Tax fight sends GOP into chaos

The main thing that has held Republicans together philosophically is the belief in holding down taxes. Not one of them in Congress has voted for a significant increase in more than two decades. Now that very issue is tearing the GOP apart and making it an all-but-ungovernable majority for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead in the House. Disarray is a word much overused in politics....

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Japan's incoming PM pledges to mend ties with China

TOKYO: Japan's incoming premier on Saturday pledged to seek a thaw in ties with China after a report said he will send a special envoy on a fence-mending mission to Beijing.Ties between Japan and China have become increasingly strained over a disputed island chain -- the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus -- with neither side willing to budge after months of bitter...

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Newly elected Himachal MLA booked for murder, on the run

SHIMLA: Ahead of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Saturday to elect Himachal Pradesh's next chief minister, one of the party's newly elected legislators has gone underground after being booked in a murder case.Ram Kumar Chaudhary, a first-time MLA from Doon constituency in Solan district, is one of the four suspects in the murder of a 24-year-old woman in Panchkula in Haryana Nov 22."Police...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.“Even though Democrats and Republicans are...

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How Boehner’s Plan B for the ‘fiscal cliff’ began and fell apart

John A. Boehner’s week on the brink ended in a painfully familiar place. It began last week when President Obama delivered a stern message to the House speaker: If there was going to be a deal to tame the nation’s debt, it had to happen now. If they went over the “fiscal cliff,” it would only become harder to reach a deal, Obama said. The next day, Friday, Boehner (R-Ohio) phoned...

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Kingfisher shares rise on new licence application

NEW DELHI: Shares in India's grounded Kingfisher Airlines climbed nearly three per cent on Friday on news that the stricken carrier has applied to renew its operating licence.The move came days after Kingfisher, whose liquor baron owner Vijay Mallya has been desperately seeking investment from foreign carriers, said it aims to resume operations in a "phased manner".Kingfisher's shares...

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CWG scam: Delhi court orders framing of charges against Suresh Kalmadi & others

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today ordered framing of charges against sacked CWG organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and others for offences of forgery, cheating and conspiracy in a games-related graft case.Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh passed the order on framing of charges against Kalmadi, former OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and nine others for illegally awarding a contract to Swiss...

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

With shiny evergreen leaves and bright red berries, holly trees are a naturally festive decoration seen throughout the Christmas season.They're famously sharp. But not all holly leaves are prickly, even on the same tree. And scientists now think they know how the plants are able to make sharper leaves, seemingly at will. (Watch a video about how Christmas trees are made.)A new study...

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Fiscal Cliff 'Plan B' Is Dead: Now What?

Dec 20, 2012 11:00pm The defeat of his Plan B — Republicans pulled it when it became clear it would be voted down — is a big defeat for Speaker of the House John Boehner.  It demonstrates definitively that there is no fiscal cliff deal that can pass the House on Republican votes alone.Boehner could not even muster the votes to pass something that would only allow...

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Train service disrupted on NEL due to train fault

SINGAPORE: Train services on the Northeast Line have been delayed due to a train fault on Thursday.A caller to the MediaCorp hotline said a train has apparently broken down.She said commuters have been told to take the bus to Serangoon station to continue their journey.Delays of up to 20 minutes can be expected in train services in both directions.One commuter said she had been stuck in...

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Samajwadi Party MP expresses regret over bill snatching incident: Speaker

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party member Yashvir Singh, who had stunned the Lok Sabha yesterday by snatching a copy of the quota bill from minister V Narayanasamy, today expressed regret over the incident. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said the member had expressed regret over the unfortunate incident which had shaken the foundation of democracy. Kumar said the untoward incident had led to abrupt adjournment...

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.Bats are a major reservoir...

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Obama Invokes Newtown on 'Cliff' Deal

Invoking the somber aftermath of the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., President Obama today appealed to congressional Republicans to embrace a standing "fair deal" on taxes and spending that would avert the fiscal cliff in 13 days."If there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be a sense of perspective about what's important," Obama said at a midday news conference."I...

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50 community countdown parties to welcome 2013

SINGAPORE: Grassroots organisations under the People's Association umbrella are organising about 50 community countdown parties islandwide to usher in the new year.80,000 residents are expected to join in the revelry, which will also feature more budding local performers. Some of the highlights include a cosplay event, stargazing, and fireworks.For example, for the countdown at Boon Lay,...

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Lok Sabha adjourned till 2pm after uproar over quota bill

NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha today witnessed repeated uproar before the quota in promotion bill was to be taken up for consideration, with the Samajwadi Party members storming the Well in protest against the measure. The House also saw noisy scenes over demands by women opposition members seeking adequate protection to women in the backdrop of the barbaric incident of rape on a 23-year old girl in Delhi...

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Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice

A hundred years ago, two teams of explorers set out to be the first people ever to reach the South Pole. The race between Roald Amundsen of Norway and Robert Falcon Scott of Britain became the stuff of triumph, tragedy, and legend. (See rare pictures of Scott's expedition.)Today, another Antarctic drama is underway that has a similar daring and intensity—but very different stakes.Three...

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Newtown Settles In for Prayerful, Somber Christmas

Residents of Sandy Hook, Conn., gather every year under an enormous tree in the middle of town to sing carols and light the tree. The tree is lit this year, too, but the scene beneath it is starkly different.The tree looms over hundreds of teddy bears and toys, but they are for children who will never receive them. The ornaments are adorned with names and jarringly recent birth...

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Gun-control legislation: The difference between 1994 and today

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may be the most outspoken elected official advocating for enhanced gun safety laws, but the New York public servant who has hands-on experience in Washington getting such legislation passed is promoting the use of smart phones to hail cabs in Manhattan. In a prior life, New York’s taxi and limousine commissioner, David Yassky, played a major role in writing the...

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Report details extensive Walmart bribery in Mexico

NEW YORK: Retail giant Walmart aggressively bribed Mexican officials to get the necessary permits to open more than a dozen supermarkets across the country, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.The newspaper said its own investigation had identified 19 store sites that were the target of bribery, and detailed one case in which more than $200,000 in bribes was paid to build a supermarket...

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Mulayam raises Muslim quota issue in Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday pressed the government to give reservations to the Muslims in proportion to their population. A day after the SP disrupted the Lok Sabha functioning over the issue of reservation to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in job promotions, Mulayam Singh said in the house: "Muslims and farmers have contributed 80% in the...

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.Although the mountain...

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Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral...

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Obama in Newtown, Conn.: ‘You’re not alone in your grief’ over school massacre

NEWTOWN, Conn. — President Obama offered words of solace to a heartbroken and inconsolable community Sunday, meeting with loved ones of the dead from Sandy Hook Elementary School and lamenting at a nationally televised memorial service that the United States has failed in its duty “to keep our children, all of them,” safe from harm. “Whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will...

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Royal Thai Air Force Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong visits S'pore

SINGAPORE: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Prajin Juntong is in Singapore on a three-day introductory visit. He called on Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on Monday afternoon. ACM Prajin had earlier called on Chief of Air Force Major-General Ng Chee Meng after inspecting a Guard of Honour.ACM...

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Pakistan had been misleading India, never detained Hafiz Saeed in 26\11 case

NEW DELHI: Pakistan had never detained or arrested the 26\11 mastermind and Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed in the Mumbai attack case as repeatedly claimed by the country at every bilateral forum. Saeed was, in fact, detained in connection with some old cases in which he was subsequently given clean chit by that country's courts.It was revealed when Pakistan shared documents, including FIRs...

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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Obama: Nation Faces 'Hard Questions' After Shooting

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would...

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Resolution of stalled upgrading works at Rivervale Plaza one key priority: DPM

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has said that one of the priorities he wants to tackle for Punggol East residents is the resolution of upgrading works at Rivervale Plaza.Works there have been delayed because the contractor has gone bust.Mr Teo, who is also the anchor minister for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday.The...

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ISRO to visit Leh to examine mysterious luminous objects

NEW DELHI: A team of scientists from Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) will soon arrive in Leh to further corroborate that the mysterious luminous objects seen on the horizon over a lake in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir are actually "Chinese lanterns". Official sources said today that after getting the preliminary report that the luminous objects flying over the horizon of Pangong lake,...

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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Conn. Victim's Father Remembers 'Loving' Daughter

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman’s bullets not claimed her life, her father said.“My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that’s the kind...

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