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...

Read More..