US police seek clues in school shooting

NEWTOWN, Connecticut: US police indicated on Saturday they are homing in on the mystery of what triggered the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school by a young lone gunman.Police have yet to make public the identities of the dead or almost any of the details of what happened inside Sandy Hook Elementary School just after classes started Friday.The motives of the shooter, identified...

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Colbert visits Google, is clueless about Google Play

No, he's not corpsing.(Credit:Google screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Google's Eric Schmidt is a very busy man.But he still found the time to interview fellow political philosopher Stephen Colbert, when the latter appeared at Google this week.Indeed, Schmidt even found the time to post a chunk of the escapade onto his Google+ account. (The full hour has been posted to YouTube and I have embedded...

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Mandela undergoes successful gallstone surgery

JOHANNESBURG South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela underwent a successful surgery to remove gallstones Saturday, the nation's presidency said, as the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon is still recovering from a lung infection. Doctors treating Mandela waited to perform the endoscopic surgery as they wanted to first attend to his lung ailment, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement....

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Conn. Shooting: Cops Probe Report of Earlier Altercation

Connecticut school shooter Adam Lanza used a semi-automatic rifle to shoot Sandy Hook students and staff at close-range and may have also used three others guns, which were found at the scene and nearby during the massacre, sources told ABC News.At least some of the weapons used, including the handguns, appear to match firearms registered to the family, although the urgent federal...

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Egyptians vote on divisive constitution

CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - Egyptians queued in long lines on Saturday to vote on a constitution promoted by its Islamist backers as the way out of a political crisis and rejected by opponents as a recipe for further divisions in the Arab world's biggest nation. Soldiers joined police to secure the referendum after deadly protests during the buildup. Street brawls erupted again on Friday...

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Oil prices advance on China data

NEW YORK: Oil prices rose Friday, lifted by upbeat Chinese manufacturing data and a weaker US dollar.New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for January delivery, rose 84 cents from Thursday to settle at US$86.73 a barrel.Brent North Sea crude for January leaped US$1.24 to close at US$109.15 a barrel in London trade."January Brent crude oil expires today, with late book...

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Will Clinton testify on Libya next Thursday?

Updated: 1:42p.m. ETThe State Department assured Congress today that Hillary Clinton will indeed be ready to testify next Thursday on the recent violence in Benghazi, after suggesting yesterday that the report on which her testimony will be based might not be ready in time. "The committees have announced the secretary will be on the Hill next Thursday, and so that's the plan," said Patrick Ventrell,...

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Gunman ID'd: Mother Among Victims at Conn. School

Twenty childlren died today when a heavily armed man invaded a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, killing his mother and spraying the school with bullets.The gunman was killed inside of the school.Lt. Paul Vance said 18 children died in the school and two more died later in a hospital. Six adults were also slain, bringing the total to 26.In addition to the casualties at the...

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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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SHINee conclude their final concert of 2012 in S'pore, release new Jap single

SINGAPORE: Korean boy band SHINee have released a new Japanese single "1000 Years, Always by Your Side" on Wednesday, despite just concluding their final concert of the year last weekend in Singapore.While Singapore fans were not lucky enough to be able to hear their new single live at the SHINee World II concert at the Indoor Stadium, they did, however, got to see the quintet perform...

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Jury sides with Apple, LG in Alcatel-Lucent patent suit

Apple and fellow defendant LG Electronics were both cleared of patent infringement charges by a Southern California jury today.Following a two-week patent trial, a jury in a federal court in San Diego decided that both companies did not infringe on patents owned by Alcatel-Lucent, Bloomberg notes.Multimedia Patent Trust, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent, sued the two companies in December 2010 for alleged...

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Rice withdraws from Secretary of State consideration

U.N. ambassador Susan Rice is officially withdrawing her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, CBS News has learned. Rice, who was considered a top contender for the position, has been embroiled recently in ongoing controversy surrounding her account of the September 11 Libya attacks, which she discussed in a series of talk show appearances on September 16. In...

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Sandy Aid: Millions for Space Center, Forests

A man walks past destroyed homes on the Rockaway Peninsula in the Queens borough of New York, Nov. 27, 2012. A proposal in Congress would provide $60 billion in relief. (Seth Wenig/AP Photo)The Obama administration’s $60-billion emergency aid package for victims of superstorm Sandy is now caught in the crossfire over the “fiscal cliff,” with some critics questioning why millions of dollars are...

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Russia says Syrian rebels might win

MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia's Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict. "One must look the facts in the face," Russia's state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. "Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled...

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Berlusconi sows confusion with support for Monti as PM

ROME: Italy's Silvio Berlusconi sowed confusion Wednesday saying he could abandon his re-election bid if Prime Minister Mario Monti decided to run as leader of a centre-right coalition, a stunning twist to his two-decade political career."If Monti runs for leader, I would take a step back," Berlusconi said, a day after he criticised his successor for failing to revive the Italian economy...

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Exclusive: ITU 'failed,' says former policy chief

The Opening Ceremony and Plenary at the WCIT-12 conference.(Credit:ITU/Flickr)The International Telecommunications Union's (ITU) former telecommunications policy chief told CNET that the union is, "the most failed body in the history of international telecommunications," describing secret talks, Russia's close involvement with the group, and its Global Cybersecurity Agenda.Anthony Rutkowski held the...

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Suspect in Oregon mall shooting ID'd

Updated 1:40 PM ET PORTLAND, Ore. The gunman who killed two people and himself in a shooting rampage at an Oregon mall was 22 years old and used a stolen rifle from someone he knew, authorities said Wednesday. Jacob Tyler Roberts had armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and had several fully loaded magazines when he arrived at a Portland mall on Tuesday, said Clackamas County Sheriff...

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Mall Gunman Identified as Jacob Tyler Roberts

The masked gunman who killed two people in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., was identified today as Jacob Tyler Roberts.Roberts, 22, was armed with a stolen AR-15 semi-automatic weapon, Sheriff Craig Roberts told a news conference today. He was not wearing a bullet-proof vest as previously reported.Earlier today the sheriff told "Good Morning...

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North Korea rocket launch raises nuclear stakes

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 opponents. The rocket, which North Korea says put a weather satellite into orbit, has been labeled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver...

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Republicans open spending front in "cliff" row

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and Republicans waged a new spat over spending cuts Tuesday, as time ran short and little progress was evident towards ending a vexing year-end austerity and tax crisis.After days dueling over Obama's demand for higher taxes on the rich, each side accused the other of failing to lay out specific spending cuts, digging in to familiar positions on the...

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