* Merger of American Airlines and US Airways approved after the airlines yield slots at major airports. * Small-scale British drug dealers launder their dirty money through gambling machines in pubs. * Micro bubbles in America's real-estate market, coupled with low mortgage rates, create windfalls for a few, instability
* Analysis of Kerry's bet, and opposing views, that lining up a nuclear deal with Iran is still the smart play. * U.S. veterans return to Vietnam, some for closure, some to foster reconciliation between the two countries. * Cracking down on U.S.-waged "economic war," Venezuela&
* Whenever Mother Nature wants to send an urgent message to humankind, it sends it via the Philippines. * Tom Scocca takes apart a psychotherapist's argument against Obamacare and explains how insurance actually works. * Retailers are clamoring for same-day delivery, and it may be enough to save the U.
* The situation in the typhoon-stricken Philipines continues to worsen; officials estimate 10,000 have died. * Well aware of the genocide that created Bangladesh, the post-Watergate U.S. chose to ignore it. * Presidential elections repel the well-adjusted...then they strip those oddballs of what is left of their
* Over the past decade lung cancer cases in Beijing have jumped by more than 50%—officials blame smoking and air pollution. * China's pollution is damaging sperm, exacerbating a shortage at sperm banks that's driven black-market prices up to $5,000. * California wine seller charged with
* Typhoon Haiyan, pummeling the Philippines, may be the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land anywhere in recorded history. * Africans protest sanctions against Zimbabwe after African observers declared Mugabe's recent election valid. * Ex-cop on not getting arrested. * Mugshots of criminals in Newcastle correctional facility from 1871-1873, many
* Poll finds only 35% of Germans consider the U.S. government trustworthy, and 60% consider Snowden a hero. * See also: As of October, only 19% of Americans trust the government; in 1958, that number was 73%. * Snowden may have tricked up to 25 co-workers to reveal their passwords for
* U.S. economy grows in the third quarter contrary to economists' expectations. * Report card says America's students have made incremental improvements in math and reading since 2011. * Only a million of Puerto Rico’s 3.6 million people are employed; the population shrank four percent in the
* Inspectors have verified 22 chemical weapons production sites in Syria. * CIA declines to confirm that it's paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism operations. * You can avoid being mugged by walking in a way that appears less vulnerable. * As we
* Dutch activists posing as an avatar named "Sweetie" identify 1000 pedophiles soliciting webcam displays. * The United States is second behind China in the consumption of illegal animal products like ivory, rhinoceros horn, tiger blood. * "New Documentary Reveals SeaWorld Forced Orca Whales To Perform Nude." * Photo of
