The world's largest and most powerful atom smasher goes into a 2-year hibernation in March, as engineers carry out a revamp to help it reach maximum energy levels that could lead to more stunning discoveries following the detection of the so-called "God particle."

With the reopening of its $10 billion proton collider in early 2015, the stage will be set for observing more rare phenomena — and unlocking more mysteries, said James Gillies, chief spokesman for the European particle physics laboratory known as CERN.

Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren't too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions.

Starbucks announced Thursday that it will open its first cafe in Vietnam early next month in Ho Chi Minh City as part of its strategy to expand across Asia, and plans to add more shops throughout the country.

Iranian state TV says the country has inaugurated its first natural gas storage facility.

The Saturday report says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened the facility at Sarajeh outside the central Iranian holy city of Qom. It said that the site can now store 1.5 billion cubic meters (2 billion cubic yards)but will increase the capacity to 3.3 billion cubic meters (4.3 billion cubic yards) in a second phase of development.

Turns out Adele ruled 2012, too — and set a record while she was at it.

The British singer's "21" was the highest-selling album in the U.S. for the second consecutive year, according to 2012 sales figures released by Nielsen SoundScan on Thursday. That's a first in the SoundScan era.

Only one of Spain's luxury Parador hotels will close, instead of seven, as earlier planned, following negotiations between the parent company and labor unions.

The hotels, located in historic buildings in some of Spain's most beautiful locations, are a symbol of the country's key tourism industry.

We know obesity is a health crisis, or every new year wouldn't start with resolutions to eat better and get off the couch. But don't try taking away our junk food.

Americans blame too much screen time and cheap fast food for fueling the nation's fat epidemic, a poll finds, but they're split on how much the government should do to help.

From Africa's crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging in the balance ahead of a legal ruling that will determine whether India's drug companies can continue to provide cheap versions of many life-saving medicines.

The case — involving Swiss drug maker Novartis AG's cancer drug Glivec — pits aid groups that argue India plays a vital role as the pharmacy to the poor against drug companies that insist they need strong patents to make drug development profitable. A ruling by India's Supreme Court is expected in early 2013.

The Newtown schools superintendent says they are preparing for a "normal" day, but it will likely be anything but that when classes resume for Sandy Hook Elementary School students for the first time since a gunman killed 20 of their classmates.

With their original school still being treated as a crime scene, the students will begin attending classes at a refurbished school in the neighboring town of Monroe on Thursday. Law enforcement officers have been guarding the new school, and by the reckoning of police, it is "the safest school in America."

Sunny with a chance of flu? That's what some health scientists are thinking, as they study the weather for clues about how to predict disease outbreaks.

A growing wave of computer models factor in rainfall, temperature or other weather conditions to forecast disease. In one recent study, scientists said they could predict more than seven weeks in advance when flu season was going to peak in New York City.

Iraqi authorities on Thursday ordered the release of 11 female detainees facing criminal charges and vowed to transfer women prisoners to jails in their home provinces, in a move that addresses one of the main demands of a wave of protests by the country's Sunni minority against the Shiite-led government.

The demonstrations erupted nearly two weeks ago following the arrest of bodyguards assigned to Finance Minister Rafia al-Issawi, one of the central government's most senior Sunni officials. The protests, however, tap into deeper Sunni grievances of perceived discrimination by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.