National / International News

A man who blew up his house in a gas blast in Greater Manchester, killing his neighbour's two-year-old son, is jailed.

U.S. Army Spc. Tyler Jeffries lost both legs in a roadside bombing last October in Afghanistan, and he has been learning to walk on prosthetic legs. But Jeffries was determined to meet his buddies when they returned from duty in January.

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The Supreme Court limited the power of police to detain people who are away from their homes when police conduct a search. Separately, the justices ruled that drug-sniffing dogs don't have to get every sniff right in order for a search to be valid.

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What would it look like for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country to come out of the shadows and join the legal workforce? We’ve gotten a sneak peek through a federal program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which went into effect last year. It allows some immigrants brought to this country as children to temporarily postpone deportation and work here legally. So far, more than 150,000 young people have been approved. To see how Deferred Action is working, we looked at its impact on two recipients living in Los Angeles.

Miguel Carvente instructs kids in English and Spanish at a dual-language kindergarten near downtown. In some ways, he’s also teaching by example. Carvente came to this country from Mexico when he was 5. He didn’t even think about his legal status until he got older. “It sort of hit me when I realized that a lot of things were being closed to me because I lacked certain documentation,” says Carvente.

After high school, he worked a variety of menial jobs -- sewing clothes in a garment factory, stocking shelves in a liquor store -- all paid under the table. “They paid way below minimum wage. And so, that was sort of something you aspired to, to earn minimum wage,” says Carvente.

He put himself through UCLA and got a teaching credential, but then his career hit a roadblock. “The majority of my peers were applying for jobs and visiting schools," says Carvente. "It’s sort of disheartening to know that they’re getting a job somewhere. I knew that I was just as qualified as they were.” 

Last fall, he got a break when the government granted him Deferred Action. So, for the next two years, he won’t face deportation and can work here legally. Now, Carvente gets paid around $150 to teach for four hours. “When I first got my paycheck from the first few days here, I was very surprised at how much I received. And how much a difference just having that work-permit made in terms of your earning power,” he says. 

Across town, 20-year-old Arian Nava was equally thrilled to get her first paycheck of $307. “It was great," says Nava. "It was just such a sense of relief that I no longer had to, to do it under the table. That it was no longer illegal for me to work,” she says.

Nava is a student at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. For the last three months, she’s worked as a receptionist at the college, helping people who want to transfer to a four-year university. Before she got this job, she struggled to pay the tuition of $460 a semester. Then, she was legally barred from working. “Before, it was just really, really difficult to even study for a test and know that I might not even get the actual grade because I didn’t have the money to pay for that class,” says Nava.

If Nava had been documented when she graduated from high school, she might be in a different profession. “Actually, when I graduated from high school, I was certified to go directly into nursing, because I got that background being in a health academy," Nava says. "And I couldn’t go into any hospitals because they require documentation.”

Nava is grateful for the chance to join the ranks of the documented workforce. But she still worries about her parents, who live under constant threat of deportation and because her reprieve is temporary. “It is only for two years. That’s the scary part,” says Nava.

Back in his kindergarten class, 28-year-old Miguel Carvente also wonders how long his good luck will last. The Deferred Action program only covers people under the age of 31. The current rules allow people like Carvente, who have already qualified, to apply for an extension. But nothing is guaranteed. “So that’s my biggest worry. That I’ll be 31, and I’ll suddenly be out of the program and sort of be stuck back where I started a few years ago,” says Carvente.

Until then, he’s in legal limbo. Along with more than 150,000 other young immigrants who’ve been granted Deferred Action, Carvente is unsure if his economic future will be bright, or a return to the shadows.

A Chinese military unit is likely one of the world's "most prolific cyber espionage groups", a US firm says, as the White House voices concern about cyber theft.

US President Barack Obama warns that deep, across-the-board spending cuts due to take effect next month would cause job losses and must be averted.

This is the highest-profile cyber attack to target Mac computers. Both Facebook and Apple say user data was not compromised.

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For the first time in 16 years, viewers will be treated to a Grey Poupon commercial during the Academy Awards this weekend. The new $1.7 million spot starts where the classic commercial ends -- with one aristocrat passing a jar of Dijon to another.

But in the updated version, one of the men takes off a chase ensues and things start to explode. Michael Mann would be proud.

Kraft is dusting off its famous campaign as the company’s share of the mustard market has stagnated in recent years. Matthew Hudak, a food analyst with market research firm Euromonitor says it’s not just Grey Poupon that’s struggling. He says the yellow stuff has a marketing problem.

“It’s just one simple flavor. Current taste, especially for younger consumers is something more interesting, something more bold. And I mean bold and interesting don’t always go hand-in-hand with mustard,” he says.

Over the past five years, the analyst says mustard consumption is down by about 2.5 percent. Part of the problem people has been the war on carbohydrates, people are eating fewer sandwiches. At the same time, hot sauce is on the rise.

I took a quick trip to a grocery store in north Philly saw how mustard is trying to keep up with its condiment cousin. You’ve got all these exotic flavors -- at least by the standards of mustard: Roasted habenero, horseradish, wasabi, Texas chili, mango, smoky chipotle.

Hudak says the one thing Gray Poupon has going for it, is the past. “Playing on nostalgia, playing on what you remember when you were younger has been working well for a lot of other companies,” he says.

The challenge for Grey Poupon is making two elitists driving around in Rolls Royces as interesting as sriracha or Louisiana Hot Sauce that’s just a shelf away.

What if, before your child was born, you could make sure they had the genes to be taller or smarter? Would that tempt you, or would you find it unnerving? Two teams of experts debate genetic engineering in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate.

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A man from Cornwall who found a dusty stuffed cat in his attic discovers it is a 2,000 year old mummy.

England coach Stuart Lancaster selects an unchanged 23-man squad for Saturday's Six Nations match against France at Twickenham.

State laws protecting dealers make it hard for anyone who wants to change the way new cars are sold.

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Check it out: A modified Mini Cooper Countryman took to a snowy ramp in France and nailed a successful landing. It's said to be the first time a driver completed such a flip without a special ramp that would give some oomph to the car's rotation.

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Check it out: A modified Mini Cooper Countryman took to a snowy ramp in France and nailed a successful landing. It's said to be the first time a driver completed such a flip without a special ramp that would give some oomph to the car's rotation.

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'Les Miserables' musical is Broadway-bound

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High court seems to favor Monsanto in patent case

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Edinburgh's controversial Statutory Notice system which made private homeowners carry out repairs is being scrapped for all but emergency work.

Kerry 1st trip to Europe, Mideast; no Israel stop

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Competition isn't a bad word. That is true in the office -- as well as on the race track. At least it's true for Po Bronson, the co-author of a new book on the topic called "Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing." The important step, Bronson said, is to embrace competition.

"You can learn to actually enjoy the stress and intensity of competition and actually miss it when it's not happening in your life," Bronson said. "And you can actually get competitive advantages by enjoying the stress rather than being freaked out by it."

And one interesting fact, related to Bronson's time as a bond salesman on Wall Street: "All the financial projections made from 1983 through recently -- over three million financial projections, over 20,000 stocks, almost 20,000 analysts -- and female financial analysts are 7.3 percent more accurate than men, on the whole," Bronson said. "And there's a similar science that looks at when women are CFOs, when women are on the audit committee, when women are on boards -- that they keep some of the corporate risk from being taken. And men tend to drive companies to take risks. It could be argued that we need a lot more women on Wall Street to try to help prevent some of these wild swings that we're getting into."

Bronson began working on the book after recovering from surgery. "I was kind of losing my edge, and reading all this research and being soaked up in the minutiae of competing," he said, "gave me the zeal again to tackle big challenges."

He warned, though, that there are points when mastering competition can become dangerous. "Being great at something can sort of backfire because you're overconfident," he said. "Being slightly underconfident wires up the mind to have this sort of critical thinking -- you're looking ahead for strategic things that you can do."

McCartney, Mumford top eclectic Bonnaroo lineup

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