Jason Szep

The architects of a -billion bailout for the United States financial system urged lawmakers on Tuesday to move quickly.

From online courses to kid-friendly laptops and virtual teachers, technology is spreading in American classrooms.

The University of Massachusetts on Thursday rescinded an honorary law degree awarded 22 years ago to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton battled to keep crucial New Hampshire from swinging to rising rival Barack Obama on Sunday but new polls showed him jumping into the lead. In the hotly contested Republican race, Arizona Senator John McCain leaped ahead of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney even as Romney tried to raise doubts about McCain.

South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu said on Tuesday he was ''devastated'' by the human rights abuses of President Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe. Tutu said he struggles to understand how Mugabe changed so drastically after steering the country to independence in 1980.

''Electronic paper'' has long been hyped as the future of newspapers and books, but products like e-books have been slow to take off. That may soon change, say executives involved in the pioneering technology. E Ink is seeing a surge in orders for its portable, foldable displays that mimic conventional paper to carry such books.

A controversial plan to build the first large United States offshore wind-power farm won approval from Massachusetts authorities on Friday but still must clear federal regulatory hurdles. Cape Wind Associates has proposed constructing 130 wind turbines over 62 square kilometres in Nantucket Sound, within view of the wealthy Cape Cod resort region of Massachusetts.

A television network's marketing campaign went badly awry on Wednesday, causing a day-long security scare in Boston. Apologising for Boston's biggest security alert since the September 11 attacks, Turner Broadcasting said it had placed electronic devices to promote an animated cartoon.

The amount of nicotine that smokers typically inhale per cigarette rose by 11% from 1998 to 2005, perpetuating a ''tobacco pandemic'' that makes it harder for smokers to quit, a Harvard study said on Thursday. To boost amounts of nicotine inhaled by smokers, cigarette makers intensified the concentration of nicotine in their tobacco and modified cigarette designs.

A Washington-bound United Airlines flight from London made an emergency landing in Boston on Wednesday after a confrontation with a woman suffering from claustrophobia, but there was no apparent terrorist threat, police and security officials said.