With the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s May 2 killing fast approaching, officials revealed Monday that they were on high alert for body bombs used by terrorists on U.S.-bound flights. Security at British airports and other locations around the world has been stepped up, as officials believe that terrorists might try to hide bombs inside their bodies to get them on a plane. Additional air marshals have been moved overseas in advance of the anniversary. Medical experts say it is feasible to build a metal-less bomb to fit inside the abdominal cavity.

Data released Monday showed that Spain has joined seven other European nations in recession, giving new light to the fact that austerity plans are unable to shake the weight of economic downturn in the region. Protests are expected over the coming week in Spain and other nations, while both France and Greece hold elections this weekend that could throw out the current rulers in those respective nations. Spanish banks floated the idea of a “bad bank” to take on soured assets and relieve economic pressure. Spain’s unemployment rate is now hovering at 24 percent as its GDP contracted 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2012.

A White House official revealed Monday that remotely-piloted drones are used to kill suspected terrorists, while acknowledging for the first time that these strikes occasionally kill civilians. Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said the deaths of innocent people by drones are “exceedingly rare,” though a Washington think tank revealed Monday that as many as 300 civilians deaths have been linked to drones since President Obama took office. Brennan said the U.S. “conducts targeted strikes against specific al Qaeda terrorists” using drones.

In a news conference on Monday, President Obama declined to make a statement regarding “press reports” about Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, but reinforced the administration’s stance on China’s human-rights reputation. Obama’s comments come as the White House faces pressure to discuss Chen’s case. The president effectively skirted the sensitive topic but still mentioned China’s human-rights issue, which he said comes up “every time we meet with China,” and impressed upon the country that it “will be stronger as it opens up and liberalizes its own system.” A senior U.S. diplomat arrived in China on Sunday to discuss Chen’s fate, and Hillary Clinton is scheduled to depart Washington tonight to join the meetings.

Cheri Young, the wife of former John Edwards aide Andrew Young, broke down on the witness stand Monday afternoon as she described the personal turmoil she went through as she and her husband kept Edwards’s affair with Rielle Hunter secret. Young said on the stand that Edwards had told her himself that funds were not being used illegally, and suggested her husband take responsibility for Hunter’s baby instead of Edwards himself. “’Nobody cares about two staffers having an affair,’” Young said Edwards told her. The judge dismissed the jury when Young broke down in tears after being asked why she went along with Edwards’s plan to lie about the paternity of the baby.

Following two suicide attacks in Idlib on Monday, the Syrian government has accused the West of ... supporting terrorist regimes across the Middle East? Commenting on continued violence in the country and its brokered peace plan with the U.N., Syria’s deputy foreign minister and government spokesman Faisal Mukdad told The Telegraph that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is “biased,” and accused the U.S. and France of attempting to sabotage the peace plan. Mukdad also accused France’s foreign minister of “calling for war,” and added that the West wants “extremist and al Qaeda forces controlling the whole region,” in an apparent reference to Western support of aiding rebels, whom Bashir al-Assad’s regime has continually said are “armed terrorists.”

Books are always a good investment. That’s what shareholders of Barnes & Noble discovered as the company’s stock skyrocketed 95 percent before the market even opened Monday on the news that Microsoft had secured a 17.6 percent stake in the bookseller’s Nook business. Barnes & Noble announced in January that it wanted to spin off its e-book division. As part of the deal, Microsoft will include a new Nook application in Windows 8, a move that could open up Barnes & Noble’s product to millions of e-book readers. Shares of Barnes & Noble, valued at $13.68 before the announcement, leaped to $26.70 early Monday morning.

President Obama’s reelection campaign tested out its new slogan, “Forward,” Monday with a seven-minute video boasting White House accomplishments over the past four years. “The video outlines the challenges America faced as President Obama took office at the height of the worst recession in almost a century and details the progress that has been made reclaiming the security of the middle class and building an economy that’s meant to last, where hard work pays and responsibility is rewarded,” his campaign explains. 

If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em! That’s the slogan that Delta seemed to be operating by on Monday, when it announced that it was buying an oil refinery outside of Philadelphia in a cost-cutting move that is said to be the first of its kind among U.S. airlines. Delta is paying a reported $150 million to Phillips 66 for the Trainer refinery in a deal expected to be done by late June. Delta called the approach an “innovative” response to its “largest expense,” adding that it will spend an additional $100 million to convert the refinery’s infrastructure to maximize jet-fuel production.

Distributor Warner Bros. has released a brand-new trailer online for arguably the most anticipated film this summer, The Dark Knight Rises. In the trailer, which will play in theaters this weekend ahead of The Avengers, it appears Batman (Christian Bale) is seriously injured by his muscle-bound nemesis, Bane (Tom Hardy). In the comics, Batman’s back is broken by Bane in the “Knightfall” story arc, rendering him a paraplegic. The footage also shows Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway, unleashing an ass-whooping on some bad guys, Bruce Wayne (also Bale) kissing Marion Cotillard, and Batman’s newest toy: a flying Bat-vehicle.

Well, that was fast! HBO has renewed the comedies Girls and Veep for 10-show second seasons after both made their series debuts in the last two weeks. Girls, which was created by Lena Dunham, has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Reviewers were less enthused about Veep, but star Julia Louis-Dreyfus nevertheless brought the channel more viewers than Girls has so far.

The recording of a 911 call made by actress Jennifer Hudson’s sister after the she found their mother’s body will be released, the judge in the ongoing case ordered Monday. “Somebody killed my mother. Please help me,” Julia Hudson can be heard saying in part of the recording played last week in court. “My momma. My momma.” William Balfour, Julia Hudson’s ex-husband, stands accused of killing the sisters’ mother and brother as well as Julia Hudson’s 7-year-old son in 2008. The trial entered its sixth day of testimony by the prosecution Monday.

The American Prospect may have to shut down at the end of May. The nonprofit political magazine needs $500,000 to stay in business. The magazine hopes to collect the needed funds through donors and readers, but last Thursday editors informed staff that there was a possibility it would shut down. Editor Kit Rachlis said that his team “thought it was important to be fair to the staff, to let them know there was a possibility that if we didn’t fill it, the Prospect’s last issue as currently constituted would be the July/August issue.” That issue would close in May.

The United Kingdom has had the wettest April since 1910, seeing 121.8 millimeters (4.8 inches) of rain this month, and more rain is in the forecast for this evening. The rain has led to 188 flood warnings and alerts across the notoriously-wet country. April also had average temperatures of 43 degrees, marking the first time that April has had cooler average temperatures than March since 1998. The watery April follows the fifth driest March on record and a 22-month drought. Despite the extra rain, restrictions on water use remain in place throughout the country.

A California man who set out on a short but exhilarating motorcycle ride got off the bike with a long-lasting thrill. Henry Wolf has sued BMW North America and a motorcycle-seat maker claiming that a four-hour ride on his 1993 bike with a ridgelike seat has given him “a severe case of priapism” (a persistent, lasting erection) that he’s sustained for 20 months, ever since that fateful ride he took in September 2010. Apparently Wolf is “now unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish.” According to the suit, Wolf wants compensation from BMW and the seat maker for lost wages, medical expenses, emotional distress, and “general damage.”

The widow of an Ohio man who released dozens of exotic animals last year before committing suicide will have the five surviving beasts returned to her, the state’s Agriculture Department announced Monday. A quarantine order was placed on the surviving animals last October, but the state said that it was lifting the order after all five tested free of dangerous diseases. Marian Thompson is the widow of Terry Thompson, who released a total of 56 animals, including black bears and Bengal tigers, from the menagerie on his Ohio farm before killing himself.

A fraudster who bilked Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, and other big names out of a total of more than $35 million should serve 30 years and fork over $60 million in fines, federal prosecutors said before sentencing Monday. Samuel “Mouli” Cohen went to great pains to hide his great gains, attorneys for the government say in court documents, calling Cohen an “unrepentant con man with a militant lack of responsibility.” Cohen’s fraudulent fibbing brought down the Vanguard Public Foundation, a liberal and antiwar nonprofit organization that received support from Glover and Belafonte, among others. Cohen was convicted of 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, and 3 counts of tax evasion.

Pakistani officials said Monday that they were outraged by a drone strike Sunday that killed three suspected militants. Drone strikes in the country are “violative of its territorial integrity and sovereignty,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday, two weeks after Parliament demanded that all American drone strikes against militants in the country cease. The Pakistanis hedged their remarks, however, by saying that the militants targeted by American drones also act in defiance of the Pakistani government. The same parliamentary resolutions that called for an end to the strikes also demanded that Islamist fighters be driven from the country, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday.

London Mayor Boris Johnson allegedly pursued commercial negotiations with News International even as Scotland Yard investigated reported phone hackings at Rupert Murdoch’s news empire, the BBC reported Monday. Further, as mayor of London, Johnson is responsible for Scotland Yard, whose chief and deputy chief both resigned after being smeared in the investigation into alleged payments to police in an attempt to cover the alleged hacking. In meetings with James Murdoch, Johnson reportedly pressed the former News Corp. chairman for support of a cable car the mayor had planned, as well as for a proposed academy in the city, the BBC reports.

A pair of suicide bombers in Syria killed eight and wounded close to 100 Monday in attacks that may have been directed against a nearby military installation. The explosions in the city of Idlib shattered windows and caused other damage, both official Syrian media and opposition forces reported. Little is known so far about the bombers or what their target was. Monday saw other violence in the embattled nation, including an attack by gunmen against a bank and law enforcement in the capital city in which four police officers suffered injuries. Syrian media said “armed terrorists,” a term often used to describe opposition forces, were responsible for both attacks.

Israeli intellectual—and father of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—Benzion Netanyahu died Monday at age 102. By turns a journalist, historian, and lobbyist, Netanyahu was a fierce and consistent supporter of the independent Jewish state and argued against compromise with Arab states. Asserting himself as a leading supporter of Zionism in the 1940s, Netanyahu met with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and prominent politicians, lobbying for a Jewish homeland on behalf the New Zionist Organization. In 1944 Netanyahu convinced the GOP to make support for a Jewish state part of its platform. The scholar also went on to write an influential history of the Spanish inquisition.

As Chinese and American diplomats work to resolve a tense diplomatic situation Monday, censors inside the communist country are blocking news of Chen Guangcheng’s defiant escape after 18 months under house arrest. Keyword searches for information about Chen on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site, yield a message saying that the search has been denied due to “relevant laws and policies.” Officials have also blocked references to the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, because some Chinese saw similarities between the tale of prison inmates and Chen’s real-life drama.

Some people never learn. Australian billionaire Clive Palmer announced Monday that he plans to build a replica of the Titanic and set it on a course from England to New York in 2016. The announcement comes weeks after the centennial of the sinking of the original doomed vessel. “It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic,” Palmer told reporters, but “will have state-of-the-art 21st-century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems.” Palmer said he’s already signed documents with Chinese builder CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the fate-tempting vessel, the first of four luxury cruise ships Palmer wants to build with the company.

He’s out there, and they’ll find him. American special-forces units are using their advanced equipment and training to help African troops hunt down Joseph Kony, who directs his band of child soldiers from the jungles of the Central African Republic. In the dense, hostile jungle, American troops working closely with African forces say that they see signs that Kony’s hold on his fighters is weakening, and the rebel commander has been forced to recede farther into the jungle. As for pressure from back home, one American official told The New York Times, “Did ‘Kony 2012’ have something to do with this? Absolutely.”

Republican candidate Mitt Romney may have to be extra careful with his electoral votes this fall, with some counts giving him a bare 20 votes over the 270 he’d need to win the presidency. That means that while there is a road to the White House for Romney, it’s not one that will allow for many mistakes. Republicans have had trouble winning a significant electoral ceiling in the past two decades, while Democrats have often swept up far more votes than needed—and Romney will need to take states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, which have gone blue for the past five contests.

The Huffington Post editor said Monday that an Obama-campaign ad questioning whether Mitt Romney would have pulled the trigger on Osama bin Laden was out of bounds. “I think it’s one thing to celebrate the fact that they did such a great job [with television specials],” Ariana Huffington said on CBS’s This Morning. “But to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do.” Huffington also said campaign rhetoric questioning the wartime bona fides of candidates may force politicians to adopt more hawkish stances than they normally would to avoid the appearance of being soft on foreign affairs.

The Manhattan skyline’s highest point will shift downtown Monday, if the weather holds, as workers erect the 100th floor of the new 1 World Trade Center. The building’s steady upward climb over New York City continues, and the new floor will take it to 1,271 feet, more than 20 feet taller than the Empire State Building. The structure, when completed, is planned to top out at 1,776 feet. The building will have a rooftop parapet with a height of 1,368 feet, the same vertigo-inducing altitude reached by the 1 World Trade Center building destroyed in 2001. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the structure “the most complex construction site ever.”

Looks like Sarko is in it to win it. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is picking up steam in his race to catch up to socialist rival François Hollande, a new poll showed Monday, giving the incumbent 47 percent of the vote. That’s only a 1 percent increase over a poll taken after first-round elections a week ago, but it may show a gain in momentum for the president as the two candidates scramble for every vote. Poll data show that Sarkozy is gaining support from centrists, picking up voters who chose François Bayrou in the first round of the election.

Chris Christie said Monday afternoon that Mitt “might be able to convince” him to be his running mate. “He’s a convincing guy, but I really love this job. I really want to stay in this job,” he said. “I really have no interest in being vice president, but if Governor Romney calls and asks me to sit down and talk to him about it, I’d listen because I think you owe the nominee of your party that level of respect and who knows what he’s going to say.”

Hosting their rivals on Monday night at Etihad Stadium, underdog team Manchester City edged a victory over Manchester United in a battle for Barclay’s Premier League football title. City captain Vincent Kompany scored the only goal in the match—a dramatic header—before halftime, leaving Manchester United scrambling to come back from behind in what devolved into a rough game. It was a bitter loss for United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who strayed from his usual attack strategy. If Manchester City wins their two final games, they will be crowned Premier League champions for the first time since 1968.

At least 100 people were killed when a ferry capsized on the Brahmaputra River in eastern India under heavy rain and strong wind. Of the more than 300 passengers on board, 103 are still missing around the river. Officials said at least 25 people swam to safety after the accident. Police and paramilitary soldiers were sent to help local villagers already involved in rescue efforts. The accident occurred in the west Dhubri district near the southern border of India and close to where the river enters Bangladesh.

Cheri Young, the wife of Andrew Young, John Edwards’s former aide, testified Monday that the former presidential candidate told them it was legal to take funds to pay off Rielle Hunter, Edwards’s mistress. Both Youngs are considered crucial witnesses in the case to prove that Edwards used $1.2 million in donations to hide his mistress, then pregnant with their child, as he contended for the presidency in 2008. Andrew Young testified last week under an immunity agreement, and admitted that he kept about $1 million of the $1.2 million, which Edwards’s defense team has claimed went to building the Young family’s dream house.

Aung San Suu Kyi and her party agreed Monday to take their seats in Burma’s Parliament later this week, despite a bitter disagreement over the wording of their oath of office. The oath requires that lawmakers vow to “safeguard the Constitution,” a promise that rankled the reform leader. Suu Kyi heads the National League for Democracy, which has pledged amendments to the Constitution, saying that it gives undue power to the country’s military. The new Parliament will be formed Wednesday.

Someone probably should have warned her that kids are expensive. Octomom Nadya Suleman has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a Santa Ana, Calif., court. Suleman may have debt as high as $1 million and assets of only up to $50,000. Those who file for this type of bankruptcy usually get a discharge from most of their debts. “I have had to make some very difficult decisions this year, and filing Chapter 7 was one of them,” Suleman said. “But I have to do what is best for my children, and I need a fresh start.”

President Obama pushed back at criticism that he is using the May 2 anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death for political gain. “I hardly think you’ve seen any excessive celebration taking place here,” Obama said Monday. Obama will be in a primetime special about the raid on Wednesday, and has suggested that Mitt Romney would not have ordered the assault.  A Romney spokesperson responded, saying: "It's unfortunate that President Obama would prefer to use what was a good day for all Americans as a cheap political ploy and an opportunity to distort Gov. Romney's strong policies on the war on terror.”