Kaepernick delivers, 49ers beat Packers 45-31

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (7) runs for a 56-yard touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the third quarter of an NFC divisional playoff NFL football game in San Francisco, Saturday, Jan. 12, 2013. / AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez SAN FRANCISCO Colin Kaepernick ran for a quarterback playoff record 181 yards and two touchdowns and threw two scoring passes to Michael...

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right."He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and,...

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Russia rejects Assad exit as precondition for Syria deal

MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country's conflict. Some 60,000 Syrians have been killed during the 21-month-old revolt and world powers are divided over how to stop the escalating bloodshed. Government aircraft bombed...

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US sailor arrested in Japan for break-in

TOKYO: Japanese police arrested a drunken 24-year-old US Navy sailor early Sunday after he allegedly broke into a house, violating a night-time curfew imposed after a rape case last year, reports said.The petty officer 2nd class is stationed in Yokosuka, a port city south of Tokyo, and wrongly believed that his friends were staying in the house, Jiji Press and Kyodo News agency said.The...

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JSTOR says it mourns `tragic loss' of Aaron Swartz

As the Internet exploded with anger over news that online activist Aaron Swartz had committed suicide on Friday, the subscription-only archive he was accused of hacking said late today that it "regretted" having been drawn to "this sad event." Swartz, a celebrated computer activist and programming prodigy, was fighting two-year-old charges that he stole 4 million documents from the Massachusetts...

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U.S. tells computer users to disable Java software

Updated 9:00 p.m. ETWASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is advising people to temporarily disable the Java software on their computers to avoid potential hacking attacks. The recommendation came in an advisory issued late Thursday, following up on concerns raised by computer security experts. Experts believe hackers have found a flaw in Java's coding that creates an opening for...

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CDC: Flu Outbreak Could Be Waning

The flu season appears to be waning in some parts of the country, but that doesn't mean it won't make a comeback in the next few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Five fewer states reported high flu activity levels in the first week of January than the 29 that reported high activity levels in the last week of December, according to the CDC's...

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Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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Czechs elect president in break with eurosceptic past

PRAGUE: Czechs head to the ballot box for a second day of voting Saturday, with a field of Europe-friendly candidates including an artist tattooed head-to-toe, vying to take over after a decade under eurosceptic Vaclav Klaus.While former prime ministers Milos Zeman and Jan Fischer, both ex-communists, are tipped as favourites, media pundits said Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg might...

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Wrapping up computers, tablets, and hardware at CES 2013

LAS VEGAS--Computers and related hardware are rarely the top category at the annual CES, with last year being a possible exception, thanks to ultrabook hype. In 2013, we found laptops, desktops, and tablets in shorter supply than usual, with the main culprit being the October 2012 release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, and the flood of new systems that went along with it. The following...

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Sheriff: Calif. teen planned attack on classmates

Updated at 9:40 p.m. ET TAFT, Calif. A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into a rural California high school on Thursday, shot one student and fired at others and missed before a teacher and another staff member talked him into surrendering, officials said. The teen victim was in critical but stable condition, and the suspect, whose pockets were stuffed with ammunition, was still...

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Judge: Holmes Can Face Trial for Aurora Shooting

Jan 10, 2013 8:45pm (Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo)In a ruling that comes as little surprise, the judge overseeing the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre has ordered that there is enough evidence against James Holmes to proceed to a trial.In an order posted late Thursday, Judge William Sylvester wrote that “the People have carried their burden of proof and have established...

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U.S., Afghanistan discuss "last chapter" in war aims: Panetta

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed on Thursday the "last chapter" in building a sovereign Afghanistan that can provide its own security, including the nature of U.S. involvement after combat troops withdraw in 2014. Panetta said he and Karzai made "very good progress" on the issues they discussed, but he declined to say...

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Google's Kurzweil on teaching human language to computers

Google's Ray Kurzweil.Famed inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil joined Google last month to work on "some of the hardest problems in computer science," specifically machine learning and language processing."The project we plan to do is focused on natural language understanding," Kurzweil told Singularity Hub in an interview (see video below). "We want to give computers the ability to understand the...

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Mom who shot intruder inspires gun control foes

LOGANVILLE, Ga.A Georgia mother who shot an intruder at her home has become a small part of the roaring gun control debate, with some firearms enthusiasts touting her as a textbook example of responsible gun ownership. Melinda Herman grabbed a handgun and hid in a crawl space with her two children when a man broke in last week and approached the family at their home northeast of Atlanta, police...

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Flu Kills 4 Seniors, Sickens 700 in Boston

An early and nasty flu season has prompted a public health emergency in Boston, where health officials say 700 people have been diagnosed with the cold-weather virus. Four Bostononians -- all elderly -- have died from flu."This is the worst flu season we've seen since 2009, and people should take the threat of flu seriously," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said in a statement.This...

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Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

SURAT, India (Reuters) - Turning a single Indian state with a long tradition of entrepreneurship and a solid political majority into an investor-friendly economic powerhouse is one thing. Replicating that experience across a diverse country of 1.2 billion would be a tougher prospect for Narendra Modi, whose leadership of booming Gujarat state has led to his being touted as a potential...

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Israeli, US defence chiefs discuss Middle East issues

WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak met to underscore a "strong US commitment to Israel's security", the Pentagon said.US Defence Department spokesman George Little said in a statement that the two men "discussed a range of issues, and expressed their commitment to ensuring continued cooperation on many important regional issues -- particularly...

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Anonymous petitions U.S. to see DDoS attacks as legal protest

It's hard to imagine a group that adheres to anarchic ideology would want its actions legalized under U.S. law. But that is exactly what Anonymous is doing. The loose-knit group of hackers submitted a petition to President Obama this week asking that distributed denial-of-service attacks be recognized as a legal form of protest. The petition, which is posted on the White House's "We the People" Web...

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AP: Gov. Richardson pressing N. Korea to open Internet

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is interviewed by journalists after arriving at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, Jan. 7, 2013. Richardson arrived in the North Korean capital with Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt, and called the trip a private humanitarian visit. / AP Photo/Kim Kwang Hyon PYONGYANG, North Korea Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson...

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Holmes Played Childish Games After Aurora Carnage

As police confronted the movie theater carnage and a massive booby trap left behind by accused Aurora gunman James Holmes, the suspect loopily played with hand puppets, tried to stick a metal staple in an electrical socket and clamly flipped a styrofoam cup, according to court testimony today.Holmes, 25, displayed the bizarre behavior once he was in custody and taken to Aurora...

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Venezuela postpones inauguration for cancer-stricken Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez for a new term due to health problems, the government said on Tuesday, another sign the socialist leader's cancer may be bringing an end to his 14 years in power. The 58-year-old former soldier who has dominated the South American OPEC nation since 1999 has not been heard from since surgery on December...

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Cool change aids Australia firefighters

SYDNEY: Cooler conditions helped firefighters battling blazes across Australia Wednesday but up to 30 were still out of control, destroying a handful of homes and killing thousands of livestock.After facing one of the highest-risk fire days in its history on Tuesday, residents in hard-hit New South Wales state woke to shifting winds that caused temperatures to drop significantly.While...

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Microsoft to kill the Messenger on March 15

The end is near for Microsoft's Windows Messenger Live.Microsoft announced last November it would soon retire its instant messaging client in favor Skype, which Microsoft acquired in October 2011. But today it began informing Messenger users that the service would go dark for the majority of users on March 15. Hello,On 15th March 2013 we are retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except...

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Chicago lottery winner died from poisoning

CHICAGO With no signs of trauma and nothing to raise suspicions, the sudden death of a Chicago man just as he was about to collect nearly $425,000 in lottery winnings was initially ruled a result of natural causes. Nearly six months later, authorities have a mystery on their hands after medical examiners, responding to a relative's pleas, did an expanded screening and determined that Urooj Khan,...

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Meet Obama's Defense Secretary Nominee

President Obama nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. secretary of defense. To those who haven't followed the Senate closely in the past decade, he's probably not a household name.Hagel is a former GOP senator from Nebraska and Purple-Heart-decorated Vietnam veteran, but he wouldn't necessarily be a popular pick with Republicans in Congress.At age 21, Hagel and...

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