Spotlight
An explosion Friday in the home of Somalia's interior minister killed him and a woman suspected of being a bomber as violent demonstrations swept the capital.
Interior Minister Abdishakur Sheik Hassan, who also was minister for national security, died after shrapnel hit his legs and other parts of his body, said Ministry of Information spokesman Abdifatah Abdinur.
Full StoryCitigroup Inc. has become the latest victim in a string of high-profile data thefts by hackers targeting some of the world's best-known companies.
The New York bank said Thursday that about 200,000 Citibank credit card customers in North America had their names, account numbers and email addresses stolen by hackers who broke into Citi's online account site.
Full StoryAfter nearly three years, the bloom of a rare flower at a Washington state university finally came up, but it didn't smell like roses.
The University of Washington Biology department says its so-called corpse flower opened after midnight and unleashed its stink of rotting meat on the hundreds waiting.
Full StoryOfficials say a moose burst through the dining room window of a retirement home in southwestern Sweden, knocking over furniture and flower pots before taking off into the wild again.
Police say aside from the moose, which was scratched by the broken window, no one was injured in Thursday's surprise visit at the Brunnsgarden retirement home in the small town of Alingsas.
Full StoryThe existence of a blogger who claimed to be a Syrian-American lesbian came into question on Wednesday after a woman in Britain said photographs circulating on the Internet were of her, not the blogger supposedly in Damascus.
A representative for Jelena Lecic said the London woman first learned her likeness was being used on the Facebook account of a blogger known as Amina Arraf when her photo was linked to article about Arraf in the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday.
Full StoryIf you've ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn't have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the same time.
Scientists have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap, instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name, high-resolution photographs and information on the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark.
Full StoryThey exist for only seconds at most in real life, but they've gained immortality in chemistry: Two new elements have been added to the periodic table.
The elements were recognized by an international committee of chemists and physicists. They're called elements 114 and 116 for now — permanent names and symbols will be chosen later.
Full StoryVietnamese police and state-run media say a man threw two large cans of acid at a woman who rejected his marriage proposal and at seven of her relatives during a child's birthday party.
Officer Nguyen Huy Thang of Dong Nai province says the 54-year-old man is in police detention while being treated at a hospital for minor injuries following the attack Sunday night.
Full StoryA Syrian activist says elite government forces are heading to the country's north in possible preparation for an attack on a town where soldiers reportedly joined an anti-government uprising.
The activist, Mustafa Osso, says witnesses told him that long lines of tanks and thousands of troops were on the move toward Jisr al-Shughour on Wednesday.
Full StoryJon Austin's wife, Amy, had a blunt assessment for her husband as the Minneapolis couple watched Rep. Anthony Weiner's stunning confessions on television this week.
"You'd be dead," she told him.
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