SAN DIEGO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Happiness spreads more robustly -- like a virus -- than unhappiness and seems to have a greater effect than money, U.S. researchers suggest.

LA JOLLA, Calif., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A study shows that being made light of on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" pays off for Democratic politicians in the form of campaign contributions.

BOSTON, May 22 (UPI) -- People who quit smoking in tandem and those who still smoke form separate "cliques" that shift to the periphery of their social network, U.S. researchers said.

MARION, Ala., May 11 (UPI) -- A former Alabama state trooper has been charged with murder, 42 years after shooting a man to death after a civil rights march in Marion, Ala.

SAN DIEGO, April 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. behavioral economics study suggests people will spend their own money to make the rich less rich and the poor less poor out of a sense of fair play.

WASHINGTON, June 15 (UPI) -- Amidst the political firestorm generated by revealed wiretapping of domestic phone calls, the National Security Agency has recently been revealed to be funding research to ramp up data mining efforts where social networking Web sites are concerned.