The Japanese, who inhabit one of the world's safest countries, have been brutally reminded of the dangers elsewhere.

A year ago, Pete Carroll stood at a podium in a New York City hotel, less than 12 hours after his Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. Fast forward to Sunday, when Carroll's Seahawks will face Bill Belichick's New England Patriots in the Super Bowl with a chance to do something that, for many reasons, was thought to be too tall a task in today's NFL: win a second consecutive championship. Winning twice doesn't happen (anymore),'' said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, whose team went back-to-back 10 years ago, making for the longest drought without a repeat champion in the nearly half-century of Super Bowls.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's budget will propose an ambitious six-year, $478 billion public works program of highway, bridge and transit upgrades, half of it financed with a one-time mandatory tax on profits that U.S. companies have amassed overseas, White House officials said.

Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers won his second MVP award Saturday night, and J.J. Watt swept away the voters the way he sweeps quarterbacks off their feet to take top defensive honors. Rodgers, also the 2011 Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player award winner, took this one in somewhat surprisingly easy fashion over Watt. The Packers quarterback received 31 votes for the 2014 award from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. Houston's Watt, seeking to become the first defensive player to win MVP since 1986, got 13 votes.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Novak Djokovic won his fifth Australian Open title and his eighth career Grand Slam while extending Andy Murray's misery at Melbourne Park.

One by one, the newest members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame stepped onto the stage as their names were called. When the eighth man elected Saturday, the late Junior Seau, was announced, his two sons stood with the group. ''I wish,'' 25-year-old Tyler Seau said later, ''he was here in person with us.'' A field-covering, hard-hitting linebacker, the charismatic Seau, who committed suicide at age 43 in 2012, was the only first-time eligible candidate in the Hall's class of 2015. Also getting in Saturday, a day before the Super Bowl, were modern-day players Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown, Charles Haley and Will Shields, contributors Bill Polian and Ron Wolf, and senior selection Mick Tingelhoff.

The 76ers' decision to ''let it fly'' with 3-pointers almost grounded the Hawks' winning streak. Al Horford's clutch play in the closing minutes helped keep the streak alive. Horford scored 23 points, including a tying basket after Philadelphia took its first lead late in the game, and Atlanta recovered after squandering a 21-point lead to beat the 76ers 91-85 on Saturday night and stretch its franchise-record winning streak to 19 games. It was one of the biggest threats yet to a streak that began with a win at Milwaukee on Dec. 27 and has left the Hawks with the NBA's best record.

Quinn Cook, Tyus Jones and No. 4 Duke got their biggest shots to start falling just in time. Jones scored 17 points, Cook had 15 and both made critical 3-pointers in the closing minutes, fueling a game-ended 16-5 run that gave the Blue Devils a 69-63 victory against No. 2 Virginia, ending the Cavaliers' 21-game home winning streak. Cook hit three times from long range in the final 4:38 and Jones hit the clincher with about 10 seconds left, capping a dramatic turnaround that had seen the Blue Devils miss their first nine 3-point tries, and 11 of their first 13. Then, with Virginia leading by eight with 4:48 to play, and it sell-out crowd looking for the kill shot, Duke's only hope was to start converting, and it did, making 5 of their last 6.