Sen. Ayotte offers GOP an influential new voice

The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of...

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UMNO confident of wrestling lost seats

KUALA LUMPUR - The Federal Territory Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) are confident of wresting the six seats that were lost to the opposition in the last general election.Deputy chairman of the Federal Territory Umno Liaison Body Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin said he was also confident that besides defending the existing seats, BN would increase the number of seats in the 13th...

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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

NEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest.BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Could Outgoing Republicans Hold Keys to 'Cliff' Deal?

Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm AP Photo/Carolyn KasterThe outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”But there may be a glimmer...

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Khaw floats possibility of trying out SRO concept across S'pore

SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has floated the possibility of trying out the Singapore River Precinct concept in other areas of Singapore.Under the concept, the private sector stepped forwardly voluntarily to manage the business environment of the Singapore River.Mr Khaw said he is encouraged by the enthusiasm and the voluntarism of the members of Singapore River...

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Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral passes away

GURGAON: Former Prime Minister I K Gujral, who headed a rickety coalition government in the late 1990s, died on Friday after a brief illness. Gujral, 92, breathed his last at 3.27pm in a private hospital after a multi-organ failure. He was admitted to the hospital on November 19 with a lung infection, family sources said. The former Prime Minister, who was ventilator support, had been unwell for...

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

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Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.Today,...

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The Democratic claim that Obama’s health-care cuts top Simpson-Bowles

(Evan Vucci/Associated Press) “The president's budget actually contains more health-care savings than the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission does.” — Rep. Chris van Hollen (D-Md.), on CNN, Nov. 27, 2012 “He's got more health-care cuts than Simpson-Bowles proposed.” — Van Hollen, on Fox News, Nov. 27As lawmakers continue to tussle over solutions to the looming “fiscal cliff,”...

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Singapore stocks close 1.13% higher

SINGAPORE : Stocks in Singapore closed 1.13 per cent higher on Thursday, in line with most regional bourses and following overnight gains on Wall Street.The Straits Times Index rose 34.13 points to end at 3,045.90. Volume was 2.72 billion shares. Gainers led losers 279 to 137.Olam International climbed 4.0 per cent to S$1.56, Golden Agri-Resources advanced 4.7 per cent to S$0.665, Wilmar...

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SC seeks attorney general's help in deciding plea to amend IT Act

NEW DELHI: Concerned over recent incidents of arrest of people allegedly for posting offensive messages on social networking sites, the Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea to amend the Information Technology Act and sought attorney general G E Vahanvati's help in deciding it.A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, however, refused the petitioner's plea that no coercive action should...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $587 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning.Arizona lottery officials said they had no information on that...

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The GOP’s claim that a tax hike on the wealthy would pay for only a week of spending

“If the president just went and changed the tax rates, that pays for eight days. Where do we go from there? The president also says that he wants a balanced approach… we haven’t heard of where his cuts are.”-- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during an interview on Fox News, Nov. 19, 2012 “We know that you can’t raise taxes enough to solve the problem. In fact, the big argument...

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Blasts kill 38 near Syria capital, second warplane downed

DAMASCUS: Simultaneous car bombings in a mostly Christian and Druze town near Damascus killed at least 38 people on Wednesday, as rebels downed a military aircraft for the second successive day.The blasts occurred when explosives-packed cars were detonated at daybreak in a pro-regime neighbourhood of the town of Jaramana, residents, state media and a rights watchdog reported.They were...

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HSBC secret accounts: Income Tax department to begin prosecution

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department has decided to begin prosecution action against those having "substantial" amounts in their bank accounts in HSBC's Geneva branch.The department has now written to the finance ministry to suggest a benchmark for funds held on the basis of which the I-T department can initiate legal action for tax evasion and tax theft.Top sources said a benchmark of about Rs...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for...

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Keeping the financial regulators on their toes

When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown. Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued...

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Singapore stocks close mixed

SINGAPORE : Stocks in Singapore closed mixed on Tuesday after the eurozone and International Monetary Fund agreed to unlock 43.7 billion euros (US$56 billion) in loans to Greece.The Straits Times Index rose 7.41 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 3,011.91.Volume was 2.85 billion shares.In the broader market, losers led gainers 201 to 180. Among banks, UOB rose 1.16 per cent to S$18.26,...

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Caste violence rocks Tamil Nadu again; dalit colony attacked, 8 injured

CUDDALORE: An angry mob attacked a dalit colony and torched their houses and belongings at Pacharapakkam village near Vadalur in Cuddalore district in north Tamil Nadu on Tuesday morning. The provocation apparently was that a group of dalit men teased a non-dalit girl. Eight dalits were injured in the attack while eight houses and two two-wheelers were set on fire. The mob also damaged a van belong...

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Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More

High Horse Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.Taken...

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Co. Paying Just $1,200 for Each Factory Fire Life

A company that makes clothes for Sean Combs' clothing brand ENYCE and other U.S. labels reassured investors that a factory fire that killed 112 people over the weekend would not harm its balance sheet, and also pledged to pay the families of the dead $1,200 per victim.In an announcement Monday, Li & Fung Ltd., a middleman company that supplies clothes from Bangladesh factories...

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Asian markets mixed ahead of Greece meeting

HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed on Monday as investors awaited the outcome of a meeting later in the day aimed at finalising a bailout deal for Greece, amid a simmering budgetary impasse in Washington.Tokyo rose 0.24 percent, or 22.14 points, to 9,388.94, Sydney gained 0.25 percent, or 11.2 points, to close at 4,424.2 but Seoul ended 0.15 percent, or 2.82 points, lower at 1,908.51.Hong...

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Logjam on FDI in Parliament: No consensus at all-party meet

NEW DELHI: NEW DELHI: An all-party meeting over the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail on Monday failed to break the Parliament logjam with the government appealing to opposition parties to reconsider their demand for a debate under rules that stipulate voting and the latter remaining adamant.After an over two-hour-long meeting held in the Parliament House, parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath...

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

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...

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