Little Amelia Sloan is a pioneer: Shortly after her birth, scientists took drops of the healthy baby's blood to map her genetic code.

Amelia is part of a large research project that is decoding the DNA of hundreds of infants. New parents soon can start signing up for smaller studies to explore if what's called genome sequencing — fully mapping someone's genes to look for health risks — should become a part of newborn care.

Shepherds led a flock of 2,000 sheep through Madrid on Sunday in defense of ancient grazing, droving and migration rights increasingly threatened by urban sprawl and modern agricultural practices.

Tourists were surprised to see downtown traffic cut to permit the ovine parade to bleat — bells clanking — across some of Madrid's most upmarket urban settings.

Miley Cyrus cautioned viewers she wouldn't be twerking on "Saturday Night Live."

But she commanded the stage on this week's edition of the NBC sketch comedy show, serving as both host and musical guest.

People don't just watch TV anymore; they talk about it on Twitter. From the comfort of couches, they share reactions to touchdowns and nail-biting season finales —and advertisers and networks are taking note.

Examples of Twitter's influence abound. The recent finale of "Breaking Bad" generated a record 1.24 million tweets. The conversation peaked at 22,373 tweets per minute according to analytics firm SocialGuide. People used the hashtag "GoodbyeBreakingBad" nearly 500,000 times. During this year's Super Bowl, sports fans generated 24 million tweets about the competition and nearly half of the game's nationally televised commercials contained hashtags that encouraged viewers to tweet.

The developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China recovered quickly from the financial crisis five years ago. Their spending helped keep a global recession from becoming a global depression.

Now they're stumbling.

Sean Penn is ecstatic that his relief organization will sponsor runners from Haiti to participate in the New York City Marathon next month.

"We've got five Haitian runners, 10 runners total, running for the team representing Haiti and our organization J/P HRO coming to the New York City Marathon — the marathon. So we're really looking forward to it," Penn said.

Iranians are accustomed to jabs from Israel's prime minister. But this one hit a nerve: Claiming clampdowns by Iran's rulers extended to blue jeans.

Social media sites were flooded Monday with Iranians posting photos including an Iranian closet piled high with denim and a young boy in jeans whispering into the ear of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A landmark agreement aimed at getting the global airline sector to cut carbon emissions by 2020 was approved by the general assembly of the United Nations group that oversees civil aviation.

Delegates from 184 member countries of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ratified the agreement on Friday.

Apple is fighting a legal order requiring the company to modify its digital book contracts and submit to oversight by a court-appointed antitrust monitor.

The Cupertino, California, company filed its notice of appeal Thursday in New York, following through on a pledge to fight the verdict. A federal court had concluded that Apple Inc. had illegally colluded with five major publishers to fix the prices of electronic books at the expense of consumers. The challenge comes a month after U.S. District Judge Denise Cote finalized her order based on a verdict that she reached in July.

The personal fortune of Twitter co-founder Evan Williams probably will take up 10 characters once the online communications company goes public.

Williams, who was Twitter's CEO for two years until Dick Costolo took over in 2010, owns a 12 percent stake that makes him the company's largest shareholder. If Twitter turns out to be worth at least $17.60 per share, the initial public offering will make Williams a billionaire at 41 years old.