Police, world wonder about Conn. shooting motive

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — The massacre of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school elicited horror and soul-searching around the world even as it raised more basic questions about why the gunman, a 20-year-old described as brilliant but remote, would have been driven to such a crime and how he chose his victims.

Investigators were trying to learn more about the gunman, Adam Lanza, and questioned his older brother, who is not believed to have been involved in the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary. Police shed no light on the motive for the nation's second-deadliest school shooting.

In tight-knit Newtown on Friday night, hundreds of people packed St. Rose of Lima church and stood outside in a vigil for the 28 dead — 20 children and six adults at the school, the gunman's mother at home, and the gunman himself, who committed suicide. People held hands, lit candles and sang "Silent Night."

"These 20 children were just beautiful, beautiful children," Monsignor Robert Weiss said. "These 20 children lit up this community better than all these Christmas lights we have. ... There are a lot brighter stars up there tonight because of these kids."

Lanza is believed to have suffered from a personality disorder and lived with his mother, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation.

Lanza shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, drove to the school in her car with at least three guns, including a high-powered rifle that he apparently left in the back of the vehicle, and shot up two classrooms around 9:30 a.m. Friday, law enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A custodian ran through the halls, warning of a gunman, and someone switched on the intercom, perhaps saving many lives by letting them hear the chaos in the school office, a teacher said. Teachers locked their doors and ordered children to huddle in a corner or hide in closets as shots echoed through the building.

The well-liked principal, Dawn Hochsprung, was believed to be among the dead. A woman who worked at the school was wounded.

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said investigators believe Lanza attended the school several years ago but appeared to have no recent connection to it.

At least one parent said Lanza's mother was a substitute teacher there. But her name did not appear on a staff list. And the official said investigators were unable to establish any connection so far between her and the school.

Lanza's older brother, 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, of Hoboken, N.J., was questioned, but a law enforcement official said he was not believed to have had a role in the rampage. Investigators were searching his computers and phone records, but he told law enforcement he had not been in touch with his brother since about 2010.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the unfolding investigation.

At one point, a law enforcement official mistakenly identified the gunman as Ryan Lanza. Brett Wilshe, a friend of Ryan Lanza's, said Lanza told him the gunman may have had his identification. Ryan Lanza apparently posted Facebook page updates Friday afternoon that read, "It wasn't me" and "I was at work."

For about two hours late Friday and early Saturday, clergy members and emergency vehicles moved steadily to and from the school. The state medical examiner's office said bodies of the victims would be taken there eventually for autopsies.

At least three guns were found — a Glock and a Sig Sauer, both pistols, inside the school, and a .223-caliber rifle in the back of a car, authorities said. A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of the guns used in the attack may have belonged to Lanza's family. His mother had legally registered four weapons, his father two.

Authorities also recovered three other guns — a Henry repeating rifle, an Enfield rifle and a shotgun. It was not clear exactly where those weapons were found.

Adam Lanza and his mother lived in a well-to-do part of prosperous Newtown, about 60 miles northeast of New York City, where neighbors are doctors or hold white-collar positions at companies such as General Electric, Pepsi and IBM.

Lanza's parents filed for divorce in 2008, according to court records. His father, Peter Lanza, lives in Stamford, Conn., and works as a tax director for General Electric.

The gunman's aunt Marsha Lanza, of Crystal Lake, Ill., said her nephew was raised by kind, nurturing parents who would not have hesitated to seek mental help for him if he needed it.

"Nancy wasn't one to deny reality," Marsha Lanza said, adding her husband had seen Adam as recently as June and recalled nothing out of the ordinary.

Catherine Urso, of Newtown, said her college-age son knew the killer and remembered him for his alternative style. "He just said he was very thin, very remote and was one of the goths," she said.

Adam Lanza attended Newtown High School, and several news clippings from recent years mention his name among the honor roll students.

Joshua Milas, who graduated from Newtown High in 2009 and belonged to the school technology club with him, said Adam Lanza was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years.

"We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart," Joshua Milas said. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know. He was probably a genius."

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was not clear that Adam Lanza had a job, and there was no indication of law enforcement interviews or search warrants at a place of business.

The mass shooting is one of the deadliest in U.S. history, and among school attacks is second in victims only to the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, which left 33 people dead, including the gunman. Reaction was swift and emotional in Newtown, a picturesque New England community of 27,000 people, as well as across the country and around the world.

"It has to stop, these senseless deaths," said Frank DeAngelis, principal of Colorado's Columbine High School, where a massacre in 1999 killed 15 people.

In Washington, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence organized a vigil at the White House, with some protesters chanting, "Today IS the day" to take steps to curb gun violence. In New York's Times Square, a few dozen people held tea lights in plastic cups, with one woman holding a sign that read: "Take a moment and candle to remember the victims of the Newtown shooting."

President Barack Obama's comments on the tragedy amounted to one of the most outwardly emotional moments of his presidency.

"The majority of those who died were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old," Obama said at a White House news briefing. He paused for several seconds to keep his composure as he teared up and wiped an eye. Nearby, two aides cried and held hands.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the attack as a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil."

"Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken," Gillard said in a statement.

In Japan, where guns are severely restricted and there are extremely few gun-related crimes, the attack led the news two days before nationwide parliamentary elections. In China, which has seen several knife rampages at schools in recent years, the attack quickly consumed public discussion.

At the Newtown vigil, Anthony Bloss, whose three daughters survived, said they are doing better than he. "I'm numb. I'm completely numb," he said.

Panicked parents looking for their children had raced earlier in the day to Sandy Hook, a kindergarten-through-fourth-grade school where police told youngsters to close their eyes as they were led from the building so that they wouldn't see the blood and broken glass.

Schoolchildren — some crying, many looking frightened — were escorted through a parking lot in a line, hands on one another's shoulders.

Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. "That's when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door," he said. "He was very brave. He waited for his friends."

He said the shooter didn't utter a word.

Kaitlin Roig, a teacher at the school, said she implored her students to be quiet.

"I told them we had to be absolutely quiet. Because I was just so afraid if he did come in, then he would hear us and just start shooting the door. I said we have to be absolutely quiet. And I said there are bad guys out there now and we need to wait for the good guys to come get us out," Roig told ABC News.

"If they started crying, I would take their face and say it's going to be OK. Show me your smile," she said. "They said, we want to go home for Christmas. Yes, yeah. I just want to hug my mom, things like that, that were just heartbreaking."

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Pat Eaton-Robb and Matt Apuzzo and videographer Robert Ray in Newtown; Bridget Murphy in Boston; Samantha Henry in Newark, N.J.; Pete Yost in Washington; Michael Melia in Hartford; and the AP News Research Center in New York.

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President’s pot comments prompt call for policy

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Barack Obama says he won’t go after pot users in Colorado and Washington, two states that just legalized the drug for recreational use. But advocates argue the president said the same thing about medical marijuana — and yet U.S. attorneys continue to force the closure of dispensaries across the U.S.

Welcome to the confusing and often conflicting policy on pot in the U.S., where medical marijuana is legal in many states, but it is increasingly difficult to grow, distribute or sell it. And at the federal level, at least officially, it is still an illegal drug everywhere.

Obama’s statement Friday provided little clarity in a world where marijuana is inching ever so carefully toward legitimacy.

That conflict is perhaps the greatest in California, where the state’s four U.S. Attorneys criminally prosecuted large growers and launched a coordinated crackdown on the state’s medical marijuana industry last year by threatening landlords with property forfeiture actions. Hundreds of pot shops went out of business.

Steve DeAngelo, executive director of an Oakland, Calif., dispensary that claims to be the nation’s largest, called for a federal policy that treats recreational and medical uses of the drug equally.

“If we’re going to recognize the rights of recreational users, then we should certainly protect the rights of medical cannabis patients who legally access the medicine their doctors have recommended,” he said.

The government is planning to soon release policies for dealing with marijuana in Colorado and Washington, where federal law still prohibits pot, as elsewhere in the country.

“It would be nice to get something concrete to follow,” said William Osterhoudt, a San Francisco criminal defense attorney representing government officials in Mendocino County who recently received a demand from federal investigators for detailed information about a local system for licensing growers of medical marijuana.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano said he was frustrated by Obama’s comments because the federal government continues to shutter dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws, including California.

“A good step here would be to stop raiding those legal dispensaries who are doing what they are allowed to do by law,” said the San Francisco Democrat. “There’s a feeling that the federal government has gone rogue on hundreds of legal, transparent medical marijuana dispensaries, so there’s this feeling of them being in limbo. And it puts the patients, the businesses and the advocates in a very untenable place.”

Obama, in an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, said Friday that federal authorities have “bigger fish to fry” when it comes to targeting recreational pot smokers in Colorado and Washington.

Some advocates said the statement showed the president’s willingness to allow residents of states with marijuana laws to use the drug without fear of federal prosecution.

“It’s a tremendous step forward,” said Joe Elford, general counsel for Americans for Safe Access. “It suggests the feds are taking seriously enough the idea that there should be a carve-out for states with marijuana laws.”

Obama’s statements on recreational use mirror the federal policy toward states that allow marijuana use for medical purposes.

“We are not focusing on backyard grows with small amounts of marijuana for use by seriously ill people,” said Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner in Sacramento. “We are targeting money-making commercial growers and distributors who use the trappings of state law as cover, but they are actually abusing state law.”

Alison Holcomb, who led the legalization drive in Washington state, said she doesn’t expect Obama’s comment to prompt the federal government to treat recreational marijuana and medical marijuana differently.

“At this point, what the president is looking at is a response to marijuana in general. The federal government has never recognized the difference between medical and non-medical marijuana,” she said. “I don’t think this is the time he’d carve out separate policies. I think he’s looking for a more comprehensive response.”

Washington voters approved a medical marijuana law in 1998, and dispensaries have proliferated across the state in recent years.

Last year, Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed legislation that would have created a state system for licensing medical dispensaries over concern that it would require state workers to violate the federal Controlled Substances Act.

For the most part, dispensaries in western Washington have been left alone. But federal authorities did conduct raids earlier this year on dispensaries they said were acting outside the state law, such as selling marijuana to non-patients. Warning letters have been sent to dispensaries that operate too close to schools.

“What we’ve seen is enforcement of civil laws and warnings, with a handful of arrests of people who were operating outside state law,” said Alison Holcomb, who led Washington’s legalization drive and helped write the bill that Gregoire vetoed. of

Eastern Washington has seen more raids because the U.S. attorney there is more active, Holcomb added.

Colorado’s marijuana measure requires lawmakers to allow commercial pot sales, and a state task force that will begin writing those regulations meets Monday.

State officials have reached out to the Justice Department seeking help on regulating a new legal marijuana industry but haven’t heard back.

DeAngelo said Friday that the Justice Department should freeze all pending enforcement actions against legal medical cannabis providers and review its policies to make sure they’re consistent with the president’s position. He estimated federal officials have shuttered 600 dispensaries in the state and 1,000 nationwide.

DeAngelo’s Harborside Health Center is facing eviction after the U.S. attorney in San Francisco pressured his landlord to stop harboring what the government considers an illegal business.

“While it’s nice to hear these sorts of positive words from the president, we are facing efforts by the Justice Department to shut us down, so it’s hard for me to take them seriously,” DeAngelo said.

The dispensary has a hearing Thursday in federal court on the matter.

__

Associated Press writers Terry Collins in San Francisco and Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report.

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Top Canada court upholds anti-terrorism law in unanimous ruling

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada‘s Supreme Court on Friday upheld an anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, ruling unanimously that those who choose to engage in terrorism must “pay a very heavy price.”

The law’s constitutionality was challenged by Mohammad Momin Khawaja, convicted in Canada of terrorism for involvement with a British group that had plotted unsuccessfully to set off bombs in London.

It was also challenged by two men accused of terrorism by the United States for trying to buy missiles or weapons technology for the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers.

The court rejected arguments that the law’s definition of terrorism was overly broad. It upheld Khawaja’s life sentence and confirmed the orders to extradite the other two to the United States.

Khawaja, a Canadian of Pakistani descent, was the first to be convicted under the law. He was sentenced in 2008 to 10-1/2 years in prison, and his sentence was then extended to life after appeal by the government.

The trial judge noted that Khawaja referred to Osama Bin Laden as “the most beloved person to me in the … whole world, after Allah.” He was found to have participated in a terrorism training camp in Pakistan and to have designed a device dubbed the “hi fi digimonster” for detonating bombs.

“The appellant was a willing participant in a terrorist group,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the 7-0 decision, adding that he was “apparently remorseless.”

“He was committed to bringing death on all those opposed to his extremist ideology and took many steps to provide support to the group. The bomb detonators he attempted to build would have killed many civilians had his plans succeeded.”

The law applies to any act committed for a political, religious or ideological purpose with the intention of intimidating the public by causing death or serious bodily harm, or substantial property damage, or causing serious interference with an essential service.

The court also ruled that Canada can proceed to extradite two men the United States has accused of involvement with the Tamil Tigers, which waged a bloody war for independence in Sri Lanka and is considered a terrorist organization by Washington and Ottawa.

The Canadian government declined to comment on when they would be extradited.

Piratheepan Nadarajah was alleged to have tried to purchase surface-to-air missiles and AK-47 assault rifles for the Tamil Tigers from an undercover officer posing as a black-market arms dealer on Long Island, New York.

The other man, Suresh Sriskandarajah, was alleged to have helped Tamil Tigers get electronic equipment, submarine and warship design software and communications equipment.

They surrendered to the government ahead of the court decision, their lawyers said.

BEYOND ‘LEGITIMATE EXPRESSION’

The court disagreed that the federal law’s terrorism provisions had put a chilling effect on Canadians’ freedom of expression and was disproportionately broad.

“Only individuals who go well beyond the legitimate expression of a political, religious or ideological thought, belief or opinion, and instead engage in one of the serious forms of violence – or threaten one of the serious forms of violence – listed (in the law) need fear liability under the terrorism provisions of the Criminal Code,” McLachlin wrote.

She quoted with approval the appeals court decision in the Khawaja case that faulted the Ottawa trial judge’s sentence for failing to send a “clear and unmistakable message that terrorism is reprehensible and those who choose to engage in it will pay a very heavy price.”

The original sentence of 10-1/2 years does “not approach an adequate sentence for such acts,” she concluded.

Khawaja’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said it was a “terrible day” for his client and said too often people were investigated or prosecuted for their religious or political beliefs.

“It’s a … very unfortunate ruling for minorities in this country, and we’re extremely disappointed with the result,” he told reporters in the foyer of the Supreme Court.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the decision was important as Canada was not immune to the threat of terrorism. “The court sent a strong message that terrorism will not be treated leniently in Canada,” he said.

The cases are Mohammad Momin Khawaja v. Her Majesty the Queen. (Ont) (34103); Suresh Sriskandarajah v. United States of America, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (34009), Piratheepan Nadarajah v. United States of America, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada (34013).

(Additional reporting by Louise Egan; Editing by Jackie Frank and Xavier Briand)

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School shooting postpones Cruise premiere in Pa.

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. premiere of the Tom Cruise action movie “Jack Reacher” is being postponed following the deadly Connecticut school shooting.

Paramount Pictures says “out of honor and respect for the families of the victims” the premiere won’t take place Saturday in Pittsburgh, where “Jack Reacher” was filmed.

The premiere would’ve been Cruise’s first U.S. media appearance since his split from Katie Holmes over the summer. It was to be more contained with select outlets covering and a location away from Hollywood or New York.

A proclamation ceremony for Cruise had been planned with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

No new date for the premiere has been set. The movie opens Dec. 21.

Friday’s massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school killed 20 children and several adults.

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5 YouTube Videos to Help Winterize Your Home

1. Caulk Talk

Westlake Ace Hardware gives a few basic steps, including caulking windows before the cold hits.

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Origami Self-Closing Stroller Is a Slick Gift for Techie Moms]

If you’re lucky, you’ll only feel a slight draft through a window crack. Maybe a gust of wind under the door. Either way, that Father Winter is one mean S.O.B.

Thankfully, there are easy steps you can take to make sure your home is ready for the winter season. Check out the gallery above to watch five YouTube videos with the most practical and cheapest tips for winterizing your house.

[More from Mashable: 12 Holiday Gift Ideas for Your Girlfriend]

Of course, those of you in warmer climates can ignore this advice. But for the folks gearing up for a snowy, wind-chilled couple of months ahead, we’ve got your back. And so does YouTube.

Any big tips we missed? Let us know below.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Jason Persse

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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With Rice out, is Kerry a lock for secretary of state?

So, it's official: Ambassador Susan Rice will not be Secretary of State — she's withdrawn and President Obama has accepted, and John McCain is twisting his face in pleasure somewhere. Which means... John Kerry, right? Well, yes, probably — all the conservatives just love him now. But speculation also puts some other options in front of the president between now and whenever Hillary Clinton steps down — including, but not limited to, her husband.

RELATED: Susan Rice Edges One Step Closer to Getting Hillary Clinton's Job

The Long Shot

Name: Richard Berman

RELATED: John Kerry Wants Hillary Clinton's Job

Credentials: 15 terms in Congress; served on important security committees; reputation for being discreet. 

RELATED: Huntsman: The Candidate Who Couldn't

Source of Speculation: A bunch of people talking about it to reporters. But not in a "we hear that Obama's thinking..." kind of way. Berman just lost re-election after his district in California was re-zoned, and the guy who beat him said he thought he might be good for the job — and so it went from there. 

RELATED: Why You Shouldn't Trust Gadget Rumors

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Slim. Berman doesn't even have the kind of national profile necessary for such an international job, and no White House officials are leaking his name. It's all good-will consolation prize quotes from his teammates after he just lost his job. 

RELATED: John Kerry, Organic Food, and the Hair of Dorian Gray

The Really Long Shot

Name: Bill Clinton

Credentials: Served two terms as President; former Gov. of Arkansas; is insanely popular; Obama owes him a favor for helping to save his campaign with his legendary, mostly-improvised convention speech. 

Source of Speculation: Joe Nocera thinks it's a good idea, and a New York Post report from June said Clinton might be angling for the Secretary of State job under a potential Ander Cuomo Presidency if Hillary does decide not to run in 2016. "I think everyone who knows Bill Clinton knows he'd love to be secretary of state because he's so smart and because he knows so much about the world," an 'insider' told the Post.

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Dream on.

The Fool-Me-Twice Shot

Name: Jon Huntsman

Credentials: Former Utah Gov, former Ambassador to China and Singapore, former Republican presidential candidate. 

Source of Speculation: An Associated Press report that said "officials" were looking at him for the job. 

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Slim, for different reasons. Namely that he'd probably never accept the appointment. Huntsman was the Republican Obama's team was most scared of in the last election, and the President named him his Ambassador to China, so it's clear Obama thinks highly of him. But Huntsman has dreams of potentially running for the Big Job again, potentially against Hillary in 2016, and this would make it pretty hard — if not impossible — to get Republican support for that. 

The Safe Bet

Name: William Burns

Credentials: Current Deputy Secretary of State.

Source of Speculation: The same report that named Huntsman as a candidate. 

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Good, if not great. He's Hillary's current number two, and he's getting good buzz with "insiders," apparently. The report that floated his name left things a bit unspectacular, though. Burns, "is a career diplomat who has no political baggage and would be unlikely to stir significant opposition among lawmakers." So, basically, he's an unsexy pick that wouldn't garner any headlines. 

The Safest Bet

Name: John Kerry

Credentials: He's getting it. 

Source of Speculation: He's getting it.

Likelihood of Actually Getting It: Guys, it's going to be Kerry. Just stop. 

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China, S.Africa suspend Brazil beef over BSE doubt

BRASILIA (Reuters) – China and South Africa informed Brazil on Thursday that they were suspending imports of beef from the world’s biggest exporter of the meat following a case of atypical BSE that was confirmed last week, Brazilian agriculture ministry officials said.

Including Japan, which suspended imports on Monday, three countries have now restricted purchases of beef from Brazil while seeking details about the death of an elderly cow in 2010 which never actually developed the disease.

None of these countries are significant buyers of Brazilian beef. Brazil’s top customer, Russia, has so far imposed no such restrictions, though it said on Thursday that it was weighing its options.

Brazil has launched a diplomatic offensive to clarify the details of the case of suspected atypical BSE, which it has been at pains to differentiate from regular BSE – known as mad cow disease – which is usually caused by contaminated feed.

Atypical BSE can arise in elderly cattle due to a spontaneous genetic mutation that causes it to begin producing distorted proteins known as prions. The proteins can trigger BSE, which eventually destroys the animal’s nervous system, and it is believed humans ingesting beef from a stricken animal can contract a fatal form of the disease.

The 13-year-old cow in southern Brazil tested positive for prions, a result confirmed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) last week. But it died of other causes in 2010 and never actually developed the disease.

The animal was buried on the farm where it had been used for breeding purposes and never entered the food chain.

Outbreaks of mad cow disease in Europe, North America and Japan in the past decade, following an epidemic in Great Britain in the late 1980s, prompted some importers to embargo shipments and roiled the industry on several occasions.

In April, the United States reported a case of atypical BSE in an animal which never entered the food chain, but the country escaped a backlash from importers.

The Brazilian agriculture ministry’s secretary for animal and plant health, Enio Pereira, told Reuters this week that much of the two-year delay between the cow’s death and confirmation of prions in its tissue was caused by a logistical anomaly at the laboratory.

Seniors/Aging News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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UPDATE 3-Cricket-Hughes shines as Australia reach 299-4

* Hughes falls just short of century

* Clarke and Hussey combine for 101

* Welegedera takes 3-99 (Adds quotes)

HOBART, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Phil Hughes made a solid 86 on his return to test cricket before Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey took up the running and steered Australia to 299 for four at close of play on the first day of the first test against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Hughes was the only batsmen to fall in the final session, lasting only a couple of overs after lunch before being bowled through the gate by Chanaka Welegedera, giving the Sri Lankan seamer his third wicket of the day.

Clarke, who had made 70 not out, and Hussey, unbeaten on 37, batted through the remainder of the day and if the evidence of their prolific partnerships in the recent series against South Africa is anything to go by, will take some shifting.

“Overall, 299 for four puts the ball in our court,” said Hughes. “I thought we were outstanding today. It really gives us momentum going into tomorrow.”

Sri Lanka’s bowlers, dubbed this week as the worst pace attack ever to tour Australia by former test bowler Rodney Hogg, made life uncomfortable for the batsmen at times but struggled for any real penetration under cloudy skies at Bellerive Oval.

“I think we showed we can put Australia under pressure and hopefully the bowlers will be fresh in the morning and we can get them out for less than 100 additional runs,” said Welegedera, who finished with 3-99 on his return after nine months out injured.

Clarke, who passed 1,400 runs for the year, has now put on 731 runs in partnerships with Hussey in the last four tests and will be looking to plunder a few more on Saturday despite taking a couple of painful knocks to his legs.

Friday, however, belonged to Hughes.

The lefthander was recalled to the side on the back of good domestic form following the retirement of Ricky Ponting at the end of the series against the Proteas.

The 24-year-old reached his fourth test half century with a square drive for three runs and then initially accelerated towards a century, most notably with an ugly but effective slog for six off spinner Rangana Herath.

CALAMITOUS RUNOUT

On the ground where his second spell as a test batsman ended amid questions about his technique after two failures against New Zealand last year, Hughes scored eight fours and one six in his 166-ball knock before Welegedera struck with a superb ball.

“It was nice to get a few,” he said. “It would have been nice to get a few more and get into three figures.”

Australia had lost openers Ed Cowan (four) and David Warner in the opening session, the latter run out for 57 on the stroke of lunch after a calamitous misunderstanding with Hughes.

Shane Watson, dropping down to fourth in the batting order to allow Hughes to come in at number three, followed them to the pavilion for 30 shortly before tea, the victim of an exceptional diving catch in the slips by skipper Mahela Jayawardene.

That was a second wicket for Welegedera and a measure of redemption for the bowler after he had Hughes caught behind for 77 only for the umpire to call a no ball.

Welegedera had also made the early breakthrough for the tourists when Cowan tried to pull a short delivery only for the ball to catch him high on the bat and carry to mid-on where Shaminda Eranga took a simple catch.

It could have been even better for the Sri Lankans, who were only centimetres away from the perfect start to the morning after Clarke had won the toss and elected to bat.

Cowan edged the second delivery of the day from Nuwan Kulasekara to the slips but Angelo Mathews was just unable to get his hands to it, despite an athletic dive. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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Adele’s “21″ is top-selling U.S. iTunes album of 2012

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British singer Adele notched another accolade on Thursday as iTunes announced that her Grammy-winning album “21″ was the top-selling record of 2012 in its U.S. store, extending the disc’s successful run almost two years after it was released.

Adele, 24, who last year became the first artist to secure three iTunes milestones with top-selling album, single and artist of the year, came in ahead of country-pop star Taylor Swift‘s “Red” and British folk band Mumford & Sons‘ “Babel.”

ITunes did not reveal its sales or download figures.

British boy band One Direction’s debut album “Up All Night” and current Grammy nominees fun.’s debut “Some Nights” rounded out the five top-selling albums on iTunes in the United States.

“21,” released in February 2011, has performed strongly in the U.S. music charts this year following the singer’s Grammy-sweeping win in six categories in February 2012.

Adele also landed Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations for her sultry James Bond theme song “Skyfall” this week, becoming a strong contender in the best song category for Hollywood’s awards season.

“Thank you so much for the honor of being included in something as brilliant as the Golden Globes! Never in a million years did I ever think I’d come close to such a thing! Truly wonderful … thank you to the Bond family for giving me the opportunity,” the singer said in a statement on Thursday.

ITunes U.S. compiled their Best of 2012 list by looking at the most downloaded items from the Apple iTunes store.

Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen had the top-selling track for her infectious breakthrough summer single “Call Me Maybe.”

Post-apocalyptic action film “The Hunger Games” was the best-selling movie while the second season of British aristocratic period drama “Downton Abbey,” another Hollywood awards favorite, was iTunes’ top-selling television series.

The iTunes Best of 2012 lists can be seen at www.itunes.com/AppStoreBestof2012

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

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Look How Much of the World Doesn’t Use Social Media (or the Internet)

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