours, 26 minutes ago
(Newser) - Conservatives rushed to Juan Williams’ aid when NPR fired him—but now, he’s taking heat from the right for saying Sarah Palin “can’t stand on an intellectual stage with Obama.” On Fox News Sunday, the onetime NPR commentator said the field of Republican candidates was “weak,” and Palin was the only charismatic...

Alanis Morissette Names Her Baby Boy...
People | 10 hours, 0 minutes ago
(Newser) - Alanis Morissette and husband Mario "Souleye" Treadway got a pretty good Christmas present this year: a baby boy. And with names like Alanis and Souleye, you can bet the new parents didn't opt for a traditional name: The bundle of joy has been dubbed Ever Imre Morissette-Treadway, People reports. Click for a picture of the happy couple...

America's 'Disneyland Dream' Is Dead
New York Times | Dec 26, 2010 12:22 PM CST
(Newser) - The death of Robbins Barstow, an American dad whose home movie of his family's vacation to Disneyland in 1956 is in the Library of Congress, has Frank Rich lamenting the loss of the American dream. Or more precisely the Disneyland Dream , as Barstow labeled his film. Watching it now brings back "all the sunny idylls of 1950s pop culture,"...

Stop Denying It: the Civil War Was About Slavery
Washington Post | 11 hours, 10 minutes ago
(Newser) - We’re approaching the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s beginning, and at a time like this, we can’t afford to forget its real cause. “There remains enormous denial over the fact that the central cause of the war was our national disagreement about race and slavery, not states' rights or anything else,” writes EJ Dionne...

Man Passes Out in Cab— Carrying Tons of Meth
Chicago Tribune | 6 hours, 17 minutes ago
(Newser) - Today's dumb criminals lesson: If you're going to take a cab ride while loaded down with almost half a million in drugs, stay conscious. A 25-year-old Chicago man found himself in hot water after flagging down a cab on Christmas, chatting on his phone for a while, then passing out. The driver spent 10 minutes trying to rouse Joseph Hoffman, then gave...

Women Think About Food More Than Sex
Daily Mail (UK) | 11 hours, 54 minutes ago
(Newser) - Women think about food a lot—as in, more than they think about sex. A recent survey shows that while 25% of women think about food every half-hour, only 10% think about sex that often. When it comes to men, 5% think about sex once a minute and 36% find their minds wandering to it every 30 minutes. But even though women are thinking about food,...

For Many in Beijing, Home Is Deep Underground
Der Spiegel | 12 hours, 36 minutes ago
(Newser) - With real estate prices soaring in Beijing, millions can't afford an apartment ... and more and more people are being forced underground, into makeshift apartments in cellars and even bomb shelters, reports Der Spiegel . Few of these accommodations have kitchens or emergency exits, and they are often illegal, but they are inexpensive. One 27-year-old...

Bracing for WikiLeaks, BofA Buys Nasty Domain Names
Fast Company | Dec 26, 2010 7:00 PM CST
(Newser) - Despite reports to the contrary, Bank of America hasn’t actually been confirmed as WikiLeaks’ next target, but it appears to think it is. The company has reportedly created a “war room” to brainstorm ways to minimize the damage, according to Fast Company . One of those methods? Buying up potentially damaging domain names,...

Planes That Fly Over US Pose Security Threat: Expert
Washington Post | 13 hours, 47 minutes ago
(Newser) - The thousands of cargo and passenger flights that fly over but don't land in the US each week aren't subject to full security screenings—and pose a potentially deadly risk to Americans, reports the Washington Post . The cargo aboard these flights isn't screened to federal standards, and passenger names aren't matched to the TSA's terror watch...

For Some Teens, America Is a Third-World Country
Daily Beast | 11 hours, 24 minutes ago
(Newser) - America's deteriorating infrastructure may not be immediately noticeable to you—but take a walk on an Indian reservation, and that will soon change. In the Daily Beast , Eliza Griswold profiles EJ Montoya, 16, one of 400 students who battles sometimes impassable roads and numerous other obstacles just to get to school each day—for him,...

The Decade's 12 Most Hideous Dresses
Huffington Post | 10 hours, 54 minutes ago
(Newser) - The world has seen a lot of really horrible dresses since 2001. The Huffington Post runs down a dozen of them—click through a few in the gallery or click here for the complete list, including Britney Spears' dreadful matching denim ensemble with Justin Timberlake. In the mood for more awful clothes? Check out the most atrocious outfits of...

Sabotage? Derailed Train Carried Gifts for Kim Jong Un
Reuters | 7 hours, 25 minutes ago
(Newser) - A train full of birthday presents en route to North Korea’s heir derailed this month—but was it a simple accident, or sabotage? A South Korean radio station that often cites Northern sources reports that a train departing from Sinuiju and headed for Pyongyang derailed on Dec. 11, creating an "emergency situation." The station's...

Two Dead in Wyoming Ski Accident
trib.com | Dec 26, 2010 5:37 AM CST
(Newser) - Two people died and another was injured on Casper Mountain, Wyo., when a snowboarder collided with a 5-year-old girl and her mother yesterday, reports the Casper Star-Tribune . The three were taken to a nearby hospital, where the 22-year-old snowboarder and girl were pronounced dead. The mother remains hospitalized, with no information available...

You Need a License to Drive, Why Not to Vote?
Christian Science Monitor | 6 hours, 50 minutes ago
(Newser) - We require drivers to take classes and test them on the rules of the road. Why? Because we believe that when the stakes are high, competence is essential. “Yet when it comes to voting, we let everyone participate once they turn 18,” complains Alexander Heffner of the Christian Science Monitor . As a result, our civics aptitude is woefully...

Is Jon Stewart the New Edward R. Murrow?
New York Times | 12 hours, 9 minutes ago
(Newser) - By taking up a cause—the 9/11 health bill—and getting quick results, Jon Stewart is following in the footsteps of news greats and "advocacy journalists" Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, professor of television Robert Thompson tells the New York Times . Murrow helped shift public opinion on the Sen. Joseph McCarthy hearings;...

Busch's Dead Girlfriend Had Heart Condition, Says Ex
St. Louis Post-Dispatch | 10 hours, 13 minutes ago
(Newser) - Adrienne Martin, the dead woman found at the home of former Anheuser-Busch CEO August Busch IV, was Busch's girlfriend—and her ex-husband says she suffered from a rare heart condition. Martin, 27, had Long QT syndrome, says Kevin Martin, a doctor of osteopathy who diagnosed his then-wife with the disorder. "She refused to see a cardiologist...

Spy Was Studying Bondage for New Undercover Role: Pal
Daily Mail (UK) | 18 hours, 44 minutes ago
(Newser) - A British codebreaker spy who police believe may have been accidentally suffocated during bondage sex merely appeared to be into kinky sex for a new undercover identity he was taking on for his super secret work, a friend has told investigators. Gareth Williams of MI6 was studying bondage websites and appeared at gay drag clubs for his new persona,...

Obama, Bush Most Admired Men in America: Gallup
Gallup | 7 hours, 39 minutes ago
(Newser) - His approval ratings may have cratered over the past two years, but Barack Obama is still the most admired man in America, according to Gallup’s annual poll . Obama took 22% of the vote, cruising past the competition. Who came in second? The Decider himself, George W. Bush, who narrowly edged out Bill Clinton, 5% to 4%. Nelson Mandela and Bill...

Brad, Angelina Headed for 'Nuclear' Breakup: Dr. Drew
Huffington Post | Dec 21, 2010 8:52 AM CST
(Newser) - Bad things are a-brewin' in the Jolie-Pitt household, predicts love/rehab/hot mess expert Dr. Drew Pinsky. While shooting promos for his upcoming HLN talk show Dr. Drew , he spoke with the Huffington Post about the "nuclear eruption" that's looming for the pair. The first problem is Angelina. Says Pinsky, "There's no such thing as...

Brits Pelt Royals Over Fur Hats
Daily Mail (UK) | 18 hours, 24 minutes ago
(Newser) - Fur flew yesterday as British animal lovers slammed the queen and Camilla Parker Bowles for their "ostentatious cruelty" in wearing fox fur hats to a Christmas Day church service. "To parade fur in 2010 says something unpleasant about the person wearing it," said the director of Animal Aid. The queen's office wouldn't confirm she...

Amazon Strategy Will Block Lousy Gifts Before They Hit Mail
Washington Post | 17 hours, 3 minutes ago
(Newser) - Tired of getting strange, useless gifts from bizarro relatives each year? Now Amazon.com is working on an online solution to the annual holiday headache, patenting a tool to ban lousy gifts and gift-givers, and give you a head start on cashing in on bad presents before they are ever sent, reports the Washington Post . The patent would allow users...

Isolated and Destitute, North Korea Limps On
New York Times | 5 hours, 8 minutes ago
(Newser) - North Korea has a deadline: For years, it's promised that an age of prosperity will begin in 2012, the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-Sung's birth. With 18 months to go, two journalists accompanying Bill Richardson on an unprecedented trip to North Korea found that the government will be hard-pressed to achieve that goal, though its desire to do so may...

Everyone's Magic Number of Friends: 150
New York Times | Dec 26, 2010 2:46 PM CST
(Newser) - Facebook and other social networks promise an unlimited number of potential friends, but anthropologist Robin Dunbar spots a "fundamental flaw" in that logic: "Our minds." Humans are cable of having meaningful relationships with a maximum of about 150 people, whether they're online or off, writes Dunbar in the New York Times ...

Haley Barbour Takes Heat for Posh Jet Trips
Politico | 12 hours, 51 minutes ago
(Newser) - Haley Barbour jets around on a classy Mississippi state jet—but not all the governor’s trips look like state business, Politico finds. He also uses the 12-seater Cessna, funded largely by tax dollars, to attend fundraisers for other Republicans, to appear on Meet the Press and Face the Nation (other state officials opt to appear via...

Football Players Barred From Mexico During Sun Bowl
Associated Press | 17 hours, 24 minutes ago
(Newser) - Notre Dame and Miami Hurricanes football players have been barred from crossing into Mexico while staying in El Paso for the Sun Bowl. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly even confiscated his team's passports before the Fighting Irish flew to Texas as a precaution, reports AP . Both teams met with police and FBI officials yesterday to learn of the dangers...

Judge OKs Sale of Schindler's List
Daily Telegraph | 15 hours, 53 minutes ago
(Newser) - A New York judge has approved the sale of a 13-page list of names said to be an original "Schindler's List," reports the Telegraph . An heir to Oscar Schindler's widow had sought to block the sale, which could fetch more than $2 million. Seven lists were made, and five are thought to have survived . The list in question is the only one...

Meet the Guy Who Sues Spammers for a Living
Associated Press | 9 hours, 30 minutes ago
(Newser) - Eight years ago, Daniel Balsam quit his job as a marketer and went to law school—all so that he could make a living by suing email spammers. "I feel like I'm doing a little bit of good cleaning up the Internet," says Balsam, who has racked up more than 40 victories and $1 million in court judgments and lawsuit settlements since he began...

Lawsuit Accuses Marshals of Dirty Madoff Loot Sale
New York Times | 11 hours, 39 minutes ago
(Newser) - The head of a US Marshals Service unit sold off millions in assets forfeited from white-collar criminals—including some seized from Bernie Madoff’s family—at a deep discount to his “business contacts,” swindling crime victims out of a pile of money, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit from a former federal agent and...

Why That New Year's Eve Kiss Might Be Lousy
Washington Post | Dec 26, 2010 1:07 PM CST
(Newser) - Ah, the romance of the New Year's Eve kiss—the flushed cheeks, the quickened pulse ... the stream of bio-data rushing to the somatosensory cortex? A research scientist deconstructs the kiss in the Washington Post , explaining that there's a lot going on with all five senses during a seemingly simple lip-lock. For example: "A long open-mouthed...

Orgasms Make Women 'Invincible'
Sun (UK) | Nov 8, 2010 4:10 PM CST
(Newser) - Orgasms are nice—so nice that, for women at least, they kinda make you invincible. Neuroscientists studied women pleasuring themselves while in MRI body scanners, to see what happens inside the brain during orgasm. They found that 30 different parts of the brain light up with pleasure so strong that the nervous system begins to shut down—making...

'Death Panels' Return: Obama Enacts End-of-Life Planning
New York Times | Dec 26, 2010 7:03 AM CST
(Newser) - Sarah Palin's "death panels" are back. The brouhaha surrounding end-of-life counseling forced Democrats to cut it from health care reform, but now President Obama is quietly adding the same policy to Medicare by rewriting regulations, reports the New York Times . Under the new policy, beginning Jan. 1 the government will pay doctors who...

Lawyers Untangle Superhero Legal Issues
New York Times | Dec 26, 2010 3:15 PM CST
(Newser) - Criminals of Gotham take note: any evidence Batman gathers on you is probably inadmissible in court. His partnership with Commissioner Gordon makes him a "state actor," and hence subject to search and seizure restrictions. At least, that’s the conclusion of James Daily and Ryan Davidson, the lawyers who run Law and the Multiverse ,...

Kindle Becomes Amazon's Best-Selling Item Ever
Mashable | 8 hours, 55 minutes ago
(Newser) - Move over, Harry Potter. The Kindle 3 has passed The Deathly Hallows to become the best-selling product in Amazon’s history, the company has announced. The latest generation Kindle is also selling much faster than its predecessors, and, as Mashable notes, the sales milestone indicates that the iPad isn’t hurting the e-reader much.

Miller Won't Block Murkowski Certification, But ...
Anchorage Daily News | 14 hours, 8 minutes ago
(Newser) - Joe Miller won't block Lisa Murkowski's Senate certification, he announced last night … but that doesn't mean he's giving up. Miller also said that he will continue to pursue his legal challenge of Murkowski's write-in victory, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The US district court judge hearing Miller's federal challenge—who forced...

Health Clubs: Pretty Darn Dangerous
Washington Post | Dec 26, 2010 10:06 AM CST
(Newser) - So it’s almost 2011 and you’re determined to put that gym membership to good use. That’s great, but what about all the hidden dangers lurking in health clubs? The Washington Post offers some tips for how to protect yourself from… Skin infections : These can be spread through shared equipment, and you’re especially...

Cops Hunt Tunneling Warhol Thieves
BBC | 16 hours, 13 minutes ago
(Newser) - Cops are hunting brazen art thieves who tunneled into a Manhattan apartment building and made off with works by Roy Lichenstein and Andy Warhol. The crooks broke into a wall of the five-story apartment in the trendy meatpacking district to grab $750,000 in art and jewelry. They also made off with a video camera connected to surveillance cameras....

Obama: Good for Eagles for Taking Vick
Washington Post | 4 hours, 19 minutes ago
(Newser) - Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie got some pretty high praise the other day for taking a chance on Michael Vick: None other than President Obama called to thank him. "He said, 'So many people who serve time never get a fair second chance,'" Lurie tells the Washington Post . "He was passionate about it. He said it's never a level...

South Korea's President: We're Not Afraid of War
Time | 13 hours, 32 minutes ago
(Newser) - Lee Myung-bak has a message for Kim Jong Il: Bring it on. In a radio address today, the South Korean president said he wasn’t afraid of war with the North, and vowed that his military would “respond relentlessly when they come under attack.” He told the people that they must be united on the issue of national security, lest the North...

Why Bill Clinton Is Veganism's No. 1 Buddy
Salon | 3 hours, 12 minutes ago
(Newser) - Most people snickered when PETA named Bill Clinton its person of the year , but it was a genius pick, writes Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon . Most people also know the benefits of veganism, but what it lacks is a guy who can make it look "seem realistic, accessible and, frankly, pretty damn good-looking." That's what Clinton provides:...

Drunk Man Kills Shark, Saves Egyptian Beach Resort
Macedonian International News Agency | Dec 17, 2010 4:00 PM CST
(Newser) - A Serbian man is being hailed as a hero after killing—accidentally—a shark that had been terrorizing an Egyptian resort town . Dragan Stevic was black-out drunk when he vanquished the predator that has killed one beachgoer and injured four. He went with friends to the beach after a long night of drinking, announced that he would take a...

Gingrich 'Very Serious' About Presidential Run: Daughter
Human Events | 9 hours, 46 minutes ago
(Newser) - It’s presidential primary speculation season, and Jackie Gingrich Cushman thinks you should pencil in her dad as a probable candidate. "He’s very serious" about running, she tells Human Events . “He’s much more serious than he ever has been. And I can tell that because we actually sat down—just the two of us—for...

'Rent-a-General' Business Is Booming for Contractors
Boston Globe | Dec 26, 2010 2:06 PM CST
(Newser) - For America's military generals, retirement is when the real money starts pouring in. It's no secret that former officers often show up on the payrolls of defense contractors, but a Boston Globe investigation into what it terms the "rent-a-general" business puts some eyebrow-raising numbers to the trend: 80% of retiring three- and four-star...

Tibetan Lama Says Meditation Cured His Gangrene
Daily Beast | Dec 26, 2010 4:40 PM CST
(Newser) - Intriguing story in the Daily Beast about the divide between Eastern and Western medicine: When a Tibetan lama consulted three American doctors about his gangrene, all wanted to amputate his leg immediately. He ignored them and instead followed the advice of his mentor, the Dalai Lama, who told him to meditate. It took the better part of a year,...

56 Dead as Swine Flu Resurfaces in Egypt
Reuters | 8 hours, 4 minutes ago
(Newser) - The H1N1 swine flu virus has reemerged in Egypt, infecting 1,172 people and killing 56 since Oct. 8, Reuters reports. Some 16,373 have been infected in the country, with 281 deaths, since it was first reported there in June 2009. Egyptian officials last year culled all pigs, shut schools, and stopped sick travelers at airports. Worldwide, 18,450...