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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Football: Michu brace drops Arsenal down to 10th

LONDON: Swansea piled on the misery for Arsenal as Michu scored twice in the closing minutes to clinch a shock 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.Spanish forward Michu underlined his growing reputation as the bargain buy of the season with a pair of clinical finishes on the counter attack, prompting Arsenal's fans to unleash a torrent of abuse at manager Arsene Wenger and his...

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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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KC Chiefs Player Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

A Kansas City Chiefs football player committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police outside of the team's stadium, just as officers investigating the shooting of the player's girlfriend arrived on the scene, police said.The name of the 25-year-old player has not yet been released.Kansas City Police were first alerted something was wrong by the girlfriend's mother."The...

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Boehner says ‘fiscal cliff’ talks at stalemate as Obama takes his case to the public

Hatfield, Pa. — House Speaker John A. Boehner declared Friday that talks to avert the year-end “fiscal cliff” have reached a “stalemate,” as President Obama insisted that raising taxes on the wealthy is non-negotiable as part of a deal with Congress In his first domestic trip since winning reelection, Obama demanded on Friday that tax rates on the wealthy must rise as part of a deal...

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Strauss-Kahn, maid don't have deal yet: lawyers

NEW YORK: Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former IMF chief, shot down reports Friday that he was ready to pay $6 million to a Manhattan maid accusing him of sexual assault -- but confirmed that he was negotiating.In a statement seeking to dampen media speculation over an out-of-court settlement of the maid's civil suit, the lawyers stressed that Strauss-Kahn was talking,...

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CBI chargesheets arms dealer Abhishek Verma, wife, firm & ex-IAF man in OS Act case

NEW DELHI: The CBI today chargesheeted arms dealer Abhishek Verma, his Romanian wife Anca Maria Neacsu, their company M/s Ganton India Pvt Ltd and a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force for allegedly possessing secret defence documents and supplying them to foreign nationals in violation of the Official Secrets Act. They were charge sheeted under section 3 of the OSA (for passing...

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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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Mo. Couple Wins Half of Powerball Jackpot

The lucky winners of half of the record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot have been identified as Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearborn, Mo., their working-class lives suddenly taking a turn to the financial stratosphere.Cindy Hill, who with her husband has three adult sons and a 6-year-old daughter adopted from China, purchased the ticket at a Trex Mart gas station in Dearborn."I...

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Mitt Romney arrives at the White House for lunch with President Obama

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney arrived at the White House on Thursday for his lunch with President Obama, stepping out of the passenger side of a dark Lincoln Navigator and into the West Wing just before 12:30 p.m. Romney, wearing a dark suit and tie, opened his own door and entered alone, according to pictures taken by photographers at the scene. He and Obama were scheduled...

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Long hard road for Spain in recession: OECD

MADRID: Spain is engulfed in a long recession with little hope of a quick recovery and its towering unemployment rate will soar further, the OECD club of industrialised nations said Thursday.Spain must quickly fix its banks to avert the "substantial risk" of being cut off from external financing and plunging into an even deeper recession, the body warned in a report."The economy is undergoing...

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Heavy snowfall in higher reaches of Uttarakhand

DEHRADUN: The higher reaches of the mountains in Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand today received the season's first heavy snowfall even as icy winds swept the plains. Incessant rains made way for heavy snowfall in Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamnotri, Auli and Harsil in Garhwal and Dharchula and Munsyari in Kumaon. Rains lashed Dehradun in the afternoon making the day temperature...

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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. (Learn about other fungi that invade brains.)Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers...

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Petraeus Tells Friend He 'Screwed Up Royally'

One of David Petraeus' closest friends says the former CIA director admitted that he "screwed up royally" by having an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell.Retired Brigadier Gen. James Shelton has been friends with Petraeus for more than three decades and reached to out to him after he resigned from the CIA. Shelton told ABC News that the former four-star general wrote...

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Obama urges public to pressure Congress on extending tax cuts for the middle class

President Obama urged Americans on Wednesday to pressure Congress to extend an income tax freeze for the middle class, warning that failure to agree on such a measure could cost families more than $2,000 next year, harm job growth and “drag our economy down.” Speaking with 15 middle-class Americans standing behind him, Obama called on people to use a new Twitter hashtag, #my2k, and tell...

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Italy, China sign deals worth US$1.27b

ROME: Italian and Chinese firms signed deals worth $1.27 billion (984 million euros) on Wednesday in Rome at talks attended by Prime Minister Mario Monti and senior Chinese politburo member Jia Qinglin.The six deals included agreements between Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and Italian Internet provider Fastweb for $557 million and between China Everbright and Chinese-owned Italy-based...

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Times campaign: Get rid of outdated laws

After 20 years of economic reforms, our laws have still not been rid of obscure and obsolete provisions. Whether they are central or state, the laws continue to offer ample scope to 'authorities' to harass law-abiding citizens. You can be arrested, your homes and establishments raided, your businesses shut down, and your reputation affected (at least temporarily) -- for reasons that no right-thinking...

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Black Hole Blast Biggest Ever Recorded

Astronomers have witnessed a record-breaking blast of gas and dust flowing out of a monster black hole more than 11.5 billion light years away.The supermassive gravity well, with a mass of one to three billion suns, lurks at the core of a quasar—a class of extremely bright and energetic galaxies—dubbed SDSS J1106 1939. (See "Black Hole Blasts Superheated Early Universe.")"We discovered...

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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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Experts comb for clues in deadly German blaze

TITISEE-NEUSTADT, Germany: Experts sifted through a fire-ravaged workshop for the disabled in Germany on Tuesday, hunting for the cause of a fierce blaze there that killed 14 people.Most of the dead from the fire which began on Monday at the centre in the southwestern town of Titisee-Neustadt in Germany's Black Forest region were disabled, police said.A 50-year-old female carer was also...

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Cash transfer scheme will be a game changer step for 2014 general elections: Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: Gearing up for the next general elections, scheduled in 2014, the Congress on Tuesday termed its big-ticket plan to directly transfer cash to various social welfare beneficiaries as "game changer" and "politically revolutionary" step for UPA-II."It will be a game changer," finance minister P Chidambaram said at a press conference at the Congress headquarters here."It is a politically...

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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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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting

Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael...

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Syria warplanes hit village near Turkey

ATME, Syria: A Syrian warplane bombarded the village of Atme near the northwestern border with Turkey on Monday, prompting hundreds of panicked residents to flee, an AFP journalist said.The fighter jet overflew Atme three times at a low altitude and dropped at least six bombs or rockets into populated areas near a school that houses a rebel command centre, without causing any casualties,...

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Manmohan Singh unveils direct cash transfer scheme for subsidies

NEW DELHI: In a landmark step, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday announced the much-awaited direct cash transfer scheme wherein the subsidy amount will go directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The government will implement the scheme for cash transfer to the beneficiary's account in 51 districts from January 1, 2013. Manmohan Singh chaired the first meeting of the National...

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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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Cracks in the Conservative Armor?

So much for pledges?As lawmakers return to Washington today, the deadline to put on the brakes before the country plunges off the fiscal cliff is now in sight, and it appears that both sides are open to some wheeling and dealing.For Republicans, that may mean breaking a promise many of them made not to raise taxes."When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should...

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Republicans ease on tax as US budget talks resume

WASHINGTON: As Congress prepared to dive back into "fiscal cliff" talks on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, there were encouraging signs that Republican intransigence on tax could be easing.For the second time in days, a leading Republican, this time Senator Lindsey Graham, edged toward violating something that had been sacrosanct -- a longstanding pledge signed by many in his party...

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Mamata intolerant, wants only yes men: Katju

KOLKATA: Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "intolerant", Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju Sunday said she only wants "yes men" around her. However, he praised her for feeling for the 'aam aadmi'. "I had praised her earlier...She has got the good quality of integrity. I think she feels for the aam aadmi," said Katju. "But she must realise that in democracy you...

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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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No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million

Nov 25, 2012 10:37am                                                                ...

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