Conn. dad recalls loving, creative 6-year-old

NEWTOWN, Conn. Fighting back tears and struggling to catch his breath, the father of a 6-year-old gunned down in Friday's school shooting in Connecticut told the world about a little girl who loved to draw and was always smiling, and he also reserved surprising words of sympathy for the gunman. Robbie Parker's daughter Emilie was among the 20 children who died in the one of the worst attacks on...

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Conn. Victim's Father Remembers 'Loving' Daughter

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman’s bullets not claimed her life, her father said.“My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that’s the kind...

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Violence flares in Cairo as Egyptians vote

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted narrowly in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists and which opponents said was a recipe for deepening divisions in the nation, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum. The result based on unofficial tallies, if confirmed for this round and repeated in Saturday's second stage, may give Islamist President...

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Japan votes in poll likely to eject ruling party

TOKYO - Voters in Japan went to the polls Sunday in an election likely to return conservatives to power at a time of growing tension with China and as the nation seeks to arrest economic decline.Polls point to a heavy defeat for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government, but observers say the electorate will hand the reins of power only reluctantly to the opposition Liberal Democratic...

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Google will alter search to end FTC antitrust inquiry, says report

The Federal Trade Commission may bring its two-year antitrust investigation of Google to a close by allowing the company to make voluntary changes to its search business, according to a report.The search giant is said to be readying an announcement about changes to its use of "snippets," bits of text culled from sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor and displayed in search results, Politico reports,...

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Hundreds pack Conn. church for vigil after rampage

Updated 11:39 PM ET NEWTOWN, Conn. Twenty-six candles — one for each of the victims — flickered on the altar Friday as hundreds of grief-stricken residents gathered for a vigil in memory of the children and staff killed in a shooting rampage at a school in this Connecticut town. With the church filled to capacity, hundreds spilled outside, holding hands in circles in the cold night air and saying...

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Conn. Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot...

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NATO says Syrian Scuds hit "near" Turkey

BEIRUT (Reuters) - NATO accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of firing Scud missiles that landed near to the Turkish border, in explaining why it was sending anti-missile batteries and troops to the bloc's frontier. The Syrian government, which finds itself under attack from rebels in the capital Damascus and by a diplomatic alliance of Arab and Western powers, denies firing...

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SCDF, police conduct checks at commercial premises, Marina Square fined

SINGAPORE: A joint enforcement blitz by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the police was conducted on shopping malls, hotels and public entertainment outlets on Friday night.Marina Square Shopping Centre was issued three notices of Fire Safety Offence which carried a total fine of up to S$1,500. The shopping centre had fire safety works without approval plans at two levels of...

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Quad-core, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0: 2012's winners and losers

From bigger screens and better cameras to multicore processing and NFC, 2012 has been a momentous year for fancy new phone technology. But how practical is any of this cutting-edge gear? Read on as we dive into the gee-whizzery this year's smartphones brought to the table and whether they were huge flops or represent fabulous mobile innovations. Big, HD screensIt seems that these days a superphone...

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Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded

(CBS News) KABUL - In Afghanistan, an American soldier and two Afghans were killed by a car bomb Thursday. It happened near the U.S. airbase in Kandahar, a few hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta left there to meet with Afghan President Karzai. Taliban attacks have grown more frequent, causing a sharp rise in civilian casualties. There's one place where many of those lives are saved or lost....

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Health-Exchange Deadline Looms

All of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," doesn't go into effect until 2014, but states are required to set up their own health care exchanges or leave it to the federal government to step in by next year. The deadline for the governors' decisions is Friday.The health insurance exchanges are one of the key stipulations of the new health care law. They will offer...

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U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital. "We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State...

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China manufacturing hits 14-month high: HSBC

BEIJING: China's manufacturing activity hit a 14-month high in December, a further sign of a rebound in the world's number two economy as domestic demand improved despite external weakness, HSBC said on Friday.The preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) released by the British banking giant hit 50.9 this month, up from a final 50.5 in November, when the figure returned to growth after...

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Apple's iPhone 5 officially goes on sale in China

Apple's iPhone 5 went on sale in China today.(Credit:Apple)The world's biggest mobile phone market can now get its hands onApple's iPhone 5. The device officially went on sale in China today, according to The Next Web. Customers were able to snap up the smartphone through the Apple Online Store, via select Apple resellers, and by reservation from Apple retail stores. China is of huge significance...

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In cautionary move, Europe centralizes bank oversight

BRUSSELSEuropean Union finance ministers reached an agreement early Thursday to create a single supervisor for their banks - one of the most significant transfers of authority from national governments to regional authorities since the creation of the euro currency. Under the deal, banks with more than $39 billion in assets supervised or those that represent a significant proportion of their national...

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McAfee Lands in Miami: I'm Free

Software mogul John McAfee has been released from detention in Guatemala City and has landed in Miami.Immediately upon landing, according to passengers on the plane, McAfee's name was called and he was whisked off the aircraft. Federal officials escorted the 67-year-old Internet antivirus pioneer through customs spirit him out a side door, out of the view of reporters, according...

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Assad's forces fire Scuds in Syria escalation: U.S. official

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebels trying to overthrow Syria's government, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, a step seen as an escalation in Assad's struggle to retain power. U.S. officials said they were unaware of any previous instances in which Scuds were used against the rebels since the start...

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Last S. Korea polls give conservative Park the edge

SEOUL: The last polls allowed before next week's South Korean presidential election all showed a lead for conservative favourite Park Geun-Hye over her liberal rival, but by varying margins.The four surveys published Thursday, but based on data gathered before North Korea's provocative launch of a long-range rocket on Wednesday, put Park's lead over Moon Jae-In as narrow as 0.5 points...

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Google Maps returns to iOS as an app after Apple's removal

Screen shots of Google's new Maps app for iOS.(Credit:Google)Once banished from Apple's iOS, Google Maps has returned to the mobile platform in the form of a standalone app.The official Google Maps app returned to Apple's App store this evening. As expected, the new app includes turn-by-turn navigation, just like itsAndroid counterpart, as well as public transit directions, and its Street View.Google...

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Suspect, two others, killed in Ore. mall shooting

Updated 10:30 p.m. ET PORTLAND, Oregon A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another before apparently killing himself as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said. One other person was reported injured. Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes said authorities were still trying to get more details about the situation...

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Shooter Kills Self After Oregon Mall Rampage

A masked gunman opened fire today at Clackamas Town Center, a mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two people, injuring one, and then killing himself."I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound," Lt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County, Ore., Sheriff's Department said today. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement...

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North Korea's new leader burnishes credentials with rocket

SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea successfully launched a rocket on Wednesday, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to its opponents. The rocket, which North Korea says was designed to put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that...

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UN Security Council to meet over N. Korean launch

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday to discuss North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket in defiance of threats of sanctions, a Western diplomat said."The Japanese and the Americans have requested a Security Council meeting, which will take place late Wednesday morning" around 11:00 am (1700 GMT), the diplomat said.Japan's chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura...

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Start-Ups Silicon Valley Ep. 6: Booty calls and booted dolls

Hermione sans dildo.(Credit:BravoTV Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Last week, we left our protagonists on "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" hanging on the end of a strap-on. No, wait. It was Hermione (blonde, British, boozer) who was hanging on to a strap-on at the end.Her brother Ben (short, pretty, pretty short) was livid with her, even though it was her birthday party. One doesn't play with sex...

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