Tax fight sends GOP into chaos

The main thing that has held Republicans together philosophically is the belief in holding down taxes. Not one of them in Congress has voted for a significant increase in more than two decades. Now that very issue is tearing the GOP apart and making it an all-but-ungovernable majority for Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to lead in the House. Disarray is a word much overused in politics....

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New diagnostic kit allows testing for ricin poisoning

SINGAPORE: A new diagnostic kit developed by Singapore's DSO National Laboratories and the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia will allow for the testing of a potent toxin, known as ricin, in humans.Ricin is found in the common castor bean plant and oil produced from the plant is widely used industrially.A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult...

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India to open its first drug inspection office in Beijing by Mar 1

NEW DELHI: Increasing the heat on Chinese drug firms exporting medicines to India, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is all set to open its first foreign drug inspection office in Beijing by March 1. Around four Indian drug inspectors will be posted in China to inspect manufacturing sites and check whether good manufacturing practices (GMP) are being complied with. DCGI Dr G N Singh...

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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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'Cliff' Deniers Put Faith in No Deal

Not everyone thinks the "fiscal cliff" is so bad.If the Dec. 31 deadline passes, income taxes will go up and across-the-board spending cuts will hit government programs. But while most of the political world frets as if a major disaster is looming, others have treated it more like the Y2K bug: a fiscal canard ginning up a lot of unnecessary panic.The cliff is a "fantasy," former...

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Nesting turtle numbers fall in South Asia: experts

KOLKATA: Conservationists have expressed alarm over the low number of turtles arriving on the coast of east India and Bangladesh for the nesting season, blaming overfishing and climate change for the decline.Between November and March, several species of sea turtle, including the Olive Ridley, travel thousands of miles to nest on the sandy shores of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove...

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Pakistan 'Islamised' sarees, like its happening to Urdu: Chishti

VADODARA: The humble six yards was 'Islamised' by Pakistan much like what is happening to Urdu in India. Noted textile researcher and sari expert Rta Kapur Chishti said this here on Friday. Author of 'Saris-Tradition and Beyond', Chishti said that women in Pakistan used to wear sarees in the post partition era till 1970s. "But after 1970s, sarees were Islamised and women stopped wearing it in...

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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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NRA to Speak on Stopping Newtown Repeat

For the past week, leadership at the National Rifle Association has largely stayed away from the media, but this morning the group may weigh in on how to keep a deadly shooting massacre like last week's at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school from happening again.The NRA will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., just before 11 a.m.Its leadership has held off on interviews...

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China economic growth likely to pick up: analysts

SHANGHAI: China's economic growth may pick up to above 8 per cent in 2013, as economists expect the government to launch policies to boost recovery.The country is expected to report 7.5 per cent this year, the slowest pace in recent years. Economists say investment will remain as the pillar of growth the Chinese economy in the short term, despite the government's push for consumption....

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Modi's victory historic, says Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Describing Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's decisive win in Gujarat Assembly polls as "historic", Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray today said Congress would meet the same fate in Maharashtra. "As in Gujarat, Congress will bite the dust in Maharashtra elections as well," Uddhav said in his congratulatory message to Modi. This was "a historic victory", Uddhav said. "This...

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.Bats are a major reservoir...

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Virginia Tech Survivor Fights Back Against Guns

Colin Goddard knows what it's like to be in a classroom when an armed man bursts through the door and starts randomly shooting people. Goddard was a student at Virginia Tech when a gunman shot him and killed 32 people in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history."It was the most terrifying nine minutes of my life," Goddard told Terry Moran of "Nightline" Wednesday. "One moment...

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Moon concedes S. Korea presidential election

SEOUL: Liberal candidate Moon Jae-In conceded victory Wednesday in South Korea's presidential election to conservative Park Geun-Hye, saying he "humbly" accepted the decision of the voters."Everyone did their best but I lacked the ability," Moon told reporters outside his Seoul residence. "I humbly accept the outcome of the election."- AFP/ck !-- Zone Tag : Channel News Asia In Text...

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Delhi gang rape victim battles on, undergoes fifth surgery

NEW DELHI: The 23-year-old paramedical student, who was gang-raped and tortured in a moving bus on Sunday night, today underwent fifth surgery and "continues to be critical but stable", doctors attending on her said. Doctors at the Safdarjung hospital where she is undergoing treatment performed an elective abdominal surgery --gastronomy and duodenustromy -- and surgeons had to remove her gangrenous...

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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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Australia a Model for Successful Gun Control?

If there is one country that best represents the possibility of cutting gun crime by increasing gun control, it is Australia.In 1996, 28-year-old Martin Bryant finished his lunch in a café in the seaside resort of Port Arthur and pulled out a semi-automatic rifle. In the first 15 seconds of his attack, he killed 12 and wounded 10. In all, he shot more than 50 people in six locations,...

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‘Fiscal cliff’ standoff threatens to delay another presidential family vacation

Among the list of potential “fiscal cliff” casualties — federal jobs, middle-class taxes — there’s one that President Obama isn’t talking about: his own Hawaii vacation. Having already skipped his summer retreat in Martha’s Vineyard to remain on the campaign trail, Obama now faces the growing possibility he could go a full year without an extended getaw...

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MOM can and will do more for foreign workers: Tan Chuan-Jin

SINGAPORE: Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin has said his ministry can and will do more for foreign workers.He said this in response to various criticisms about the ministry's management of migrant worker matters.Mr Tan said the ministry's various systems, including those dealing with employment issues for workers, can be improved, and the ministry will continue to work on them.He...

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Delhi rape victim's condition deteriorates, doctors say

NEW DELHI: The condition of the 23-year-old para-medical student, who was allegedly gang-raped by a group of men in a moving bus here, deteriorated this evening after which she has been put on "full-time ventilatory support", doctors attending on her said. The girl's condition in the morning was "better than yesterday's" but as the day progressed, her health condition kept fluctuating, they said....

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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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Siblings of Sandy Hook Victims Face Survivor's Guilt

Six-year-old Arielle Pozner was in a classroom at Sandy Hook school when Adam Lanza burst into the school with his rifle and handguns. Her twin brother, Noah, was in a classroom down the hall.Noah Pozner was killed by Lanza, along with 19 other children at the school, and six adults. Arielle and other students' siblings survived."That's going to be incredibly difficult to cope...

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New private home sales in November fall to lowest level in 2012

SINGAPORE: The number of new private homes sold in November fell to the lowest level in 2012.Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), 1,087 units were sold in November -- 44.2 percent less than in October.It is also the second straight month of decline.October saw 25.7 percent less homes moved in at 1,948 units.Analysts attribute the decline to fewer property launches last month.Savills'...

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

AHMEDABAD: Voting has ended for the Gujarat assembly elections 2012 on Sunday with millions casting their ballot at 23, 318 polling booths at Kutch, north and central Gujarat in the second and final phase of the elections. Elections in the second phase were held in 95 of the 182 constituencies. The initial exit poll results coming from surveys, incumbant chief minister Narendra Modi is all set...

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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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Newtown Victims: 'Hero' Teacher, Principal, 20 Kids

Twenty bright first graders with their entire lives ahead of them were gunned down on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Along with the students, the lives of six school staffers, including a devoted teacher and a proud principal, were lost. Click through to see the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Noah Pozner and his twin sister celebrated their sixth...

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Disputed islands are Japan's: Shinzo Abe

TOKYO: Shinzo Abe, who piloted his Liberal Democratic Party to victory in Sunday's election, said there is no doubt about Japan's ownership of islands at the centre of a dispute with China."China is challenging the fact that (the islands) are Japan's inherent territory," said Abe, who is expected to become prime minister. "Our objective is to stop the challenge. We don't intend to worsen...

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West Bengal opposes direct cash transfer

KOLKATA: After Odisha and Tripura, West Bengal has opposed the Centre's direct cash transfer to bank accounts of beneficiaries claiming it would lead to breakdown of the existing public distribution system and closure of the Food Corporation of India. "The basic objective of the public distribution system to arrest hunger among the poor will be defeated if the beneficiaries are provided cash instead...

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