Bomb kills 64 in Pakistan's Quetta

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Sixty-four people including school children died on Saturday in a bomb attack carried out by extremists from Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority, police said. A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni group, claimed responsibility for the bomb in Quetta, which caused casualties in the town's main bazaar, a school and a computer center. Police said most of the...

Read More..

J&K govt forwards Guru’s family request for return of his body to Centre

SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir government has forwarded the request of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's family to the Centre seeking the return of his body for burial in their village near Sopore in north Kashmir. Sources said that the Centre may consider the request. They said chief minister Omar Abdullah, who had made a similar request earlier, would be called for consultations with Union...

Read More..

UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

Read More..

Meteor Blast 'Something We Only Saw in Movies'

A day after a massive meteor exploded over this city in central Russia, a monumental cleanup effort is under way.Authorities have deployed around 24,000 troops and emergencies responders to help in the effort.Officials say more than a million square feet of windows -- the size of about 20 football fields -- were shattered by the shockwave from the meteor's blast. Around 4,000...

Read More..

Football: Beckham to make PSG bow against Marseille

  PARIS: David Beckham will make his Paris Saint Germain debut in next weekend's Ligue 1 headline clash against Marseille, coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Saturday.The 37-year-old Beckham, who signed a five-month contract with the French leaders last month, will skip Sunday's trip to Sochaux as he needs more time to get his fitness levels up to scratch, the Italian explained."No, he'll...

Read More..

Exclusive: North Korea tells China of preparations for fresh nuclear test - source

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks, said a source with direct knowledge of the message. Further tests could also be accompanied this year by another rocket launch, said the source, who has direct access to the top levels of...

Read More..

VVIP chopper scam ebbs mood in Congress camp

NEW DELHI: Congress leaders were in a sombre frame of mind with a fresh defence bribery scandal eroding the confident mood of last week when the decision to hang Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru infused a sense of purposefulness in the government. The mood swing underlines the heightened vulnerabilities of the Manmohan Singh government to corruption allegations after the 2G and Commonwealth...

Read More..

States' choices set up national health experiment

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is unfolding as a national experiment with American consumers as the guinea pigs: Who will do a better job getting uninsured people covered, the states or the feds?The nation is about evenly split between states that decided by Friday's deadline they want a say in running new insurance markets and states that are defaulting to federal...

Read More..

Carnival Cruise Ship Hit With First Lawsuit

The first lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines has been filed and it is expected to be the beginning of a wave of lawsuits against the ship's owners.Cassie Terry, 25, of Brazoria County, Texas, filed a lawsuit today in Miami federal court, calling the disabled Triumph cruise ship "a floating hell.""Plaintiff was forced to endure unbearable and horrendous odors on the filthy and...

Read More..

EU agrees to test for horse DNA in food labelling row

BRUSSELS: The European Union agreed on Friday the immediate launch of tests for horse DNA in meat products to reassure nervous consumers that their food is safe and to halt the horsemeat scandal spreading across Europe.The test programme will also look for the presence of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory treatment for horses which is harmful to humans and by law supposed to be kept...

Read More..

Key U.S. general backs keeping Afghan forces at peak strength

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. general nominated to oversee a vast region that includes Afghanistan on Thursday backed keeping Afghan forces at a peak strength of 352,000, contrary to current plans to shrink them after NATO declares the war over next year. General Lloyd Austin, nominated to lead the U.S. military's Central Command, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that a more...

Read More..

Helicopter scam: Jaswant agrees change in specifications made during NDA rule

NEW DELHI: Even as the BJP kept up its attack on the government over alleged kickbacks in the VVIP chopper deal, senior party leader Jaswant Singh on Thursday agreed with former IAF chief S P Tyagi that the change in specifications of the helicopters was done at the behest of then national security adviser BrajeshMishra. Singh, however, defended the decision, saying it was done to avoid a single-vendor...

Read More..

Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.The findings, published online Thursday in...

Read More..

Ship Overcomes Towing Issues, Inches Closer to Port

The agonizingly slow progress of the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship carrying 4,000 passengers and crew was further delayed today by problems with the tug boats towing it in, meaning exhausted passengers may not get off the ship until nearly dawn.The ship is now expected in port between 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. CT, according to Carnival. It could take up to five more hours...

Read More..

Mumbai attack movie hits cinemas on Mar 1

MUMBAI: Memories of the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 still evoke fear among residents of the city.And those old wounds are expected to reopen now that a Bollywood movie about the incident is set to hit the big screens.India's financial capital came to a virtual standstill on 26 November 2008.The attacks which lasted for four days drew widespread global condemnation.The Pakistan-based...

Read More..

Clues to why most survived China melamine scandal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists wondering why some children and not others survived one of China's worst food safety scandals have uncovered a suspect: germs that live in the gut.In 2008, at least six babies died and 300,000 became sick after being fed infant formula that had been deliberately and illegally tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. There were some lingering puzzles: How did it cause...

Read More..

Olympics: Wrestlers vow to fight Olympic removal

PARIS: Wrestlers around the world on Wednesday vowed to fight to save the ancient sport's Olympic status, after the International Olympic Committee voted to drop it for the 2020 Games.Japan and Turkey -- whose cities Tokyo and Istanbul are bidding to host the Games in seven years' time -- led the calls for the world body to reconsider, as an online petition was organised urging a rethink...

Read More..

North Korean nuclear test draws anger, including from China

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drawing condemnation from around the world, including from its only major ally, China, which summoned the North Korean ambassador to protest. Pyongyang said the test was an act of self-defense against "U.S. hostility" and threatened stronger steps if necessary. The test...

Read More..

Most BJP legislators against dissolving House

BANGALORE: A majority of BJPMLAs, including ministers, are not in favour of dissolving the assembly early."Governor H R Bhardwaj has said he would act even if a single MLA resigns. As of now, 12 MLAs' resignations have been accepted and two are pending with speaker K G Bopaiah. By moving a vote of confidence, the CM will expose the fence-sitters. Because they will be disqualified if they defy the...

Read More..

Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for...

Read More..

Wanted Ex-Cop Possibly in Shootout, Chase

A suspect believed to be fugitive former cop Christopher Dorner has barricaded himself inside a mountain cabin near Big Bear, Calif., and exchanged gunfire with police who had pursued him after he broke into a home in the area.Two cops were airlifted after being wounded in the exchange of gunfire with the suspect.The suspect is believed to have broken into a home nearby and...

Read More..

Horsemeat disguised as beef confirmed in France: company

PARIS: A major French frozen food retailer said on Tuesday it had found horsemeat in two lots of frozen beef lasagne meals it removed from its shelves last week.Picard, which has hundreds of outlets across France that sell ready-to-eat meals, said the products were made by Comigel, the French firm which last week sparked the frozen food scandal now spreading across Europe.- AFP !--...

Read More..

Pope's sudden resignation sends shockwaves through Church

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict stunned the Roman Catholic Church on Monday when he announced he would stand down, the first pope to do so in 700 years, saying he no longer had the mental and physical strength to carry on. Church officials tried to relay a climate of calm confidence in the running of a 2,000-year-old institution, but the decision could lead to uncertainty in a...

Read More..