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Todd Hardesty/Alaska Video Postcards Inc. One of the Grant Creek pack's two primary breeding females during the 2009-10 season at Denali. The wolf died of natural causes this spring, while the other female was snared in a trap. SEATTLE - The prime breeding female wolf snared outside Alaska's Denali National Park this spring - opening new controversy over hunting and trapping on the outskirts of the 6-million-acre park - was so thin that her backbone and hipbones were protruding, according to the trapper who caught her in a snare.

When sending an instant text message on the Internet just won't do, try flashing some video instead. With a Webcam and the right software, friends and colleagues can see you live. Instant messaging programs have long come with the ability to send documents, photos and video files. Live audio also was possible. Now, there's live video. Yahoo Messenger now offers built-in live video, and an add-on is available from Logitech for AOL Instant Messenger and MSN Messenger. Both products are free.

TALK about an eavesdropper's paradise: Unless you work for the government, you will likely never have enjoyed such a powerful ability to monitor any of thousands of conversations as you do at Stickam.com, a new social networking site that's trying to leapfrog MySpace by enabling users to participate in live, multiway videoconferencing. Most rooms are public, and when you visit the site there is no requirement to broadcast either your image or voice or give your real name.

For Judi McDill, the video window in the corner of her computer screen is the only connection with her son during the day. On the Web, she watches him eat lunch, stand on chairs with that coltish wiggle in his knees, fuss with his shirt buttons. Sometimes, when the 5-year-old notices the camera in his day-care center, he waves. All day she watches.

It started as so many relationships do -- the long phone calls, the movie dates, the tentative introductions to family and friends. But the courtship of Mark Passerby and Salwa Al-Saban was hardly ordinary. The two were separated by the Atlantic Ocean, a time difference of six hours and vast cultural contrasts. He lived in Lansing, Mich., she in Cairo. They say they fell in love over Skype, a service that allows people to call each other for free over the Internet.

C-SPAN's new digital bus has hit the streets of Los Angeles. The cable television network, funded by cable and satellite TV affiliates, uses buses to visit schools and communities. Unlike other networks, C-SPAN doesn't "have personalities or ratings," said Chief Executive Brian Lamb, "so we were trying to devise something we could take around the country to explain what we do." Two original buses were retired this month, having traveled more than 1 million miles. The new digital bus allows for more interactivity and includes SMARTboard technology, webcams and computer kiosks with access to the network's video library, including interviews with more than 115,000 people.

An Orange County man was charged Tuesday by federal authorities with using malicious software to download explicit photographs of scores of women and girls and using those images to try to extort pornographic materials from them, officials said. Luis Mijangos allegedly victimized at least 44 girls and 186 women in the so-called sextortion case, according to a 23-page criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Federal authorities expect to find more victims.

The third time may be the charm for Google, which with its third-generation Chromebook has built a computer consumers might actually buy. The Mountain View, Calif., company began selling the $249 Chromebook last week in preparation for the holidays, and if you're looking for a laptop and on a tight budget Google's machine may be right for you. Chromebooks have very little internal storage capacity and run on Chrome OS, Google's computer operating...

Five years after his retirement, ex-firefighter Tom Bramell still likes to visit Station No. 6 for old times' sake, whistling in amazement at all the changes -- the strange faces and slick high-tech engines. But one thing remains exactly the same, and it's what Bramell misses the most about his firefighting days. The sturdy little object hangs from the ceiling in the firehouse's engine bay, emitting its familiar faint orange glow. He calls it the long-lived lightbulb of Livermore.

Two waterfalls, two miracle stories. On Monday, a man suspected of trying to kill himself by leaping into Niagara Falls has survived -- although he has suffered life-threatening injuries. Witnesses said they saw the man scale a retaining wall above Horseshoe Falls -- seen above -- at about 10:20 a.m. on Monday. They said they saw him "deliberately jump into the river waters," according to Niagara Parks Police Service. The unidentified man surfaced in lower Niagara River basin.