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..

Hockey: Five-a-side format to make debut in S'pore

SINGAPORE: A new format of hockey introduced by the International Hockey Federation is set to make its international debut in Singapore.The Boys U-16 Asia Cup competition, which will take place in April, will be the first official hockey tournament to use the five-a-side format.Since October, 15 boys from the Singapore team have been training at the Sengkang Hockey stadium and they are...

Read More..

15 special teams constituted to crack Hyderabad blasts case, Andhra govt hopeful

HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Two days after twin blasts rocked the city, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday claimed to have got "vital clues" to crack the case soon with the needle of suspicion zeroing in on banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen."We have already gathered vital clues in the case. We are confident we will crack the case soon," state home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy said after a high-level...

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..

Eurozone facing recession right through 2013: EU

BRUSSELS: The eurozone faces another full year of recession in 2013 with unemployment likely to surge above the 20-million mark, and French and Spanish state spending badly overshooting targets, the EU said on Friday.Economic output across the 17-state currency area is set to shrink by 0.3 percent this year after a 0.6-percent contraction last year, the European Commission said.That means...

Read More..

Hyderabad blasts: Shinde 'totally disappointing', opposition and UPA allies say

NEW DELHI: Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday came under sharp attack from opposition as well as UPA allies SP and DMK, which trashed his statement on Hyderabad blasts as "totally disappointing" and "devoid of any concrete and meaningful plan of action". Shinde made a statement in the House on Thursday's blasts saying government will make all possible efforts to apprehend the perpetrators...

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..

Arias Challenged On Pedophilia Claim

Accused murderer Jodi Arias was challenged today by phone records, text message records, and her own diary entries that appeared to contradict her claim that she caught her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, looking at pictures of naked boys.Arias had said during her testimony that one afternoon in January 2008, she walked in on Alexander masturbating to pictures of naked boys....

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..

Man who drowned in NUS pool unlikely to survive despite resuscitation

SINGAPORE: A man who drowned in a pool at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2007, would likely not have survived despite resuscitaton efforts, according to a cardiologist during a court hearing on Thursday.40-year-old Roland Yeo, who was an IT manager with NUS, drowned after suffering a sudden heart attack in the university's pool on June 6, 2007. His wife is seeking S$1 million...

Read More..

SC sets up special team to examine contents of Radia tapes

NEW DELHI: A six-member special team comprising five from the CBI and one from the Income Tax department was today constituted by the Supreme Court to examine the contents of tapped telephonic conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporate honchos and others. A bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said the working of the team will be supervised by...

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..

Arias Leaves Stand After Describing Killing, Her Lies

Jodi Arias stepped down from the witness stand today after mounting an emotional effort to save herself from death row, insisting to the Arizona jury that an explosive fight with ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander led to his death, and that her lies about killing him masked deep regret and plans to commit suicide.Arias, 32, will now face what is expected to be a withering cross-examination...

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..

Tunisia president holds crisis talks over new PM

TUNIS: President Moncef Marzouki was holding urgent talks on Wednesday with political leaders in a bid to steer Tunisia out of a weeks-long crisis exacerbated by the resignation of Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.Marzouki was meeting in the morning with leader of the Islamist ruling Ennahda party, Rached Ghannouchi, and later with Maya Jribi of the opposition Republican party, his office...

Read More..

DRDO says it has capability to produce VVIP choppers

NEW DELHI: With the deal for procuring VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland facing the prospect of being scrapped, DRDO today said it has the capability to manufacture such helicopters even though it contended that producing anything entirely indigenously was impractical."We have the capability to manufacture any system. We are manufacturing LCH (Light Compact Helicopter). We have already manufactured...

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..

Former Navy SEAL on Coming Out of Shadows

It used to be that Navy SEALs didn't just operate in the shadows. They trained in them too. Their whole story stayed shrouded in mystery. Their secret missions stayed secret to the rest of us.But when they got Osama Bin Laden, snatched back an American cargo ship taken by pirates and rescued two air workers held hostage in Somalia, then suddenly, it seemed that SEALs were headline-makers.Add...

Read More..

S'pore's fiscal surplus for FY2012 expected to surpass govt's estimates: economists

SINGAPORE: Despite booking a slower GDP growth of 1.2 percent last year, economists expect Singapore's fiscal surplus to surprise on the upside for FY 2012.The projections, which range from S$1.6 billion to nearly S$5 billion, surpass the government's estimates of a S$1.27 billion surplus for the year.The record number of new homes sold last year despite additional cooling measures and...

Read More..

UPA won't return to power, Sharad Yadav says

BHOPAL: The Congress-led UPA government was "mired in corruption" and had "failed on all fronts", and there was no way it could return to power at the Centre after next general elections, NDA convener Sharad Yadav said on Tuesday. "The UPA government has been hit by one scam after another during its second tenure. There is no doubt that it has failed on all fronts and it would not return to power...

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..