National / International News

Four rail firms start legal proceedings after the government cancelled the Great Western rail franchise contest and then refused to pay compensation.

When he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and other charges in 2005, Stephen Slevin had no way of knowing that initial findings about his mental state would put him on a path to spend more than 22 months of solitary confinement in a New Mexico county jail, despite never having his day in court.

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By some accounts, sticky fingers could be costing the school $250,000 a year. The dining halls at the school have just started stocking the chocolate and hazelnut spread.

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Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Ali Larayedh says the line-up of a new government has been agreed and will be presented to the president on Friday.

Chávez's remains will be displayed at the Museum of the Revolution, near the presidential palace.

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Organizing for Action, which was formed from the Obama for America campaign committee to promote the president's second-term agenda, now says it won't take money from corporations or PACS. Critics say they'll believe it when they see it.

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The number of Syrian refugees who have fled the conflict has reached a million, the UN has said.

Laura Robson and Heather Watson both suffer first-round defeats on a bad day for Britain's women in Indian Wells.

The body of the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez will be put on display after his funeral, the government says.

The chairman of the Armed Services Committee said the best thing for the country would be for him to serve the next two years without the distraction of a campaign.

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Gareth Bale opens the scoring in Tottenham's easy win over Inter Milan but will miss the second leg after being booked for diving.

Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is convicted and sentenced to a year in jail over an illegal wiretap.

Siobhan-Marie O'Connor leads the way as Olympians and Paralympians return to the water at the Leeds international meet.

Students of color have long been punished in far higher numbers than white students in Seattle. The Education Department is looking at whether black students are disciplined more frequently and more harshly than white students for the same behavior.

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A man is arrested after a 16-year-old girl was stabbed to death on a rush-hour bus on one of Birmingham's busiest roads.

Feeding on flowers with caffeinated nectars gives bees a memory boost, new research shows. Turns out, other studies have found humans can get a similar boost in short-term memory with caffeine — if they're exhausted.

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Rafa Benitez believes Chelsea can overcome a 1-0 deficit in Bucharest to make the Europa League last eight.

Russian scientists say they have found a new type of bacterial life form in water from a buried Antarctic lake.

If you go back and the read the congressional record for yesterday’s session of the U.S. Senate, you’ll see the word "drone" mentioned 489 times. Sen. Rand Paul held the floor for almost 13 hours yesterday, filibustering President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to run the CIA.

Brennan was confirmed, but Sen. Paul was questioning how the administration uses drones, specifically against Americans. It was a debate about the military use of drone technology but there is a small and growing civilian market in drones.

No jet engines. No hellfire missiles.

So far, just cameras mounted on a thing that looks like an Erector Set with small rotors on top. About the size of the top of a small coffee table. You can get an idea of what these civilian drones look like by clicking through the slide show above.

“Ten years ago, this was unobtainable. You know, this stuff was military industrial stuff, tens of millions for each sensor and today it’s pennies and it’s in your pocket," said Chris Anderson, the CEO of the drone-making firm 3D Robotics, who was until fairly recently the editor of Wired magazine.

Anderson said his business model is simple -- “the beauty of hardware is that the business model could not be more head-slappingly obvious. You charge more than it costs. That’s it.”

The company posts their designs online and charge around $500 to $700 to purchase a pre-built drone from them. For Anderson, the future of drones is about looking beyond military use and the stigma attached to them.

“Remember the Internet used to be a military technology. Computers were invented to calculate artillery trajectory. We forget that. GPS was designed for those cruise missiles," said Anderson. He points to a tradition civilians repurposing military technologies for personal uses. “And so if we do our job right, someday, people won’t associate drone use with military because the vast majority of drones that they see will be civilian.”

And when it comes to privacy concerns, he’s not worried. “How do you feel about camera phones? These are just camera phones with wings.”

So what will fill the R&D space of 3D Robotics in 10 years? Anderson hopes that first and foremost, we’ll forget that drones used to be military. Instead, drones will be commonplace -- he likens them to a personal computer.

“We’re at the level right now where it’s clear that you can have such a thing as a personal drone, that drones can be cheap and easy," he said.

.@kairyssdal flying a drone at @3drobotics vine.co/v/bHMP91DTY5O

— Marketplace(@MarketplaceAPM) March 4, 2013

Commercial fishermen have the highest rate of on-the-job fatalities of any occupation in the country. The winches that shrimpers use to pull in their nets pose particular hazards, an analysis of deaths and injuries finds.

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