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A 72-year-old Nepalese man who is about the size of a toddler on Sunday became the world's shortest person ever recorded.

Retail sales barely rose in December, but the gain was enough to lift sales to a record level for 2011. It marked the largest annual increase in more than a decade. Sales inched up 0.1 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted $400.6 billion, The Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the second straight month that sales have topped $400 billion. Never before had monthly sales reached that level.

The FBI reports record background checks for firearms buyers in December, with 500,000 in the six days before Christmas.

Congress has reached a new low in job-approval ratings, with only 11% of adults giving lawmakers good marks in the latest Gallup Poll.

Lindsay Lohan's nude photo spread for Playboy is helping the men's magazine break sales records, according to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

Don’t get too close. Astronomers are reporting that they have taken the measure of the biggest, baddest black holes yet found in the universe, abyssal yawns 10 times the size of our solar system into which billions of Suns have vanished like a guilty thought. Such holes, they say, might be the gravitational cornerstones of galaxies and clues to the fates of the violent quasars, almost supernaturally powerful explosions in the hearts of young galaxies, that dominated the early years of the universe.

Online shoppers spent record amounts on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, making it the biggest online shopping day in history.

Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" video game racked up more than $400 million in sales on its first day in stores in the United States and the United Kingdom. Activision said in a statement on Friday its biggest holiday title had sold 6.5 million units, which breaks last year's record of 5.6 million units, or $360 million in sales.

The latest Call of Duty game has broken sale records with 6.5 million units sold in the U.S. and U.K. In-Game's Todd Kenreck reports. (In-Game)

Nearly 400,000 people were deported from the United States in the past fiscal year, the largest number in the history of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, the government announced Tuesday.