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.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a bomb blast near a Shiite Muslim procession in northwest Pakistan that killed seven people.
"We carried out the attack against the Shiite community," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location after the explosion on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
He said the Taliban had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community.
"We have 20-25 fidayeen (suicide bombers) in the country to launch bomb blasts and suicide attacks," Ehsan said.
"The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks."
- AFP/fa
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.
SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old Singaporean has been referred to the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for investigations after 21 puppies were found hidden in the spare tyre compartment of his car.
In a statement, the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said the male driver appeared visibly nervous when his vehicle pulled up for arrival clearance at the Woodlands Checkpoint on November 20 at 11.45am.
Sensing something amiss, ICA officers lifted the cover of the spare tyre compartment and found the puppies - 14 pomeranians and 7 pugs - sedated, and lying side by side.
The puppies are currently under observation at AVA's Sembawang Animal Quarantine Station.
The ICA and AVA remind travellers against bringing live animals, birds and insects into Singapore without a proper permit.
It said animals that are smuggled into Singapore are of unknown health status. In the case of dogs and cats, the foremost concern is the risk of rabies, a fatal viral disease, which can be transmitted to human being by the bite of a rabid animal.
Anyone who imports an animal without a licence is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.
- CNA/de
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."
ROME: Visiting supporters from English Premier League club Tottenham were injured overnight after suspected hardline fans of Lazio attacked a pub in Rome, police sources said.
One of those injured had to attend hospital after the attack, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning when a group of Italians wearing masks attacked the premises, according to witnesses quoted by the ANSA news agency.
Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper said the injured supporter had suffered a stabbing wound. He had been among a group of 10 fans which included nine English and one American national.
Lazio host Tottenham at the Olympic Stadium later Thursday for a Europa League match.
- AFP
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.
(Olivier Douliery/via Bloomberg)
“I’ve put forward a detailed plan that allows us to make these investments while reducing our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade.”
— President Obama, Nov. 9, 2012
Much of the attention concerning the so-called “fiscal cliff” has focused on tax revenues, specifically President Obama’s demand that tax rates rise for the wealthiest Americans. But the other side of the ledger — spending — is equally important, if the goal is to reduce federal budget deficits.
Indeed, the fiscal cliff includes automatic spending cuts that members of both parties want to halt. But more broadly, a “grand bargain” between the two parties would likely include an effort to slow the growth of big entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
There’s one key roadblock to any agreement: Are lawmakers actually speaking the same language, budget wise, as they negotiate?
Let’s explain.
The Facts
The first step in any budget agreement is the baseline — the point from which lawmakers and the administration measure any cuts or increases in spending and revenue. The baseline is also the source of many budget gimmicks.
For instance, should cuts in spending reached as part of the debt ceiling deal last year count as new spending cuts — or old ones? Obama’s claim that he would reduce the deficit by $4 trillion is based on the fact that he counts the 2011 debt deal as new cuts because, by his logic, many of those cuts have not yet taken place.
But Republicans would say those cuts are old news — and so they would argue the baseline for negotiation has to assume those cuts have already taken place. Either way, it’s worth more than $1.5 trillion to the 10-year budget baseline.
Obama also wants to get budget credit for winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, thus claiming another $800 billion in savings. But Republicans view that as budget sleight-of-hand and would not want to give much credit for it.
Another big item is the arcane provision known as the “doc fix,” a leftover problem from the long-ago Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which mandates Medicare cuts to providers that no one has ever wanted to take effect. Democrats and Republicans disagree whether this should be reflected in the baseline, but it is not a trifle: it costs $400 billion over 10 years.
So already, the parties are about $3 trillion apart on spending without even breaking a sweat — and before they begin arguing about entitlements or economic assumptions. (Higher projections of growth would increase predicted tax revenue, for instance, while lower interest rates would positively affect projections for servicing the debt.)
The 10-year window allows for some flexibility, because many of the cuts can be placed far in the future. Obama’s 2013 budget, in fact, increased spending in the coming year even while it claimed ten years of spending reductions.
The Bottom Line
There is no easy way to bridge these gaps, especially because both House and Senate Republicans have earlier in the year denounced some of Obama’s budget maneuvers—such as the claimed war savings — as “gimmicks.” In ways, the gaps over spending loom as large as the conflict over tax revenues.
Still, common agreement on how to measure proposed budget savings would be a sign that both sides are seriously trying to resolve their fiscal disputes.
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JERUSALEM - A blast on a Tel Aviv bus on Wednesday injured at least 10 people, three of them seriously, in what was "a terrorist attack," the prime minister's spokesman and medics said.
"A bomb exploded on a bus in central Tel Aviv. This was a terrorist attack. Most of the injured suffered only mild injuries," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Ofir Gendelman said on his official Twitter account.
Medics said at least 10 people were wounded, three seriously.
- AFP/ir
Kasab, who has been lodged at Arthur Road prison here ever since his arrest soon after the Mumbai terror attack, was whisked out of his heavily-guarded cell in the intervening night of November 18 and 19, a senior police official said.
"Kasab was escorted by senior officials of crime branch, commandos of Quick Response Team (QRT) and ITBP officials, who have been guarding the terrorist since his arrest in November 2008. The team, along with Kasab reached Pune's Yerwada jail in the wee hours of November 19," the official said.
According to the officer, except the jail superintendent, deputy jailor and doctor, no jail authority was informed about the identity of the accused.
"The jail authorities were only told that a high-profile accused is being brought to Yerwada. His identity was not revealed. Kasab was lodged in an isolated egg-shaped cell guarded by ITBP personnel," the official said.
Even the hangman was not informed about the identity of the accused till the last minute. "We had told the hangman that he is to execute the death penalty of a terrorist. The identity was revealed to him only few minutes before the execution," the official said.
Kasab was confined to a special-made bullet and bomb-proof cell at Arthur Road Central prison ever since his arrest in November 2008. However, he was executed in Yerwada prison as facilities to hang exist in that prison only, he said.
Before the execution, as per the norms, Kasab was asked if he had any final wishes, to which the terrorist replied in the negative.
Soon after he was hanged, the doctor, who was present in the room, confirmed Kasab's death and informed the government authorities.
According to authorities, Kasab's body has been buried inside Yerwada jail itself.
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.
Nov 20, 2012 7:27pm
AP Photo/Hatem Moussa
As news reports emerged Tuesday of a cease-fire or truce to end the crisis in Gaza, American officials made it a point not to use either of those terms.
Instead, U.S. officials were talking about “de-escalating” the violence in Gaza as a step toward a long-term resolution.
Briefing White House reporters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes repeatedly said “de-escalation” was the goal for ending the violence in Gaza and Israel.
When asked if he was avoiding using the term “cease-fire,” Rhodes said, ”No, I mean, there are many ways that you can achieve the goal of a de-escalation.” He added, ” Our bottom line is, is an end to rocket fire. We’re open to any number of ideas for achieving that goal. We’ve discussed any number of ideas for accomplishing that goal. But it’s going to have to begin with a reduction of tensions and space created for the situation to calm. ”
At the State Department briefing earlier in the day, spokesperson Victoria Nuland was also using “de-escalation.”
Nuland was asked several times why she was using that term instead of “ceasefire” or “truce.” She indicated it was because the State Department did not want to get into characterizing acceptable terminology. “I’m not going to characterize X is acceptable, Y is not acceptable. That’s a subject for negotiation,” she said.
Furthermore, she said, “because the parties are talking, we’re going to be part of that, and we’re not going to negotiate it here from the podium. We’re not going to characterize it here from the podium.”
The message she did want to get across was that “any de-escalation is a step forward.”
Of the long-term aims of Secretary of State Clinton’s last minute mission to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Cairo, Nuland said you “obviously start with a de-escalation of this conflict.” From there, “we have to see an end to the rocket fire on Israel. We have to see a restoration of calm in Gaza. And the hope is that if we can get through those stages, that will create space for the addressing of broader issues, but I don’t want to prejudge. This is obviously ongoing and live diplomacy.”
Before her meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Clinton too avoided using the term “cease-fire.”
After describing America’s commitment to Israel’s security as “rock-solid and unwavering,” Clinton said, “That is why we believe it is essential to de-escalate the situation in Gaza.”
Clinton said that the rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza “must end and a broader calm restored.” She added that the focus was on ”a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
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.
HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as confidence that US politicians will agree a deal to avert a fiscal cliff was offset by profit-taking following a recent strong rally.
The decision by Moody's to downgrade French debt staunched a rise in the euro early on but it picked up in the afternoon, stoked by hopes that eurozone leaders will agree to hand Greece its latest batch of bailout cash.
Tokyo, which has risen about five percent in the past three sessions, ended the day 0.12 percent lower on profit-taking and after the Bank of Japan held off any new monetary easing measures following a policy meeting.
The Nikkei shed 10.56 points to 9,142.64.
Sydney finished 0.56 percent, or 24.3 points, higher at 4,385.7 while Seoul was up 0.64 percent, or 12.08 points, to close at 1,890.18.
Hong Kong fell 0.16 percent, or 33.78 points, to 21,228.28, while Shanghai eased 0.40 percent, or 8.06 points, to 2,008.92.
Wall Street provided a strong lead as markets opened for the first time since Republicans and Democrats on Friday pledged to work on a budget that would avoid the fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts due on January 1 that would tip the economy into recession.
Global shares have tumbled in recent weeks on fears the two parties would not find a compromise but the comments from Congressional leaders have soothed fears.
The Dow climbed 1.65 percent, the S&P 500 jumped 1.99 percent and the Nasdaq surged 2.21 percent.
The rally was also boosted by figures showing that existing home sales rose 2.1 percent in October from September and home builder confidence improved for a seventh straight month in November.
However, European woes continue to nag. On Monday it was France in the spotlight after Moody's cut its gold-plated AAA credit grade by one notch to "Aa1" and maintained a negative outlook, meaning another downgrade was possible.
It cited the the country's "disproportionately large" exposure to the troubled countries on Europe's periphery. Fellow ratings agency Standard & Poor's made a similar move in January.
In morning European trade the euro bought $1.2800 and 103.98 yen, compared with $1.2778 and $103.99 yen in New York late Monday.
The single currency had been at $1.2816 and 104.25 yen shortly before Moody's made its announcement.
The dollar was trading at 81.21 yen in Tokyo, compared with 81.40 yen in New York.
The yen remains under pressure - which has sent the Nikkei surging in recent days - after the frontrunner to become Japan's next prime minister in December said he would embark on an aggressive monetary easing policy to help the economy.
In the early afternoon the central Bank of Japan said it would hold off any fresh monetary easing - after two such moves in the past two months - while it also warned the economy faced an uncertain future.
It also kept interest rates on hold.
Investors had been buying the euro on a likely agreement between regional finance ministers to hand Athens the latest instalment of cash it needs to avoid bankruptcy.
They will try Tuesday to reach a framework agreement at a meeting on Greece and heal a split with the International Monetary Fund over a key debt reduction target.
"We are headed for an agreement, but a partial one," said a European diplomat who asked not to be named. Another source underscored the will to reach an agreement, but noted a finalised deal could take a few more days.
On oil markets prices eased. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, was down 38 cents to $88.90 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for January delivery fell 28 cents to $111.42.
Gold was at $1,733.45 at 1050 GMT compared with $1,723.10 late Monday.
In other markets:
- Taipei rose 16.73 points, or 0.23 percent, to 7,145.77.
Smartphone maker HTC fell 3.08 percent to Tw$236.0 while chip giant TSMC was 0.44 percent higher at Tw$90.4.
- Manila closed 0.94 percent higher, adding 51.03 points to 5,500.58.
Banco de Oro added 0.29 percent to 68.30 pesos, Philippine National Bank surged 11.69 percent to 84.10 pesos, while Metropolitan Bank finished 1.06 percent up at 95 pesos.
- Wellington climbed 0.77 percent, or 30.37 points, to 3,972.97.
Fletcher Building rose 3.7 percent rise to NZ$7.65 and Telecom was down 0.21 percent at NZ$2.38.
- Singapore closed up 0.27 percent, or 7.89 points to 2,958.82.
Olam International plunged 7.47 percent to S$1.61 while Keppel Corp gained 1.60 percent to S$10.17.
- Kuala Lumpur gained 0.89 points, or 0.05 percent, to end at 1,624.20.
UEM Land lost 1.6 percent to 4.82 ringgit, RHB Capital eased 0.9 percent to 7.59 while British American Tobacco gained 1.0 percent to 58.54.
- Jakarta ended down 0.02 percent, or 1.073 points, at 4,312.366.
Palm oil firm Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology dropped 2.86 percent to 6,800 rupiah and retailer Hero Supermarket slipped 2.44 percent to 4,000 rupiah.
- Bangkok lost 0.56 percent, or 7.24 points, to 1,276.41.
Telecoms company Advanced Info Service dropped 3.28 percent to 191.50 baht, while electricity firm EGCO added 0.78 percent to 129.00 baht.
- Mumbai dropped 0.05 percent, or 9.68 points, at 18,329.32 points.
IT outsourcer Infosys was down 1.46 percent at 2,325.40 rupees and carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra was up 3.25 percent at 938.35 rupees.
- AFP/de
Mandi police have launched an Anti Smoking, Alcohol, Drugs (Anti-SAD) campaign which works automatically and is free of cost. The person who want to receive tips on Anti-SAD will have to register his mobile number with just a call. The initiation of the police is getting a huge response from people of all genders and all age groups. The best part of the service is anonymity of the person.
Helmsman of the service and Mandi police chief Abhishek Dular said drug addicted, their family members, relatives and friends can register themselves to receive constant messages about the effects of abusing smoking, alcohol and drugs. "The SMS service would certainly help many families. Anyone can call on a toll free number 1800 200 9449. Their call would automatically be disengaged and SMS service would start working on their number," he said.
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.
President Obama urgently dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the Middle East with the hope that she can 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.
"It's in nobody's interest to see this escalate," said Ben Rhodes, Deputy National Security Adviser, at a press conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where President Obama is attending the East Asia Summit.
Clinton hastily departed from Cambodia following the announcement. Clinton was with Obama on his trip to Southeast Asia.
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 felt 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."
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 and Mary Bruce contributed to this report.
(Rep. Jason Chaffetz( R-Utah). Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
“It was clear that the State Department was able to witness this in real time. There is no indication that there was a mob. There is no indication that a video was the genesis of this. Why did the administration, for weeks, mislead the American people?
“They knew because they testified in the hearing we had before the election that they were witnessing this in real time and that all of those indications were that this was a very orchestrated, very sophisticated attack on the compound that went on for hours and hours and hours.”
-- Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) during interview on MSNBC, Nov. 14, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney tried with little success to assail President Obama for his handling of the Sept. 11 attack on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Republican lawmakers have picked up where Romney left off, insisting the Obama administration tried early on to mislead the public about how the assault unfolded.
At first, administration officials suggested the offensive grew out of protests over an anti-Islam YouTube video. But the White House and State Department acknowledged that no demonstrations had taken place near the diplomatic compound on Oct. 9, a day before the House Oversight Committee began hearings over the incident.
Critics say the Obama administration used the protest idea to downplay a well-orchestrated attack near the height of election season. Some have even suggested the president actually monitored the assault live — much like he did with the killing of Osama bin Laden — and chose not to intervene.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) insisted during an MSNBC interview that the administration knew all along that no demonstration took place near the compound. He also said the comments made by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb during her testimony before the House Oversight Committee proved “they were witnessing this in real time.”
Let’s take a look at Lamb’s testimony and review what happened in Benghazi to determine whether the congressman jumped to any conclusions.
The Facts
Signs of trouble in Benghazi arose before militants attacked the diplomatic mission on Sept. 11. A car bomb exploded in front of the compound on June 6, and an RPG hit a British ambassador’s envoy on June 11, prompting the U.K. to withdraw its convoy from the city and close its post there.
Stevens actually sent a cable to the administration at one point describing a series of recent violent incidents as “targeted and discriminate attacks.” He also requested more security for the Benghazi mission, but the administration did not provide the support.
Chaffetz said the administration knew there was no protest before the attack “because they testified in the hearing … that they were witnessing this in real time and that all of those indications were that this was a very orchestrated, very sophisticated attack.”
The congressman was referring to Lamb’s Oct. 10 testimony before the House Oversight Committee, in which the State Department official said she could “follow what was happening in almost real-time” after an agent defending the compound alerted the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington. Lamb said she ultimately “monitored multiple open lines with our agents for much of the attack.”
Charlene Lamb Testimony to House Oversight CommitteeLamb’s testimony clearly establishes that militants mounted a well-orchestrated assault on the consulate, but her statements do not address whether or not a demonstration took place before the offensive.
It is also unclear at this point how fast Lamb’s input about the attack rose up the chain of command. Intelligence was surely coming from many directions after the assault, and Lamb is only a mid-level official with the State Department. Nonetheless, she was responsible for the safety and security of the Benghazi facility, so it would be unusual if her information was overlooked for long.
Reports of what happened before the attack conflicted each other early on, something we pointed out in our timeline of statements about the event.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16 saying that the best available intelligence indicated the attack on the compound began “spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful [anti-Islam] video.”
But the president of the Libyan National Assembly said right before Rice’s interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that there is “no doubt that this was pre-planned, predetermined.” (Rice at the time earned Two Pinocchios for her remarks.)
Multiple news outlets quoted Libya’s interior minister saying a protest had preceded the assault on the diplomatic mission, but that official was later removed from his post amid questions about his credibility, as we mentioned in a previous column.
Adding further doubts about the protest notion, two Libyans who helped guard the compound told The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times that the scene there was utterly calm and quiet before the Sept. 11 attacks.
The State Department acknowledged on Oct. 9 that “nothing unusual outside the gates” had occurred on the evening of the Benghazi assault.
Some Republicans, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have accused the Obama administration of deliberately trying to cover up the truth with its comments about a possible protest before the attack. Other critics of the president have simply spread misinformation.
Noted blogger and climate-change skeptic Larry Bell said unequivocally in a Forbes editorial that the president and key members of his administration watched live video of the Benghazi attacks and chose not to intervene. The opening to Bell’s article reads as follows:
Just one hour after the seven-hour-long terrorist attacks upon the U.S. consulate in Benghazi began, our commander-in-chief, vice president, secretary of defense and their national security team gathered together in the Oval Office listening to phone calls from American defenders desperately under siege and watching real-time video of developments from a drone circling over the site. Yet they sent no military aid that might have intervened in time to save lives.
Similarly Fox News personality Sean Hannity questioned what the president was doing during the night of the attacks, noting incorrectly that the State Department “watched in real-time.” Remember, Lamb only had an audio connection, so she didn’t actually see anything from the incident live.
Brietbart also ran a short piece with the title “Report: Obama watched Benghazi attack from ‘Situation Room.’”
We should note that video of the assault came in two forms: Feeds from a pair of drones that the Defense Department dispatched to the consulate; and recorded surveillance footage from closed-circuit cameras at the compound itself. The latter footage was unavailable to U.S. investigators until Libyan officials handed it over weeks after the attack.
It is unclear whether the president monitored the attacks live via drone, but he would not have seen what happened before the attack anyway, as the drones were dispatched to the consulate well after the offensive started.
Whether or not there was a protest, there is even still dispute about the possible role of the anti-Islam film in the attack. Although Chaffetz asserted there is ”no indication” that the video played any role, The New York Times reported in mid-October that the attack was in retaliation for the video, even though there was no evidence of a protest. The newspaper reported that the fighters during the battle spoke emotionally about their anger at the film.
In an interview, Chaffetz explained his remarks on MSNBC: “I was simply pointing out we’re hearing different things from the White House and the State Department, and so there needs to be an investigation.”
The Pinocchio Test
Chaffetz’s MSNBC comments suggest he has a slam-dunk case proving a cover-up against the Obama administration. What he really has are a lot of questions for the president, who promised during his first post-election news conference to be forthcoming with information about the Benghazi attack — we’ll see how well he sticks to that pledge.
The Benghazi hearings and investigations could potentially prove Chaffetz right, but the congressman has no conclusive evidence yet that the Obama administration misled the public or knew right away that the assault had little or nothing to do with protests over an anti-Islam video. He earns two Pinocchios for suggesting he knows for sure what the administration knew about the Sept. 11 attack.
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WASHINGTON: Canadian pop star Justin Bieber had a big night at the American Music Awards, taking three top honour, including favorite artist of the year.
The other two awards bestowed on the 18-year-old were favorite pop/rock male artist and favorite pop/rock album for his record "Believe."
He took home the awards in all three categories he was nominated for and this is Bieber's seventh overall win.
Another big winner was rapper Nicki Minaj who won the awards for favorite rap/hip hop album and favorite rap/hip hop artist.
This makes it the fourth American Music Award for the iconic star who also fired up the stage with her performance at the ceremony.
Another iconic R&B star, Rihanna, went home with best soul/R&B album for "Talk that Talk."
Taylor Swift took her fifth straight award for favorite country female artist with "Blown Away" taking the favourite country album award.
The awards ceremony was held in Los Angeles with fans chose winners by voting online, also saw Lady Antebellum taking their third AMA for favorite band in the country music category
This is the third year in a row that the band has won in this category.
Newcomer Carly Rae Jepsen was picked for the new artist of the year award while another newcomer Luke Bryan earned his first ever American Music Award for favorite country music male artist.
Stalwats such as Linkin Park took home their fifth AMA for alternative rock music, while the award for favorite male soul/R&B artist went to Usher, for a fourth year win in a row and his eighth AMA.
- AFP/CNA/sf
PATIALA: A two-day Inter-University folk festival by the department of Youth Welfare, Punjabi University began here today in Guru Teg Bahadur Hall of the University.
Dr SS Khaira, Dean Academic Affairs, Punjabi University inaugurated the festival. While inaugurating the festival Dr. Khaira said that we are drifting away from our cultural heritage, therefore it becomes utmost necessary to organise such kind of festivals to propagate and promote the language, literature and culture in our society and Punjabi University is committed for the same.
On the first day of the folk festival in the morning session folk arts like Sammi, folk music, malwai gidha were performed.
Dr. Jamsheed Ali Khan, Dean Colleges of the University presided over the session. Evening session will be presided over by Dr. Paramvir Singh, Coordinator, NSS of the University. Dr. Devinder Singh, Director, Planning & Monitoring of the University presided over the morning session in the kala bhawan where traditional folk songs were presented. On the same day folk sports like Lunh Miani, Pithu, Rassakashi were played at the Sports Complex of the University. A Nukkad Natak was also played at the university campus.
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.
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