White House warns of flight delays if sequester is not averted

More than 100 air traffic control towers could be closed and travelers could expect lengthy flight delays beginning in April, the White House warned Friday in its latest bid to raise public alarm over the mandatory spending cuts set to kick in next week. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood vowed that airline security would not be compromised, but he emphasized that the Federal Aviation...

Read More..

Maldivain ex-leader exits Indian embassy: New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed left the Indian embassy in the capital Male on Saturday, an Indian official said, 10 days after he sought refuge in the mission in a bid to avoid arrest.Nasheed's exit came after a Maldivian court earlier this week postponed his trial for abuse of power when he was in office and India sent an envoy to the nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims...

Read More..

Won't tolerate any tampering with Ram Setu: BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP today warned the government against going ahead with the Sethusamudram project, saying the sentiments of crores of Hindus are attached to the issue and it will not tolerate any tampering with the Ram Setu. "We would like to warn the government on the Ram Setu issue. It is ignoring the recommendations of the R K Pachauri Committee report and going ahead with the project. This is an...

Read More..

Space Pictures This Week: Space Rose, Ghostly Horses

Space RoseImage courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSFPlanetary nebula Sh2-174 "blooms" like a rose in a picture released this week by the National Optical Astronomy...

Read More..

Cyberattacks Bring Attention to Security Reform

Recent accusations of a large-scale cyber crime effort by the Chinese government left many wondering what immediate steps the president and Congress are taking to prevent these attacks from happening again.On Wednesday, the White House released the administration's Strategy on Mitigating the Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets as a follow-up to the president's executive order. The strategy...

Read More..

John Kerry, a ‘recovering politician’

Secretary of State John Kerry in Charlottesville on Feb. 20. (Steve Helber - AP) Back when he was running for president in 2003 and 2004, then- Sen. John Kerry was giving speeches ripping into President George W. Bush for spending money overseas and allowing “a preparedness gap” in terms of the fight against terrorism.“We should not be opening firehouses in Baghdad,” he told...

Read More..

ECB says banks to repay US$80.5b in ultra-cheap loans

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank said on Friday that 356 eurozone banks will repay early 61.1 billion euros ($80.5 billion) of a second batch of ultra-cheap three-year loans made available to them a year ago in emergency liquidity measures.Under the ECB's special long-term refinancing operations or LTROs, which it launched to avert a looming credit crunch in the single currency area,...

Read More..

Two gets life term in Saccha Khera gangrape and suicide case

ROTHAK: Five months after the rape and suicide case of a minor girl in Saccha Khera village of Jind district evoked outrage across the state and the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi also visited the family to assure speedy justice, a Jind district court sentenced the two accused to life imprisonment on Friday. The trial against fifth accused, who is a minor, is pending in a juvenile court while two other...

Read More..

Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at 62

Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, has yet another feather in her cap—a new chick.The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)—62 years old at least—recently hatched a healthy baby in the U.S. Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, her sixth in a row and possibly the 35th of her lifetime, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) North American Bird Banding Program. (Related:...

Read More..

Oscar Pistorius Sobs as Bail Ruling Is Expected

The fourth and likely final day of the bail hearing for Oscar Pistorius, the Olympian accused of murdering his girlfriend Feb. 14, opened with arguments from the prosecution that the runner's version of events is improbable and the defense countering that Pistorius had no intent to kill the woman.Pistorius, who gained global acclaim for racing at the 2012 London Olympics, shot...

Read More..

Group releases list of 90 medical ‘don’ts’

Don’t use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia. Don’t use drugs to aggressively treat diabetes in those older than 65. Don’t automati­cally use imaging technology for minor head injuries in children and headaches in adults. And don’t give antacids to babies with reflux. Those are among the 90 medical “don’ts” on a list being released Thursday by a coalition of doctor and consumer...

Read More..

Chingay Parade expected to draw 150,000 spectators

SINGAPORE: Organisers of this year's Chingay Parade are expecting a crowd of 150,000 people to turn up for the event.After 15 months of preparation, performers are finally ready for the stage.Rehearsals for the parade started on Thursday, and the parade will start at 8pm on Friday and on Saturday.The Chingay Parade will kick off with an opening act - a giant centipede made up of 60 performers...

Read More..

Rahul talks of 'aligning' talent as he prepares for 2014 polls

NEW DELHI: Amid talk of possible changes in Congress in the run up to LokSabha polls next year, Rahul Gandhi today said there was "tremendous talent" which needed to be aligned and he was "very excited" about the exercise. "As I am speaking to all the people in the Congress party, I am finding a tremendous talent there. And it is just a question of aligning it and getting on with it," he told reporters...

Read More..

NASA's Mars Rover Makes Successful First Drill

For the first time ever, people have drilled into a rock on Mars, collecting the powdered remains from the hole for analysis.Images sent back from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday confirmed that the precious sample is being held by the rover's scoop, and will soon be delivered to two miniature chemical labs to undergo an unprecedented analysis. (Related: "Mars Rover Curiosity...

Read More..

Lead Pistorius Cop Facing Attempted Murder Charge

Hilton Botha, the detective at the center of the Oscar Pistorius murder case, is facing his own attempted murder charges in connection with a 2011 shooting in which he and other police officers allegedly fired a gun at passengers in a vehicle.Botha is scheduled to appear in court in May on seven counts of attempted murder in connection to the October 2011 incident in which he...

Read More..

Karzai’s dig at Menendez?

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) (Kevin Lamarque - Reuters) Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is not exactly known for a droll sense of humor. But when new Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) came calling Tuesday in Kabul — his very first stop on his first trip abroad as chairman — Karzai seemed to be trying to tweak Menendez.Menendez has come under...

Read More..

Football: Manchester Utd chief executive David Gill to step down

LONDON: David Gill is to step down as chief executive of Manchester United on June 30, the English football giants announced on Wednesday.In a statement on the club's official website, the 55-year-old Gill said his post-season exit would allow the Premier League leaders to "refresh themselves with new management and ideas".United added that executive vice chairman Ed Woodward would replace...

Read More..

Violence marks countrywide strike, millions stay away from work

NEW DELHI: Sporadic violence broke out on Wednesday as labour unions began a two-day strike to protest rising prices and government policies to open the economy. Millions of factory and bank employees stayed away from work and public transport was shut down in most big cities after major trade unions called the countrywide strike. A labour leader was fatally crushed when he tried to stop buses from...

Read More..

Florida Python Hunt Captures 68 Invasive Snakes

It's a wrap—the 2013 Python Challenge has nabbed 68 invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, organizers say. And experts are surprised so many of the elusive giants were caught.Nearly 1,600 people from 38 states—most of them inexperienced hunters—registered for the chance to track down one of the animals, many of which descend from snakes that either escaped or were dumped into the wild.Since...

Read More..

Pistorius Shots Said to Come From High Angle

At the second day of a bail hearing for Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African investigator who arrived at the scene of the Feb. 14 fatal shooting said that Reeva Steenkamp was shot from a high angle, which prosecutors say contradicts the runner's account that he was not wearing his prosthetics when he shot his girlfriend to death.Pistorius, a double-amputee who runs on carbon-fiber...

Read More..

Obama’s senior-staff turnover: typical but challenging

(Evan Vucci - AP) As key members of Team Obama move on, a new study finds that President Obama is beginning his second term with less than a third of the senior staff that comprised his original team — a level of turnover that’s pretty typical among modern second terms.The report from the Brookings Institution shows that 71 percent of Obama’s “A-team” has left, compared to 78...

Read More..

Companies paying more bills on time

SINGAPORE: Companies are paying more bills on time, according to the Commercial Credit Bureau.The bureau said the number of prompt commercial payments rose to 51.59 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year. That is up by a moderate 2.29 percentage points from 49.3 per cent in the previous quarter. Prompt payment means a company has paid at least 90 per cent of its total bills within...

Read More..

Govt to appeal against Gwalior court order blocking sites critical of IIPM

NEW DELHI: The government will appeal against Gwalior district court order asking it to block website pages on internet publishing defamatory material about ArindamChaudhuri-ledIIPM institute. "Minister ( Kapil Sibal) has asked the department of electronics and information technology (DEITY) to appeal against Gwalior court order. The order was passed without DEITY made party to it. No notice was...

Read More..

Confirmed: Dogs Sneak Food When People Aren't Looking

Many dog owners will swear their pups are up to something when out of view of watchful eyes. Shoes go missing, couches have mysterious teeth marks, and food disappears. They seem to disregard the word "no."Now, a new study suggests dogs might understand people even better than we thought. (Related: "Animal Minds.")The research shows that domestic dogs, when told not to snatch a piece of...

Read More..

Oscar Pistorius Charged With Premeditated Murder

A South Africa magistrate has charged Olympian Oscar Pistorius with a Schedule 6 offense, meaning that the alleged murder of his girlfriend was preplanned or premeditated.Pistorius, a double-amputee who gained worldwide fame for running on carbon-fiber blades, allegedly shot his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, four times at his gated home in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb. 14. South...

Read More..