They’ve been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes.

“The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats,” said Rep. John Mica (R. -Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

As for keeping the American public safe, Mica says, “They’ve failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years.”

In 2004, several screeners were arrested and charged with stealing jewelry, computers and cameras, cash, credit cards and other valuables.

“We are one of the only countries still using this model of security," Mica said, "other than Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and I think, Libya."

Over a thousand Americans were polled by NORC at the University of Chicago into their attitudes a decade on from the attacks, and the results make depressing reading. Almost half of respondents thought the government should be able to review someone’s search history without court permission, and 55 per cent thought financial records were fair game for unwarranted scrutiny.

On the much-debated topic of torture over half of those surveyed thought that torture of suspected terrorists was OK, and a similar number favoured “harsh interrogation techniques.”

Following this week's management change at the very top of Apple, the company's board has awarded new Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook with a hefty bonus.

As noted by AllThingsD, that puts the value of the bonus at $383 million based on today's closing stock price, which was up $9.86 or 2.64 percent at the end of trading. By comparison, Cook's salary for last year was $800,000 along with a $5 million bonus and $52 million worth of company stock.

The world's governments are waking up to the sobering fact that the gazillion-dollar warships they've sent to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean can't keep up with the region's elusive pirates. The hijackers' simple, brutal tactics are too effective.

"The final shot worked and the skiff slowed and stopped in the water. They had gotten to within 400 meters of the vessel and realized that an armed team was on board." That realization was enough to end the attack.

The organization's representative reportedly declared that Peta.xxx will be a porn site that "draws attention to the plight of animals."

So it should be no surprise to read this quote from PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt to the Huffington Post: "We live in a 24 hour news cycle world, and we learn the racy things we do are sometimes the most effective way that we can reach particular individuals."

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and its chief executive officer, Sanjay Jha, were sued by a shareholder claiming they failed to get the best price when they agreed to sell the company for $12.5 billion to Google Inc.

Google, the biggest maker of smartphone software, agreed to purchase Motorola Mobility in a transaction that would pay Motorola shareholders $40 a share in cash, or 63 percent more than the stock's closing price on Aug. 12.

The Transportation Security Administration is apologizing to a pregnant woman, one day after she said her insulin and ice packs were confiscated by screeners at Denver International Airport.

"He's like, 'Well, you're a risk.' I'm like, 'Excuse me?' And he's like, 'This is a risk ... I can't tell you why again. But this is at risk for explosives,'" the woman said.

The mother-to-be said she brought the appropriate doctor's note and the medication was labeled correctly, so she's perplexed as to why her insulin would be confiscated this time.

A shocking video has been released allegedly showing police officers tasering and beating a homeless man to death who they claim was resisting arrest.

Eye witnesses at the scene claim the six officers tasered him five times and beat him beyond recognition, which the disturbing photo of him in hospital shows.

Thomas's dad, Ron Thomas, a former sheriff's deputy, said: 'His death was gang-involved, the way I see it. A gang of rogue officers who brutally beat my son to death.'

There was a bit of an embarrassment in the ongoing patent dispute between Oracle and Google.

Google pointed out that if its use was so problematic, why did Sun celebrate Google's Java usage in Android? They pointed to a blog post from then-Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, which happily celebrated Google basing Android on Java/Linux.

Of course, that looks bad for Oracle... so it's response was to delete Schwartz's entire blog. Poof. That moment of history gone. Except if you have access to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.

You may have received an email or notice when you logged in to your PayPal account about the new PayPal Hold Policy that is affecting ALL customers regardless of their status or past history.

"When some sellers receive payments, we may hold the money in a pending balance for up to 21 days to help make sure that there are funds in the seller's account to cover potential refunds or claims."

"PayPal will re-evaluate your account every 35 days and decide whether or not to continue holding payments. If we decide to stop holding future payments, we'll contact you."