National

Advocates say tools that cloak online identities are needed to protect activists. Prosecutors say they hinder efforts to police all kinds of crime, from child pornography to illegal gun sales.

The nation's biggest banks are leaning toward a new credit card security system that will rely on embedded chips and signatures rather than PINs. But critics say the PIN-and-chip system is superior.

Smartphone and registration, please. Iowa is developing an app that would allow drivers to access a digitally encoded license instead of a conventional plastic ID card.

Mario Cuomo, who served as governor of New York from 1983 to 1994 and who was considered for a time a leading Democratic presidential option, died Thursday.

An HPV test could replace the Pap smear for many women, two groups of physicians say. But other doctors, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, still urge dual testing.

A natural compound kills germs that have become resistant to antibiotics, researchers say. If it works in humans, it could help combat diseases like tuberculosis.

Many groups that oppose the Keystone XL pipeline also want, more broadly, to stop pollution-heavy extraction of crude from Canada's oil sands. They point to canceled or delayed projects as success.