Tax fight sends GOP into chaos

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

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Gunmen kill 11 people on Pakistan-Iran border

QUETTA, Pakistan: Unknown gunmen killed 11 people as they prepared to illegally leave Pakistan in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said on Saturday.The gunmen, riding motorcycles, attacked a convoy on Friday night in Pakistan's Gwadar district near the border with Iran, some 1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) southwest of Quetta.Officials described the dead as "illegal immigrants"...

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Five lynched in Jharkhand

KHUNTI ( JHARKHAND): Five youths, who were suspected of being involved in extortion, were on Saturday lynched at Manhu village of the district, police said.A group of villagers caught the five around 10 am and killed them with sharp weapons and stones, superintendent of police Amarnath Mishra told reporters here.All the bodies were recovered, he said, adding, the police were trying to establish their...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

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

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Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

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

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The biggest Pinocchios of 2012

Virtually all of this year’s fact checking was focused on the presidential election. So, in selecting our biggest Pinocchios of the year, we spent days going though old columns and reliving an election that seems rather distant now.In many ways, it was depressing reading. So much of the campaign was fought over trivial or inconsequential issues. For instance, we wrote nearly 20 columns dissecting...

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Asian markets retreat as US fiscal cliff fears grow

HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly fell on Friday after Republicans scrapped a vote on putting in place a back-up plan if talks on averting the US fiscal cliff end in failure.The news out of Washington late Thursday cancelled out a rally on Wall Street and upbeat data on the US economy, while it also hit currency traders, who have sent the safe-haven yen higher despite more Bank of Japan...

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Fatwa prohibits uploading photos on matrimonial, social sites

BAREILLY: An organisation of Sunni Muslim clerics here have termed as 'haraam' the uploading of photos on the internet for matrimonial purpose and on social networking sites. The fatwa issued by Madarsa Manzar-e-Islam of Dargah Aala Hazrat came in response to a question posed by a man from Kanpur. He had asked whether it was appropriate according to Islamic laws to post pictures on matrimonial...

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Hollies Get Prickly for a Reason

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

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

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

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Did Michigan lawmakers ram through ‘right to work’ laws?

(James Fassinger/Reuters) “The people of Michigan do not want this law, and Governor [Rick] Snyder and the lawmakers who are trying to enact this anti-worker bill before their terms expire at the end of the year know full well that what they are doing is immoral and unjust. They are not carrying out the will of the people; they are punishing the people who voted to replace them in the...

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Stocks likely to continue being investors' favourite

SINGAPORE: Stocks may continue to be a favourite asset for investors next year.Improving corporate earnings and attractive valuations are expected to drive stock prices higher. Experts said investor sentiment may also get a lift on hopes of a recovery in the Chinese and US economies. Equities are among the star performers in financial markets this year.In the US, key stock indices like...

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Perpetrators of rape should be made 'impotent', NCW chief Mamta Sharma says

NEW DELHI: Demanding enactment of stringent laws to deter people from committing crimes like rape, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Thursday favoured capital punishment for perpetrators and even suggested that they should be made "impotent"."Capital punishment is very important. I suggest that they should be made impotent so they repent every day of their life. It is very important, unless...

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Obama Invokes Newtown on 'Cliff' Deal

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

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The ‘fiscal cliff’ offers: dueling White House and GOP perspectives

Speaker of the House John Boehner (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) “The President has put a balanced, reasonable proposal on the table that achieves significant deficit reduction and reflects real compromise by meeting the Republicans halfway on revenue and more than halfway on spending from where each side started.”— White House Press secretary Jay Carney, statement, Dec. 18, 2012 There...

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Nature no excuse for cheating, says Chris Wang

SINGAPORE: Is it in men's nature to cheat?Taiwan actor Chris Wang thinks so."The Fierce Wife" star said he came to this conclusion after reading up on the topic and observing similar cheating behaviour among males of other animal species, during his travels as the host of an adventure programme.However, he stressed that this doesn't make it okay for men to betray their partners."I think...

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Samajwadi Party member snatches quota bill from Narayanasamy in Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: There was major drama in Parliament on Wednesday when Samajawadi Party (SP) leader Yashvir Singh snatched the bill on quotas in promotions from minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy while he was reading it in the Lok Sabha.The House was adjourned for the day after a minor scuffle broke out between Congress and SP members. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi tried to...

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Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice

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

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Newtown Settles In for Prayerful, Somber Christmas

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

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The more things change...

(Brendan Hoffman — Getty Images) We’ve been covering presidential transitions for so long that even news reports written 20 years apart start to read the same. Consider these two items in The New York Times about possible Cabinet selections — in 1992 and 2012.“Concerned that his first Cabinet appointments might signal the wrong intentions for his Administration, President-elect Bill...

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Asian stocks mostly higher on US fiscal hopes

HONG KONG - Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, taking a lead from Wall Street as dealers grow confident US lawmakers will reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.Continued weakness of the yen helped send Japanese shares surging for a second straight session as Shinzo Abe prepares to take over as prime minister, vowing to press for a more aggressive policy of monetary easing.Tokyo...

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US city approves site plan for Hindu temple

AMRITSAR: City Council of Greenacres in Southeast Florida (USA) has approved the site plan for a 3.1 acre Hindu temple, informed President of Universal Society Rajan Zed while talking to TOI on Tuesday. He informed that the temple would include a 4,898 square foot sanctuary and there were plans for another 3,510 square foot multi-purpose building connected to the sanctuary by a covered walkway....

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

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

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

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

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