NEWTOWN, Conn. Twenty-six candles — one for each of the victims — flickered on the altar Friday as hundreds of grief-stricken residents gathered for a vigil in memory of the children and staff killed in a shooting rampage at a school in this Connecticut town.
With the church filled to capacity, hundreds spilled outside, holding hands in circles in the cold night air and saying prayers. Others sang "Silent Night" or huddled near the windows of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic church.
"Many of us today and in the coming days will rely on what we have been taught and what we believe, that there is faith for a reason," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said at the vigil Mass.
The residents were gathered to mourn those whose lives were lost when a 20-year-old man killed his mother at their home, then descended on Sandy Hook Elementary School, opening fire as youngsters cowered in fear amid the sounds of gunshots and screams. Twenty children were among the 26 dead at the school.
The shooter, Adam Lanza, armed with at least two handguns, committed suicide, authorities said.
Even though there were 26 candles on the altar, Monsignor Robert Weiss said it was important to remember everyone who died, including Lanza and his mother.
"Ours is not to judge or to question," he told reporters after the service. "But we are really holding in our hearts especially the children and the staff of the school."
"These 20 children were just beautiful, beautiful children," 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."
Weiss said he spent much of the day trying to console those who had lost a child or other family member, adding that he had no answers for their questions of how something so horrible could happen.
But through their sorrow, some parents found solace in remembering their loved ones, he said. One father whose son was killed recalled how his boy had made his first soccer goal this year.
Some parents said they struggled with mixed emotions after their own children survived the massacre that took so many young lives.
After receiving word of the shooting, Tracy Hoekenga said she was paralyzed with fear for her two boys, fourth-grader C.J. and second-grader Matthew.
"I couldn't breathe. It's indescribable. For a half an hour, 45 minutes, I had no idea if my kids were OK," she said.
Matthew said a teacher ordered him and other students to their cubbies, and a police officer came and told them to line up and close their eyes.
"They said there could be bad stuff. So we closed our eyes and we went out. When we opened our eyes, we saw a lot of broken glass and blood on the ground," he said.
David Connors, whose triplets attend the school, said his children were told to hide in a closet during the lockdown.
"My son said he did hear some gunshots, as many as 10," he said. "The questions are starting to come out: `Are we safe? Is the bad guy gone?"'
At the vigil, Newtown High School freshman Claudia Morris, 14, said students had gathered in the school hallways after the massacre, asking each other, "Are you all right? Are you all right?"
"No one has answers to why this happened," she said. "It just seems so unreal."
Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.
This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.
There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot and killed 20 children, who President Obama later described as "beautiful little kids" between five and 10 years of age. Six adults were also killed at the school. Nancy Lanza was found dead in her home.
A relative told ABC News that Adam was "obviously not well."
Family friends in Newtown also described the young man as troubled and described Nancy as rigid. "[Adam] was not connected with the other kids," said Barbara Frey, who also said he was "a little bit different ... Kind of repressed."
State and federal authorities believe his mother may have once worked at the elementary school where Adam went on his deadly rampage, although she was not a teacher, according to relatives, perhaps a volunteer.
Nancy and her husband Peter, Adam's father, divorced in 2009. When they first filed for divorce in 2008, a judge ordered that they participate in a "parenting education program."
Peter Lanza, who drove to northern New Jersey to talk to police and the FBI, is a vice president at GE Capital and had been a partner at global accounting giant Ernst & Young.
Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24, has worked at Ernst & Young for four years, apparently following in his father's footsteps and carving out a solid niche in the tax practice. He too was interviewed by the FBI. Neither he nor his father is under any suspicion.
Tragedy at the Elementary School: What Happened in Newtown, Conn. Watch Video
Newtown, Connecticut Shooting: 27 Killed, Gunman Dead Watch Video
"[Ryan] is a tax guy and he is clean as a whistle," a source familiar with his work said.
Police had initially identified Ryan as the killer. Ryan sent out a series of Facebook posts saying it wasn't him and that he was at work all day. Video records as well as card swipes at Ernst & Young verified his statement that he had been at the office.
Two federal sources told ABC News that identification belonging to Ryan Lanza was found at the scene of the mass shooting. They say that identification may have led to the confusion by authorities during the first hours after the shooting. Neither Adam nor Ryan has any known criminal history.
A Sig Sauer handgun and a Glock handgun were used in the slaying and .223 shell casings – a round used in a semi-automatic military-style rifle -- were also found at the scene. Nancy Lanza had numerous weapons registered to her, including a Glock and a Sig Sauer. She also owned a Bushmaster rifle -- a semi-automatic carbine chambered for a .223 caliber round. However, federal authorities cannot confirm that the handguns or the rifle were the weapons recovered at the school.
Numerous relatives of the Lanzas in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, as well as multiple friends, are being interviewed by the FBI in an effort to put together a better picture of the gunman and any explanation for today's tragedy.
"I think the most important thing to point out with this kind of individual is that he did not snap this morning and decide to act out violently," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "These acts involve planning and thoughtfulness and strategizing in order to put the plan together so what may appear to be snap behavior is not that at all."
With reporting by Pierre Thomas, Jim Avila, Santina Leuci, Aaron Katersky, Matthew Mosk, Jason Ryan and Jay Shaylor
MORE: 27 Dead, Mostly Children, at Connecticut Elementary School Shooting
AROUND 251 million years ago, over 90 per cent of the species on Earth suddenly went extinct. Their killer may not have been a devastating meteorite or a catastrophic volcanic eruption, but a humble microbe.
The prevailing theory is that the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period was triggered by volcanic eruptions over a vast area of what is now Siberia. This led, among other things, to a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
But the scenario just doesn't fit the facts, says Daniel Rothman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From his analysis of an end-Permian sediment sample from China, Rothman says carbon levels surged much too quickly for geological processes to be at work.
Microbes can generate carbon compounds that fast, though. When Rothman's group analysed the genome of Methanosarcina - a methanogen responsible for most of Earth's biogenic methane today - they discovered that the microbe gained this ability about 231 million years ago. The date was close to that of the mass extinction, but not close enough to suggest a link.
But Methanosarcina needs large amounts of nickel to produce methane quickly. When the team went back to their sediment cores, they discovered that nickel levels spiked almost exactly 251 million years ago - probably because the Siberian lavas were rich in the metal. That suggests Methanosarcina did trigger the extinction, Rothman told the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last week.
Other geologists remain to be convinced. "[But] it's a fascinating idea that the evolution of a new life form led to an extinction," says Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkeley. Today's mass extinction of biodiversity is similar, says Barnosky, because it is largely driven by our species.
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SINGAPORE: Singapore Red Cross and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said injured Navy serviceman Jason Chee is well supported by the National Blood Programme.
In a joint statement, they assured well wishers that there is sufficient blood for his surgeries.
The statement revealed that the Singapore Red Cross has already been recalling donors who are due for donation and blood donors of O+ type to ensure sufficient stock.
SRC and HSA thanked donors who have been prompted by Mr Chee's incident to come forward to donate blood.
They clarified that directed and replacement donations -- where families and friends are obliged to donate blood for the patient or to replace blood used by the patient -- are not practised in Singapore.
The statement said blood collected at the blood banks is available to all patients who need it.
It added that voluntary and non-remunerated blood donation is key to the safety and quality of Singapore's blood supply.
It noted that because of the regular contribution of donors, there was sufficient blood for Mr Chee and others when they needed transfusions.
Mr Chee, a regular serviceman, was injured on Monday after he got caught between a motorised winch and a rope on Landing Ship Tank RSS Endeavour.
His elderly father has been shaken by the news, and has been taken care of by relatives.
Mr Chee is the family's only child and sole breadwinner.
He recently lost his mother, who was a kidney dialysis patient.
Mr Chee had been working on board the ship in the Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy patrol when he received news of his mother's worsening condition.
The Navy had flown him home to be with his mother. He was in Singapore when she died.
The attack takes place at a primary school in Henan province, state media report
Police say they have detained a 36-year-old local resident
China was hit by a spate of knife and cleaver attacks on school children in 2010
(CNN) -- Twenty-two primary school children have been wounded in a knife attack in central China, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported Friday.
The attack took place Friday morning at the entrance to the Chenpeng Village Primary School in Henan province, Xinhua said, citing local authorities.
A local resident was also wounded in the attack, it said.
Police say they have detained a suspect, a 36-year-old village resident, the agency reported.
China was hit by a spate of knife and cleaver attacks on school children in 2010, some of them fatal.
A number of measures were introduced at the time, including increased security at schools across the country and a regulation requiring people to register with their national ID cards when buying large knives.
U.N. ambassador Susan Rice on Thursday officially withdrew her name from consideration to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, citing in a letter to President Obama the "lengthy, disruptive and costly" nominating process she was sure to face if tapped for the job -- a disruption she argued the nation "cannot afford."
Play Video
Analysis: Why did Rice withdraw?
Rice, who was considered a top contender for the position, has been recently embroiled 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 her letter to the president today, Rice said she was "saddened" that the position had become so politicized, but argued Congress has more important battles to fight.
"I am highly honored to be considered by you for appointment as Secretary of State. I'm fully confident that I could serve our country ably and effectively in that role," she wrote. "However, if nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly - to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities. That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country. It is far more important that we devote precious legislative hours and energy to enacting your core goals, including comprehensive immigration reform, balanced deficit reduction, job creation, and maintaining a robust national defense and effective U.S. global leadership. Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time."
In a statement, President Obama acknowledged that he had "accepted" Rice's decision to remove her name from consideration, and expressed "every confidence" in her ability to "serve our country now and in the years to come."
On Thursday evening, Rice tweeted: "Those of you who know me know that I'm a fighter, but not at the cost of what's right for our country. I don't do this work for me. I do it because I believe in President Obama's approach to the world, and I want to get things done. To all my followers: I appreciate you. We've still got a lot of work to do for the American people and the world. #Letsgo."
But the president, who fiercely defended Rice against the recent criticism, expressed deep regret over the attacks, which he called "unfair and misleading."
"Her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first," Mr. Obama said in the statement. "The American people can be proud to have a public servant of her caliber and character representing our country."
Diplomats at the U.N. were shocked at the withdrawal announcement, particularly because she appeared to be assured of the president's support, reports CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk. Even her adversaries among the diplomatic corps at the U.N. had expressed their respect for her advocacy of U.S. interests.
Nevertheless, Rice had begun to express doubts about her nomination, as recently as this week at a holiday celebration in her apartment in New York, which select members of the diplomatic and press corps attended, saying the attacks had reached a fevered pitch, Falk reports.
Play Video
Rice: Libya attacks spontaneous
On September 16, five days after the attacks in Benghazi that caused the death U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, Rice appeared on a handful of Sunday morning political talk shows to discuss the incident. Rice's comments on those shows were guided by CIA talking points that, according to a U.S. intelligence official, "were written, upon request, so members of Congress and senior officials could say something preliminary and unclassified about the attacks," and reflected the possibility that the attacks were a result of spontaneous protests spurred by an anti-Muslim video.
As details trickled out contradicting that possibility, Republicans pounced on the discrepancies between Rice's comments and others, and the ambassador ultimately clarified that there had been "no protest or demonstration in Benghazi" and that "the intelligence assessment [had] evolved" since her Sept. 16 comments.
A spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence told CBS News that "the intelligence community assessed from the very beginning that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack," and that Rice would have been privy to that characterization -- which was shared at a classified level -- since she's a member of the president's cabinet. But CBS also learned that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) cut specific references to "al Qaeda" and "terrorism" from the unclassified talking points given to Ambassador Susan Rice ahead of her television appearances.
Play Video
Susan Rice fails to satisfy GOP senators' questions
A handful of Republican lawmakers -- chiefly Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. -- seized on the controversy, targeting Rice's credibility as a potential secretary of state in a series of recent press conferences and threatening to block her nomination. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, also questioned Rice's leadership, and offered up Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as her preferable candidate for the job.
Following Rice's announcement on Thursday, Graham released a statement saying he "respected" her decision, and that "President Obama has many talented people to choose from to serve as our next Secretary of State." He said he remained "determined" to find out "what happened - before, during, and after the attack" in Libya.
A brief statement from McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers reflected a similar sentiment: "Senator McCain thanks Ambassador Rice for her service to the country and wishes her well. He will continue to seek all the facts surrounding the attack on our consulate in Benghazi that killed four brave Americans," he said.
"Face the Nation" anchor Bob Schieffer reports key Senate Republicans quietly passed the word to Vice President Biden last week that it was going to be all but impossible for her to be confirmed.
Biden was told there was virtually no support for Rice among Republicans and that some Democrats were also beginning to question whether she was the best choice.
Additionally, Schieffer reports Rice seemed to be wavering recently about whether she really wanted the job.
"I have two children," she told Schieffer. "I would want to talk to them. It would be a family decision."
With regard to the scrutiny of her financial investments, Payton Knopf, Deputy Spokesperson of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. told CBS News, "Ambassador Rice has complied with annual financial disclosure and applicable ethics requirements related to her service in the U.S. government and is committed to continuing to meet these obligations."
Rice's withdrawal will make it easier for Secretary of State Clinton, who is due to testify about the Benghazi episode next week on Capitol Hill, but Senator Graham said Rice's withdrawal is not the end of the controversy. Graham told me tonight the administration "is still inexplicably stonewalling and we still want answers."
This week Michigan became the 24th state in the country to adopt a right-to-work law. The passage of the bill by the state legislature, and eventual signing by Rick Snyder, the state's Republican governor, brought a huge wave of protests in a state with deep union roots.
Right-to-work laws have garnered a lot of national attention in recent years as more states have implemented this legislation that prohibits unions from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of their employment. The laws are meant to regulate agreements between employers and labor unions that would prohibit the employer from hiring non-union workers.
The laws are particularly divisive--proponents argue that businesses will be more likely to set up shop in the state, while opponents argue that weakening union power will lead to lower wages. Because each state has a variety of factors that must be considered individually when assessing its overall economic standing, it's difficult to fully assess the validity of each side's argument, since you can't isolate the direct effect of these laws on the state's economy.
However, a study conducted in 2007 by Lonnie Stevans of Hofstra University suggested that both sides of the argument are, to some degree, accurate.
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"Findings are that the number of businesses and self-employed are greater on average in right-to-work states, but employment, wages, and per-capita personal income are all lower on average in right-to-work states," Stevans wrote.
But he noted that there was little "trickle down" from the business owners to the workers--the laws benefitted the business owners who did not have to contend with union contracts, but business employees didn't get those same positive effects--as evidenced by the lower salaries on average.
An analysis by ABC News of the most recent seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in states with right-to-work laws vs. those without such laws found that on average, the unemployment rate in states with right to work laws was slightly lower than those without. The average unemployment rate in the 24 states with right-to-work laws was 7 percent, while the average rate in the 26 states plus D.C. that do not have right-to-work laws was just under 7.6 percent--a difference of just under .6 percent.
The state with the lowest unemployment rate in the country--Nebraska at just 3.8 percent unemployment--has such a law in place, as does the state with the highest unemployment rate, Nevada at 11.5 percent.
Support for the laws has often tended to fall along party lines, with Democrats opposing and Republicans supporting. The vast majority of states with right-to-work laws are Republican led, the majority of states without are led by Democrats.
Below is the list of the 24 states with right-to-work laws.
APPS aren't just for your smartphone. The one-year-old Robot-App Store got a cash boost this week in the form of $250,000 from the first company dedicated to investing in consumer robotics.
Dmitry Grishin, founder of Grishin Robotics, already spent $250,000 on a telepresent robotics company called Double Robotics in September, and plans to invest a total of $25 million in the field.
Grishin says software like the apps on offer at the Robot-App Store is the key to creating a vibrant market in household robots. "Once you find a cool app, it will help to sell robots." He compares robots to computers. "A good application, like a spreadsheet, helped to sell PCs and to grow the PC market."
One app from the Robot-App Store makes the NAO robot (pictured) whistle and say "Hello, gorgeous" whenever it detects a face. Another allows you to steer the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner using your keyboard.
No killer app yet perhaps, but Grishin says that will come with the establishment of a "robot ecosystem", in which more developers create apps for a growing pool of consumers, who are in turn encouraged by the number of apps to choose from.
The world of robot software is certainly maturing. The open source Robot Operating System celebrated its fifth birthday in November.
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SINGAPORE: Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew has said fare increases are needed to improve service to commuters while keeping public transport operations commercially viable.
In a Facebook post, Mr Lui said fare increases are not to boost the short-term profits of Public Transport Operators (PTOs) or improve the salaries of bus drivers.
He said that's why the government must work with the PTOs to ensure that when granted any fare increase, they would re-invest part of this revenue to improve the public transport system to benefit commuters.
This can be in hardware, like more buses and trains and upgrading the signalling systems.
It can also be in software, like better terms and salaries for staff. This includes bus drivers and train operators, as well as the maintenance and service personnel.
Mr Lui said as fares increase, the government will have to play a larger role to keep the public transport system affordable.
He said there must be a concerted and sustained effort to upgrade the bus driving profession.
Employment terms and conditions must also be improved further to recruit new drivers and retain existing ones in order to ramp up bus capacity over the next few years.
On who pays for the increased costs, Mr Lui said there must be a proper balance among commuters in fares, or taxpayers in government subsidies, or the PTOs.
He said the government is fully committed to an affordable public transport system for the middle-income groups, the lower-income groups, the disabled community, and other vulnerable groups.
He said the bottom line is this. It is a matter of all the stakeholders - the PTOs, the government, and commuters - coming together to ensure everyone enjoys a reliable, high-quality and affordable public transport system.
A Japanese Coast Guard vessel spots the Chinese plane near the islands
Japan says it sent four F-15 jets and another aircraft to the area
This is the first time the island dispute has involved aircraft
Tokyo (CNN) -- Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane was seen Thursday near small islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both countries.
This is the first time the dispute over the islands, which Japan calls Senkaku and China refers to as Diaoyu, has involved aircraft.
Chinese government ships have repeatedly entered the waters around the remote, rocky islands since the Japanese government announced in September it was buying several of the islands from private owners.
Japanese Coast Guard vessels have engaged in games of cat and mouse with the Chinese ships, with both sides broadcasting messages to one another insisting they have territorial sovereignty over the area.
On Thursday morning, a Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel spotted the Chinese government plane in airspace around the islands, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said.
Japanese Self Defense Force sent four F-15 jets and another aircraft to the area, Fujimura said, describing the Chinese plane's entry into the area as "extremely regrettable." Japan has lodged a protest with the Chinese government through diplomatic channels, he said.
The Japanese government's acquisition of the islands in September also set off several days of violent anti-Japanese protests across China and soured economic ties between the two Asian nations.
There was no immediate reaction from China about the incident.
Part of complete coverage on
Asia's disputed islands
Although claims of occupation and administration stretch back centuries, all of the disputes exist, to some extent, as legacies of imperial Japan's expansion through East Asia.
CNN looks at the main flashpoints as tension simmers between rival countries over a series of scattered and relatively barren islands.
updated 3:54 AM EST, Thu November 15, 2012
China uses perceived provocations as a chance to change the status-quo in its favor, writes Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt.
updated 10:33 AM EST, Wed November 28, 2012
Southeast Asia's top diplomat has warned that the South China Sea disputes risk becoming "Asia's Palestine"-- a violent conflict that destabilises the whole region.
updated 6:45 AM EDT, Thu September 20, 2012
The temptation of patriotic blustering is hard for either side to resist, but both countries have a lot to lose, writes Jeffrey Kingston.
updated 4:41 AM EDT, Tue September 18, 2012
The current wave of anti-Japanese protests sweeping China can be traced back to April and the firebrand governor of Tokyo.
celebrated its fifth birthday in November.
