If you're like most computer users, your PC or Mac is loaded with a gazillion family photos and other prized documents. Some of you may be sleeping peacefully believing that the external hard drive you picked up at Costco is backing up your data every night, but have you ever checked to see if it's configured correctly? What's really going on inside that black box? And what would happen if your house caught fire? One high-tech — and ...

Hundreds of residents of the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou took to the streets on Monday to protest plans to build a trash incinerator in their neighborhood. In front of the municipal headquarters for one of China's largest cities, it was an unusually prominent place for a civic demonstration. And rarely has a local Chinese demonstration been so conspicuous online, where activists posted photos and comments about events as they unfolded. Those messages were then relayed to a broader audience on social networking sites like ...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi says he governs Italy out of a sense of duty and sacrifice, not because he enjoys the job. The conservative, flamboyant Italian leader, 73, says he actually doesn't like governing at all. But he stays in the job because he is considered the "only leader able to hold the center-right together." Berlusconi says there's nothing simple about the prime minister's job. He said: "I'm doing what I do with a sense of sacrifice. I ...

Hundreds of thousands of children worldwide are thought to be working full-time on tobacco farms, suffering from toxic levels of nicotine exposure and abusive labor conditions. In Malawi alone there are an estimated 78,000 boys and girls employed in tobacco harvesting. On average they earn 17 cents for a 12-hour day of back-breaking, bare-handed work, according to a recent report from Plan International. Handling burley tobacco leaves without gloves, in unwashed clothes and rarely bathing, these children can absorb the ...

Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them. But that never stops him. His latest concept -- to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler -- fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help. Unfazed, Yeh managed to ...

There's something intimidating about Miley Cyrus. Yes, she's only 16. But she has a surprisingly deep voice, and she's way too confident for a girl who just learned to drive. Her Nashville buddy, Taylor Swift, is three years older, but despite all Swift's accolades, there's still a hint of vulnerability and gee-whiz charm to her. Perhaps Cyrus' charm is her spunkiness and take-no-prisoners attitude. It's rock 'n' roll, baby -- Disney style. As most 16-year-olds ...

A man suspected of robbing at least 10 banks in four states has been arrested, according to an FBI investigator and the Missouri State Patrol. Chad Schaffner was arrested Saturday in Callaway County, Missouri, according to a dispatcher for the Missouri State Patrol and an FBI investigator close to the case. The arrest took place in Kingdom City, Missouri, at about 2:45 p.m., said Missouri State Patrol radio operator Paula Price. Authorities received a tip from someone who recognized ...

Two George Washington Bridge security guards photographed sleeping on the job have been fired, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A bicycle tour operator who commutes daily over the bridge from New Jersey to New York snapped photos of the two guards on different occasions, and the photos were published on a New Jersey local news Web site. In one set of photographs by commuter Joey Lepore, taken during a Wednesday rush hour ...

Dark, grainy surveillance camera images from inside the home of a slain Florida couple show the moments before their deaths as gunmen dressed in black storm their house. The images, taken at the home of Byrd and Melanie Billings, were shown Thursday to representatives from several news organizations. The Beulah, Florida, couple, known for adopting special-needs children, were shot to death in their home July 9. Seven men are charged with first-degree murder and home invasion robbery in their deaths, ...

Facebook hates babies. I found this out last night when I logged on as Laszlo Stein, my three-month old son who has been faithfully posting adorable photos and angry commentary since his second-trimester sonogram, back when his listed interests were just kicking and drinking his own urine. In his time on Facebook, he threatened to pee on some, cut others and once posted — next to a photo of him gummily smiling and wearing a kimono — this response ...