Scott clutched the bill tensely in his hand, which he held pinned to his rib cage.

NEWYORKER: A Pickpocket��s Tale

But in the tensely partisan mood of this election year the Democrats may be hardening.

ECONOMIST: Nice congresswoman, shame about the party

The poorly domesticated Paul lives tensely with his grimly steadfast wife (Marie-Paule Laval), their teen-age son, and a newborn daughter, yet brazenly philanders with Ulrika (Johanna ter Steege), who makes no pretense of loving him.

NEWYORKER: The Birth of Love

Feature photography: Javier Manzano, a free-lance photographer, for his extraordinary picture distributed by Agence France-Presse of two Syrian rebel soldiers tensely guarding their position as beams of light stream through bullet holes in a nearby metal wall.

WSJ: 2013 Pulitzer winners in journalism and arts

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A veteran Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and his younger partner sat tensely in their car Thursday in the same patrol district where a former LAPD cop -- now on the run, accused in three killings -- used to work.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS