Police drama wins best picture at Chinese-language 'Oscars'

ILAN, Taiwan: A Chinese police drama featuring a cast of amateur actors on Saturday became the surprise best picture winner at Taiwan's annual Golden Horse Awards, dubbed the Chinese-language "Oscars.""Beijing Blues," directed by Gao Qunshu and about plain cloth police hunting down thieves and con artists in Beijing, also bagged best cinematography and best film editing awards."This is...

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Missile launch centre to come up in coastal Andhra

HYDERABAD: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans to set up a missile launch site in the coastal town of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh with an investment of Rs.1,000 crore. DRDO chief V.K. Saraswat, who is also the scientific advisor to the defence minister, told reporters here Friday that they had asked the state government to allot 260 acres of land to set up the long-range...

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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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'Honey Trap' Professor Convicted of Drug Smuggling

A court in Argentina has convicted an Oxford educated University of North Carolina professor of attempting to smuggle four pounds of cocaine into the United States.Paul Frampton, a 68-year-old esteemed professor of physics and astronomy, says he thought he was flying to South America to meet with a bikini model but ended up getting caught in what they call a "honey trap."Frampton...

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Israel firms up security as Gaza truce takes hold

JERUSALEM: Israel restricted Palestinian access to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Friday and kept a tight grip on security as a first death tested a hard-won truce ending fighting in and around Gaza.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party prepared for a primary on Sunday amid signs its popularity was slipping among Israelis who would have preferred...

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India tests missile shield, DRDO says it will be operational by 2014

NEW DELHI: There were some big fireworks over the Bay of Bengal on Friday afternoon when India tested its experimental ballistic missile defence (BMD) system to intercept two "incoming hostile" missiles with interceptor missiles. Elated with the "bang-on accurate" test, the seventh time the BMD system has been tested successfully over the last six years, the Defence Research and Development Organization...

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Shoppers Descend on Black Friday Deals

Black Friday got off to its earliest start ever as many shoppers cleared the table of Thanksgiving dinner and headed straight to the malls and big-box retailers across the nation to snag goods at bargain prices.More than 10,000 people were wrapped around Macy's flagship store in New York City before the doors opened at midnight this morning. Across the country, up to 147 million...

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Homeless Arlington veteran finally settles into home after advocates’ year-long efforts

Ernie Maas could not help choking up as he took his first look around his new home Wednesday afternoon, a simple one-bedroom, federally subsidized apartment on North Glebe Road in Arlington County. Maas, 61, who served in the Navy for seven years during and after the Vietnam War, has been homeless for about two years, living much of that time under a bridge on Four Mile Run in Arlington....

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Motor Racing: I have nothing to lose, says Alonso

SAO PAULO: Fernando Alonso insists he has nothing to lose in this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix title showdown in which he seeks to wreck defending champion Sebastian Vettel's bid for a third title and take the crown himself for a third time.The 31-year-old Spaniard trails the 25-year-old German Red Bull driver by 13 points ahead of the Interlagos race, but he remains hopeful that he...

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Turmoil in Gujarat Congress after first list of candidates for assembly polls

AHMEDABAD: Scuffle, demonstrations and a series of resignations were the order of the day in Gujarat Congress as those left out from the first list of 52 candidates for the assembly polls expressed their disappointment and anger. As state party leaders camped in New Delhi for finalisation of the full list of nominees for the first phase, four Dalit leaders, who were also office-bearers, tendered...

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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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Black Friday Deals Kick Off on 'Gray Thursday'

Black Friday is the Super Bowl of retail, but some of the nation's largest big-box stores can't wait until the day after Thanksgiving to open their doors to shoppers eager to grab great deals the same day as their turkey dinner.Traditional Black Friday door-busting deals now start tonight, on what's been dubbed Gray Thursday. Major retail stores such as Kmart, Toys R Us, Walmart...

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Clamping campaign finance; Sen. Warner to stay in Congress; turkey talking points (read-this roundup)

Sen. Mark Warner (D) will not seek another term as Virginia governor in 2013. (Win McNamee - GETTY IMAGES) Here’s what the Loop is reading today:Game change? — All that spending in the election has prompted calls for tightening campaign finance rules. But here’s a shocker — no one agrees on how to do it.Still making his mark — Sen. Mark Warner (D) is staying in the Senate and...

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China agrees to buy from Thai rice mountain

BANGKOK: China pledged Wednesday to buy rice from Thailand's growing mountain of unsold stocks, during a visit by Premier Wen Jiabao, officials said.The memorandum of understanding, which did not specify the size or value of the exports, was part of an agreement between Wen and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra to expand economic ties between the two countries."There's no precise...

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Show mercy to Sarabjit: Justice Katju to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has once again appealed to the president and the prime minister of Pakistan to release Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who is on death row for over two decades. Katju's appeal came on a day when 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Pune following rejection of his mercy plea by President Pranab Mukherjee. "You must have heard that...

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Thanksgiving 2012 Myths and Facts

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...

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Cease-Fire Reached in Israel-Hamas Conflict in Gaza

A bomb exploded on an Israeli bus near the nation's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people, Israeli officials said today.The bus exploded about noon local time Wednesday in one of the city's busiest areas, near the Tel Aviv museum. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were investigating whether the bomb had been planted and left on the bus...

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Blazing a legal trail to help improve health care

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...

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Bernanke warns about fiscal cliff, spending cutbacks

WASHINGTON: US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned Tuesday that the looming 'fiscal cliff' tax hikes and spending cuts "pose a substantial threat" to the country's economic recovery.With government leaders locked in crunch talks on avoiding the cliff and slashing the budget deficit, Bernanke also said that the rising cuts to federal government spending were already holding back...

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P Chidambaram feels Congress has advantage in Karnataka

BANGALORE: Union finance minister P Chidambaram feels Congress has a great opportunity to capture power in the forthcoming assembly elections in Karnataka. Addressing the party office-bearers at KPCC office here on Tuesday, he said the split in the BJP (former CM B S Yeddyurappa's decision to quit the BJP) and other problems had provided a perfect platform for the Congress to emerge victorious....

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Cuba's Oil Quest to Continue, Despite Deepwater Disappointment

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...

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Spokesman: Gaza Ceasefire to Be Announced

A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel will be announced tonight, almost a week after the assassination of Hamas' top military commander led to the worst violence between Gaza and Israel in four years.Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told ABC News the news would be announced at 8 p.m. in Cairo (1 p.m. ET), where Egypt has been trying to broker a peace deal. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and...

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Motor Racing: Red Bull worried by alternator failures

AUSTIN, Texas: Red Bull team chief Christian Horner admits their latest alternator failure, suffered by Australian Mark Webber, in Sunday's United States Grand Prix is a worry ahead of the drivers' title showdown in Brazil next weekend.Webber's alternator failure was the team's third this season and came in the race in which they celebrated clinching a third consecutive constructors' championship.Webber...

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Katju condemns arrest, fires emails to Maharashtra CM

NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge and Press Council chairman Justice Markandey Katju fired two emails of protest within hours of each other on Monday to the Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan strongly condemning the arrest of two girls from Palghar town, located 87km north of Mumbai, for criticizing on Facebook the state "bandh" following Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's death....

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Lonesome George Not the Last of His Kind, After All?

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...

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Israeli Airstrike Kills Top Islamic Jihad Commander

An Israeli strike on a Gaza City high-rise today has killed one of the top militant leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group said.The second strike in two days on the downtown Gaza City building that houses the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, has killed Ramez Harb, who is a leading figure in Al Quds Brigades militant wing, according to a text message Islamic Jihad...

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Iron Dome intercepts two rockets over Tel Aviv

TEL AVIV: Israel's vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile system on Sunday shot down two rockets over Tel Aviv as sirens wailed across the city, in the fourth such interception in one day, police said."Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, and the Iron Dome shot down two rockets," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld."There were no reports of injuries or damage on ground level in Tel Aviv or (the surrounding...

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Lonesome George Not the Last of His Kind, After All?

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...

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