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Women who took a probiotic commonly found in yogurts daily while on a diet regimen lost significantly more weight and fat than their counterparts who received a placebo. The findings offer interesting hints about how probiotics might be interacting with the tiny microbes that live in our guts.

Competition at the Winter Olympics gets underway on Thursday. Some of the events taking place are in figure skating, freestyle skiing and snowboard. The Sochi Games officially open on Friday, and the first medals will be awarded this weekend.

After 22 years, Jay Leno will host his last Tonight Show Thursday night. The 63-year-old comedian is leaving at the top of the ratings. Thirty-nine-year-old Jimmy Fallon will takeover as host on Feb. 17.

The Federal Reserve said the economy continues to improve, so it is slowing its purchase of bonds by $10 billion a month.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, listed "insider threats," alongside cyber attacks and terrorism. This marks the first time unauthorized disclosures are given such prominence in a threat assessment report.

Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, joins Steve Inskeep with reaction to President Obama's State of the Union address.

Meteorologists are used to people faulting their weather predictions. But when Georgia's Gov. Nathan Deal called Tuesday's crippling winter storm "unexpected," he drew responses from several forecasters. One answer came from the head of the American Meteorological Society, who lives in the state.

Scientists know that a small percentage of humans' genes came from Neanderthals. But they were surprised to find that one-fifth of Neanderthal genes are in modern humans living today. That includes genes associated with diseases including Type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease and lupus.

On Wednesday, President Obama directed the Treasury Department to create a new retirement plan called "myRA." The decision, a circumvention of Congress, follows through on one of the promises made by the president in his State of the Union. As Yuki Noguchi reports, the success of the plan may depend on its ability to move beyond the limitations of existing retirement plans.

After two years of fits and starts, a new farm bill appears on the verge of passing Congress. The House passed the 959-page proposal on Wednesday, with the Senate likely to pass it next week. The compromise cuts $8 billion from food stamps over the next decade and replaces farm subsidies with more extensive crop insurance.