Badminton: Lee Chong Wei reaches Malaysia Open finals

KUALA LUMPUR: World number one Lee Chong Wei dropped his first game of the tournament Saturday as he overcame Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen to secure a place in the finals of the Malaysia Badminton Open.The home favourite, bidding for record ninth Malaysia Open title, dropped the second game to the determined and energetic 26-year-old emerging Dane, but eventually won through 21-13, 17-21,...

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Facebook unveils new search tool (week in review)

He who controls the graph, controls the world.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)Facebook unveiled a new tool this week it touts as helping find people, photos, places, and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users.Graph Search is the social network's newest way for users to make sense of its massive base of 1 billion users, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections. The tool is meant to provide...

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Deadly, murky hostage crisis in Algeria continues

Last updated at 10:46 a.m. ET ALGIERS, Algeria About 30 foreign hostages are still unaccounted for three days into a bloody siege with Islamic militants at a gas plant deep in the Sahara, Algeria's state news service said Friday. The militants, meanwhile, reportedly offered to trade two American hostages for terror figures jailed in the United States, according to a statement received by a Mauritanian...

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Algeria Terrorists Want to Trade US Hostages for Blind Sheikh

The al Qaeda-linked terrorists holding Americans and other Westerners hostage at a gas plant in Algeria have now demanded the release of two convicted terrorists held in U.S. prisons, including the "blind sheikh" who helped plan the first attack on New York's World Trade Center, in exchange for the freedom of two American hostages, according to an African news service.The terror...

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Foreigners still caught in Sahara hostage crisis

ALGIERS (Reuters) - More than 20 foreigners were still being held hostage or missing inside a gas plant on Friday after Algerian forces stormed the desert complex to free hundreds of captives taken by Islamist militants, who threatened to attack other energy installations. Thirty hostages, including at least seven Westerners, were killed during Thursday's assault, along with at least 18 of their...

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Ukraine's Tymoshenko accused of organising 1996 murder

KIEV: Ukrainian prosecutors on Friday accused jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko of organising the 1996 murder of a lawmaker, saying she could face life imprisonment if found guilty.Tymoshenko, serving a seven-year jail term for abuse of power, has been informed by prosecutors she is now a formal suspect in the murder of Yevgen Shcherban, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka told...

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Apple job posting wants to 'refresh and refine' Siri

It's no secret Apple's still in the process of fine-tuning its virtual voice assistant Siri, and a recent job posting confirms there's still much work to be done.The company is looking for someone to "refresh and refine existing Siri dialog," as well as expand what the software can do. "Siri's known for 'her' wit, cultural knowledge, and zeal to explain things in engaging, funny, and practical ways,"...

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Some children may lose autism diagnosis with age

Some children diagnosed with autism in early childhood may no longer have the disorder as they grow older, according to research funded by the National Institutes of Health. "Although the diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time, the findings suggest that there is a very wide range of possible outcomes," said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, NIMH director, said in a press release. "For an individual...

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Football Star Manti Te'o Faces Tough Questions

Notre Dame's star linebackerManti Te'o faces a problem bigger than any running back he's had to bring down.As the elaborate hoax about his dead "girlfriend" unravels, many questions remain to be answered, chief among them whether he was complicit in promoting the dramatic story of his girlfriend's death from leukemia. Te'o may soon be forced to tackle those questions himself."A...

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Algerian forces launch operation to break desert siege

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Twenty-five foreign hostages escaped and six were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces launched an operation to free them at a remote desert gas plant, Algerian sources said, as one of the biggest international hostage crises in decades unfolded. The standoff began when gunmen calling themselves the Battalion of Blood stormed the gas facility on Wednesday morning. They...

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