Boeing's machinists on Friday narrowly approved a crucial labor contract that secured thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity for Washington state but will cost workers their pensions.
The vote of 51 percent to 49 percent to accept the deal means Boeing Co will build its new 777X jetliner and wings in the Seattle area, where Boeing has built aircraft for more than 90 years.
Boeing machinists approve contract securing 777X jet
Senior al-Qaida figure dies in custody in Lebanon
The leader of an al-Qaida-linked group that carried out attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria's civil war died on Saturday while in custody in Lebanon, the army said.
In a short statement, the Lebanese army said Majid al-Majid "died this morning while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital after his health deteriorated." It did not elaborate.
The Most Dangerous Things to Do on Your Phone While Driving
If Werner Herzog hasn't already convinced you not to touch your phone while driving, perhaps this will. Dialing a cellphone is the most dangerous thing you can do in a car, according to a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine, and increases your risk of crashing or nearly crashing eight-fold.
Researchers collected 12-18 months of driving data from 42 newly licensed teenaged drivers from southwestern Virginia, as well as from 109 more experienced motorists from Washington, all driving cars that had been outfitted with cameras, accelerometers, and GPS devices.
Justice Dept. opposes block on contraceptive mandate
The Obama administration on Friday called on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to lift her order temporarily blocking a part of the president's signature health care law that requires some religious-affiliated organizations to cover forms of contraception in their health care plans.
The Justice Department said in court papers filed Friday that the challenge to the contraceptive requirement, filed by the Catholic nuns of the Little Sisters of the Poor for the Aged, did not impose a "substantial burden" and the Denver-based nuns "fail to satisfy the demanding standard for the extraordinary and rarely granted relief they seek.''
Fla. space center home to secret spacecraft
The Kennedy Space Center is going to be the testing site for a top-secret Air Force space plane. Boeing - the contractor working on the spacecraft - announced Friday that it will be converting a former space shuttle building for the X-37B orbital test vehicle program.
An undisclosed number of workers will recover, refurbish and relaunch the 29-foot-long unmanned spacecraft.
The Air Force launched the most recent flight of the unmanned spacecraft from Florida's Space Coast more than a year ago.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Plant Found to Relieve Chronic Pain
![new pain compound](http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1355435/corydalis.jpg?w=500&h=375&l=50&t=40)
A plant used in traditional Chinese medicine has been found to have potent pain-reliving properties, researchers have found.
The flowering plant Corydalis, a member of the poppy family, has been used for centuries for pain relief in Chinese medicine.
However, researchers have now found it contains a compound called dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB), which has the potential to lead to new drug therapies for people experiencing chronic pain.
Ship that aided in rescue of passengers in antarctic may be trappedJ
The Chinese ship that helped ferry 52 passengers from an ice-bound vessel indicated it may be in trouble in antarctic waters, an Australian agency said Friday.
The Australia Maritime Ship Authority said the Xue Long notified the agency it had concerns about its "ability to move through heavy ice in the area." The Australian ship Aurora Australis, which is taking the 52 passengers removed from the Akademik Shokalskiy to the Australian state of Tasmania, has been placed on standby in open water as a precaution, the agency said in a release.
Surveillance network built to spot secret nuclear tests yields surprise scientific boon
It records sounds that no human ear can hear, like the low roar of a meteor slicing through the upper atmosphere, or the hum an iceberg makes when smacked by an ocean wave.
It has picked up threats invisible to the human eye, such as the haze of radioactive particles that circled the planet after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan in 2011.
The engineers who designed the world’s first truly planetary surveillance network two decades ago envisioned it as a way to detect illegal nuclear weapons tests. Today, the nearly completed International Monitoring System is proving adept at tasks its inventors never imagined.
Scientists find records of rare "earthquake lights"
They've been mistaken for UFOs or dismissed as hallucinations. Now geologists have collected a near-definitive list of a rare but fascinating phenomenon — earthquake lights.
Certain types of earthquakes in certain areas can set off blazes of light seconds — sometimes days — ahead of the actual quake. These can manifest themselves as floating balls of light, bluish columns shooting up out of the earth and even reverse lightning, reaching up into the sky from the ground.
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