Matt Slocum / AP
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III twists his knees as he reaches for the loose ball after a low snap during the second half of the NFL wild card playoff football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Landover, Md., Jan. 6.
One of the most renowned sports physicians has been concerned about the Redskins’ decision to use quarterback Robert Griffin III while he recovered from a Grade One LCL sprain, suffered four weeks ago. Today, with Griffin limping increasingly throughout a wild-card game against the Seahawks, the player's right knee appeared to finally give out while Griffin was trying to get his hands on a bad shotgun snap.
-- Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk on nbcsports.com
Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters
A carpenter drives a cart carrying his wares to a workshop in Damietta, Egypt, on Jan. 5.
Ajit Solanki / AP
Villagers work at a vegetable farm as smoke rises from a storage tank of the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) that caught fire on Saturday Jan. 5 in Hajira near Surat, India. Firefighters have been working to douse flames on the tank that caught fire.
India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerapa Moily, who visited the site, said the cost of the damage could be as much as 450 million rupees ($8.16 million).
-- Reported by Reuters
Ajit Solanki / AP
Indian women mourn the death of relatives in the fire Jan. 6.
Ajit Solanki / AP
Firefighters work to douse the flames of a major fire in the storage tank, which was contained after a 21-hour operation.
Ajit Solanki / AP
Firefighters work to put out the fire Jan. 5.
Louai Beshara / AFP - Getty Images
People watch Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad making a public address on state-run Syrian TV on Jan. 6 in Damascus. In a rare speech, Assad denounced the opposition as 'slaves' of the West and called for a national dialogue conference to be followed by a referendum on a national charter and parliamentary elections.
Speaking before an overwhelmingly supportive crowd that interrupted his speech with chants and rapturous applause several times, Syrian President Bashar Assad offered no concessions and even appeared to harden many of his positions. He rallied Syrians for "a war to defend the nation" and disparaged the prospect of negotiations. There was little to no acknowledgement that there are Syrians themselves who have taken up the fight.
"We do not reject political dialogue ... but with whom should we hold a dialogue? With extremists who don't believe in any language but killing and terrorism?" Assad asked.
-- Reported by NBC News and wire services
In the midst of civil war, Syrian President Bashar Assad addressed the country Sunday for the first time since June. He said he would continue to fight violence, blaming the crisis in Syria on al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
Penitentiary System Of Alagoas / AFP - Getty Images
A penitentiary agent holds a cat with a package of tools and a mobile phone taped to its body at Luiz de Oliveira Souza prison in Arapiraca, Alagoas, Brazil. Brazilian authorities captured the cat, which was entering the prison with a saw, bits for hand drills, a mobile phone, batteries and a charger. The cat belonged to the prisoners and was frequently taken by relatives to their homes, returning to the prison on its own.
Alagoas state prisons spokeswoman Cinthya Moreno says that the cat was caught New Year's Eve at the medium-security prison in the city of Arapiraca.
-- Reported by the Associated Press
AP
Items retrieved from the cat are displayed by authorities.
A cat slipped into a prison in Brazil but was intercepted by prison officials, who found drill bits, a saw and other items taped to its body. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe reports.
Chris Kidd / Pool via Reuters
Houses destroyed by a bushfire are seen in ruins in Dunalley, Australia, Jan. 5. Over 100 homes have been destroyed in Australia's island state of Tasmania, with police saying that thousands of residents have been displaced by dozens of bush fires, driven by record high temperatures last week across the country.
Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images
Anglers cast lines into a frozen river during an ice fishing competition at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival on Jan. 5, in Hwacheon-gun, South Korea. The annual event attracts thousands of visitors and features the mountain trout ice fishing competition in which participants compete with traditional lures or with bare hands.
Joerg Carstensen / AFP - Getty Images
A man competes in the 'Knut Christmas Tree Throwing Championship' on Jan. 5, in Berlin, Germany.
AFP - Getty Images
AFP - Getty Images
Student hopefuls go over their notes outside the building before sitting for the exams.
Prospective students crowd into the entrance of a building to sit the 2013 post-graduate entrance exams in Hefei, China, on Jan. 5. A total of 1.8 million people have applied to take the exams, state media reported.
China Daily: Majority of postgrad examinees seek better jobs
People's Daily: 61-year-old man takes postgraduate entrance exam
Dietmar Stiplovsek / EPA
A snowkiter enjoys snow and sun at the Bernina pass, Switzerland on Friday, Jan. 3, 2013.
Toru Hanai / Reuters
Kiyomura Co's employees push a cart carrying a 222 kg (489 lbs) bluefin tuna outside Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. Kiyomura Co's President Kiyoshi Kimura, who runs a chain of sushi restaurants, won the bid for the tuna with a record of 155.4 million yen ($1.76 million) at the fish market's first tuna auction this year.
UPDATED January 4, 6:00 pm:
Princess Diana's 'mystery man' is no longer a mystery! The young man seen lounging with the royal in a candid 1970s photo that went up for auction on Friday was identified by Princess Di biographer Andrew Morton as a onetime Diana suitor who missed his chance.
"I was given the task of trying to identify the boy in the picture," Morton told The Guardian via email on Friday, after the photo caused a stir. "I later found out that the young man was Adam Russell, the great-grandson of former prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and now a deer farmer on Dorset."
Morton said the photo was taken on a ski trip during which Russell and Diana became close after they both suffered injuries and were forced to stay off the slopes.
"They kept each other company while the others went skiing and, at the end of the holiday, Adam was somewhat smitten," Morton told the British newspaper. "But absolutely nothing happened."
The pair stayed in touch after the trip, according to Morton, who says Russell hoped to start a romantic relationship with Diana but found he'd missed his window after spending a year traveling.
"When he arrived home a year later it was too late," Morton told The Guardian. "A friend told him, 'You've only got one rival — the Prince of Wales."
The rest, of course, was history.
Original story:
A newly revealed photo of a teenage Princess Diana, snapped right before her engagement and capturing a carefree lifestyle she was days away from losing, is up for sale at a New Hampshire auction house.
In the picture, an 18 or 19-year-old Diana Spencer lies on a bed, an unidentified young man sitting behind her reading a book he rests on her shoulder. A bottle of whiskey sits on the window ledge behind them. It is assumed the photo was taken during a Swiss skiing holiday.
How a picture of the most photographed woman of her lifetime slipped by the public’s notice is a mystery, as is why the words “not to be published” were scrawled across the photo.
Slideshow: Princess Diana's life
The picture was sold to a British newspaper on Feb. 26, 1981, which matches the date written on the back of the photograph. Two days before, Diana’s engagement to Prince Charles was announced by Buckingham Palace.
“It shows a rather young carefree girl, a bit gauche if you like, so I think that's what makes it all the more endearing because we catch Diana in a rare private moment,” royal watcher Neil Sean told TODAY. “Somebody who has possibly known a normal life and it’s all about to change, before she became a worldwide icon.”
The picture, whose photographer is unknown, is expected to draw at least $750, and possibly a lot more. It will go up for sale at RR Auction house in Amherst, N.H., from Jan. 17 to 24.
The fairy-tale wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana was watched by millions of people around the globe. Take a look back at their big day.
More: Diana friend: 'History repeating itself' with Kate
Video: Now a seasoned royal, Kate prepares for motherhood
Duchess Kate's 10 best style moments of 2012
Deja Vu Diana? Duchess Kate channels the princess
A royal frizz-fixer? Meet traveling Team Kate
Prince Charles 'impatient' comment seen as a metaphor on life
Photos by William Fernando Martinez / AP
A worker inspects armored vests designed for children at the Miguel Caballero factory on the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013.
The Associated Press reports that Miguel Caballero, who has made armored vests for adults for more than 20 years, said he had never thought about making bulletproof goods for children.
That changed after the Dec. 14 slaying of 20 small children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
John Vizcaino / Reuters
Miguel Caballero, president of Miguel Caballero Company, uses a .38-caliber revolver to demonstrate the bulletproof quality of a leather jacket made at his factory.
Related PhotoBlog posts
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Carlo Allegri / Reuters
A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history left 20 children and six staff members dead at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Wayne Parry / AP
Piles of debris line portions of Route 35, the main highway through the shore in Toms River N.J. Friday, Jan. 4, 2012. Congress voted to approve aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy, but many shore residents were angry it took lawmakers so long to act following the Oct. 29 storm.
Reported by Tom Curry, NBC News national affairs writer
Responding to the insurance claims of property owners hit by last October’s superstorm Sandy, Congress voted Friday to approve $9.7 billion in additional borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers property owners in flood-prone areas.
Elected officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had assailed House Speaker John Boehner for not allowing a vote Tuesday night on additional funding for people affected by last October’s storm. Friday’s vote was a prelude to another vote on Jan. 15 to make additional outlays to cities, towns and property owners affected by the storm.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., blasts Speaker John Boehner and Congress for delaying action on a bill that would provide aid toward Hurricane Sandy relief efforts
Richard Bouhet / AFP - Getty Images
A man walks on a remaining piece of road crossing the river that links Saint Louis de la Reunion with Saint Pierre on Jan. 4, near Saint Louis, on the French island of La Reunion, following the passing of cyclone Dumile. Winds of up to 110 miles per hour and torrential rain caused extensive damage to the electricity network after cyclone Dumile passed within 56 miles of the island's west coast.
Matthias Schrader / AP
Austria's Wolfgang Loitzl soars through the air during his competition jump of the third stage of the four hills ski jumping tournament during foggy weather in Innsbruck, Austria, on Jan. 4.
Check out more skiing photos on PhotoBlog.
Mohammed Salem / Reuters
Palestinians take part in a rally marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement in Gaza City on Jan. 4, 2013.
Reuters reports — Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians joined a rare rally staged by President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group in Gaza on Friday, as tensions ease with rival Hamas Islamists ruling the enclave since 2007.
A long hiatus in peace talks between Abbas's administration and Israel has narrowed ideological differences between the two main Palestinian factions. Solidarity has deepened since Israel's Gaza assault in November, after which hardline Hamas, though battered, declared victory.
Suhaib Salem / Reuters
A poster depicting late Palestinian and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat.
Abbas remains based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but several of his senior advisers attended Friday's march in the Gaza Strip, festooned with yellow Fatah flags rather than the green Hamas colors that have dominated such events since Hamas fighters drove Fatah from the territory in 2007.
Ahmed Zakot / Reuters
A youth waves a Palestinian flag as he climbs a tree during the rally in Gaza City.
Egypt has long tried to broker Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, but past efforts have foundered over questions of power-sharing, control of weaponry, and to what extent Israel and other powers would accept a Palestinian administration including Hamas. Read the full story.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Inmate John Barba works with Dill, a veteran assistance dog in training, at Western Correctional Institution in Cresaptown, Md. Dill is one of three dogs assigned since September to inmates at the maximum-security prison for basic training as service dogs for disabled military veterans.
The Associated Press reports from Cresaptown, Md. — Hazard Wilson's new cellmate is a hairy bundle of energy whose playful zeal can't be contained by steel doors: a five-month-old golden retriever. Yardley is one of three canines assigned since September to inmates at a maximum-security prison in western Maryland for training as service dogs for disabled military veterans.
The number of programs nationwide using inmates to train service dogs is growing, but the program at Western Correctional Institute might be the first to use incarcerated veterans to train dogs for other veterans.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Dill looks on as inmate John Barba walks away after commanding him to sit and stay. The inmates, who are also veterans, are among the state's first prisoners to join a national trend of training service dogs in correctional institutions.
Professional trainers say prison-raised dogs tend to do better than those raised traditionally in foster homes, because puppies respond well to consistency and rigid schedules. That's just what they get in prison.
Patrick Semansky / AP
John Barba looks at a calendar as he sits in the 6-by-9-foot cell that he shares with Dill, a veteran assistance dog in training.
Wilson, a former military police officer honorably discharged in 1982, said he's proud to help another veteran.
"I feel as though they don't get what they deserve when they come home," he said. "This is a part of why I do what I do." Read the full story.
Editor's note: Images taken on Nov. 26, 2012 and made available to NBC News today.
Patrick Semansky / AP
John Barba walks out of his cell with Dill. Professional trainers say prison-raised dogs tend to graduate sooner and at higher rates than those raised traditionally in foster homes because puppies respond well to the consistency and rigid schedules of prison life.
Kim Hong-ji / Reuters
Kim Chang-geun, right, 57, a member of an anti-Japan civic group, stabs himself in the stomach with a knife during a rally at Gimpo Airport in Seoul on Jan. 4, 2013. The rally was held to denounce Japan's conservative new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and demand an official apology for Japan's war crimes during the World War II.
A South Korean protester stabbed himself in the stomach at an airport outside Seoul on Friday during a demonstration ahead of the arrival of a Japanese government official, Reuters reports. The injured protester was taken to hospital.
South Korea's president-elect Park Geun-hye said that Japan needed to come to terms with its colonial history as tension simmered over Japan's past rule of Korea and an island dispute.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a December 31 interview he wanted to issue a statement that would supersede a landmark 1995 apology for Japan's military aggression, a move bound to raise hackles in South Korea, ruled by Japan from 1910-1945, and in China, where bitter wartime memories run deep. Read the full story.
Ahn Young-Joon / AP
Bleeding protester Kim Chang-geun, center, who tried to hurt himself with a knife, is escorted to an ambulance by plain-clothes policemen during a protest against the visit of a special envoy sent by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. South Korean President elect Park Geun-hye will meet with the delegation on Friday in her first diplomatic test.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images
Dressed in 19th century Japanese fire fighting uniform, a member of the Edo (Tokyo) Firemanship Commemoration Association performs on a bamboo ladder for a New Year's celebration event outside a Tokyo department store on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013. The popular traditional firefighters' stunt attracts New Year shoppers to the department store every year.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images
Lukas Coch / EPA
Visitors cheer as cars perform a simultaneous burnout during the Summernats festival in Canberra, Australia, on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013. Sixty-nine cars performed a simultaneous burnout setting up a new Guinness World Record.
Lukas Coch / EPA
Visitors are covered in smoke from cars performing a simultaneous burnout during the the Summernats festival on Friday.
See previous world record PhotoBlog posts and our 2012 Guinness World Record slideshow.
Pete Souza / The White House
Pete Souza, Official White House Photographer: May 1, 2012 "In Afghanistan, there was virtually no light inside the helicopter as we flew from Kabul back to Bagram Air Field after the President had met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (For the photo buffs, this photograph was taken at ISO 6400, 1/5 second at f/1.4.) Flanking the President are General John Allen, Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker. Denis McDonough, Deputy National Security Advisor, is at left."
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
A muddy bullfrog is inspected during a photo call for the annual census at the London Zoo on Jan. 3, 2013.
More than 17,500 animals, including birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians are counted in the annual census at the London Zoo. The count is a compulsory part of the zoo's license and the information is used for managing international breeding programs of endangered animals.
Luke Macgregor / Reuters
Zoo keeper Zuzana Matyasova poses with penguins during the annual cataloguing of animals at the London Zoo.
Luke Macgregor / Reuters
Zoo keeper Jeff Lambert poses with leaf insects.
Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images
A European Eagle owl during the annual census at the London Zoo.
Luke Macgregor / Reuters
Zoo keeper Grant Kother poses with a Diamond Python.
Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images
Penguins swim during the annual census at the London Zoo.
Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
A male jungle nymph sits on a female jungle nymph during a photo call for the annual census at the London Zoo.
Previously on PhotoBlog:
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo
A photographic mosaic shows the Curiosity rover's surroundings at a Martian location known as Yellowknife Bay. This view has been assembled from black-and-white images captured by the rover's navigation camera on Sol 132 (Dec. 19). Gaps in imagery of the Martian sky have been filled in, and the whole scene has been colorized. Click here or on the image to see the complete 360-degree panorama.
The cameras on NASA's Curiosity rover have been clicking away over the holidays — gathering enough pictures for a 360-degree panorama of its rocky surroundings at Yellowknife Bay, plus a close-up view showing a "Martian flower" seemingly sprouting from the surface.
The panorama was assembled from pictures snapped by the rover's navigation camera system on the 132nd Martian day of Curiosity's mission on the Red Planet, also known as Sol 132 or Dec. 19.
In this case, the folks doing the assembling are Ken Kremer, a New Jersey-based journalist, research chemist and photographer; and Marco Di Lorenzo, a physicist who's a high-school educator and photographer in Italy. They stitched together the black-and-white images, filled in the gaps in the Martian sky and colorized the scene to reflect what an observer on Mars might see.
We've featured the efforts of Kremer and Di Lorenzo several times before: They're part of an active online community that makes use of the raw images provided by Curiosity and other Mars probes, and then shares them via websites such as UnmannedSpaceflight.com. Even now, the folks at UnmannedSpaceflight are posting plenty of amazing pictures from Yellowknife Bay, including a must-see, zoomable GigaPan version.
Another picture from Sol 132 has stirred up some buzz at the Above Top Secret discussion forum. The picture focuses in on a bright, crumpled object that's sitting on a Martian outcrop, as seen by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. The translucent shape is reminiscent of a flower's pistils, which led one of the forum's members to call it a "Martian flower."
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
An anomalous bit of bright material can be seen left of center in this view captured by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Sol 132 of the mission (Dec. 19).
Update for 8:30 p.m. ET: I initially suspected that the flower was a tiny shred of plastic from the rover itself. Such a shred popped up in October. At that time, experts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory surmised that the plastic may have been a bit of wrapping that was knocked loose from the Mars Science Laboratory's descent stage during the spacecraft's August landing. The plastic was thought to have fallen on top of the rover, and then dropped to the ground weeks later.
That's what led me to go with the plastic-scrap hypothesis. However, some of the folks commenting on the pictures noted that the object seemed to be embedded in the rock — which would argue against my hypothesis. So I put in an inquiry with Guy Webster, who serves as JPL's main spokesman for NASA's Mars missions.
A couple of hours later, Webster emailed me the verdict: "That appears to be part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft."
Mystery solved? It's certainly an intriguing bit of mineral that stands out prominently in the MAHLI picture. If I find out anything more, I'll be sure to pass it along. And if it turns out that flowers are really sprouting up on Mars, you'll know it's time to cue up the "X-Files" theme. Either way, the truth is out there.
The Curiosity rover has released more images of Mars, including a self-portrait created with more than 50 images. NBC's Kate Snow has more.
More pictures from Kremer and Di Lorenzo:
More about Martian anomalies:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Trace the Curiosity rover's journey to Mars and see the pictures that the six-wheeled robot has sent back from the Red Planet.
Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters
Norway's tournament leader Anders Jacobsen soars through the air during a practice session for the third event of the Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck, Austria, on Jan. 3.
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