Football: Inter Milan held by Genoa, nine points behind Juve

ROME: Inter Milan fell further behind Serie A leaders Juventus on Saturday after being held 1-1 at home to struggling Genoa.Inter, nine points behind the defending champions who beat Cagliari 3-1 on Friday, had to rely on a goal from Argentinian veteran Esteban Cambiasso five minutes from time to rescue a point.Genoa's Ciro Immobile had given the visitors the lead in the 77th minute with...

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Govt mulling over amendment to rape law

NEW DELHI: Forced on the back foot by unprecedented public fury over the savage gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus last Sunday, the government on Saturday announced its intent to immediately amend the law to provide for death penalty in "rarest of rare" rape cases. Simultaneously, five police personnel found responsible for lapses that led to the gang rape going undetected despite the...

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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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'Fiscal Cliff' Leaves Boehner a Wounded Speaker

John Boehner is a bloodied House speaker following the startling setback that his own fractious Republican troops dealt him in their "fiscal cliff" struggle against President Barack Obama.There's plenty of internal grumbling about the Ohio Republican, especially among conservatives, and lots of buzzing about whether his leadership post is in jeopardy. But it's uncertain whether...

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Obama recalls Inouye’s ‘dignity and grace’ during emotional service

President Obama delivered an emotional address Friday to political leaders and diplomats gathered for a memorial service celebrating the life of Sen. Daniel Inouye, a fellow Hawaii native who in the president’s admiring words “would probably be wondering what all the fuss was about.” Those imagined sentiments did not stop Obama from making a fuss over the long-serving Democratic senator...

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Moments of silence, bells mark US school shooting

NEWTOWN: Mourners in Newtown, Connecticut, stood in silence under heavy rain while church bells rang to honour the 20 young children and six staff massacred in a school shooting a week ago.The sombre scene at 9:30 am local time, the moment a week earlier when a deranged local man armed with semiautomatic weapons burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School, was echoed around the country...

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'Seven out of ten women sexually harassed'

Of these 90% don't register a police complaint because they think it's of no use, reveals TOI surveyAn overwhelming majority of women (90%) who experience sexual harassment do not register a police complaint. Majority of them do not do so as they do not think it would serve any purpose revealing abysmal faith in law enforcement agencies.This was revealed in an online survey conducted by the Times...

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Winter Solstice 2012: Facts on the Shortest Day of the Year

Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's all due to Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21.Some predicted that today would also mark Earth's doomsday, thanks to a longstanding rumor that the Maya calendar ends on December 21, 2012. But earlier this year, National Geographic grantee William...

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Amid Protest, NRA Calls for Armed Guards in Schools

The National Rifle Association stood its ground today in arguing that the answer to gun violence in schools is an armed security force that can protect students, while blaming the media and violent entertainment and video games for recent deadly shootings."The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre...

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An ambassador’s holiday card like no other

(Greetings from our man in Finland. ) There are traditional holiday cards and then there are non-traditional cards. There surely are none more non-traditional than the one sent out by our man in Finland, Ambassador Bruce Oreck.Oreck, a lawyer and son of famed vacuum cleaner manufacturer David Oreck, was a major Obama bundler and Democratic contributor before getting the appointment...

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Russia's Putin denies propping up Assad

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war."We are not concerned about (Bashar Assad's fate. We understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change," Putin told a major Moscow press briefing.But he made no call on Assad...

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Jaya writes to PM on Cauvery issue

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa today requested the Centre to expedite steps for notification of the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said "the Counsels for all states, including Karnataka, brought to the notice of the Supreme Court (on December 5) the fact that the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes...

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Winter Weather Threatens Christmas Travel

A pre-Christmas blizzard that is battering at least eight states in the middle of the nation could trip up travelers headed home for Christmas in the coming days.Nearly 20 inches of snow have been reported in Colorado just west of Denver. Nebraska has reported 6-to-10 inches so far. Between 3 and 8 inches have accumulated in Iowa already and more is possible. Snow is falling...

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Obama would veto Boehner’s Plan B, White House says

President Obama urged congressional Republicans Wednesday to return to the bargaining table over the year-end fiscal cliff, saying the two sides are far too close to the big budget deal they’ve been seeking for the past two years to give up now. “Take the deal,” Obama said at a noon news conference, where he suggested that the primary obstacle to an agreement is GOP antipathy for the president...

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Football: Wilshere, four others sign new Arsenal deals

LONDON: Arsenal were given a major fillip on Wednesday when they announced that English midfielder Jack Wilshere and four other players have agreed new long-term contracts with the club.Wilshere joins fellow England internationals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson and Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey in committing his future to the Emirates Stadium."We are delighted...

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Get to the heart of saving lives

Raja Ali, a former first-class cricketer, collapses on a pavement in Bhopal. He has a cardiac arrest and onlookers simply watch. That left-handed batsman Ali, was an important member of the Railways team that lifted the Ranji Trophy twice and Irani Trophy once did not matter as he lay writhing in pain a couple of months ago before departing from this world within minutes at a young age of 36. Eventually...

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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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Inside One School's Extraordinary Security Measures

While schools across America reassess their security measures in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., one school outside of Chicago takes safety to a whole new level.The security measures at Middleton Elementary School start the moment you set foot on campus, with a camera-equipped doorbell. When you ring the doorbell, school employees inside are...

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Football: Benitez promises handshake with old rival Warnock

COBHAM, England: Chelsea interim manager Rafael Benitez insists he is willing to shake hands with Leeds United boss Neil Warnock at Wednesday's League Cup quarter-final in a bid to end their simmering feud.Benitez has clashed with Warnock on several occasions in the past, with the most high-profile incident coming in 2007 when the Spaniard sent out a weakened Liverpool team against Fulham.Fulham...

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Malik fails to keep word on MHA team’s Pak visit

NEW DELHI: With the tentative date (Wednesday, December19) agreed to by both India and Pakistan for an MHA team's visit to Islamabad for finalizing modalities of the Pakistani judicial commission's second visit all but gone, New Delhi is still awaiting confirmation for a new schedule. According to sources in the home ministry, the Pakistani delegation — led by interior minister Rehman Malik — had...

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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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Threat Closes Newtown Elementary School

Local officials closed a Newtown, Conn., elementary school following a threat on what would have been the first day of classes since a shooting rampage at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.Classes at Head O'Meadow Elementary School were scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, but as parents and students arrived at the school they encountered police who turned them away.Principal...

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Post poll: Americans see school massacre as sign of broad societal problems

More than half of Americans see the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday as a sign of broader problems in society, not merely the isolated act of a troubled individual, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The finding reverses a recent trend in which the public saw mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Tucson, Ariz. as aberrations that did not reflect underlying...

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Obama meets top Republican on fiscal cliff talks

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama held fresh talks with top Republican lawmaker John Boehner at the White House on Monday, in their latest effort to reach a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff."The president and Speaker Boehner are meeting at the White House to continue their discussions about the fiscal cliff and balanced deficit reduction," the White House said in a statement.The...

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Exit polls: Narendra Modi to sweep Gujarat, Congress ahead in Himachal

NEW DELHI: Exit and opinion polls on television channels at the end of voting in Gujarat on Sunday projected BJP to perform a hat-trick in the state while Congress is predicted to have an edge in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh. Exit poll carried out by C-Voter for Times Now predicted 119 to 129 seats for BJP while Congress is projected to win between 49 and 59 seats out of the total 182 seats. News 24...

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The Bloody Truth About Serbia's Vampire

Garlic sales are up. Wooden crosses are a hot commodity. That can only mean one thing: Vampire on the loose!But this isn't part of a movie script or book. It's a real-life event in the Serbian town of Zarozje (map), where last month the local council issued a public health warning that the resident vampire, Sava Savanovic, may be on the prowl. (See "Pictures: Toothless 'Vampire' Skeleton...

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Newtown Couple Vow to Live for Dead Daughter

The parents of Jessica Rekos, a 6-year-old girl who died during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said they are committed to keeping their daughter's memory alive despite their pain."We will talk about her every day, we will live for her," Krista Rekos told ABC News. "We will make sure her brother knows what an amazing person she was."Richard and...

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