To curb the wave of crimes in the national capital, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier made a book on social epidemics a required reading for police officers. The book is "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Its about New York City's efforts to stop its transit system from further decay by cleaning up its graffiti.

Two Londoners who attempted to extort $100,000 (Ł50,000) from a Royal Family member have been sentenced to five years imprisonment in the first publicized case of "Royal Blackmail" since 1891. BBC said Friday that Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan were found guilty by the Central Criminal Court of trying to blackmail a member of the Royal Family by making public an eight-hour video of him allegedly taking drugs and performing oral sex on his aide.

In an attempt to give moral and ethical behavior more significance to current times, the Vatican has recently announced seven new deadly sins, published in an issue of the L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper. The revision of the list comes after 1,500 years, with Vatican officials explaining that the new items address a global "secular" society bent on the concerns in the age of globalization. The sins are said to be an address to the "decreasing sense of sin" in the modern world.

India's lucrative outsourcing sector is not limited to back office jobs. It is now emerging as a major supplier of "back bedroom jobs" as an infant outsourcing hub as well. According to the International Herald Tribune, reproduction is the newest addition to the Asian tiger's outsourcing industry. Couples from the United States and Europe are asking Indian women to serve as surrogate mothers, leading to a boom in the number of clinics offering the procedure.

People can buy many things in vending machines, from candy and chips to sandwiches, aspirin and now medicinal marijuana. Yep. Marijuana dispensing vending machines now exist. In California Anytime-Vending-Machines in secure rooms dispense marijuana to anyone with a doctor's prescription for the weed that is legal in that state for anyone with a medical need to take it.