Agreement within reach on ‘fiscal cliff’ deal, officials say

President Obama and Senate leaders were on the verge of an agreement Friday that would let taxes rise on the wealthiest households while protecting the vast majority of Americans from historic tax hikes set to hit in January.

The development marked a breakthrough after weeks of paralysis. After meeting with Obama at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they would work through the weekend in hopes of drafting a “fiscal cliff” package they could present to their colleagues on Sunday afternoon.

As the Senate began haggling over critical details, the emerging deal faced an uncertain fate in the House, where Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) failed just one week ago to persuade his adamantly anti-tax caucus to let taxes rise even for millionaires.

Still, on Friday, Obama pronounced himself “modestly optimistic” at a brief news conference at the White House. The ordinarily dour McConnell said he was “hopeful and optimistic.” And Reid immediately began preparing Senate Democrats for what could be a difficult vote.

“Whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect. Some people aren’t going to like it. Some people will like it less,” Reid said on the Senate floor before dozens of silent and attentive senators from both parties. But “we’re going to do the best we can for . . . the country that’s waiting for us to make a decision.”

According to people briefed on the talks, the developing package would protect nearly 30 million taxpayers from paying the alternative minimum tax for the first time and keep unemployment benefits flowing to 2 million people who otherwise would be cut off in January.

The deal also would likely halt a steep cut in Medicare reimbursements set to hit doctors in January and preserve popular tax breaks for both businesses and individuals, such as those for research and college tuition.

But the two sides were still at odds over a crucial issue: how to define the wealthy. Obama has proposed letting tax rates rise on income over $250,000 a year. Senate Republicans have in recent days expressed interest in a compromise that would lift that threshold to $400,000 a year, an offer Obama made to Boehner before the speaker abruptly broke off negotiations last week.

In addition to its political appeal, the $400,000 threshold has practical benefits, Republican aides said: It would limit tax increases to the very top tax bracket rather than the top two brackets. And it would avoid a quirk of the tax code that would cause rates to rise more dramatically for those earning between $250,000 and $400,000 than for households with much larger incomes.

The two sides also had yet to agree on another politically sensitive issue: how to tax inherited estates. Republicans — and many Senate Democrats from states with large family farms — want to maintain the current tax structure, which exempts estates worth up to $5 million and taxes those above that level at 35 percent. Obama has proposed a $3.5 million exemption and a tax rate of 45 percent, a proposal that is far more acceptable to liberal Democrats.

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Egypt's Morsi to focus on economy in senate speech

CAIRO: Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi is expected to address the economy on Saturday in a speech before a newly-empowered senate as concerns mount over a downturn and cracks in his government.

Morsi will give the address after the senate, invested with legislative powers under a newly ratified constitution until a new parliament is elected, convenes at 1100 GMT (1:00 pm local time).

A declining Egyptian pound and a US$4.8 billion IMF loan stalled after weeks of often violent protests have put the country on edge, two years after the economy nosedived with an uprising that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak.

"President to set a roadmap for security and the economy," reported Saturday's edition of the official Al-Ahram newspaper.

In televised speech on Wednesday, Morsi welcomed the approval of an Islamist-backed charter in a referendum, despite fierce opposition protests, and pledged to turn his attention to the economy.

He also pledged to reshuffle his cabinet. Two ministers, including an Islamist ally of Morsi, have so far resigned in disagreement with government policy.

Mass rallies that began in November after Morsi adopted extensive powers -- later repealed -- have now subsided, but the secular-leaning opposition this week called for further protests against the new constitution.

The opposition, led by the National Salvation Front coalition, sees the charter as a possible tool to introduce Islamic sharia law.

It also stressed that just one in three of Egypt's 52 million voters actually cast a ballot in the two-stage referendum on December 15 and 22.

The likelihood of prolonged "elevated" political conflict despite the adoption of the constitution prompted the ratings agency Standard and Poor's this week to knock Egypt's long-term credit rating down a peg to "B-."

The National Salvation Front is also now looking ahead and preparing for parliamentary elections in two months' time, after which the senate will be dissolved ahead of another round of elections.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood dominated the last parliament which was elected in late 2011 but later annulled by a top court stacked with his opponents.

- AFP/xq

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Delhi gang rape: 13 days that stopped a nation

NEW DELHI: From Dec 16, when the 23-year-old was raped in a moving bus in Delhi, to Dec 29, when she died of her grievous injuries in a Singapore hospital, a sequence of 13 days that stopped a nation in its tracks:

Dec 16 - The physiotherapy intern and her friend on the way back from a movie get into a bus at Munirka in south Delhi. She is gang-raped and tortured in the moving bus and her friend beaten. The couple is stripped, robbed and thrown out of the bus. Spotted by a toll plaza patrol vehicle and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital.

Dec 17: Police arrest bus driver Ram Singh and two accused.

Dec 18: The fourth accused held. Large numbers of people gather at India Gate to demand justice for the woman, battling for life.

Dec 19: Doctors remove the victim's intestines, susceptible to gangrene. Protests continue.

Dec 20: The friend identifies one of the accused as the rapist in Tihar Jail.

Dec 21: Police apprehend a juvenile, identified as the fifth accused.

Dec 21: As the young woman's condition worsens, hundreds, mostly women, take out a candle-light march outside 10 Janpath, the residence of Sonia Gandhi. Many women students and activists also try to enter Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Dec 21: Police arrest sixth accused from Aurangabad in Bihar.

Dec 22: Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde announces a commission to probe the gang-rape. Protests spread as police shuts down Raisina Hill, the seat of power. Police use batons, water cannons and tear gas at crowds, which stays at India Gate till late at night, some through the night. Some metro stations shut down.

Government sets up inquiry to suggest ways to enhance women's safety in Delhi.

Dec 23: The heart of the Indian capital turns into a battle zone as thousands denounce the gang-rape. Clashes between police and protesters leave many injured. Constable Subhash Chand Tomar dies. Metro station remain shut.

The victim is on ventilator, her condition remains critical.

Dec 24: Two Delhi Police officers suspended for not stopping the bus with tinted windows in which the girl was raped. Roads again blocked as protests continue. Authorities promise more measures for security of women. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses the nation, calls for calm.

Dec 25: Delhi policeman Tomar succumbs to his injuries.

Dec 26: Gang-rape victim flown to Singapore. Government asks a Delhi high court judge to probe the gang-rape and police lapses and suggest ways to make the national capital safer for women.

Dec 28: Sonia Gandhi joins Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promise quick justice. the young woman's condition worsens.

Dec 29: The woman dies in Singapore. Protests in Delhi as police barricade the area aroun India Gate.

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How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.

No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem is, one drink leads to two, then the party gets going and a third is generously poured. Soon, the music fades and the morning arrives—and with it, the dreaded hangover. (Explore a human-body interactive.)

Whether it's a pounding headache, a queasy stomach, sweating, or just general misery, the damage has been done. So now it's time to remedy the situation. What's the quickest way to banish the pain? It depends who you ask.

Doctors typically recommend water for hydration and ibuprofen to reduce inflammation. Taking B vitamins is also good, according to anesthesiologist Jason Burke, because they help the body metabolize alcohol and produce energy.

Burke should know a thing or two about veisalgia, the medical term for hangover. At his Las Vegas clinic Hangover Heaven, Burke treats thousands of people suffering from the effects of drinking to excess with hydrating fluids and medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"No two hangovers are the same," he said, adding that the unfavorable condition costs society billions of dollars-mostly from lost productivity and people taking sick days from work.

Hot Peppers for Hangovers?

So what's the advice from the nonmedical community? Suggestions range from greasy breakfasts to vanilla milkshakes to spending time in a steamy sauna. A friend insists hot peppers are the only way to combat a hangover's wrath. Another swears by the palliative effects of a bloody mary. In fact, many people just have another drink, following the old "hair of the dog that bit you" strategy.

Whether such "cures" actually get rid of a hangover is debatable, but one thing's for sure: the sorry state is universal. The only people immune to hangovers are the ones who avoid alcohol altogether.

So for those who do indulge, even if it's just once in awhile, see our interactive featuring cures from around the world (also above). As New Year's Eve looms with its attendant excuse to imbibe, perhaps it would be wise to stock your refrigerator with one of these antidotes. Pickled herring, anyone?

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Epic Journey: Did Moses' Exodus Really Happen?

In the Bible, he is called Moses. In the Koran, he is the prophet Musa.

Religious scholars have long questioned whether of the story of a prophet leading God's chosen people in a great exodus out of Egypt and the freedom it brought them afterwards was real, but the similarities between a pharaoh's ancient hymn and a psalm of David might hold the link to his existence.

Tune in to Part 2 of Christiane Amanpour's ABC News special, "Back to the Beginning," which explores the history of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus, on Friday, Dec. 28 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Christian scripture says Moses was content to grow old with his family in the vast deserted wilderness of Midian, and 40 years passed until the Bible says God spoke to him through the Burning Bush and told him to lead his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. According to tradition, that miraculous bush can still be seen today enclosed within the ancient walls of St. Catherine's Monastery, located not far from Moses' hometown.

But there was another figure in the ancient world who gave up everything to answer the call from what he believed was the one and only true God.

Archaeologists discovered the remains of the ancient city of Amarna in the 1800s. Egyptologist Rawya Ismail, who has been studying the ruins for years, believes, as other archaeologists do, that Pharaoh Akhenaten built the city as a tribute to Aten, the sun.

G.Sioen/De Agostini/Getty Images

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She said it was a bold and unusual step for the pharaoh to leave the luxurious trappings of palace life in Luxor for the inhospitable landscape of Amarna, but it might have been his only choice as the priests from the existing religious establishment gained power.

"The very powerful Amun-Ra priests that he couldn't stand against gained control of the whole country," Ismail said. "The idea was to find a place that had never been used by any other gods -- to be virgin is what he called it -- so he chose this place."

All over the walls inside the city's beautiful tombs are examples of Akhanaten's radical message of monotheism. There is the Hymn to the Aten, which translates, in part, to: "The earth comes into being by your hand, as you made it. When you dawn, they live. When you set, they die. You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you."

PHOTOS: Christiane Amanpour's Journey 'Back to the Beginning'

Some attribute the writing of the hymn to Akhanaten himself, but it bears a striking resemblance to a passage that can be found in the Hebrew Bible: Psalm 104.

"If you compare the hymns from A to Z, you'll find mirror images to it in many of the holy books," Ismail said. "And if you compare certain parts of it, you'll find it almost exactly -- a typical translation for some of the [psalms] of David."

Psalm 104, written a few hundred years later, references a Lord that ruled over Israel and a passage compares him to the sun.

"You hide your face, they are troubled," part of it reads. "You take away your breath, they die, And return to dust. You send forth your breath, they are created, And you renew the face of the earth."

Like the psalm, the Hymn to Aten extols the virtues of the one true God.

"A lot of people think that [the Hymn to Aten] was the source of the [psalms] of David," Ismail said. "Putting Egypt on the trade route, a lot of people traveled from Egypt and came back to Egypt, it wasn't like a country living in isolation."

Ismail believes it is possible that the message from the heretic pharaoh has some connection to the story of Moses and the Exodus, as outlined in the Hebrew Bible.

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As ‘fiscal cliff’ deadline nears, OPM updates furlough guidelines

With talks on averting the “fiscal cliff” apparently stalled, the Office of Personnel Management posted new guidance to federal workers for administrative furloughs on its Web site Thursday afternoon.

“We wanted to take some prudent steps to keep federal employees informed in case of an order for sequestration,” said Thomas Richards, OPM’s communications director.

He added that the guidelines were not issued as “a reaction to any specific action” involving the talks between President Obama and congressional leaders.

“It’s nothing more than that,” Richards said.

Nonetheless, after months of the White House expressing confidence that the standoff would be resolved before a crisis hit and that furloughs would be unnecessary, the guidance reflects the reality that little time remains on the calendar to avert the automatic cuts that will be triggered by a failure to reach a deal by the year’s end.

Obama returned to Washington from Hawaii on Thursday in an effort to keep the talks alive. As the deadline approaches, federal workers have grown increasingly worried about the potential threat to their jobs.

The guidance notes that “agencies are responsible for identifying the employees affected by administrative furloughs based on budget conditions, funding sources, mission priorities (including the need to perform emergency work involving the safety of human life or protection of property), and other factors.”

Employees will be given a minimum 60-day notice before any furlough of longer than 22 days takes place, according to the document. A 30-day notice will be given for shorter furloughs.

The guidance also specifies that employees may not take other forms of paid time off, including annual or sick leave, in lieu of being furloughed. Nor is an employee allowed to volunteer to do his or her job for free, unless otherwise authorized by law.

The guidelines are updated from a previous version issued in April by OPM in response to the possibility of a government shutdown at the time.

“The policy folks are diving down deep into the weeds,” Richards said. “We wanted to make sure the guidelines were up to date to reflect the possibility of sequestration.”

Richards said the OPM will soon post answers to frequently asked questions on the agency’s Web site (opm.gov/furlough).

“It will be questions like, ‘Do I need to show up for work on January 2nd? Yes, you do,’ ” Richards said.

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India gang-rape victim "struggling against the odds"

SINGAPORE: The Indian gang-rape victim who has been been admitted to Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital remains in an extremely critical condition.

The 23-year-old student is still receiving treatment in the intensive care unit.

The medical team's investigations showed that in addition to her prior cardiac arrest, the patient had an infection of her lungs and abdomen, as well as significant brain injury.

According to Dr Kelvin Loh, the chief executive officer of Mount Elizabeth Hospital, the patient is struggling against the odds and fighting for her life.

Since her arrival on Thursday morning, a multi-disciplinary team of specialists has been working to treat her.

The hospital added that the High Commission of India has been fully supportive in helping the hospital and her family, and have also ensured that the best care is made available.

Some Facebook users on Channel NewsAsia's page have asked if there are ways they can help the victim and her family.

As for now, the Indian High Commission is assisting the family.

The hospital has requested privacy of the patient and family to be respected.

Channel NewsAsia understands that there is a prayer session planned for the victim at Shree Lakshminarayan Temple on Saturday morning, and all are welcome to attend.

- CNA/xq

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Kashmir Valley gets connected by rail

BANIHAL (J&K): Northern Railways made history on Friday as the first train chugged through India's longest railway tunnel through the Pir Panjal mountain range, connecting Kashmir Valley to Banihal town on Srinagar-Jammu National highway.

The train on a trial run, arrived at Banihal station from Qazigund in Anantnag district of Kashmir.

The train chugged in at the station amidst thunderous applause from the people, who had assembled here to witness the historic achievement of Indian railways.

The trial run was scheduled to be conducted on Thursday but had to be postponed following protests by residents of villages falling along Qazigund-Banihal railway link, who were demanding a one-minute halt station for the train at Hillad village.

The protesters, backed by a local politician, tried to block the track again on Friday but were persuaded by the civil administration officials to allow the train to pass.

A P Mishra, member of the Railway Board, said the train services between Banihal and Kashmir Valley will start in February or March next year while the entire railway project connecting the Valley with the rest of the country will be completed by 2017.

While the Baramulla-Srinagar-Qazigund link is functional for the past four years, this was the first time that a train has crossed the mighty Pir Panjal Mountain range.

The highlight of the Qazigund-Banihal link is the 11.21 km tunnel - the longest railway tunnel in India, which has reduced the distance between the two towns by half.

The tunnel, which was constructed by Hindustan Construction Corporation (HCC), will reduce the travel distance between Qazigund and Banihal from 35 kilometres (by road) to just 17.5 kilometres (by train).

The Pir Panjal tunnel, which is the second longest in Asia, is a vital link in the Railway dream project of connecting Kashmir to Udhampur in Jammu region.

The tunnel is 8.40 metres wide with a height of 7.39 metres. There is a provision of a three metre wide road along the length of the tunnel for the purpose of maintenance and emergency relief.

The rail link will provide an alternative link between Kashmir and rest of the country as Srinagar-Jammu National Highway gets blocked regularly due to heavy snowfall during winter months.

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How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do.

So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

In his second edition of his book The Blue Zones, Buettner writes about a newly identified Blue Zone: the Greek island of Ikaria (map). National Geographic magazine Editor at Large Cathy Newman interviewed him about the art of living long and well. (Watch Buettner talk about how to live to a hundred.)

Q. You've written about Blue Zones in Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoa, Costa Rica and Okinawa, Japan. How did you find your way to Ikaria?

A. Michel Poulain, a demographer on the project, and I are always on the lookout for new Blue Zones. This one popped up in 2008. We got a lead from a Greek foundation looking for biological markers in aging people. The census data showed clusters of villages there with a striking proportion of people 85 or older. (Also see blog: "Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth.")

In the course of your quest you've been introduced to remarkable individuals like 100-year-old Marge Jetton of Loma Linda, California, who starts the day with a mile-long [0.6-kilometer] walk, 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 kilometers] on a stationary bike, and weight lifting. Who is the most memorable Blue Zoner you've met?

Without question it's Stamatis Moraitis, who lives in Ikaria. I believe he's 102. He's famous for partying. He makes 400 liters [100 gallons] of wine from his vineyards each year, which he drinks with his friends. His house is the social hot spot of the island. (See "Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100.")

He's also the Ikarian who emigrated to the United States, was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 60s, given less then a year to live, and who returned to Ikaria to die. Instead, he recovered.

Yes, he never went through chemotherapy or treatment. He just moved back to Ikaria.

Did anyone figure out how he survived?

Nope. He told me he returned to the U.S. ten years after he left to see if the American doctors could explain it. I asked him what happened. "My doctors were all dead," he said.

One of the common factors that seem to link all Blue Zone people you've spoken with is a life of hard work—and sometimes hardship. Your thoughts?

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

Sounds like another version of the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

Can you talk about diet? Not all of us have access to goat milk, for example, which you say is typically part of an Ikarian breakfast.

There is nothing exotic about their diet, which is a version of a Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, beans, fruit, olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. (Read more about Buettner's work in Ikaria in National Geographic Adventure.)

All things in moderation?

Not all things. Socializing is something we should not do in moderation. The happiest Americans socialize six hours a day.

The people you hang out with help you hang on to life?

Yes, you have to pay attention to your friends. Health habits are contagious. Hanging out with unhappy people who drink and smoke is hazardous to your health.

So how has what you've learned influenced your own lifestyle?

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity. My previous life was setting records on my bike. [Buettner holds three world records in distance cycling.] Now I use my bike to commute. I only eat meat once a week, and I always keep nuts in my office: Those who eat nuts live two to three more years than those who don't.

You also write about having a purpose in life.

Purpose is huge. I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

The Japanese you met in Okinawa have a word for that?

Yes. Ikigai: "The reason for which I wake in the morning."

Do you have a non-longevity-enhancing guilty pleasure?

Tequila is my weakness.

And how long would you like to live?

I'd like to live to be 200.

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White House Says It Has No New Fiscal Cliff Plan

The White House said today it has no plans to offer new proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff which looms over the country's economy just five days from now, but will meet Friday with Congressional leaders in a last ditch effort to forge a deal.

Republicans and Democrats made no conciliatory gestures in public today, despite the urgency.

The White House said President Obama would meet Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders. But a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican "will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act."

The White House announced the meeting after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the budget situation "a mess" and urged the president to present a fresh proposal.

"I told the president I would be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as I said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago," McConnell said of his phone call with Obama Wednesday night.

McConnell added, "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

"That having been said, we'll see what the president has to propose," the Republican Senate leader said.

But a senior White House official told ABC News, "There is no White House bill."

That statement, however, may have wiggle room. Earlier today White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "I don't have any meetings to announce," but a short time later, Friday's meeting was made public.

It's unclear if the two sides are playing a game of political chicken or whether the administration is braced for the fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Boehner.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

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Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as the president returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal.

The House of Representatives will meet for legislative business Sunday evening, leaving the door cracked open ever so slightly to the possibility of a last-minute agreement.

But on a conference call with Republican House members Thursday afternoon, Boehner kept to the Republican hard line that if the Senate wants a deal it should amend bills already passed by the House.

That was the exact opposite of what Reid said in the morning, that Republicans should accept a bill passed by Democratic led Senate.

Related: What the average American should know about capital gains and the fiscal cliff.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Related: Starbucks enters fiscal cliff fray.

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Related: Obama pushes fiscal cliff resolution.

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