Australia seeks answers from Israel on 'Prisoner X'

SYDNEY: Canberra said Sunday it was seeking answers from Israel over the death in 2010 of an Australian known as "Prisoner X" in a Tel Aviv jail as part of its own probe into the case.Foreign Minister Bob Carr said his office was preparing a formal report into the circumstances surrounding the death of the prisoner, identified in Australian media as Ben Zygier, 34, who Israel says committed...

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 Creates Rush to Cash In

The shattered glass and broken walls caused by the massive explosion of a monstrous meteor over this remote, industrial Russian city is not even cleaned up, and people are already trying to cash in.Some residents want to turn this city known mostly for its tank factory into a tourist destination, while others from all around the world are determined to find fragments of the meteorite.Meteor...

Read More..

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..

Malaysia detains Australian lawmaker at airport

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia detained an Australian lawmaker at Kuala Lumpur airport Saturday and is expected to deport him, an activist said, in a move Canberra described as "disappointing and surprising".Nick Xenophon, an outspoken independent Senator, was detained at the international airport near the capital Kuala Lumpur upon his arrival from Melbourne."He informed me that he is being deported,"...

Read More..

Snowfall closes Srinagar-Jammu highway

SRINAGAR: The Srinagar-Jammu highway remained closed due to fresh snowfall in the Bannihal sector of the over 300-kilometre road Saturday, an official here said. Snowfall in the Bannihal sector and landslides in Seri area of Ramban district in the Jammu region have forced closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway, a traffic official told IANS. "The highway has been closed for vehicular traffic today...

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..

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..

MediaCorp celebrates 50 years of television

SINGAPORE: Singapore's leading media company MediaCorp is celebrating 50 years of broadcasting with year-long celebrations.Highlights include special programmes on each channel that allow audiences to enjoy a new experience while viewing television content, via multi-platform, second screen and on-ground vehicles.There will also be roadshows in May and a charity special in September.The...

Read More..

Indian universities crying for better leadership, say 90% academics

NEW DELHI: A global survey of the academic community on the leadership challenges faced by the Indian higher education system has revealed that the sector is facing shortage of capable leaders with 92% of the respondents saying that this trend is expected to continue until 2020. Just 5% of the respondents said that there was no paucity of leaders. The results of the survey were unveiled at the Education...

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..

Passengers Start to Get Off Disabled Cruise Ship

The ordeal of the disabled Carnival Triumph cruise ship carrying 4,000 passengers and crew appeared to be almost over, with people starting to disembark in Mobile, Ala., after days at sea without power in often squalid conditions.After the ship arrived at port around 9:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. ET), Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill praised the ship's crew and told...

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..

Maldives ex-leader issues demands from Indian embassy

MALE: Former Maldivian leader Mohamed Nasheed, who has taken refuge at the Indian embassy in the capital to evade arrest, has demanded the dropping of charges against 800 party workers, his spokeswoman said Thursday.Mariya Didi also said Nasheed wanted India to take a lead in securing an end to the political crisis in the Indian Ocean atoll nation.Nasheed insisted that "politically motivated"...

Read More..

Hyderabad is the world’s second most affordable office market: Survey

BANGALORE: Hyderabad is the world's second most affordable office market after Surabaya in Indonesia, according to a survey, while Chennai and Pune are at fifth and sixth positions, reinforcing India's reputation as among the cheapest destinations for foreign firms to set up operations. "Tier II cities in China and India continue to dominate the list of top-10 most affordable markets globally,"...

Read More..

South Korea unveils missile it says can hit North's leaders

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea unveiled a cruise missile on Thursday that it said can hit the office of North Korea's leaders, trying to address concerns that it is technologically behind its unpredictable rival which this week conducted its third nuclear test. South Korean officials declined to say the exact range of the missile but said it could hit targets anywhere in North Korea. ...

Read More..

Japan 'shocked' by IOC wrestling decision

TOKYO: Wrestling power Japan, which swept four gold in London, reacted with dismay Wednesday after Olympic chiefs said the 2020 Games would not include the sport, depriving the country of a rich source of medals."I really don't know why. I am so devastated that I don't know what to do," said Saori Yoshida, Japan's undisputed wrestling queen who has won a record 13 straight Olympic and...

Read More..

Battle lines drawn up in Tripura

AGARTALA: Battle lines have been drawn up for Thursday's polls to the 60-member Tripura assembly where heavyweights chief minister Manik Sarkar, TPCC president Sudip Ray Barman and president of Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura Bijay Hrankhwal are among 249 candidates in the fray.The Left Front is hoping to script history by returning to power for a fifth consecutive time.The main contest...

Read More..

Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk...

Read More..

State of the Union: Obama Pushes Job Creation

Pursuing an aggressive and diverse early second-term agenda, President Obama turned his focus Tuesday night squarely to the economy, using his State of the Union address to unveil new government initiatives aimed at creating jobs.The defining duty of the new Congress and new administration is to "reignite the true engine of America's economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle...

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..

Benedict's resignation renews calls for an African pope

LAGOS: Pope Benedict XVI's resignation has sparked calls for his successor to come from Africa, home to the world's fastest-growing population and the front line of key issues facing the Roman Catholic Church.Around 15 per cent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics live in Africa and the percentage has expanded significantly in recent years in comparison to other parts of the world.Much...

Read More..