NBC: Passenger subdued aboard United jet Man may just have been smoking on flight from D.C. to Denver A Qatari diplomat sneaking a smoke in an airplane bathroom sparked a bomb scare Wednesday night on a flight from Washington to Denver, law enforcement officials said. The passenger was detained by a federal air marshal, but no explosives were found and it's believed the man meant no harm, senior law enforcement officials said. United Flight 663, a Boeing 757 with 157 passengers and six crew ...

FDA warns about fat-melting injections Alternative to liposuction not proven safe or effective The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on fat-melting injections used in spas across the U.S., saying the drugs have not been proven safe or effective. Lipodissolve injections, a popular nonsurgical alternative to liposuction, are used to dissolve small fat deposits around the legs, arms and belly. The FDA said Wednesday the drugs have not been cleared by federal scientists, as required by law. The agency issued warning letters to ...

Aging bikers at greater risk of injury, death Riders 40 and over nearly twice as likely to be killed, study says As the number of baby boomers taking to the road on motorbikes has risen, so has the average age of motorcyclists involved in crashes with riders aged 40 plus more likely to be injured or killed, a U.S. study says. A University of Rochester Medical Center study of 61,689 motorcyclists aged 17 to 89 found that aging road warriors were nearly twice ...

Bristol Palin to teens: ‘Pregnancy can wait’ Sarah Palin’s daughter featured in a new public service announcement Bristol Palin says that if girls knew how tough it was to be a mom, they'd think twice about having sex. The 19-year-old daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she has chosen to practice abstinence herself, until marriage. Bristol Palin, who once said it was unrealistic to ask young people to abstain from sex, said in an interview with The Associated Press that it's realistic ...

Pope Benedict, take note Q: As the de facto leader of Golf Inc., how did Tiger Wood perform at Monday's pre-Master's press conference? What did he need to accomplish to resuscitate his brand? What lessons could other embattled leaders, such as the Pope and GOP chairman Michael Steele, draw from Tiger's handling of the press? Watching Tiger Woods' April 5 press conference before Augusta National, I was struck by how many leaders today could improve their companies' image by taking a play ...

Health-care woes are terminally funny in 'So Much for That' Just when you're sick to death of hearing/talking/thinking about health care reform, along comes a delicious novel about ... why we need health care reform. So Much for That, Lionel Shriver's improbably feel-good black comedy, is the rare book that can make suicide, near-bankruptcy and terminal cancer so engaging you can't wait to turn the page. It's no secret that Shriver (We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Post-Birthday World) is brainy. But ...

G.M.’s $4.3 Billion Loss Masks Progress The first detailed financial report from General Motors since its bankruptcy showed a company that has largely stanched the hemorrhaging in its day-to-day business, but is still cleaning up problems left over from its collapse last year. G.M. said Wednesday that it had positive cash flow of $1 billion in the six months after it emerged from bankruptcy protection last July, but that it lost $4.3 billion in that period, mostly because of the cost of ...

Toyota Exec Warned on Defect: "We Need to Come Clean" A senior Toyota Motor Corp  <7203.T> executive in the United States warned in a January email that the automaker needed to "come clean" on a safety defect that caused accelerator pedals to become stuck open. The January 16 email from Irv Miller, then Toyota's top U.S. spokesman, was sent five days before the automaker launched a recall for about 2.3 million vehicle to fix the sticky accelerator pedals. "We are not protecting our ...

'American Idol' Finalist Saved From Elimination Michael "Big Mike" Lynche  didn't get the big boot on "American Idol.". 2 singers to be booted next week The soulful 26-year-old personal trainer and father from Queens, N.Y., was saved Wednesday by the judges on the ninth season of the Fox singing competition. Lynche was praised for his R&B take on "Eleanor Rigby" during Tuesday's performance show featuring tunes from the John Lennon  and Paul McCartney  songbook, but he still received the fewest viewer votes. "We ...

Germany: 2 Men Accused of Illegally Aiding Iran Two men have been charged in Germany with illegally exporting equipment to Iran  that was intended for use in the country’s missile program, prosecutors said Wednesday. The charges of violating export laws were filed against a 52-year-old Iranian identified as Mohsen A. and a 49-year-old Iranian-German dual citizen identified as Dr. Behzad S., federal prosecutors said. The men are suspected of exporting a vacuum sintering furnace worth $1.14 million to Iran in July ...