Football: 'Business as usual' for Chelsea after Rafa blast

LONDON: Chelsea insisted Thursday would be just another day at the office despite interim manager Rafael Benitez hitting out at the club's fans and management the day before.Benitez launched a broadside following his side's 2-0 win at Middlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday, criticising fans for protesting against him and questioning why he was only appointed on a temporary...

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Cash-in-bag case: HC notice to CBI on Yadav's plea regarding prosecution sanction

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued a notice to the CBI on a petition filed by Justice Nirmal Yadav (retired), an accused in cash-in-bag case, seeking photocopies of the record of ministry of law and justice pertaining to her prosecution sanction.While issuing notice to the CBI for March 21, Justice Ranjit Singh asked CBI to file its reply on the demand of Yadav, who...

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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital

BOSTON (AP) — The 2007 chemical attack left the Vermont nurse unrecognizable to anyone who knew her.But now Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face has changed again following a facial transplant this month.Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial...

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Newtown Dad's Tearful Plea at Senate Gun Hearing

A father who lost his son in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School sobbed as he testified at a Senate hearing today in favor of an assault weapons ban.Across town Vice President Biden alluded to untold horror of the Newtown tragedy in an appeal for help from the nation's attorneys general.Despite their emotional appeals, the push for gun reforms championed by the White...

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Iran tells Zardari pipeline must advance despite US

TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday told the visiting Pakistani president that a much-delayed $7.5 billion gas pipeline project must go ahead despite US opposition."The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is an important example of Tehran-Islamabad cooperation, and despite hostilities towards the expansion of ties we must overcome this opposition decisively," Khamenei...

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IB sulks over govt bid to place NCTC outside its ambit

NEW DELHI: As it tries to assuage the concerns of states over the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which sees the concept as an encroachment on their turf, now the Centre also has to contend with the resentment of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to the proposed mechanism. Anxious to win over the states on the issue of NCTC which it sees as imperative for better co-ordination among counter-terror...

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C. Everett Koop, 'rock star' surgeon general, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. C. Everett Koop has long been regarded as the nation's doctor— even though it has been nearly a quarter-century since he was surgeon general.Koop, who died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96, was by far the best known and most influential person to carry that title. Koop, a 6-foot-1 evangelical Presbyterian with a biblical prophet's beard, donned a public health uniform...

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Senate Votes to Confirm Hagel as Defense Secretary

After a tough two-month battle characterized by tough interrogation and a partisan divide, the Senate voted 58-41 to confirm Chuck Hagel -- President Obama's nominee -- as secretary of defense this afternoon.Only four Republicans broke party lines to vote in Hagel's favor. They included Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Mike Johanns of Nebraska and...

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Portugal may get more time to cut deficit: prime minister

LISBON: Portugal's prime minister on Tuesday said his country may be granted more time to meet its fiscal targets as the implementation of its international bailout was under review."There is a possibility of getting one year more to adjust the state deficit and it is very likely that this is up for discussion", Pedro Passos Coelho said as the so-called Troika of public creditors -- the...

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Huge protest vote pushes Italy towards deadlock

ROME (Reuters) - A huge protest vote by Italians enraged by economic hardship and political corruption pushed the country towards deadlock after an election on Monday, with voting projections showing no coalition strong enough to form a government. With more than two thirds of the vote counted, the projections suggested the center left could have a slim lead in the race for the lower...

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