BJP gears up for polls; targets Congress on terror and graft

NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh today gave a call to his party cadre to put up a united fight in the next general elections to oust the "corrupt, ineffective" UPA as he took on Congress-led government over its alleged failure on internal security, economy and foreign policy fronts. Delivering the inaugural speech at the BJP National Council here, Singh while lauding the achievements of Gujarat...

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Rescuers Search for Man as Fla. Sinkhole Grows

Rescuers early Saturday morning returned to the site where a sinkhole swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom after the home's foundation collapsed.Jeff Bush was in his bedroom when a sinkhole opened up and trapped him underneath his home at 11 p.m. Thursday night.While the sinkhole was initially estimated to be 15 feet deep on Thursday night, the chasm has continued to grow. Officials...

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Education Minister urges schools to maintain long-term partnerships

SINGAPORE: Singapore Education Minister Heng Swee Keat has urged schools here to maintain long-term partnerships, which will enrich the community. He was speaking at Yishun Junior College's (YJC) Celebrating Values Day on Saturday.It is a carnival to raise funds for charities such as the President's Challenge and Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore.YJC has roped in partners...

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Firing at Indian posts along LoC

JAMMU: Indian posts along the line of control in Mendhar belt of Poonch district came under firing, a BSF official said on Friday.However, there was no report of any causality. There was a firing from across the border on Indian posts in Gagdiayal forward area along LoC on Thursday night, the official said. There was small arms and rocket firing, he said adding there was no loss of life or injury...

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk."The additional risk is quite small...

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Fla. Man Swallowed by Sinkhole, No Signs of Life

A Florida man has disappeared into a 30-foot-wide, 20-foot-deep sinkhole that collapsed the bedroom portion of his home overnight, according to police.The hole opened up at around 11 p.m. Thursday night in the Brandon, Fla., neighborhood, authorities said."[The family] heard a sound that they described as a car crash emanating from the bedroom in the back of the house," Hillsborough...

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Liew Mun Leong retires as chairman of CMA

SINGAPORE : CapitaMalls Asia's will have a new board chairman after the retirement of Mr Liew Mun Leong. He will be replaced by Mr Ng Kee Choe after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 24 April. Mr Liew is the former CEO of CapitaLand, the parent company of CapitaMalls Asia. CapitaLand CEO Lim Ming Yan will replace Mr Liew as Chairman of CapitaMalls Asia's Corporate Disclosure Committee...

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Left returns to power in Tripura for 5th consecutive time; Congress retains Meghalaya

AGARTALA: The Left Front in Tripura today retained power for the fifth consecutive time since 1993 with the coalition securing a three-fourths majority by winning 50 of the 60 Assembly seats.While CPM, which contested in 55 seats, secured win in 49 seats, coalition partner CPI won one seat of the two it had contested. However, RSP which fought in two seats and Forward Bloc in one, failed to open...

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WHO: Small cancer risk after Fukushima accident

LONDON (AP) — People exposed to the highest doses of radiation during Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011 may have a slightly higher risk of cancer but one so small it probably won't be detectable, the World Health Organization said in a report released Thursday.A group of experts convened by the agency assessed the risk of various cancers based on estimates of how much radiation people...

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Why Should We Care? The Politics of Picking a Pope

Feb 28, 2013 9:34am                              (Image Credit: L’Osservatore Romano/Vatican/Getty Images)ANALYSISVATICAN CITY – In a U.S presidential campaign, the New Hampshire primary is thought of as “retail politics,”...

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Scientists link two rats' brains, a continent apart

PARIS: Creating a "superbrain" of connected minds, scientists on Thursday said they had enabled a rat to help a fellow rodent while the animals were a continent apart but connected through brain electrodes.With electrodes imbedded in its cortex, a rat in a research institute in Natal, Brazil sent signals via the Internet to a counterpart at a university lab in Durham, North Carolina, helping...

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House panel against considering mercy plea of rape-murder convicts

NEW DELHI: Two months after questioning the rationale behind commuting death sentences of five rape-murder convicts to life imprisonment during then President Pratibha Patil's tenure, a Parliamentary committee has now suggested that the mercy petitions should not be by and large considered for such criminals. Though the Committee is not in favour of completely knocking out the provision of mercy...

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Bring on the Cuts: Some Want the Sequester

Mark Lucas wouldn't mind seeing America's defense budget cut by billions."There's quite a bit of waste within the military," Lucas, who serves as Iowa state director for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), told ABC News. "Being in there for 10 years, I've seen quite a bit of it."With the budget sequester set to kick in on Friday, the former Army ranger is among...

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Fitch Ratings warns US over budget fighting

WASHINGTON: Ratings agency Fitch warned Washington on Wednesday that continued political fighting over the government budget and deficit-cutting measures could lead to the US losing its AAA grade.With the government two days away from enacting the harsh "sequester" budget cuts because political parties cannot agree a more moderate compromise, Fitch said that the policy deadlock could lower...

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Afzal Guru 'justified' Parliament attack in letter written four years ago

SRINAGAR: Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru had in a letter, purportedly written by him over four years ago, said that there was no need to be ashamed of the December 13 attack on Parliament, but had stopped short of owning any responsibility for it.In the letter written to editor of a local Urdu weekly, Guru, who was hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail on February 9, asked Hizbul Mujahideen...

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Koop, who transformed surgeon general post, dies

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era — and one of the most unexpectedly enduring.His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia,...

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'93 WTC Bombing Crushed Lives, Not Memories

Edward Smith remembers vividly the call from the morgue 20 years ago today, that his pregnant wife had died in the World Trade Center bombing hours before she was supposed to start her maternity leave."It seems like kind of yesterday sometimes," he told ABC News, "but it seems like a long time ago, too."Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 WTC bombing, which was overshadowed...

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Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties looked for a way forward on Tuesday after an election that gave none of them a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and European financial crisis. The results, notably by the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower...

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Rental market for private homes may soften: analyst

SINGAPORE: Landlords of private homes may see the rental market softening when higher property taxes kick in next year, as these investors grapple with higher holding costs. Owning luxury or investment homes will incur higher property taxes starting January 2014. For private homes not occupied by owners, new marginal property tax rates of 12 to 20 per cent will be levied in addition to...

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Chopper scam: CBI names ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi as suspect

NEW DELHI: Armed with documents from Italy, CBI today named former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi in its preliminary enquiry (PE) into allegations of kickbacks in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal, the second former defence services chief to figure in a scam probe. Besides the former IAF chief, 10 others including his cousins — Julie, Docsa and Sandeep Tyagi have also been named along with four companies...

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Best Moments From the Academy Awards

Host Seth MacFarlane took the stage at the 2013 Oscars with an opening monologue revealing he was ready to poke fun at the star-studded audience."The quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now," he said.But it wasn't too long before MacFarlane was interrupted. William Shatner, dressed as his iconic character Captain Kirk from "Star Trek," descended on the stage to warn MacFarlane that he...

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Powers to offer Iran sanctions relief at nuclear talks

ALMATY (Reuters) - Major powers will offer Iran some sanctions relief during talks in Almaty, Kazakhstan, this week if Tehran agrees to curb its nuclear program, a U.S. official said on Monday. But the Islamic Republic could face more economic pain if it fails to address international concerns about its atomic activities, the official said ahead of the February 26-27 meeting in the central...

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Football: Cahill bemoans Chelsea fixture pile-up

LONDON: Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill thinks the club's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League are being hindered by what he describes as "ridiculous" fixture congestion.The European champions lost 2-0 at Manchester City on Sunday to give hope to the teams bidding to pip them to a top-four berth.Tottenham Hotspur could climb above Chelsea into third place with victory at West Ham...

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Hyderabad blasts: Cops get 'clear clues', question 30 people

HYDERABAD: Investigators are believed to have obtained certain "clear clues" based on CCTV footage at the site of the twin blasts in Hyderabad and questioning of some jailed terror suspects here even as a letter purportedly written by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) claimed responsibility. Sources said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while being briefed by state DGP V Dinesh Reddy here about the progress...

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent...

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