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.

Nintendo's TV-watching tool for the new Wii U game console beats my regular remote control hands down.

Called TVii, the service transforms how you watch television in three key ways. It turns the touch-screen GamePad controller for the Wii U into a remote control for your TV and set-top box. It groups your favorite shows and sports teams together, whether it's on live TV or an Internet video service such as Hulu Plus. And it offers water-cooler moments you can chat about on social media.

LeBron James scored 32 points and finished one assist shy of a triple-double and Dwyane Wade added 27 points as the Miami Heat rallied to beat the Dallas Mavericks 119-109 in overtime on Wednesday.

Chris Bosh also scored 17 for Miami, which extended its NBA Eastern Conference-leading record to 22-8.

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka wasted no time in a 6-1, 6-0 win over Kazakh qualifier Ksenia Pervak on Thursday, setting up a possible semifinal showdown with Serena Williams at the Brisbane International.

Azarenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, needed only 68 minutes to win her quarterfinal, breaking Pervak's serve seven times.

A South Korean club said it has acquired North Korea striker Jong Tae Se from Germany's Cologne.

The Suwon Samsung Bluewings announced Thursday they have agreed to pay Cologne 300,000 euros ($394,000) for the acquisition, but declined to say how much they will pay the 27-year-old forward. Bluewings official Lee Ho-seung said Jong had sought the transfer and the negotiations to acquire him lasted several months.

Rafa Benitez's decision to rotate his Chelsea side backfired as bottom-place Queens Park Rangers produced its first topflight win at Stamford Bridge since 1979 on Wednesday in one of the biggest shocks of the season.

Compounding Chelsea's misery, it was former winger Shaun Wright-Phillips whose goal in the 78th minute halted a four-match winning streak by clinching QPR's 1-0 west London derby win.

Five people were killed in a string of attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, authorities said.

Police officials said that in the first attack, gunmen early Wednesday fatally shot a policeman and his brother who is a member of anti-al-Qaida group north of Baghdad.

High seas and strong winds prevented crews from boarding an oil drilling ship to check for any damage after the large vessel went aground off an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska.

A Coast Guard plane and a helicopter flew over the Kulluk on Tuesday, but severe weather did not permit putting marine experts on board the drilling rig, which had grounded on a sand and gravel beach in stormy seas.