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DANVILLE, Calif. – Susan Wells was thrilled to learn she'd won a $2 million house in a raffle days after her husband had been laid off from his job. "I'm floored," said Wells, who bought the ticket as a surprise to celebrate the couple's 16th anniversary. "I can't believe this has happened. Needless to say, my husband is very surprised." The house is in upscale Marin County, just north of San Francisco. The couple already own a home in Danville, a suburb south of San Francisco, and if they don't want to move they have the option of $1.2 million in cash. They're still deciding what do, but Brad Wells, who had been a sales executive for a Silicon Valley high-tech company, said the winnings are definitely a boost. "I got laid off on Wednesday and the company went bankrupt on Friday," he said. The couple got word of their win on Saturday. "It's been a really rough ride for the last year. This gives us an unbelievable lift....

Facebook paid up to $65m - $20m cash and a 1.25m shares – to end a lawsuit in which Mark Zuckerberg, now its chief executive, was accused of stealing the idea for the social networking site from a company called Connect U . The case, brought against Zuckerberg by three former classmates, Divya Narendra and the brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, had threatened to derail Facebook. But though both sides had promised to keep the details of the settlement secret, the law firm representing ConnectU proclaimed the amount in a newsletter it sent out in January . The detail was picked up by the Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal publication. Until yesterday, the details of the outcome had been kept secret. Lawyers on both sides went as far as asking the judge to clear the courtroom of reporters. But the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges then trumpeted " WON $65 million settlement against Facebook " in its newsletter. ConnectU fired the law firm last year, an...