Boston's faithful are helping fund maintenance costs of 14 closed churches that costs the archdiocese $880,000 in maintenance bill every year. The bill includes heat, insurance and maintenance costs. Five of the 14 churches are occupied by parishioners who did not accept the closure order. Archdiocese chancellor James McDonough said the church wants to sell the closed properties but some are involved in lawsuits and canon law appeals. Others are just empty shells no longer used for Catholic rites.

An Arizona-based electronic company has unveiled a new gadget which integrates a Taser stun gun with an mp3 player at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dubbed as the iTaser, the new gadget features a 1GB player in the stun gun's holster.

After call centers and other backroom operations, India has developed a unique outsourcing service: wombs for rent. In a small clinic at Kaival Hospital in Anand, infertile couples worldwide could be matched with local Indian women who could deliver their babies at a cost of around $10,000. The fee already includes the entire procedure, including fertilization, medical expenses and the fee for the surrogate mother.

India has finally come of age and finally abolished a 93-year-old law banning women from tendering bars and entertaining guests. The Supreme Court of India on Thursday annulled the 1914 statute, giving women the equal opportunity to enter bartending, one of the more lucrative jobs in the India's thriving economy.

Police are now looking for two inmates who chipped their way out through an 18-inch hole of the high-security Union County jail in New Jersey, leaving behind a "Happy Holidays" note complete with a smiley. Jose Espinosa, 20, and Otis Blunt, 32, who are considered armed and dangerous, used a long metal wire to scrape away mortar around the cinder block between their cells and in the outer wall in Espinosa's cell, police said.