NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: Travelers face hand swabs

Air travelers may have their hands swabbed more often as part of a stepped-up effort to screen for explosives, an Obama administration official said. Airports were told Wednesday that more passengers should be randomly screened before, during and after they go through metal detectors. The screening could include swabbing travelers' hands or their carry-on luggage to check for traces of explosives, said the official, who requested anonymity in speaking about security plans. The heightened screening follows a Christmas Day attempted attack on a Detroit-bound plane.

>H4>CALIFORNIA: Tests back medicinal pot

The first U.S. clinical trials in more than two decades on the medical benefits of marijuana confirm pot is effective in reducing muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis and pain caused by certain neurological injuries or illnesses, according to a report issued Wednesday. Igor Grant, who directs the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego, said five studies funded by the state involved volunteers who were given marijuana or placebos. "There is good evidence now that cannabinoids may be either an adjunct or a first-line treatment," he said at a news conference in Sacramento.

ILLINOIS: Raid on Asian carp

Armed with sprawling fishing nets and boats equipped with electric prods, state and federal fisheries biologists began a "search-and-destroy" mission in Chicago-area waterways Wednesday aimed at rooting out the dreaded Asian carp. The operation got under way as a public discussion in Michigan of the federal plan to stop the invasive fish from overrunning the Great Lakes produced sharp disagreement over whether to close Chicago shipping locks, which link the lakes with the Mississippi River system. Twenty commercial fishermen and biologists braved frigid temperatures to search for silver or bighead Asian carp that may have breached electric fish barriers on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.