One of the biggest winners in the sweeping Democratic victories in Senate races this month was a woman whose name appeared on no ballot: Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
With a low-key style that contrasts with some of the Senate’s camera hogs, Murray may be the most powerful senator a whole lot of people have never heard of outside of the two Washingtons where she lives and works.
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Culture, Community and Youth Ministry will work harder to build up a local fan base to support sports.
This includes working with schools to engage parents in cheering for students when they participate in sports.
Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong said this at a presidential tea reception Saturday at the Istana with President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Mrs Tan in honour of athletes who participated in the London Olympics and Paralympics.
Mr Wong said: "More important than the medals is I think, that support, whether your athletes do well or don't do well, you are cheering, you're behind them, you're cheering them on, and the athletes feel that Singaporeans, the whole nation, is behind them.
"I think if they have that sense of support, they will be inspired to give their best."
He said the government is looking at enhancing the "live" experience when Singaporeans attend sporting events.
Mr Wong said the National Sports Associations will be encouraged to get their athletes to engage more with the community, to build a connection.
- CNA/lp
Namdhari was the main conspirator in the shootout, the police said. He has been charged with attempt to murder.
Namdhari has been sent to 5 days' police custody by the court in connection with the November 17 shootout case.
In a sudden turn of events in the Ponty-Hardeep Chadha shootout case, Sukhdev Singh Namdhari was arrested on Friday from his Bajpur home in Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand.
Namdhari carried a licensed pistol with him when the shootout occurred. He had rushed Ponty to the hospital and had also given a statement ; but after that he was not in touch with the cops.
Udham Singh Nagar SSP Anant Shanker Takwale said Namdhari, who was untraceable ever since he was sacked as chairman of Uttarakhand Minorities Commission, was arrested around 11am by a six-member team of Delhi Police.
Police said Namdhari came in contact with the Chadha brothers with the help of Uttarakhand BJP leaders such as Kashipur MLA Harbhajan Singh Cheema and Congress MLA from Kapurthala Rana Gurjeet Singh. A senior Uttarakhand IPS officer said soon after he came in contact with the Chadha brothers, he managed to become a partner in their booming real estate and stone quarrying business.
Bansal also said that of the 14 cases of heinous crimes, including murder, dacoity and kidnapping, registered against Namdhari in Uttarakhand since 1995, he had been acquitted in 12 cases while two cases are still on against him. These two cases belong to Udham Singh Nagar district.
(Inputs from PTI)
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 of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
Larry Hagman, who emerged in the 1960s as the slightly befuddled astronaut in "I Dream of Jeannie," then became a major star in the 1980s primetime soap "Dallas," playing evil oil baron J.R. Ewing, has died. He was 81.
Warner Bros."Dallas" executive producers Cynthia Cidre and Michael M. Robin, and the show's cast and crew released the following statement today: "Larry Hagman was a giant, a larger-than-life personality whose iconic performance as J.R. Ewing will endure as one of the most indelible in entertainment history. He truly loved portraying this globally recognized character, and he leaves a legacy of entertainment, generosity and grace. Everyone at Warner Bros. and in the "Dallas" family is deeply saddened by Larry's passing, and our thoughts are with his family and dear friends during this difficult time."
Hagman inherited the acting gene from his mother, Broadway musical legend Mary Martin. He'd had roles in television programs 20 years prior to "Dallas," including "I Dream of Jeannie" from 1965-70.
"Dallas," which debuted in 1978 on CBS and had an astonishing 13-year run, centered on the Ewings, a family of Texas oil barons who had money, cattle, and more scandals and power struggles than the Kardashians.
The original strategy behind "Dallas" was to focus on the newly-married Bobby and Pam Ewing. But Hagman made his role more than the producers had intended, and he quickly became the focus of the program.
AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman
When TNT revived the program earlier this year, he was the undisputed power villain.
"All of us at TNT are deeply saddened at the news of Larry Hagman's passing. He was a wonderful human being and an extremely gifted actor," TNT officials said in a statement. "We will be forever thankful that a whole new generation of people got to know and appreciate Larry through his performance as J.R. Ewing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very difficult time.
But though he may be best known as a villain, Hagman used his fame to try to give back.
In addition to actively supporting charities like the National Kidney Foundation and, in what might seem an irony, efforts to develop solar power, Hagman just last month announced the formation The Larry Hagman Foundation, to fund education programs promoting the fine arts and creative learning opportunities for economically disadvantaged children in Dallas.
Hagman began his acting career in the late 1950s, but it wasn't until "I Dream of Jeannie" premiered in 1965 that he found himself a star. He played Anthony Nelson, an astronaut who during a mission finds an unusual bottle, and when he opens it, out pops a genie named Jeannie -- Barbara Eden.
Through the series' five-year run, Jeannie found new ways to make Hagman's life difficult, as she tried to serve her "master."
Though Hagman continued to work regularly after "I Dream of Jeannie" ended in 1970, it wasn't until "Dallas" hit the air in 1978, that he again struck a chord with audiences.
The show was originally only supposed to be a five-episode miniseries, but the show caught on so quickly, that it was extended and eventually became a series that would become the highest rated TV show of all time.
Unlike many TV stars, who find themselves playing variations on the same character over and over, the Hagman viewers saw in J.R. Ewing was worlds away from Major Nelson.
While the astronaut was always at wits end, trying to keep Jeannie a secret and trying to prove to the base psychiatrist that he was sane, Ewing was a man who seemed completely in control of his world, wheeling and dealing, backstabbing and cheating on his wife.
Politicians tasked with negotiating a deal next month to avoid the “fiscal cliff” can be thankful that their talks are taking place immediately after a clarifying national election that laid out exactly how the public wants Washington to deal with debt and deficits.
Or not.
LONDON: India's Tata Steel intends to cut 900 jobs at its British operations and close 12 sites, the firm said on Friday in a major restructuring to respond to "difficult" trading conditions.
"Tata Steel has today announced restructuring proposals to improve the competitiveness of its UK operations so they can successfully perform in changing markets," it said in a statement.
"The proposed changes are expected to lead to a net loss of 900 jobs" - including 580 in south Wales.
"These restructuring proposals will help make our business more successful and sustainable, but the job losses are regrettable and I know this will be a difficult and unsettling time for the employees and their families affected," said Karl-Ulrich Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations.
He added in the statement that the restructuring would transform the group into a steelmaker "capable of succeeding in difficult economic conditions."
- AFP/de
The commission, in its meeting chaired by chief election commissioner VS Sampath, decided to issue the notice after prima facie finding that Vaghela had violated the model code of conduct by making speeches in Surat that made references to the post-Godhra violence.
The EC is preparing the notice and the same is likely to be issued to him by evening.
The commission's decision to issue the notice came after it received complaints against Vaghela, following which the chief electoral officer, Gujarat, and the district electoral officer, Surat, gave their reports.
It had also received a video and transcripts of the speeches and those were seen before issuing the notice.
Vaghela had on October 31 made speeches at the BRC gate ground in Surat where he made references to the Godhra incident and recollected the post-Godhra killings in a bid to woo the Muslim votebank.
The former Gujarat chief minister is reported to have reminded the voters about the post-Godhra violence and charged the Modi-led Gujarat government of having orchestrated them in his speeches.
Vaghela, who has earlier been with the BJP before switching his loyalty to the Congress, is also the chairman of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC).
Gujarat will go to polls in two phases on December 13 and 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 20.
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 of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
With earlier-than-ever deals and 147 million people expected to hit the stores this holiday weekend, retailers such as Best Buy are taking extra steps to avoid the Black Friday shopper chaos -- and inevitable news stories -- of the past.
Best Buy officials said they've been prepping for the madness for days.
The retailer has created color-coded maps, moved merchandise around to ease congestion and held a dry run so that its employees can get practice.
"[We want to] get people in safely and out safely," said Jay Buchanan, a Best Buy employee. The goal is to get them "through the lines quick, fast and in a hurry so they can get what they need."
In Bloomington, Minn., the Mall of America extended its ban on young people younger than 16 shopping without an adult during the weekend evenings to Black Friday.
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images
At the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., security planned to place barricades at the mall entrance to control the crowds and officials planned to double the number of security officers.
In Los Angeles, the police were putting hundreds of extra officers on foot, on horseback and in the air to monitor shopping crowds.
"It seems like Black Friday's become bigger and bigger as the years have gone by," said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "What we've seen across the country are huge problems with crowds. They just forget about everyday courtesy and sometimes go nuts."
According to today's news reports, though, things were already getting out of hand.
When a south Sacramento, Calif., K-Mart opened its doors at 6 a.m. today, a shopper in a line of people that had formed nearly two hours earlier reportedly threatened to stab the people around him.
And at two K-Marts in Indianapolis, police officers were called in after fights broke out among shoppers trying to score vouchers for a 32-inch plasma TV going for less than $200.
"When you have large crowds of people, control is the most important thing," Steve Reed, a security officer at the Arden Fair Mall, told ABC News affiliate News 10. "You want them [customers] to be able to get in the mall without getting trampled and having issues of any kind happening to them. That's really important for us."
TAIPEI: Many Taiwanese teachers beat their students, force them into stress positions or subject them to abusive language despite an island-wide ban on such punishments, a survey said Thursday.
More than 95 per cent of students in junior high school reported witnessing teachers imposing this type of irregular punishment in the classroom, said the survey conducted by the non-profit Humanistic Education Foundation.
About 30 per cent of the 1,122 junior high schoolers interviewed by the foundation said they themselves had received corporal punishment at schools, along with 24 per cent of the 1,112 elementary schoolers surveyed.
The survey results suggest that a ban on physical and verbal punishments introduced in Taiwanese schools in 2006 is being widely ignored.
The foundation said verbal abuse was more common than corporal punishment, citing instances of teachers calling students "stupid," "idiot," or "trash".
It added that this type of humiliating language was even more damaging than physical punishment.
If teachers violate the 2006 ban, they face demerits in minor cases or criminal prosecution if physical injuries are sustained, according to the education ministry.
An education official said the ministry's own surveys found corporal punishment relatively uncommon. This year a total of 109 teachers were demerited for meting out corporal punishment, the official said.
- AFP/il
NEW DELHI: A former NSG commando, who fought terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was invalidated from service after he became medically unfit, on Thursday claimed he has not got any financial benefits or pension and the money "gifted" to him and his colleagues.
Flanked by activist-politician Arvind Kejriwal and his associates, 34-year-old former NSG commando Surender Singh told a press conference that he has so far received just Rs 4 lakh, including Rs 2.5 lakh from the Government of India, as financial benefits.
However, the government rejected his claim with Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari saying that the commando has been paid Rs 31 lakh in the form of ex-gratia payment by the Governments of India and Maharashtra.
Interestingly, the Government's rejection first came on PIB's twitter handle even as the press conference was on.
Narating his story, Singh said he was severely injured in the operation to flush out terrorists from the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai and was invalidated from service in October, 2011.
Since last year, he alleged, he has not received "even a single paise" from the government.
Singh claimed that NSG commandos, who were injured in the 26/11 operation, received a "number of gifts in the form of cheques" but the force had not dispersed them to the people concerned.
"I saw a file in which the photocopy of a cheque of Rs 2 lakh each from Rohan Motors Pvt Ltd and another firm were received in my name. I never got the money. Not just me but none of my colleagues got the money which came in their name. I want to know who en-cashed them and where are they now?" he asked.
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 of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is being credited with brokering the cease-fire today between Israel and Hamas, but the international gratitude and praise he is gettting could come with a political price at home.
Both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama heaped praise on the Egyptian president. Obama called his Egyptian counterpart today to thank him for his efforts in the negotiations, and Clinton expressed her gratitude personally in the press conference announcing the deal.
"I want to thank President Morsi for his personal leadership to de-escalate the situation in Gaza and end the violence," said Clinton. "This is a critical moment for the region. Egypt's new government is assuming the responsibility and leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace."
FULL COVERAGE: Israel-Gaza Conflict
In the last week Egypt emerged as the third and maybe the most pivotal party in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Both Obama and Clinton made multiple calls to Morsi, understanding the long-term diplomatic consequences for America's historically strongest Arab ally in the Middle East, an ally that receives billions of dollars in aid annually.
Khaed Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
The latest crisis was considered a crucial moment for Morsi. Both the U.S. and Israel for years had come to trust and depend on former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's right hand man, Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman. He brokered the initial peace deal between Hamas and Israel and was respected by both sides. Suleiman lost power when Mubarak stepped down and died in July.
Under Morsi, Egypt, whose new governing Muslim Brotherhood party has a relationship with Hamas, also must maintain its peace treaty with Israel to keep diplomatic relations with the United States. But Morsi has a different mandate. As the first democratically-elected president, he is accountable to the people of Egypt, and must walk a fine line between meeting his constituents wants' and maintaining Egypt's diplomatic needs.
Throughout the crisis Morsi and Egyptian officials have spouted harsh rhetoric against Israel, calling the Jewish state the aggressors in the conflict and declaring that the Palestinians have the right to self-defense.
PHOTOS: Israel, Hamas Fight Over Gaza
Behind the scenes, however, Morsi has received high marks by his Israeli counterparts with Israeli President Shimon Peres calling the Egyptian president a "nice surprise" at the height of the talks on Tuesday.
Those familiar with how the cease-fire was eventually brokered credit the Egyptians, and say this was an Egyptian achievement, announced in Egypt.
But the fact that the announcement was made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, allowed Morsi some political cover from the negative swelling of Egyptian opinion over this deal.
While the U.S., Israel and Hamas may be happy about the deal, there has been significant backlash from Egyptian citizens who claim that despite the election and Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood background, he is no different than Mubarak, a puppet of the West. There are reports of calls for national protests this Friday.
There are also Egyptians who claim the president they elected cares more about the Palestinians than the many domestic problems Egyptians are facing.
SINGAPORE: A gas leak on a bus that sparked an explosion and a fire caused the death of a private bus driver in 2010, according to findings of a Coroner's Court.
Mr Chan Beng San, who was then 56 years old, died from medical complications after he suffered extensive burns.
State Coroner Eddy Tham released the findings in an inquiry into the death of Mr Chan.
The court heard that Mr Chan worked as a private bus driver for a travel company.
On 13 August 2010 at around 6.45am, Mr Chan drove the bus carrying Singapore Armed Forces personnel from Jurong Camp 1 to Poyang Range at Old Choa Chu Kang Road.
When the group boarded the bus, they alerted Mr Chan of petrol smell, but he dismissed their concerns, saying that the smell was normal, or could have been caused by previous passengers who had brought durians on board the vehicle.
The court heard that Mr Chan had contacted a colleague around that time to inform him that there was something wrong with the bus, but did not elaborate. The colleague then advised him to contact the company.
It is believed that the explosion occurred while the bus was on the move.
Around 7.30am, Mr Chan was found sitting along the road, a few metres away from the burning bus.
He suffered serious burns on his upper body and head, and died four days later in hospital.
The court heard that Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) had leaked from a piping joint, and accumulated inside the bus through two floor-mounted service access panels.
The leaked gas ignited near the front of the bus, causing an explosion, and later a fire. Although the exact cause of the explosion was not specified, investigators noted that the bus had a cigarette lighter mounted on the dashboard near the driver's seat.
Fire investigators from the Singapore Civil Defence Force noted that the incident was not caused by a mechanical failure of the CNG cylinders as the cylinders were found intact.
No foul play was suspected.
The investigations also revealed that 12 days before the incident, the bus had undergone checks after Mr Chan voiced concerns over gas leak as he felt there was no power to the bus. A mechanic conducted tests on all the joints of the CNG pipings and was convinced there was no leakage.
Following the incident, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) inspected the 22 remaining CNG-fuelled buses in the fleet used by the travel company that Mr Chan worked for. It found some design flaws in these buses that could affect the integrity of their CNG systems.
The CNG systems in these buses were then converted to diesel-powered engines before their Public Service Vehicle licences were reinstated.
- CNA/de
"He was a hero and will inspire other fighters to follow his path," the commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Kasab was the lone survivor of the terrorist squad that killed 166 people in a rampage through Mumbai in 2008.
'Taliban shocked'
Pakistan's Taliban movement expressed shock on Wednesday over India's execution of Kasab.
"There is no doubt that it's very shocking news and a big loss that a Muslim has been hanged on Indian soil," Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan told Reuters.
Before the big dinner, debunk the myths—for starters, the first "real" U.S. Thanksgiving wasn't until the 1800s—and get to the roots of Thanksgiving 2012.
Thanksgiving Dinner: Recipe for Food Coma?
Key to any Thanksgiving Day menu are a fat turkey and cranberry sauce.
An estimated 254 million turkeys will be raised for slaughter in the U.S. during 2012, up 2 percent from 2011's total, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service. Last year's birds were worth about five billion dollars.
About 46 million turkeys ended up on U.S. dinner tables last Thanksgiving—or about 736 million pounds (334 million kilograms) of turkey meat, according to estimates from the National Turkey Federation.
Minnesota is the United States' top turkey-producing state, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and Indiana.
These "big six" states produce two of every three U.S.-raised birds, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
U.S. farmers will also produce 768 million pounds (348 million kilograms) of cranberries in 2012, which, like turkeys, are native to the Americas. The top producers are Wisconsin and Massachusetts.
The U.S. will also grow 2.7 billion pounds (1.22 billion kilograms) of sweet potatoes—many in North Carolina, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana—and will produce more than 1.1 billion pounds (499 million kilograms) of pumpkins.
Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, and Ohio grow the most U.S. pumpkins.
But if you overeat at Thanksgiving dinner, there's a price to be paid for all this plenty: the Thanksgiving "food coma." The post-meal fatigue may be real, but the condition is giving turkeys a bad rap.
Contrary to myth, the amount of the organic amino acid tryptophan in most turkeys isn't responsible for drowsiness.
Instead, scientists blame booze, the sheer caloric size of an average feast, or just plain-old relaxing after stressful work schedules. (Take a Thanksgiving quiz.)
What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?
Little is known about the first Thanksgiving dinner in Plimoth (also spelled Plymouth) Colony in October 1621, attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 Wampanoag American Indian men in what is now Massachusetts.
We do know that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast, and that the colonists shot wild fowl—which may have been geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form, or forms, of Indian corn were also served.
But Jennifer Monac, spokesperson for the living-history museum Plimoth Plantation, said the feasters likely supplemented their venison and birds with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, and wheat flour, as well as vegetables, such as pumpkins, squashes, carrots, and peas.
"They ate seasonally," Monac said in 2009, "and this was the time of the year when they were really feasting. There were lots of vegetables around, because the harvest had been brought in."
Much of what we consider traditional Thanksgiving fare was unknown at the first Thanksgiving. Potatoes and sweet potatoes hadn't yet become staples of the English diet, for example. And cranberry sauce requires sugar—an expensive delicacy in the 1600s. Likewise, pumpkin pie went missing due to a lack of crust ingredients.
If you want to eat like a Pilgrim yourself, try some of the Plimoth Plantation's recipes, including stewed pompion (pumpkin) or traditional Wampanoag succotash. (See "Sixteen Indian Innovations: From Popcorn to Parkas.")
First Thanksgiving Not a True Thanksgiving?
Long before the first Thanksgiving, American Indian peoples, Europeans, and other cultures around the world had often celebrated the harvest season with feasts to offer thanks to higher powers for their sustenance and survival.
In 1541 Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his troops celebrated a "Thanksgiving" while searching for New World gold in what is now the Texas Panhandle.
Later such feasts were held by French Huguenot colonists in present-day Jacksonville, Florida (1564), by English colonists and Abnaki Indians at Maine's Kennebec River (1607), and in Jamestown, Virginia (1610), when the arrival of a food-laden ship ended a brutal famine. (Related: "Four Hundred-Year-Old Seeds, Spear Change Perceptions of Jamestown Colony.")
But it's the 1621 Plimoth Thanksgiving that's linked to the birth of our modern holiday. To tell the truth, though, the first "real" Thanksgiving happened two centuries later.
Everything we know about the three-day Plimoth gathering comes from a description in a letter wrote by Edward Winslow, leader of the Plimoth Colony, in 1621, Monac said. The letter had been lost for 200 years and was rediscovered in the 1800s, she added.
In 1841 Boston publisher Alexander Young printed Winslow's brief account of the feast and added his own twist, dubbing the 1621 feast the "First Thanksgiving."
In Winslow's "short letter, it was clear that [the 1621 feast] was not something that was supposed to be repeated again and again. It wasn't even a Thanksgiving, which in the 17th century was a day of fasting. It was a harvest celebration," Monac said.
But after its mid-1800s appearance, Young's designation caught on—to say the least.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863. He was probably swayed in part by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale—the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb"—who had suggested Thanksgiving become a holiday, historians say.
In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt established the current date for observance, the fourth Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving Turkey-in-Waiting
Each year at least two lucky turkeys avoid the dinner table, thanks to a presidential pardon—a longstanding Washington tradition of uncertain origin.
Since 1947, during the Truman Administration, the National Turkey Federation has presented two live turkeys—and a ready-to-eat turkey—to the President, federation spokesperson Sherrie Rosenblatt said in 2009.
"There are two birds," Rosenblatt explained, "the presidential turkey and the vice presidential turkey, which is an alternate, in case the presidential turkey is unable to perform its duties."
Those duties pretty much boil down to not biting the President during the photo opportunity with the press. In 2008 the vice presidential bird, "Pumpkin," stepped in for the appearance with President Bush after the presidential bird, "Pecan," had fallen ill the night before.
The lucky birds once shared a similar happy fate as Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks—a trip to Disneyland's Big Thunder Ranch in California, where they lived out their natural lives.
Since 2010, however, the birds have followed in the footsteps of the first President and taken up residence at George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens.
After the holiday season, however, the two 40-pound (18-kilogram) toms won't be on public display. These fat, farm-fed birds aren't historically accurate, unlike the wild birds that still roam the Virginia estate.
Talking Turkey
Pilgrims had been familiar with turkeys before they landed in the Americas. That's because early European explorers of the New World had returned to Europe with turkeys in tow after encountering them at Native American settlements. Native Americans had domesticated the birds centuries before European contact.
A century later Ben Franklin famously made known his preference that the turkey, rather than the bald eagle, should be the official U.S. bird.
But Franklin might have been shocked when, by the 1930s, hunting had so decimated North American wild turkey populations that their numbers had dwindled to the tens of thousands, from a peak of at least tens of millions.
Today, thanks to reintroduction efforts and hunting regulations, wild turkeys are back. (Related: "Birder's Journal: Giving Thanks for Wild Turkey Sightings.")
Some seven million wild turkeys are thriving across the U.S., and many of them have adapted easily to the suburbs—their speed presumably an asset on ever encroaching roads.
Wild turkeys can run some 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) an hour and fly in bursts at 55 miles (89 kilometers) an hour. Domesticated turkeys can't fly at all.
On Thanksgiving, Pass the Pigskin
For many U.S. citizens, Thanksgiving without football is as unthinkable as the Fourth of July without fireworks.
NBC Radio broadcast the first national Thanksgiving Day game in 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears.
Except for a respite during World War II, the Lions have played—usually badly—every Thanksgiving Day since. For the 2012 game, the 73rd, they take on the Houston Texans.
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
For a festive few, even turkey takes a backseat to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, originally called the Macy's Christmas parade, because it kicked off the shopping season.
The tradition began in 1924, when employees recruited animals from the Central Park Zoo to march on Thanksgiving Day.
Helium-filled balloons made their debut in the parade in 1927 and, in the early years, were released above the city skyline with the promise of rewards for their finders.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, first televised nationally in 1947, now draws some 44 million viewers—not counting the 3 million people who actually line the 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) Manhattan route.
Thanksgiving weekend also boasts the retail version of the Super Bowl—Black Friday, when massive sales and early opening times attract frugal shoppers.
A National Retail Federation survey projects that up to 147 million Americans will either brave the crowds to shop on 2012's Black Friday weekend or take advantage of online shopping sales, a slight dip from last year's 152 million shoppers.
Planes, Trains, and (Lots of) Automobiles
It may seem like everyone in the U.S. is on the road on Thanksgiving Day, keeping you from your turkey and stuffing.
That's not exactly true, but 43.6 million of about 314 million U.S. citizens will drive more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home for the 2012 holiday, according to the American Automobile Association. That's a small 300,000-person increase from last year.
An additional 3.14 million travelers will fly to their holiday destination and 1.3 million others will use buses, trains, or other modes of travel. These modestly rising Thanksgiving travel numbers continue to rebound slowly from a steep 25 percent drop precipitated by the onset of the 2008 recession.
Thanksgiving North of the Border
Cross-border travelers can celebrate Thanksgiving twice, because Canada celebrates its own Thanksgiving Day the second Monday in October.
As in the U.S., the event is sometimes linked to a historic feast with which it has no real ties—in this case explorer Martin Frobisher's 1578 ceremony, which gave thanks for his safe arrival in what is now New Brunswick.
Canada's Thanksgiving, established in 1879, was inspired by the U.S. holiday. Dates of observance have fluctuated—sometimes coinciding with the U.S. Thanksgiving or the Canadian veteran-appreciation holiday, Remembrance Day—and at least once Canada's Thanksgiving occurred as late as December.
But Canada's colder climate eventually led to the 1957 decision that formalized the October date.
A bomb ripped through an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people, Israeli officials said today.
The bus exploded about noon local time Wednesday in one of the city's busiest areas, near the Tel Aviv museum. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were investigating whether the bomb had been planted and left on the bus or whether it was the work of a suicide bomber.
Overnight, the violence between Israel and the neighboring Gaza Strip continued as
Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza with dozens of strikes, hitting government ministries, underground tunnels, a banker's empty villa and a Hamas-linked media office. Gaza health officials said there were no deaths or injuries.
The Israeli Defense Force said they've now destroyed 50 underground rocket launching sites in Gaza. The IDF also said that two rockets were fired from Gaza toward densely populated areas in Israel, but were intercepted by the "Iron Dome" missile shield.
In Gaza at least four strikes within seconds of each other pulverized a complex of government ministries the size of a city block, rattling nearby buildings and shattering windows. Hours later, clouds of acrid dust still hung over the area and smoke still rose from the rubble.
In downtown Gaza City, another strike leveled the empty, two-story home of a well-known banker and buried a police car parked nearby in rubble.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Palestinian President Abbas in Ramallah early Wednesday to try to help broker a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip to end a week of tit-for-tat missile and rocket fire.
Israel and the Hamas militant group seemed to edge closer to a ceasefire Tuesday to end a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, but after a day of furious diplomatic efforts, a deal remained elusive and fighting raged on both sides of the border.
Israeli officials told ABC News that a window of opportunity for a deal could close, if Hamas refuses to agree to a long-term ceasefire. That ceasefire would be measured in years, not months. Hamas is demanding that Israel loosen its iron grip on Gaza's borders and ease its maritime blockade.
Clinton will also meet with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo later today. The U.S. will not meet with Hamas because it considers it a terrorist group.
On Tuesday, Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for more than two hours behind closed doors, saying she sought to "de-escalate the situation in Gaza." Clinton hinted it would take some time to finally reach an agreement.
The meeting came amid statements from Hamas earlier in the day that a ceasefire would soon be announced.
Netanyahu said he would prefer to use "diplomatic means" to find a solution to the fighting, but that Israel would take "whatever actions necessary" to defend its people.
Clinton relayed a message from President Obama, reinforcing America's commitment to Israel's security and calling for an end to the rockets coming from "terrorist organizations in Gaza."
Clinton added that she would reiterate her message to Morsi when they meet later today.
"President Obama has emphasized the same points in his multiple conversations with President Morsi of Egypt, and we appreciate President Morsi's personal leadership and Egypt's efforts thus far," she said. "As a regional leader and neighbor, Egypt has the opportunity and responsibility to continue playing a crucial and constructive role in this process. I will carry this message to Cairo tomorrow."
The rocket fire between Israel and Hamas, which began seven days ago, has claimed more than 138 Palestinian lives and five Israeli lives. Half the Palestinian deaths were civilians; four of the five Israelis were civilians. A ceasefire, if reached, would bring a halt to the worst violence between Gaza and Israel in four years.
Ariane Tschumi has spent more than a year in government as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF), taking on challenging assignments at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) designed to develop her leadership skills and give her a window into how government operates.
She has worked alongside health-care experts designing model programs intended to better health care and lower costs, and with attorneys in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), who are trying to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the health-care system.
LONDON: UBS trader Kweku Adoboli, who gambled away $2.3 billion of the Swiss bank's money, was found guilty of one count of fraud in London on Tuesday.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court was still deliberating on one other charge of fraud and four counts of false accounting between October 2008 and September 2011.
The Ghanaian-born trader, 32, who stands accused of Britain's biggest ever fraud, admitted the losses but denied any wrongdoing.
During the two-month trial he claimed senior managers were fully aware of his activities and encouraged him to take risks to make profits for UBS.
But prosecutors claim that in a bid to boost his status and bonuses, Adoboli exceeded his trading limits, failed to hedge trades and faked records to cover
his tracks.
The court heard had that at one point he was at risk of causing the bank losses of $12 billion.
Prosecution lawyer Sasha Wass told jurors during the trial that he was "a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank for his own gain".
"Mr Adoboli's motive for this behaviour was to increase his bonus, his status within the bank, his job prospects and of course his ego," she said.
Adoboli, the privately-educated son of a former UN official, told jurors that he had dedicated his life to benefiting the bank and viewed his colleagues at UBS's London offices as "family".
- AFP/il
Singh, who came face-to-face with Obama on three occasions here for the first time after he was re-elected President in the November 6 polls in the US, told him: "Congratulations on your re-election."
The two leaders, who attended the East Asia Summit and the retreat in the Cambodian capital, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.
51-year-old Democrat Obama had defeated his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the Presidential polls to secure a second four-year term.
After Obama's re-election, Singh had said he looked forward to continuing their "friendship" and "rewarding association" as much more can be done together to further strengthen the bilateral partnership.
In his congratulatory message to Obama, Singh had referred to the association between the two leaders over the past four years and recalled that cooperation between the two countries had not only been advanced across the full spectrum of ties but engagement had been deepened.
"Dear Mr President, it gives me great pleasure to convey to you my warmest congratulations on your re-election as the President of the United States," Singh's letter had said.
Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon held a 90-minute meeting with his US counterpart Tom Donilon here and discussed bilateral relations and other issues of mutual interest.
Sources said it was a very fruitful interaction on several issues of mutual interest.
An unusual high-tech oil-drilling rig that's been at work off the coast of Cuba departed last week, headed for either Africa or Brazil. With it went the island nation's best hope, at least in the short term, for reaping a share of the energy treasure beneath the sea that separates it from its longtime ideological foe.
For many Floridians, especially in the Cuban-American community, it was welcome news this month that Cuba had drilled its third unsuccessful well this year and was suspending deepwater oil exploration. (Related Pictures: "Four Offshore Drilling Frontiers") While some feared an oil spill in the Straits of Florida, some 70 miles (113 kilometers) from the U.S. coast, others were concerned that drilling success would extend the reviled reign of the Castros, long-time dictator Fidel and his brother and hand-picked successor, Raúl.
"The regime's latest efforts to bolster their tyrannical rule through oil revenues was unsuccessful," said U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a written statement.
But Cuba's disappointing foray into deepwater doesn't end its quest for energy. The nation produces domestically only about half the oil it consumes. As with every aspect of its economy, its choices for making up the shortfall are sorely limited by the 50-year-old United States trade embargo.
At what could be a time of transition for Cuba, experts agree that the failure of deepwater exploration increases the Castro regime's dependence on the leftist government of Venezuela, which has been meeting fully half of Cuba's oil needs with steeply subsidized fuel. (Related: "Cuba's New Now") And it means Cuba will continue to seek out a wellspring of energy independence without U.S. technology, greatly increasing both the challenges, and the risks.
Rigged for the Job
There's perhaps no better symbol of the complexity of Cuba's energy chase than the Scarabeo 9, the $750 million rig that spent much of this year plumbing the depths of the Straits of Florida and Gulf of Mexico. It is the only deepwater platform in the world that can drill in Cuban waters without running afoul of U.S. sanctions. It was no easy feat to outfit the rig with fewer than 10 percent U.S. parts, given the dominance of U.S. technology in the ultra-deepwater industry. By some reports, only the Scarabeo 9's blowout preventer was made in the United States.
Owned by the Italian firm Saipem, built in China, and outfitted in Singapore, Scarabeo 9 was shipped to Cuba's coast at great cost. "They had to drag a rig from the other side of the world," said Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado, a University of Nebraska professor and expert on Cuba's oil industry. "It made the wells incredibly expensive to drill."
Leasing the semisubmersible platform at an estimated cost of $500,000 a day, three separate companies from three separate nations took their turns at drilling for Cuba. In May, Spanish company Repsol sank a well that turned out to be nonviable. Over the summer, Malaysia's Petronas took its turn, with equally disappointing results. Last up was state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA); on November 2, Granma, the Cuban national Communist Party daily newspaper, reported that effort also was unsuccessful.
It's not unusual to hit dry holes in drilling, but the approach in offshore Cuba was shaped by uniquely political circumstances. Benjamin-Alvarado points out that some of the areas drilled did turn up oil. But rather than shift nearby to find productive—if not hugely lucrative—sites, each new company dragged the rig to an entirely different area off Cuba. It's as if the companies were only going for the "big home runs" to justify the cost of drilling, he said. "The embargo had a profound impact on Cuba's efforts to find oil."
Given its prospects, it's doubtful that Cuba will give up its hunt for oil. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the waters north and west of Cuba contain 4.6 billion barrels of oil. State-owned Cubapetroleo says undiscovered offshore reserves all around the island may be more than 20 billion barrels, which would be double the reserves of Mexico.
But last week, Scarabeo 9 headed away from Cuban shores for new deepwater prospects elsewhere. That leaves Cuba without a platform that can drill in the ultradeepwater that is thought to hold the bulk of its stores. "This rig is the only shovel they have to dig for it," said Jorge Piñon, a former president of Amoco Oil Latin America (now part of BP) and an expert on Cuba's energy sector who is now a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
Many in the Cuban-American community, like Ros-Lehtinen—the daughter of an anti-Castro author and businessman, who emigrated from Cuba with her family as a child—hailed the development. She said it was important to keep up pressure on Cuba, noting that another foreign oil crew is heading for the island; Russian state-owned Zarubezhneft is expected to begin drilling this month in a shallow offshore field. She is sponsoring a bill that would further tighten the U.S. embargo to punish companies helping in Cuba's petroleum exploration. "An oil-rich Castro regime is not in our interests," she said.
Environmental, Political Risks
But an energy-poor Cuba also has its risks. One of the chief concerns has been over the danger of an accident as Cuba pursues its search for oil, so close to Florida's coastline, at times in the brisk currents of the straits, and without U.S. industry expertise on safety. The worries led to a remarkable series of meetings among environmentalists, Cuban officials, and even U.S government officials over several years. Conferences organized by groups like the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and its counterparts in Cuba have taken place in the Bahamas, Mexico City, and elsewhere. The meetings included other countries in the region to diminish political backlash, though observers say the primary goal was to bring together U.S. and Cuban officials.
EDF led a delegation last year to Cuba, where it has worked for more than a decade with Cuban scientists on shared environmental concerns. The visitors included former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator William Reilly, who co-chaired the national commission that investigated BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and spill of nearly 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. (Related Quiz: "How Much Do You Know About the Gulf Oil Spill?") They discussed Cuba's exploration plans and shared information on the risks.
"We've found world-class science in all our interactions with the Cubans," said Douglas Rader, EDF's chief oceans scientist. He said, however, that the embargo has left Cubans with insufficient resources and inexperience with high-tech gear.
Although the United States and Cuba have no formal diplomatic relations, sources say government officials have made low-profile efforts to prepare for a potential problem. But the two nations still lack an agreement on how to manage response to a drilling disaster, said Robert Muse, a Washington attorney and expert on licensing under the embargo. That lessens the chance of a coordinated response of the sort that was crucial to containing damage from the Deepwater Horizon spill, he said.
"There's a need to get over yesterday's politics," said Rader. "It's time to make sure we're all in a position to respond to the next event, wherever it is."
In addition to the environmental risks of Cuba going it alone, there are the political risks. Piñon, at the University of Texas, said success in deepwater could have helped Cuba spring free of Venezuela's influence as the time nears for the Castro brothers to give up power. Raúl Castro, who took over in 2008 for ailing brother Fidel, now 86, is himself 81 years old. At a potentially crucial time of transition, the influence of Venezuela's outspoken leftist president Hugo Chávez could thwart moves by Cuba away from its state-dominated economy or toward warmer relations with the United States, said Piñon.
Chávez's reelection to a six-year term last month keeps the Venezuelan oil flowing to Cuba for the foreseeable future. But it was clear in Havana that the nation's energy lifeline hung for a time on the outcome of this year's Venezuelan election. (Chávez's opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, complained the deal with Cuba was sapping Venezuela's economy, sending oil worth more than $4 billion a year to the island, while Venezuela was receiving only $800 million per year in medical and social services in return.)
So Cuba is determined to continue exploring. Its latest partner, Russia's Zarubezhneft, is expected to begin drilling this month in perhaps 1,000 feet of water, about 200 miles east of Havana. Piñon said the shallow water holds less promise for a major find. But that doesn't mean Cuba will give up trying.
"This is a book with many chapters," Piñon said. "And we're just done with the first chapter." (Related: "U.S. to Overtake Saudi Arabia, Russia As Top Energy Producer")
This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to the Middle East with the hope that she can help bring an end to the escalating violence that has gripped the region for the last week.
Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem later tonight to meet with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Clinton will also meet with Palestinian officials in Ramallah before heading to Cairo to meet with leaders in Egypt.
Overnight, Israeli jets hit more than 100 targets, killing five people. Gaza militants blasted more than 60 rockets in retaliation, with one of them hitting a bus in southern Israel.
Click HERE for Photos from Airstrikes and Rocket Attacks in the Middle East
A senior Israeli government official told ABC News that Netanyahu has decided to hold off on a ground invasion for a "limited time" in favor of a diplomatic solution.
"It's in nobody's interest to see this escalate," Rhodes said at a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where President Obama is attending the East Asia Summit.
Clinton, who was with Obama on his trip to Southeast Asia, hastily departed from Cambodia for the Middle East following the announcement.
A State Department official tells ABC News that Clinton's visit "will build on American engagement with regional leaders over the past days."
A White House official said they believe face-to-face diplomacy could help, but no concrete details were offered.
President Obama was on the phone until 2:30 a.m. local time with leaders in the region trying to de-escalate the violence, Rhodes told reporters. The president spoke with Netanyahu and Egyptian President Morsi on Monday as well.
"To date, we're encouraged by the cooperation and the consultation we've had with the Egyptian leadership. We want to see that, again, support a process that can de-escalate the situation," Rhodes said. "But again, the bottom line still remains that Hamas has to stop this rocket fire."
Rhodes insisted that Palestinian officials need to be a part of the discussions to end the violence and rocket fire coming out of the Hamas-ruled territory.
"The Palestinian Authority, as the elected leaders of the Palestinian people, need to be a part of this discussion," Rhodes said. "And they're clearly going to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people—a leading role."
An Israeli man armed with an axe and knife stabbed a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. The guard was wounded in the attack, but expected to live. Police apprehended the man at the scene, police said.
The man, in his early 40s, attacked the guard outside the embassy gates, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Associated Press. He said the man's motive was unknown, but political motives were not suspected and the incident had nothing to do with Israel's battle with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
With the death toll rising, Egypt accelerated efforts to broker a cease-fire Monday. Anger boiled over in Gaza as the death toll passed 100 and the civilian casualties mounted. Volleys of Palestinian militant rockets flew into Israel as Israeli drones buzzed endlessly overhead and warplanes streaked through the air to unleash missile strikes.
An Israeli strike on a Gaza City high-rise Monday killed Ramez Harb, one of the top militant leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group said.
It is also the second high profile commander taken out in the Israeli offensive, which began seven days ago with a missile strike that killed Ahmed Jibari, Hamas' top military commander.
ABC News' Reena Ninan, Dana Hughes, Mary Bruce and Matt Gutman contributed to this report.
BEIJING : Chinese merger and acquisition activity in Europe in the first quarter of 2012 surpassed that of European firms in China for the first time, a study has shown, highlighting China's growing global impact.
"Chinese investors feel that the lingering uncertainty in the eurozone increases their chances of securing favourable deals with debt-laden European companies that were until now inaccessible," Helene Rives, head of China Business Group for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said Monday in a statement.
A recent PwC report found that in the first three months of this year, 32 investment deals by Chinese companies were recorded in Europe compared with 26 by European companies in China.
"This marks the first time that deal flow volume has been greater to Europe than to China," the report said.
Europe-bound deals by mainland Chinese investors steadily increased from 11 in 2006 to 61 in 2011, the report said, adding that figures from early this year indicate another annual increase.
The report said a "relatively weak euro and declining valuations have proved fertile ground for Chinese investors to find good deals" amid the eurozone crisis.
From Europe to China, deals fell from 163 in 2006 to a low of 85 in 2009 "as European investors felt the effects of the credit crunch and the impending eurozone crisis", the report said.
European M&A recovered, however, to total 125 deals in 2011, PwC said.
Last year European companies invested 7 billion euros (US$8.9 billion) in China in M&A deals, while Chinese investments in Europe totalled more than 11 billion euros, according to the report.
- AFP/ch
Reacting to a TOI report that had said that a woman had been arrested for protesting against the shut down in Mumbai on the occasion of Thackeray's death on social networking site facebook Katju said it was "absurd" to say that protest would hurt religious sentiment.
Katju said that the arrest was a criminal act since under sections 341 and 342 it is a crime to wrongfully arrest or wrongfully confine someone who has committed no crime.
"Hence if the facts reported are correct, I request you to immediately order the suspension, arrest, chargesheeting and criminal prosecution of the police personnel (however high they may be) who ordered as well as implemented the arrest of that woman, failing which I will deem it that you as chief minister are unable to run the state in a democratic manner as envisaged by the Constitution to which you have taken oath, and then the legal consequences will follow," he added.
The tide may be turning for the rare subspecies of giant tortoise thought to have gone extinct when its last known member, the beloved Lonesome George, died in June.
A new study by Yale University researchers reveals that DNA from George's ancestors lives on—and that more of his kind may still be alive in a remote area of Ecuador's Galápagos Islands.
This isn't the first time Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni has been revived: The massive reptiles were last seen in 1906 and considered extinct until the 1972 discovery of Lonesome George, then around 60 years old, on Pinta Island. The population had been wiped out by human settlers, who overharvested the tortoises for meat and introduced goats and pigs that destroyed the tortoises' habitat and much of the island's vegetation.
Now, in an area known as Volcano Wolf—on the secluded northern tip of Isabela, another Galápagos island—the researchers have identified 17 hybrid descendants of C.n. abingdoni within a population of 1,667 tortoises.
Genetic testing identified three males, nine females, and five juveniles (under the age of 20) with DNA from C.n. abingdoni. The presence of juveniles suggests that purebred specimens may exist on the island too, the researchers said.
"Even the parents of some of the older individuals may still be alive today, given that tortoises live for so long and that we detected high levels of ancestry in a few of these hybrids," Yale evolutionary biologist Danielle Edwards said.
(See pictures of Galápagos animals.)
Galápagos Castaways
How did Lonesome George's relatives end up some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Pinta Island? Edwards said ocean currents, which would have carried the tortoises to other areas, had nothing to do with it. Instead, she thinks humans likely transported the animals.
Crews on 19th-century whaling and naval vessels hunted accessible islands like Pinta for oil and meat, carrying live tortoises back to their ships.
Tortoises can survive up to 12 months without food or water because of their slow metabolisms, making the creatures a useful source of meat to stave off scurvy on long sea voyages. But during naval conflicts, the giant tortoises—which weighed between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) each—were often thrown overboard to lighten the ship's load.
That could also explain why one of the Volcano Wolf tortoises contains DNA from the tortoise species Chelonoidis elephantopus, which is native to another island, as a previous study revealed. That species is also extinct in its native habitat, Floreana Island.
(Related: "No Lovin' for Lonesome George.")
Life After Extinction?
Giant tortoises are essential to the Galápagos Island ecosystem, Edwards said. They scatter soil and seeds, and their eating habits help maintain the population balance of woody vegetation and cacti. Now, scientists have another chance to save C.n. abingdoni and C. elephantopus.
With a grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, which also helped fund the current study, the researchers plan to return to Volcano Wolf's rugged countryside to collect hybrid tortoises—and purebreds, if the team can find them—and begin a captive-breeding program. (National Geographic News is part of the Society.)
If all goes well, both C.n. abingdoni and C. elephantopus may someday be restored to their wild homes in the Galápagos. (Learn more about the effort to revive the Floreana Galápagos tortoises.)
"The word 'extinction' signifies the point of no return," senior research scientist Adalgisa Caccone wrote in the team's grant proposal. "Yet new technology can sometimes provide hope in challenging the irrevocable nature of this concept."
More: "Galápagos Expedition Journal: Face to Face With Giant Tortoises" >>
The new Lonesome George study was published by the journal Biological Conservation.
Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip on Monday, driving up the civilian death toll and in one case devastating several homes belonging to one clan — the fallout from a new tactic in Israel's six-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire on Israel.
Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp spike in civilian casualties, killing 24 civilians in less than 24 hours, a Gaza health official said. Overall, the offensive that began Wednesday killed 91 Palestinians, including 50 civilians.
The rising civilian toll was likely to intensify pressure on Israel to end the fighting. Hundreds of civilian casualties in an Israeli offensive in Gaza four years ago led to fierce international condemnation of Israel.
Hamas fighters, meanwhile, have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting, including 12 on Monday, among them one that hit an empty school.
The new airstrikes came as Egypt was trying to broker a cease-fire, with the help of Turkey and Qatar. The Turkish foreign minister and a delegation of Arab foreign ministers were expected in Gaza on Tuesday. However, Israel and Hamas appeared far apart in their demands, and a quick end to the fighting seemed unlikely.
In Monday's violence, a missile struck a three-story home in the Gaza City's Zeitoun area, flattening the building and badly damaging several nearby homes. Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street.
The strike killed two children and two adults, and injured 42 people, said Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Residents said Israel first sent a warning strike at around 2 a.m. Monday, prompting many residents in the area to flee their homes. A few minutes later, heavy bombardment followed.
Ahed Kitati, 38, had rushed out after the warning missile to try to hustle people to safety. But he was fatally struck by a falling cinderblock, leaving behind a pregnant wife, five young daughters and a son, the residents said.
Sitting in mourning with her mother and siblings just hours after her father's death, 11-year-old Aya Kitati clutched a black jacket, saying she was freezing, even though the weather was mild. "We were sleeping, and then we heard the sound of the bombs," she said, then broke down sobbing.
Ahed's brother, Jawad Kitati, said he plucked the lifeless body of a 2-year-old relative from the street and carried him to an ambulance. Blood stains smeared his jacket sleeve.
Another clan member, Haitham Abu Zour, 24, woke up to the sound of the warning strike and hid in a stairwell. He emerged to find his wife dead and his two infant children buried under the debris, but safe.
Clan elder Mohammed Azzam, 61, denied that anyone in his family had any connections to Hamas.
"The Jews are liars," he said. "No matter how much they pressure our people, we will not withdraw our support for Hamas."
Late Sunday, an Israeli missile killed a father and his eight-year-old son on the roof of their Gaza City home. The father, a Hamas policeman, was on the roof to repair a leaking water tank, his relatives said.
Then-defense secretary Robert M. Gates stopped bagging his leaves when he moved into a small Washington military enclave in 2007. His next-door neighbor was Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, who had a chef, a personal valet and — not lost on Gates — troops to tend his property.
Gates may have been the civilian leader of the world’s largest military, but his position did not come with household staff. So, he often joked, he disposed of his leaves by blowing them onto the chairman’s lawn.
BANGKOK: US President Barack Obama landed in Thailand on Sunday, intensifying his diplomatic "pivot" to Asia, on a tour which will see him make history by visiting Myanmar in a bid to encourage political reform.
He will be the first sitting US president to set foot in the nation, reflecting a dramatic thaw in relations brought about by sweeping political changes under a new reformist government.
Obama, who has dubbed himself America's first "Pacific president", landed in Bangkok and was due to have an audience with Thailand's revered but ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, as well as talks with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
The highlight of his tour will come on Monday when he flies into Yangon and meets President Thein Sein, followed by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, and makes a major speech at Yangon University, a symbolic cockpit of student unrest.
He will then journey to Cambodia for the East Asia Summit, taking place amid renewed disquiet in the region over the geopolitical consequences of China's rise amid a flurry of territorial disputes.
Obama is making his fifth visit to Asia since taking office in 2009 and his second this year, a period otherwise consumed by heavy-duty campaigning ahead of his poll triumph on November 6.
Obama's first stop in Thailand is meant to signal that Washington is committed to a strong set of alliances in a region preoccupied by the geopolitical implications of a rising China.
"Allies are the cornerstone of our rebalancing effort in Asia," said Ben Rhodes, a US deputy national security advisor, as Obama flew to Bangkok aboard Air Force One.
"Thailand is actually the oldest treaty ally of the United States, an ally since 1954 and a key partner in Southeast Asia."
With Yingluck, with whom he will also have a press conference, Obama plans to discuss US cooperation with Thailand, counter-narcotics issues, terrorism and trade. He will also inaugurate a programme to connect US and Thai universities.
The White House hopes Obama's visit to Myanmar will give a fresh boost to Thein Sein's reform drive, which saw Suu Kyi enter parliament after her rivals in the junta made way for a nominally civilian government -- albeit in a system still stacked heavily in favour of the military.
Some human rights groups said Obama should have waited longer to visit, arguing that he could have dangled the prospect of a trip as leverage to seek more progress such as the release of scores of remaining political prisoners.
But officials say that Obama will encourage the regime to double down on more reform, and that his influence could be important at a crucial moment in Myanmar's emergence from decades of isolation and repression.
The United States on Friday scrapped a nearly decade-old ban on most imports from the country, after earlier lifting other sanctions.
Myanmar last week pardoned hundreds more prisoners but they were apparently mostly common criminals and not dissidents. Activists slammed the move as a ploy to curry favour before Obama's visit.
Ahead of the visit, Rhodes said Myanmar had made "positive" steps towards weaning itself off a military relationship with North Korea, and dangled the carrot of future military exercises with US and Thai forces if the reform effort is sustained.
Thein Sein has said Myanmar will refrain from military cooperation with North Korea, but sectors of the country's powerful military are believed to be resistant to cutting all ties with the state.
The trip will be somewhat overshadowed by a wave of violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state between ethnic Rakhines and minority Rohingyas, which the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Saturday branded as "genocide".
Obama will also be the first sitting US president to visit Cambodia late on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Hun Sen, ahead of the East Asia summit.
But Rhodes said the White House had "grave concerns" over Cambodia's record on human rights, and Obama would not be visiting were it not for the fact that the East Asia Summit is being held there.
Cambodia has been a staunch supporter of China. It was seen as scuttling an initiative on resolving Asian maritime disputes when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited for regional talks in July.
On the summit's sidelines, Obama will meet China's outgoing premier Wen Jiabao and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan, whose relations with Beijing have frayed because of rival territorial claims.
- AFP/xq
All the big guns of TV journalism were there to anchor the coverage of a funeral, which was nothing but a vicarious treat of a public spectacle for a Sunday audience.
All television channels competed with each other to give the best shot of the funeral procession of the leader who was the militant flag-bearer of Hindu nationalism and who did not hesitate to resort to mob tactics to have his will enforced. Thackeray was 86.
Since early morning, TV channels zoomed live footage of the procession that brought Mumbai to a standstill into the drawing rooms and bedrooms of tens and millions of TV viewers.
Interestingly, Times Now had seven camera crew covering the funeral process, while NDTV had at least three crew out in the field.
But his death deserved such a frenzy, said media watcher and Centre for Media Studies chairman N. Bhaskara Rao.
First and foremost, according to Rao, was the "emotional connect" that many in Mumbai have with the senior Thackeray, whose political journey began and ended with the megalopolis and for the Maharashtrian population of the country's financial capital.
"Thackeray had a distinct personality. He did not fall into the usual categories of politicians that we see in Delhi. He was far apart from all of them and was unambiguous in his political views. He had been in politics for long and has got entangled in many controversies. All these are a good story to tell at a time when he is no more," Rao told IANS.
For this reason alone, he "deserves" the kind of coverage he got, Rao said, noting that television channels have a lot of footage from all these years of his political life that they would like to flaunt at this hour.
"It is quite tempting for any TV channel to bring out those footage and show it to their viewers. This is one compulsion that the new media has," he noted.
Another reason Rao could cite was the day of the funeral being Sunday and not much pan-India news breaks happening on account of the weekly holiday.
"Mumbai is a big market for all the television channels. Anything big in such a market is big for the channels too," he added.
And last, but not the least, the political story that the demise of Thackeray has kicked up -- the future of his Shiv Sena itself under son Uddhav and if there is a possibility of merger with the breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena of cousin Raj.
"All these factors and elements add up to a good, massive coverage. The funeral procession and the political message suits the television medium," Rao added.
The tide may be turning for the rare subspecies of giant tortoise thought to have gone extinct when its last known member, the beloved Lonesome George, died in June.
A new study by Yale University researchers reveals that DNA from George's ancestors lives on—and that more of his kind may still be alive in a remote area of Ecuador's Galápagos Islands.
This isn't the first time Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni has been revived: The massive reptiles were last seen in 1906 and considered extinct until the 1972 discovery of Lonesome George, then around 60 years old, on Pinta Island. The population had been wiped out by human settlers, who overharvested the tortoises for meat and introduced goats and pigs that destroyed the tortoises' habitat and much of the island's vegetation.
Now, in an area known as Volcano Wolf—on the secluded northern tip of Isabela, another Galápagos island—the researchers have identified 17 hybrid descendants of C.n. abingdoni within a population of 1,667 tortoises.
Genetic testing identified three males, nine females, and five juveniles (under the age of 20) with DNA from C.n. abingdoni. The presence of juveniles suggests that purebred specimens may exist on the island too, the researchers said.
"Even the parents of some of the older individuals may still be alive today, given that tortoises live for so long and that we detected high levels of ancestry in a few of these hybrids," Yale evolutionary biologist Danielle Edwards said.
(See pictures of Galápagos animals.)
Galápagos Castaways
How did Lonesome George's relatives end up some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Pinta Island? Edwards said ocean currents, which would have carried the tortoises to other areas, had nothing to do with it. Instead, she thinks humans likely transported the animals.
Crews on 19th-century whaling and naval vessels hunted accessible islands like Pinta for oil and meat, carrying live tortoises back to their ships.
Tortoises can survive up to 12 months without food or water because of their slow metabolisms, making the creatures a useful source of meat to stave off scurvy on long sea voyages. But during naval conflicts, the giant tortoises—which weighed between 200 and 600 pounds (90 and 270 kilograms) each—were often thrown overboard to lighten the ship's load.
That could also explain why one of the Volcano Wolf tortoises contains DNA from the tortoise species Chelonoidis elephantopus, which is native to another island, as a previous study revealed. That species is also extinct in its native habitat, Floreana Island.
(Related: "No Lovin' for Lonesome George.")
Life After Extinction?
Giant tortoises are essential to the Galápagos Island ecosystem, Edwards said. They scatter soil and seeds, and their eating habits help maintain the population balance of woody vegetation and cacti. Now, scientists have another chance to save C.n. abingdoni and C. elephantopus.
With a grant from the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, which also helped fund the current study, the researchers plan to return to Volcano Wolf's rugged countryside to collect hybrid tortoises—and purebreds, if the team can find them—and begin a captive-breeding program. (National Geographic News is part of the Society.)
If all goes well, both C.n. abingdoni and C. elephantopus may someday be restored to their wild homes in the Galápagos. (Learn more about the effort to revive the Floreana Galápagos tortoises.)
"The word 'extinction' signifies the point of no return," senior research scientist Adalgisa Caccone wrote in the team's grant proposal. "Yet new technology can sometimes provide hope in challenging the irrevocable nature of this concept."
More: "Galápagos Expedition Journal: Face to Face With Giant Tortoises" >>
The new Lonesome George study was published by the journal Biological Conservation.
Israel said that it will install a fifth "Iron Dome" battery before the end of the year, adding another installation to the country's missile defense system, which has proven itself this week, intercepting more than 150 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
The missile defense system, which can identify enemy rockets, determine if they pose a threat to populated areas, and destroy them within a matter of seconds, has been praised by Israel's leaders for saving hundreds of lives.
The system, however, comes with a steep price. Each interceptor missile, which includes a radar guidance system, costs $40,000. Israel has not disclosed how many missiles are required to take down an enemy rocket or how many interceptors it has fired, but experts estimate the country has fired $8 million worth of missiles in the past three days.
The Israelis are only trying to shoot down about a third of the rockets fired by militants, those on a trajectory towards populated areas, said Ben Goodlad, a senior aerospace and defense analyst at IHS Jane's. But of the rockets Iron Dome has targeted, the system is between 87 and 90 percent successful in destroying.
"That is an incredibly high success rate for the system," he said. "What isn't clear is how many interceptor missiles are fired. There may be two, three, or four fired at a one time to take down a rocket."
Palestinian militants working out of the Gaza Strip, a ribbon of coastline controlled by Hamas, have for years been stockpiling short- and medium-range rockets, built at a fraction of the cost of the Iron Dome missiles and then stored in highly populated areas near hospitals and schools.
Hamas is considered by the U.S. and Europe Union as a terrorist organization.
Militants this week fired rockets further into Israel than ever before, targeting the country's two largest cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but there were no casualties in those cities. Three Israelis were killed by rockets elsewhere in Israel.
"We are very pleased with the interception rates," aerial defense commander Brig. Gen. Shachar Shochet told reporters on Thursday. "We have intercepted dozens of Grad and Qassam rockets fired by Hamas and other groups, and prevented serious harm to our civilians."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the country the system had saved lives.
"No other country in the world has technology like the Iron Dome," Barak said. "Had the system not existed, many civilians would be in harm's way. However, the system is not a 100 percent foolproof defense, and does not absolve citizens of their duty to closely follow instructions given by Homefront Command."
The system is not perfect, and can be breeched by a large volley of rockets fired at once, a problem of "saturation," said former White House counterterrorism adviser and ABC News consultant Dick Clark.
Israel, therefore, plans to target the rocket stockpiles rather than continue to shoot down individual missiles. Israel has called up more than 60,000 reserve soldiers and appears to be planning a ground strike in Gaza soon.
Currently four mobile batteries equipped with sophisticated radar technology and missiles and on-board radar, are combined to create a shield over the country.
In 2006, 4,000 rockets were fired at Israel during a war with Lebanon that left 44 civilians dead. In response, the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli defense manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems began developing Iron Dome.
In 2010, after tests proved effective, the United States began funding the program in part. Earlier this year, Congress authorized $600 million for the program, with instructions that the U.S. would eventually begin co-production of the system.
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