A normally stoic president sheds tears over mass shooting of ‘our children’

President Obama, so often cool and unemotional, struggled to maintain his composure Friday as he addressed a nation reeling from a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. “The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said partway into a four-minute stateme...

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Public skydiving event in S'pore may become yearly affair

SINGAPORE: Daredevils can rejoice, as there are plans for a yearly public skydiving event to be held in Singapore, subject to authorities' approval.The first of the plunges took place on Saturday above Sentosa, where 15 thrill-seekers took the leap of faith.It was held in conjunction with Asia Pacific's inaugural indoor skydiving world championships, which runs from 14 to 16 December at...

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Quota bill: Mulayam threatens UPA

MAINPURI (UP): Terming the proposed legislation on SC/ST quota in promotion as anti-national, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today said his party would review its stand on supporting the UPA government from outside, if the Bill is passed. "If voting is done on the Bill in the House, I will reconsider my party's support to the government.... We will review party's outside support...

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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School Shooting: Officials Seek Details on Gunman

The FBI is in at least three states interviewing relatives and friends of the elementary school gunman who killed 20 children, seven adults and himself, trying to put together a better picture of the shooter and uncover any possible explanation for the massacre, ABC News has learned.The authorities have fanned out to New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts to interview relatives...

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Golf: Garcia shows his class at Johor Open

KUALA LUMPUR: World number 20 Sergio Garcia of Spain charged up the leaderboard to hold the second-round lead at nine-under through 12 holes at the weather-interrupted $2 million Iskandar Johor Open on Friday.Almost three hours of play was lost to bad weather and play was suspended as darkness began falling, leaving 117 players to return at 7.30 am on Saturday to resume their round.Opening...

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Rehman Malik in Delhi, says 'we have no love lost for Hafiz Saeed'

NEW DELHI: The India-Pakistan "journey to peace" is progressing "very well", Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik said on Friday. Speaking to the media soon after his arrival on a three-day visit, Malik also promised to arrest Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed if New Delhi provided credible evidence about his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. "Pakistan and India have...

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Global Checkup: Most People Living Longer, But Sicker

If the world's entire population went in for a collective checkup, would the doctor's prognosis be good or bad? Both, according to new studies published in The Lancet medical journal.The vast collaborative effort, called the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, includes papers by nearly 500 authors in 50 countries. Spanning four decades of data, it represents...

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Critics Faulted Rice's Work on Benghazi, Africa

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice removed herself from possible consideration as secretary of state after becoming yet another player in the divide between the left and right.Rice, who withdrew her name Thursday, has faced months of criticism over how she characterized the Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. She also has come under fire for her approach...

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Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s 2012 Christmas card: Fiscal cliff, Gretzky in heaven

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen — your Rep. Loretta Sanchez Christmas card for 2012! (Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez) Over the past decade, the California Democrat’s wacky holiday greetings have drawn a cult following. “I’ve seen them being sold on eBay,” the congresswoman told us. Nice topical theme this year! “The ‘fiscal cliff’ is a very serious situation,...

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Land parcel in Sembawang receives top bid of S$211.9m

SINGAPORE: The tender for a land parcel located at Sembawang Crescent/Sembawang Drive closed on Thursday with a top bid of $211.92 million.The site, measuring 21,718.4 square metres, received a total of eight bids. In a statement, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said the top bid came from boutique developer JBE Holdings, while the second highest bid of S$210.1 million was handed...

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Girls embroiled in Facebook controversy invited by IIM Ahmedabad

MUMBAI: Shaheen Dhada and her friend Renu, who were at the centre of a controversy related to their Facebook post after Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's death, have been invited by the prestigious IIM-A to interact with students. "Shaheen and Renu have been invited to interact with the students and teachers of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. They will be meeting with the...

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Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy

The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang."This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist...

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McAfee Returns to US, Admits Playing 'Crazy Card'

John McAfee's month-long international run from police through two Central American nations ended with a flight to Miami, where the businessman who says he abandoned his fortune admitted to playing the "crazy card."As a gaggle of media waited near several exit doors at the airport Wednesday night, federal authorities whisked the founder of McAfee anti-virus software off the...

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PM to "carefully consider" whether to call by-election

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said he will carefully consider whether to call a by-election in Punggol East and, if so, when. This follows the resignation of Michael Palmer as MP for the area.In a statement to the media on Wednesday, Mr Lee also assured Singaporeans that he will make his decision based on what he said, "is best for the constituents of Punggol East and...

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Pak govt claims to promote interfaith harmony

AMRITSAR: Rejecting assertions regarding the plight of Hindus, the Pakistan High Commission on Wednesday reiterated full commitment of the government of Pakistan in ensuring the welfare and well-being of the Hindu community in Pakistan.In past there have been various instances of persecutions of Hindus by Islamic fundamentalists forcing them to migrate to India.Recently the community was once...

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal ObservatoryThis image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon...

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Mall Gunman Wanted to Kill 'Total Strangers'

The masked gunman who opened fire in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two and seriously injuring a third before killing himself, was trying to "kill as many people as possible."The shooter, wearing a white hockey mask, black clothing and a bullet proof vest, tore through the mall just before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, entering through a Macy's...

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Injured Navy serviceman expected to be in ICU for a few days: CGH

SINGAPORE: Changi General Hospital (CGH) said on Tuesday that Navy serviceman ME2 Jason Chee Weng Fai is still in critical condition and is expected to be in the Intensive Care Unit for a few days.The hospital says Mr Chee has undergone surgery and is in the process of recovery.The Weapon Systems Supervisor was injured on Monday when he got caught between a motorised winch and a rope on...

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Households likely to get 9 subsidized LPG cylinders a year

NEW DELHI: The government will raise the cap on supply of subsidized cooking gas (LPG) to nine cylinders per household in a year from current restriction of six, oil minister M Veerappa Moily said."I think it is likely to go up definitely from six (cylinders) to 9 (cylinders)," he told reporters here.The government had in September capped supply of subsidized LPG to six cylinders per household...

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U.K. Dash for Shale Gas a Test for Global Fracking

Thomas K. Grose in London The starting gun has sounded for the United Kingdom's "dash for gas," as the media here have dubbed it.As early as this week, a moratorium on shale gas production is expected to be lifted. And plans to streamline and speed the regulatory process through a new Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil were unveiled last week in the annual autumn budget statement by...

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Closing Tax Loopholes Not Enough to Avert 'Cliff'?

Closing "corporate tax loopholes" sure sounds good to the average, non-corporate American -- so good, in fact, that politicians talk about it all the time.House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal-cliff proposal purports to raise $1.6 trillion in revenue by "clos[ing] special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."The White House, meanwhile, has complained that Boehner...

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21 workers gather at security firm to demand for wages

SINGAPORE: A group of workers, including 13 Singaporeans, gathered at their security firm on Monday morning demanding for payment of their wages.21 local and Malaysian workers accused Elk Security for failing to pay their wages on time as well as contribute to their CPF accounts.Following discussions between the Manpower Ministry (MOM) and the firm, all parties agreed that the November...

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India, China, Brazil to emerge as key global players: US report

WASHINGTON: Asia will have surpassed North America and Europe combined in terms of global power by 2030 with China, India and Brazil becoming especially important to the global economy, according to a new US intelligence assessment. "The diffusion of power among countries will have a dramatic impact by 2030," says the fifth installment in the US National Intelligence Council's series aimed at providing...

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't...

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Royal Hoax: DJs 'Shattered' After Nurse's Suicide

The two Australian radio DJs who prank-called the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated last week said they were "shattered" and "gutted" after the nurse who answered their call apparently killed herself.Shock jocks Mel Greig, 30, and Michael Christian, 25, cried as they spoke to Australia's Channel 9 overnight in their first public interview since Jacintha...

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Taiwan urges Japan to apologise over sex slaves: report

TAIPEI: Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Sunday urged Japan to apologise for using sex slaves from across Asia during World War II, local media reported.Ma made the call at a conference in Taiwan on sexual slavery attended by elderly women from Taiwan, South Korea and the Philippines who had been forced into prostitution by the Japanese military during the war."Historical mistakes can...

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

Shreya Roy Chowdhury, TNN Dec 8, 2012, 06.12AM ISTMUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the...

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't...

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Gay Marriage: Will Justices Follow Popular Opinion?

The Supreme Court's announcement that it would hear two cases challenging laws prohibiting same-sex marriage has reinvigorated one of the most hotly contentious social debates in American history, a debate that has been fueled by a dramatic change in attitudes.With some states taking significant steps towards legalizing gay marriage, the hearings come at a critical moment.This...

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