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President Barack Obama said on Friday the CIA "tortured some folks" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that the White House had handed over to Congress a report about an investigation into "enhanced interrogation techniques." "We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values," Obama told a White House news conference. Obama's comment was a reaffirmation of his decision to ban the use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding shortly after he took office in January 2009. The administration of President George W. Bush, Obama's predecessor, authorized the use of harsh questioning techniques of militant detainees in the wake of the 9/11 attacks after deciding they did not amount to torture. Obama told reporters the techniques were used because the United States was afraid more attacks were imminent. "It's important for us not to feel too sanctimon

Those ubiquitous Angry Birds flew from the mobile screen to the toy store, hooked up with Hollywood, and are headed back to the digital world thanks to the telepod. That is toymaker Hasbro Inc's answer to merging the physical and digital worlds of children's play in what the industry calls "toys-to-life." And like another leading toy company, Walt Disney Co, they are finding fans among the fervent audiences for action and superhero films. Hasbro's Angry Bird telepods were a big attraction last weekend at San Diego's Comic-Con, an annual gathering of 130,000 comic and entertainment enthusiasts, with fans lining up to preview new Transformers-themed bird figurines containing miniscule codes that can be read by tablets. The Angry Birds Transformers telepods, featuring "Autobirds" and "Deceptihogs," is due out on October 15, spinning off the success of Paramount Pictures' June box office hit, "Transformers: Age of Extinction."

Commuter shuttles run by Google Inc, Facebook Inc and other Silicon Valley companies began paying on Friday to make stops at San Francisco bus stations after protests blamed them for gentrification. The private buses, which for years have taken tech workers from San Francisco to their offices in Silicon Valley, have in recent months drawn criticism from groups who say that by catering to well-paid professionals, the buses lead to higher rents in diverse, low-income neighborhoods. Protesters also have said the vehicles get in the way of municipal buses. Under an 18-month pilot program that launched on Friday, the shuttle services will be allowed to use bus stops at over 100 locations throughout the city and in exchange they will pay at least $3.55 each time they pick up or drop off passengers, officials said. The program has not completely quieted protests. A group of about two dozen demonstrators gathered in the Mission District on Friday to express continuing anger at the buses,

Microsoft Corp sued Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Friday, claiming the South Korean smartphone maker refused to make a royalty payment last fall on patent licenses after Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Nokia's handset business. The Microsoft lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan federal court, seeks monetary recovery from Samsung but does not publicly disclose the amount in dispute. In a blog post on Friday, Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard wrote that Microsoft "values and respects our partnership" with Samsung, but differs with Samsung over how to interpret the licensing agreement. "Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree," Howard wrote. In a statement, Samsung said it will review the complaint "in detail" and determine an appropriate response. Microsoft is trying to compete in the mobile market with products that run on Google Inc's Android operating system. As part of that landscape, Microsoft has tried to raise th

Microsoft Corp ( id="symbol_MSFT.O_0"> MSFT.O ) sued Samsung Electronics Co Ltd ( id="symbol_005930.KS 005930.KS ) on Friday, claiming the South Korean smartphone maker refused to make a royalty payment last fall on patent licenses after Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Nokia's ( id="symbol_NOK1V.HE NOK1V.HE ) handset business. _1"> The Microsoft lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan federal court, seeks monetary recovery from Samsung but does not publicly disclose the amount in dispute. _2"> In a blog post on Friday, Microsoft deputy general counsel David Howard wrote that Microsoft "values and respects our partnership" with Samsung, but differs with Samsung over how to interpret the licensing agreement. "Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree," Howard wrote. In a statement, Samsung said it will review the complaint "in detail" and determine an appropriate response. Microsoft is trying to compe

Supporters and opponents of the federal ban on marijuana took to the pages of The New York Times this weekend with full-page color advertisements that highlight the fast-evolving debate in the United States about medical and recreational drug use. The advertisements followed The New York Times' decision last month in a series of editorials to call for repealing the ban, the biggest U.S. newspaper to do so. Opinion polls show a majority of Americans now back the legalization of pot. The ads are also designed to undercut pot's decades-old association with the counterculture and drop-outs by featuring people dressed in everyday working attire. In an ad in Sunday's edition of the paper, Seattle-based Privateer Holdings features its medical marijuana website Leafly.com, which helps users to find pot dispensaries and to choose strains. The ad depicts a woman jogger in Spandex gliding past a brownstone building as a crisply dressed professional man stands atop its steps with

Republicans on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee will soon release a minority report asserting that the CIA's use of harsh interrogation techniques helped bring down Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, the panel's top Republican said Sunday. "Information gleaned from these interrogations was in fact used to interrupt and disrupt terrorist plots, including some information that took down bin Laden," Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss said on CBS's "Face the Nation." The Senate Intelligence Committee reports will come five years after it authorized a probe into the use of possible torture by the Central Intelligence Agency after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Democrats' majority report is expected to allege that the CIA's use of techniques, such as waterboarding, did not help yield valuable intelligence and was not necessary. It is unclear when the report will be released because committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein has said she may chal