Sen. Ayotte offers GOP an influential new voice

The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of...

Read More..

S'pore supports Palestinians' right to homeland: Masagos Zulkifli

SINGAPORE: Singapore has consistently supported the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland, said Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli.He made this point in an email reply to a member of the public who had asked about Singapore's decision to abstain from voting on the UN resolution to grant the Non-Member Observer State status to Palestine.The...

Read More..

Anna Hazare to campaign only for Kejriwal's party

BHUBANESWAR: Social activist Anna Hazare on Saturday said he will campaign only for candidates put up by Arvind Kejriwal and ruled out the possibility of supporting people from other parties."I will campaign only for Kejriwal's candidates," Hazare told reporters here. "There may be good people in other parties but who has the control?"Criticizing other political parties for indulging in politics...

Read More..

Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

Read More..

Could Outgoing Republicans Hold Keys to 'Cliff' Deal?

Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm AP Photo/Carolyn KasterThe outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”But there may be a glimmer...

Read More..

Putin's "health issue" sees Japan PM cancel visit

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has cancelled a planned visit to Russia next month due to a "health issue" affecting President Vladimir Putin, media reports and a government source said on Friday.The mayor of a northern Japanese city said Noda had explained the reasons for the cancellation to him during a meeting in Tokyo Friday, Jiji Press and Kyodo news agencies reported.Kyodo...

Read More..

Anna Hazare alleges arrested Maharashtra MLA getting 'five-star' treatment

AHMEDNAGAR: Anna Hazare has alleged that MLA Suresh Jain, who was arrested in connection with the Jalgaon Housing scam, was getting "five-star" treatment and demanded an inquiry against jail authorities. Hazare wrote a letter to this effect to additional commissioner of police Meera Borwankar, before leaving for Odisha tour on Wednesday, Anna's close aide advocate Shyam Asawa said here on Friday....

Read More..

Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

Read More..

Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.Today,...

Read More..

High-powered ‘Fix the Debt’ group draws attention, scrutiny in Washington

In the discussions about the “fiscal cliff” consuming Washington, a powerful new group stands out, touting the virtue of bipartisanship and shared sacrifice. The business leaders who set up the Campaign to Fix the Debt appear nearly every day on network talk shows and have won coveted time with President Obama in pushing for increased tax revenue, reduced government spending, and changes...

Read More..

Abbas seeks historic state backing at UN

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas will head to the General Assembly on Thursday with huge backing for his bid for UN recognition of statehood despite strong US and Israeli opposition.Abbas will make the case for Palestine to become a UN "non-member observer state" and indicate his conditions for talks with Israel in a key speech to the 193-member assembly.The Palestinian...

Read More..

Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

Read More..

Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $579 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning. Powerball's website reports the other winning ticket was purchased...

Read More..

Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

Read More..

President Tony Tan lays wreath at National Heroes Cemetery in Jakarta

SINGAPORE: President Tony Tan Keng Yam has laid a wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes Cemetery in Jakarta.The Singapore President and his delegation spent 30 minutes paying their respects to Indonesia's fallen national heroes and visiting the site's museum.President Tan is scheduled to be given a ceremonial welcome by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Merdeka Palace...

Read More..

Santosh Hegde raises doubts about success of Kejriwal's party

NEW DELHI: Former Karnataka Lokayukta and Team Anna member Justice N Santosh Hegde has raised doubts about the success of the party launched by Arvind Kejriwal. "My only apprehension is how far will a political party survive because of the very many demands of the political system, these days. It requires a huge amount of money to elect nearly 546 Members of Parliament from Kashmir to Kanyakumari....

Read More..

Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

Read More..

Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for...

Read More..

Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

Read More..

Malaysian Islamic party urges Elton John show ban

KUALA LUMPUR: An Islamic political party on Tuesday urged the government of predominantly Muslim Malaysia to ban a concert by Elton John, saying the openly gay British pop icon promotes "immoral" values.John, who is popular in Malaysia, is scheduled to perform on Thursday at a resort outside the capital Kuala Lumpur."This concert must be cancelled. Artists who are involved in gay and lesbian...

Read More..

Savita's father appeals to Ireland for public inquiry into daughter's death

LONDON: The father of Savita Halappanavar has appealed to the Irish government to hold a public inquiry into his daughter's death, saying that the family was not happy with the probe so far."We would like to appeal to Irish Government to please consider funding public inquiry. We are not happy with the progress made so far. We all don't understand the Health Service Executive (HSE) investigation....

Read More..

Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

High Horse Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.Taken...

Read More..

Co. Paying Just $1,200 for Each Factory Fire Life

A company that makes clothes for Sean Combs' clothing brand ENYCE and other U.S. labels reassured investors that a factory fire that killed 112 people over the weekend would not harm its balance sheet, and also pledged to pay the families of the dead $1,200 per victim.In an announcement Monday, Li & Fung Ltd., a middleman company that supplies clothes from Bangladesh factories...

Read More..

Cambodian ex-king to be cremated on February 4

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia's beloved former monarch Norodom Sihanouk, who died aged 89 last month, will be cremated on February 4 following an elaborate ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Monday.The cremation will be preceded by a procession on February 1 that will see Sihanouk's coffin carried from the royal palace in Phnom Penh to a funeral pyre in a nearby park, the premier said in...

Read More..

Pakistan violates ceasefire, targets 10 Indian posts in J&K

JAMMU: Violating the ceasefire yet again, Pakistan troops targeted 10 Indian forward posts by firing over 6000 rounds from heavy weaponry along the Indo-Pak border in Poonch district.The firing on Sunday night, which was the heaviest this year, came ahead of the ninth anniversary of the Indo-Pak ceasefire agreement on Monday. The Indo-Pak border truce came into force on November 26, 2003."Pakistan...

Read More..

Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling. Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group...

Read More..

GOP Starting to Rebel Against No-Tax-Hikes Pledge

With the fiscal cliff looming for the United States, some Republican members of Congress said today they are ready to break a long standing pledge not to raise taxes."The only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece. And Republicans should put revenue on the table," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on ABC's "This Week."Read more of the discussion...

Read More..

Climate skeptic group works to reverse renewable energy mandates

The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank skeptical of climate change science, has joined with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council to write model legislation aimed at reversing state renewable energy mandates across the country. The Electricity Freedom Act, adopted by the council’s board of directors in October, would repeal state standards requiring utilities...

Read More..

Garment factory blaze kills 109 in Bangladesh

ASHULIA, Bangladesh: Rescue workers in Bangladesh recovered 109 bodies on Sunday after a fire tore through a garment factory, forcing many workers to jump from high windows to escape the smoke and flames.Firefighters battled for several hours to control the blaze, which broke out on the ground floor of the nine-storey Tazreen Fashion plant, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the capital...

Read More..

Rajya Sabha panel for power to Lokpal to sanction prosecution

NEW DELHI: Lokpal will have power to grant sanction to initiate prosecution against a public servant, a parliamentary committee has recommended, seeking to amend a provision in the bill which said no previous sanction was required for the ombudsman to bring charges. The recommendation of the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on Lokpal comes against the backdrop of the stand taken by the government...

Read More..

Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling. Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group...

Read More..

After Sandy, World Hopes to Hear New US Voice on Climate Change

During a year with a monster storm and scorching heat waves, Americans have experienced the kind of freakish weather that many scientists say will occur more often on a warming planet.And as a re-elected president talks about global warming again, climate activists are cautiously optimistic that the U.S. will be more than a disinterested bystander when the U.N. climate talks resume...

Read More..