The Air Force base that sparked a controversy last year because its B-52 crews unknowingly flew nuclear missiles has failed a nuclear security test from Defense Department inspectors. Personnel at the 5th Bomb Wing's Minot Air Force Base here failed to counter simulated nuclear security challenges that earned it an "unsatisfactory" grade in that category from inspectors on Sunday, based on a report of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency that was cited on the Air Force Times website. The tests were conducted for a week starting May 17.

California legislators are on an amendment and enactment mode, targeting principally the state's various driving laws. Among the measures under consideration are a prohibition on drivers carrying live animals on their laps while behind the wheel. Another proposal seeks to ban truants and high school dropouts from driving, while one bill urges a study on the danger silent electric cars hold for blind pedestrians.

Japanese inventors and Triumph International Ltd. , have designed a "solar-powered bra" which aims to raise awareness against global warming on Wednesday in Tokyo, Japan's capital city. The environment-friendly bra was designed to conserve energy and is capable and designed to generate enough power to charge a cellular phone or Ipod.

A 19-year-old freshman from the University of Oklahoma became this city's youngest mayor after winning the mayoral election on Tuesday. John Tyler Hammons, who is majoring in political science and public administration, beat three-time former mayor Hershel McBride, 70, by garnering 3,703 votes over his rival's 1,616 votes based on unofficial results.

A British space scientist has found that it is much more costly to send a message by cell phone than to transmit data from the Hubble space telescope to Earth. Dr. Nigel Bannister from the University of Leicester in England calculated that one megabyte of SMS texting costs $730. 63 to transmit based on U. K. rates. Hubble transmissions cost between $17. 27 to $165 per megabyte based on NASA data.