The Pentagon will send hundreds of additional spies overseas as part of an ambitious plan to assemble an espionage network that rivals the CIA in size, U.S. officials said.
The project is aimed at transforming the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been dominated for the past decade by the demands of two wars, into a spy service focused on emerging threats and more closely aligned with the CIA and elite military commando units.
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Special Envoy to Romania, Mr Ong Eng Chuan, will attend the next hearing in the trial of former Romanian diplomat, Silviu Ionescu, when it resumes on December 3.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he will be accompanied by a representative from the Attorney-General's Chambers of Singapore.
Ionescu, the former Romanian Charge d'Affaires in Singapore, is on trial for two hit-and-run accidents in Singapore in 2009 which left one person dead and two others injured.
- CNA/xq
BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national interest and who is working for international interests.
"The government feels that their responsibility is to safeguard the interest of international market mafias instead of national interest and for saving the interest of international market mafias, the government is ready to compromise with national interests. Now, the parliament will decide as to who is in support of international market mafias and who are supporting national interests," said Naqvi.
The government's decision to allow foreign supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart had triggered protest not only from opposition parties but also from some of its allies.
BJP had sought debate on the issue of allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector, under the rule that entails voting after discussions.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister Office (PMO), V Narayanaswamy said the government would answer all the queries raised by the opposition parties in the parliament and will explain the benefits of allowing FDI in retail sector.
The lower house of parliament has set December 04 and 05 as the date to vote and debate on FDI. The dates for the upper house are yet to be decided.
Narayanaswamy said the government is confident of becoming victorious in the debate.
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.
Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.
The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
“Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot
Published November 30, 2012
(Brendan Smialkowski/AFP/Getty Images)
Bradley Manning’s former guards testified today that they did not intimidate the man accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified cables to the anti-secrets website Wikileaks during a Jan. 18, 2011 incident that resulted in Manning being placed on a temporary suicide risk watch.
Manning’s attorneys cite the event as a key reason why his pre-trial confinement at the Marine brig in Quantico, Va., was unlawful and warrants the dismissal of the charges against him.
Manning faces life imprisonment on charges that he leaked the classified military and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. Details of those charges will come at a trial scheduled for February and are not being discussed at this week’s hearing, which is focused on his nine-month confinement at Quantico from July 2010 to April 2011.
On Jan. 18, 2011 Manning was being moved to his daily “recreation call” in a room at the brig when he experienced an apparent anxiety attack. Manning said Thursday the guards escorting him seemed to have an aggressive attitude that made him feel nervous and ultimately feel faint.
Manning testified Thursday that he “lost my demeanor” during a later discussion with brig officials about the incident that led them to place him on temporary suicide risk watch.
Former Marine guards Lance Corporal Joshua Tankersly and Lance Corporal Jonathan Cline testified today that Manning had been moving around while his hand and leg restraints were placed on him for the escort to the exercise room. They said they reminded Manning that he should respond properly to their orders by referring to their ranks when he answered them.
When Manning entered the recreation room they described a situation in which Manning fell backwards and landed on his backside.
They then said that when out of his leg restraints Manning ran to a weightlifting machine, hid behind it and began to cry. Both Cline and Tankersly said they could not explain Manning’s behavior. Both guards were ordered to leave the room and were replaced by two other guards who escorted Manning back to his cell.
Cline said he was puzzled when a supervisor later told him “we intimidated him or something like that.”
Each guard said he could not recall if they sounded harsh when they talked to Manning on the way to the exercise room.
They both said that aside from the January incident, Manning was courteous and professional in his interactions with them. Both described him as an average prisoner, though Tankersly acknowledged that Manning was a high profile detainee who had the attention of high-ranking officials at the base.
“It’s hard to put ‘average’ on such a high profile, when you have higher ups on base come and check through to that see all was OK,” Tankersly said.
Gunnery Sgt. William Fuller, one of the senior officers at the brig, also testified today about his participation in a Classification and Assessment board that routinely assessed whether Manning’s Maximum Custody and Prevention of Injury status should be downgraded. The board never reduced Manning’s status during his stay.
Fuller acknowledged that before the January incident he and another brig official had considered a downgrade because Manning was “doing pretty good.”
He said the Jan. 18incident “kind of reset things … we had to keep him on Prevention of Injury.”
Fuller also cited Manning’s quiet interactions with him as a reason for keeping Manning on that status.
According to Fuller “he wouldn’t communicate … it seemed like he didn’t really want to talk” and that concerned him, given training he had received that being withdrawn could be an indicator of suicidal behavior.
Fuller admitted that the conversations were really just quick interactions to see how Manning was doing.. When asked to provide examples of longer exchanges he had with other prisoners, Fuller provided brief sentences. That led David Coombs, Manning’s defense attorney to say sarcastically, “so if he’d thrown in more words then he would have classified as a Chatty Patty?”
Manning’s attorneys claim that a protest on Jan. 17 by Manning supporters, at the entrance to the base, may have motivated an aggressive attitude towards the detainee.
Cline recalled other guards “were annoyed” by the protest” because it would close parts of the base and hinder or interrupt how they got home.” But Tankersly said the protest had no impact on Manning’s treatment.
The three Republican senators emerged grim-faced from a basement meeting room in the Capitol on Tuesday and took turns before a bank of televisions cameras, blasting away at the Obama administration for its handling of the deadly attack on an American outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
The first two were prominent national security heavyweights, Arizona’s John McCain and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina. Then the third senator, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, stepped forward. A freshman in her second year and ranked 99th in seniority, Ayotte said she had not been swayed by the administration’s efforts to explain how and why U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice had initially suggested the attack was the result of a spontaneous street protest, instead of a coordinated terrorist attack.
SEOUL: South Korea's exports expanded for a second straight month in November, picking up pace well beyond market expectations, according to the latest government data.
Exports grew 3.9 per cent on-year to US$47.80 billion in November as imports rose 0.7 per cent on-year to US$43.32 billion, leaving a US$4.48 billion trade surplus, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.
In October, exports posted a revised 1.1 per cent rise after three months of contraction as imports registered a revised 1.7 per cent gain on-year in the same month.
The November export reading was well above the median forecast of 2.6 per cent rise, based on a Dow Jones Newswires survey of nine experts.
But the imports reading was below the median forecast of a 1.3 per cent gain in the same survey. The poll had forecast a US$3.4 billion trade surplus.
- AFP/xq
According to a statement by Oslo Police Department, the couple have been remanded in custody, as there is reason to fear that they will evade prosecution by returning to India.
The Court of Appeals in process of hearing the defence's appeal amd the judgement will be pronounced in Oslo District Court on December 3.
"The couple have been charged with gross repeated maltreatment of their child/children by threats, violence or other wrong under section 219 of the Penal Code," Police Department said.
"The prosecution proposed a sentence of one-year three months for the mother and one-year six months for the father. The judgement in the case would be pronounced on Monday, December 3."
Chandrasekhar Vallabhaneni, a software professional from Andhra Pradesh, and his wife his wife Anupama - an officer of the Indian embassy were taken into custody by the police in Oslo.
The police arrested Chandrasekhar after his 7-year-old child complained to his school teachers that his parents were threatening to send him back to India for his acts, Chandrasekhar's nephew V Sailender, who is in Hyderabad, claimed.
The boy was found wetting his pants in the school bus which was reported to his father, who in turn "threatened" the child that he would be sent back to India if he repeated that again, Sailender said, adding the boy was also found bringing toys from school.
The incident comes barely months after another row involving an Indian couple and their children.
Abhigyan (3) and Aishwarya (4) were taken away from their parents --Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya -- by Norway's Child Welfare Society in May last year on grounds of "emotional disconnect".
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into the ocean, sending up plumes of steam as it made contact with the waves.
Though lava can still be viewed from Kalapana near the Big Island's Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, ocean entry is no longer occurring, according to the National Park Service.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
The lava traveled 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Kilauea’s Pu'u O'o vent to the ocean. When lava reaches the water, it cools and hardens, forming a lava delta that can be dangerous to nearby onlookers, according to Reuters.
The news service reported that no communities on the Big Island were threatened by the lava flow.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
A burst of volcanic activity erupts from Kilauea’s crater in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on November 27.
The volcano has been erupting continuously for nearly 30 years. No major damage has been suffered by a town since 1986, according to Reuters.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Hugh Gentry, Reuters
“Ocean entries are beautiful but dangerous,” said Janet Babb, spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, in a statement reported by Reuters. She warned that the steam could be more hazardous than it appears.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Matt Northam, My Shot
A plume of smoke billows where lava from Kilauea meets the sea in this aerial photo taken November 27.
Published November 30, 2012
Photograph by Peter Vancoillie, Your Shot
Published November 30, 2012
Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
The outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”
But there may be a glimmer of hope. There are currently 33 outgoing members of Congress — they’re either retiring or were defeated last month — who have signed the Grover Norquist pledge stating that they will not raise taxes. Those members, particularly the ones who have traditionally been somewhat moderate, could hold the key to that stance softening.
“You have 33 people who do not have to worry about the future political consequences of their vote,” said ABC political director Amy Walter. “These are people who theoretically can vote based purely on the issue rather than on how it will impact their political future.”
One outgoing member has publicly indicated a willingness to join with Obama and the Democrats on a partial deal.
“I have to say that if you’re going to sign me up with a camp, I like what Tom Cole has to say,” California Republican Rep. Mary Bono Mack said on CNN on Thursday. Cole is the Republican who suggested that his party vote to extend the Bush tax-rates for everyone but the highest income earners and leave the rest of the debate for later. Mack’s husband, Connie, however, also an outgoing Republican member of Congress, said he disagreed with his wife.
But in general, among the outgoing Republican representatives with whom ABC News has made contact, the majority have been vague as to whether or not they still feel bound by the pledge, and whether they would be willing to raise tax rates.
“[Congressman Jerry Lewis] has always been willing to listen to any proposals, but there isn’t,” a spokesman for Rep. Lewis, Calif., told ABC News. “He’s said the pledge was easy because it goes along with his philosophy that increasing tax doesn’t solve any problems. However, he’s always been willing to listen to proposals.”
“Congressman Burton has said that he does not vote for tax increases,” a spokesman for Dan Burton, Ind., said to ABC.
“With Representative Herger retiring, we are leaving this debate to returning members and members-elect,” an aide for Wally Herger, Calif., told ABC News.
The majority of Congress members will likely wait until a deal is on the table to show their hand either way. However, it stands to reason that if any members of Congress are going to give in and agree to raise taxes, these would be the likely candidates.
An agreement will require both sides to make some concessions: Republicans will need to agree to some tax increases, Democrats will need to agree to some spending cuts. With Republicans and Democrats appearing to be digging further into their own, very separate territories, the big question is, which side will soften first?
SINGAPORE: The High Court has imposed a longer imprisonment term for disgraced lawyer Tan Cheng Yew, who misappropriated S$4.82 million of his clients' money.
Tan now has to serve 12 years' jail instead of the original nine.
Tan was on the run for six years after he misappropriated the money.
He was arrested in Munich, Germany, in 2009 and extradited to Singapore.
The public prosecutor told Justice Lee Seiu Kin that the highest sentence was six years, where a lawyer absconded with close to S$2 million.
DPP Tan Ken Hwee said in Tan Cheng Yew's case, the sentence of nine years' jail "was manifestly inadequate".
In making his judgement, Justice Lee said as an advocate of law, a lawyer is granted exclusive rights and trust.
He said the court will not hesitate to impose a strong sentence in this case.
- CNA/xq
When the House met for the day, Ansari said he has received eight notices for discussion on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail under Rule 168.
He said he has admitted the motion and "will allow discussion on the subject under Rule 168."
"Date and time of discussion will be decided (later)," he said.
Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) said he wished to convey gratitude to the Chairman for accepting a discussion under Rule 168 and promised "full cooperation in running of the House."
Opposition parties had paralysed Parliament for five days demanding a discussion on the issue under a rule that allows voting.
Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNL
Looking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).
Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.
The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand challenges"—igniting hydrogen fusion fuel in the laboratory, according to the NIF website. Nuclear fusion—the merging of the nuclei of two atoms of, say, hydrogen—can result in a tremendous amount of excess energy. Nuclear fission, by contrast, involves the splitting of atoms.
This July, California-based NIF made history by combining 192 laser beams into a record-breaking laser shot that packed over 500 trillion watts of peak power-a thousand times more power than the entire United States uses at any given instant.
"This was a quantum leap for laser technology around the world," NIF director Ed Moses said in September. But some critics of the $5 billion project wonder why the laser has yet to ignite a fusion chain reaction after three-and-a-half years in operation. Supporters counter that such groundbreaking science simply can't be rushed.
(Related: "Fusion Power a Step Closer After Giant Laser Blast.")
—Brian Handwerk
Published November 29, 2012
Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.
Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.
Today, Martin County Sheriff's Department officials arrested Chester Duane Price, 42, who recently lived in Haleyville, Ala., and charged him with first-degree murder and kidnapping of a child under the age of 13, after he was indicted by a grand jury.
Price was acquainted with Andrea at the time of her disappearance, and also knew another man police once eyed as a potential suspect, officials told ABC News affiliate WPBF in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Handout/Martin County Sheriff's Office
"The investigation has concluded that Price abducted and killed Andrea Gail Parsons," read a sheriff's department news release. "Tragically, at this time, her body has not been recovered."
The sheriff's department declined to specify what evidence led to Price's arrest for the crime after 19 years or to provide details to ABCNews.com beyond the prepared news release.
Reached by phone, a sheriff's department spokeswoman said she did not know whether Price was yet represented by a lawyer.
Price was being held at the Martin County Jail without bond and was scheduled to make his first court appearance via video link at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
In its news release, the sheriff's department cited Price's "extensive criminal history with arrests dating back to 1991" that included arrests for cocaine possession, assault, sale of controlled substance, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and violation of domestic violence injunction.
"The resolve to find Andrea and get answers surrounding the circumstances of her disappearance has never wavered as detectives and others assigned have dedicated their careers to piecing this puzzle together," Martin County Sheriff Robert L. Crowder said in a prepared statement. "In 2011, I assigned a team of detectives, several 'fresh sets of eyes,' to begin another review of the high-volume of evidence that had been previously collected in this case."
A flyer dating from the time of Andrea's disappearance, and redistributed by the sheriff's office after the arrest, described her as 4-foot-11 with hazel eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, a dark shirt and clear plastic sandals, according to the flyer.
The sheriff's department became involved in the case after Andrea's mother, Linda Parsons, returned home from work around 10 p.m. on July 11, 1993, to find her daughter missing and called police, according to the initial sheriff's report.
In the discussions about the “fiscal cliff” consuming Washington, a powerful new group stands out, touting the virtue of bipartisanship and shared sacrifice.
The business leaders who set up the Campaign to Fix the Debt appear nearly every day on network talk shows and have won coveted time with President Obama in pushing for increased tax revenue, reduced government spending, and changes to Social Security and Medicare. The group’s leaders met Wednesday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and returned, yet again, to the White House.
SINGAPORE: From March next year, all cigarettes sold in Singapore must have a new marking to show that they are not contraband or smuggled goods.
Besides the letters "SDPC", which stand for Singapore Duty-Paid Cigarette, there will be a series of vertical bars around the cigarette stick.
Cigarettes with the extra feature can be sold from December 1. From March 1, cigarettes without the new marking will be considered duty-unpaid and illegal.
This is to give manufacturers and retailers time to phase in the revised mark.
Singapore Customs said on Thursday that the new feature will make it easier to tell the difference between duty-paid cigarettes and contraband cigarettes, when it conducts checks to curb the selling, buying and possession of contraband cigarettes.
Those who bring in cigarettes from overseas for their own consumption have to declare them at the Customs Red Channel, as well as pay the duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST).
They should also keep the receipt as proof of payment.
- CNA/xq
NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha was on Thursday adjourned till 12 noon as opposition MPs, who have been demanding a debate on the government's move to allow foreign investment in multi-brand retail, again disrupted the house.
Opposition MPs were on their feet and shouting slogans as soon as question hour was taken up at 11am. Despite requests from the chair Hamid Ansari to let proceedings continue, the ruckus continued. He then adjourned the house till 12 noon.
Opposition members are demanding a debate on the government's move to allow FDI in multi-brand retail.
In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again.
Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the "golden worm," or "Tibetan mushroom"—thought to cure ailments from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 (U.S.) per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.
Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.
"Inflammation is normally a beneficial response to a wound or infection, but in diseases like asthma it happens too fast and to too high of an extent," said study co-author Cornelia H. de Moor of the University of Nottingham. "When cordycepin is present, it inhibits that response strongly."
And it does so in a way not previously seen: at the mRNA stage, where it inhibits polyadenylation. That means it stops swelling at the genetic cellular level—a novel anti-inflammatory approach that could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and cardiovascular-disease patients who don't respond well to current medications.
From Worm to Pill
But such new drugs may be a long way off. The science of parasitic fungi is still in its early stages, and no medicine currently available utilizes cordycepin as an anti-inflammatory. The only way a patient could gain its benefits would by consuming wild-harvested mushrooms.
De Moor cautions against this practice. "I can't recommend taking wild-harvested medications," she says. "Each sample could have a completely different dose, and there are mushrooms where [taking] a single bite will kill you."
Today 96 percent of the world's caterpillar-fungus harvest comes from the high Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan range. Fungi from this region are of the subspecies Ophiocordyceps sinensis, locally known as yartsa gunbu ("summer grass, winter worm"). While highly valued in Chinese traditional medicine, these fungi have relatively low levels of cordycepin. What's more, they grow only at elevations of 10,000 to 16,500 feet and cannot be farmed. All of which makes yartsa gunbu costly for Chinese consumers: A single fungal-infected caterpillar can fetch $30.
Brave New Worm
Luckily for researchers, and for potential consumers, another rare species of caterpillar fungus, Cordyceps militaris, is capable of being farmed—and even cultivated to yield much higher levels of cordycepin.
De Moor says that's not likely to discourage Tibetan harvesters, many of whom make a year's salary in just weeks by finding and selling yartsa gunbu. Scientific proof of cordycepin's efficacy will only increase demand for the fungus, which could prove dangerous. "With cultivation we have a level of quality control that's missing in the wild," says de Moor.
"There is definitely some truth somewhere in certain herbal medicinal traditions, if you look hard enough," says de Moor. "But ancient healers probably wouldn't notice a 10 percent mortality rate resulting from herbal remedies. In the scientific world, that's completely unacceptable." If you want to be safe, she adds, "wait for the medicine."
Ancient Chinese medical traditions—which also use ground tiger bones as a cure for insomnia, elephant ivory for religious icons, and rhinoceros horns to dispel fevers—are controversial but popular. Such remedies remain in demand regardless of scientific advancement—and endangered animals continue to be killed in order to meet that demand. While pills using cordycepin from farmed fungus might someday replace yartsa gunbu harvesting, tigers, elephants, and rhinos are disappearing much quicker than worms.
5-23-16-22-29-Powerball 6: Those are the winning numbers for an estimated $579 million Powerball jackpot -- the biggest in history.
After a feverish day that saw hopeful players buying tickets at the rate of 131,000 every minute, lottery officials in Orlando, Fla., drew the winning sequence shortly after 11 p.m.
The results likely will be announced sometime after 2 a.m. Thursday morning.
Identifying the winner, however, could take days -- if there is a winner.
A prior drawing last Saturday night produced no winner. That fact, plus the doubling in price of a Powerball ticket, accounted for the unprecedented richness of the pot.
"Back in January, we moved Powerball from being a $1 game to $2," said Mary Neubauer, a spokeswoman at the game's headquarters in Iowa. "We thought at the time that this would mean bigger and faster-growing jackpots."
That proved true. The total, she said, began taking "huge jumps -- another $100 million since Saturday." It then jumped another $50 million.
The biggest Powerball pot on record until now -- $365 million -- was won in 2006 by eight Lincoln, Neb., co-workers.
In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
As the latest pot swelled, lottery officials said they began getting phone calls from all around the world.
"When it gets this big," said Neubauer, "we get inquiries from Canada and Europe from people wanting to know if they can buy a ticket. They ask if they can FedEx us the money."
The answer she has to give them, she said, is: "Sorry, no. You have to buy a ticket in a member state from a licensed retail location."
About 80 percent of players don't choose their own Powerball number, opting instead for a computer-generated one.
Asked if there's anything a player can do to improve his or her odds of winning, Neubauer said there isn't -- apart from buying a ticket, of course.
Lottery officials put the odds of winning the $579 Powerball pot at one in 175 million, meaning you'd have been 25 times more likely to win an Academy Award.
Skip Garibaldi, a professor of mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, provided additional perspective: You are three times more likely to die from a falling coconut, he said; seven times more likely to die from fireworks, "and way more likely to die from flesh-eating bacteria" (115 fatalities a year) than you are to win the Powerball lottery.
Segueing, then, from death to life, Garibaldi noted that even the best physicians, equipped with the most up-to-date equipment, can't predict the timing of a child's birth with much accuracy.
"But let's suppose," he said, "that your doctor managed to predict the day, the hour, the minute and the second your baby would be born."
The doctor's uncanny prediction would be "at least 100 times" more likely than your winning.
Even though he knows the odds all too well, Garibaldi said he usually plays the lottery.
When it gets this big, I'll buy a couple of tickets," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You get this feeling of anticipation. You get to think about the fantasy."
So, did he buy two tickets this time?
"I couldn't," he told ABC News. "I'm in California" -- one of eight states that doesn't offer Powerball.
When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.
Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.
BEIJING: The Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece on Wednesday deleted a story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had been named 2012's "Sexiest Man Alive", after it fell for a spoof by US website The Onion.
The People's Daily had run the US satirical site's gushing quotes about the "Pyongyang-bred heartthrob" in both Chinese and English as world news, along with a 55-image gallery opening with Kim astride a horse and gazing into the distance.
But after gleeful Internet users pointed out the error, the English version's web address returned a "page not found" message late Wednesday morning.
A link to the story remained on the website's Korean news pages but there was no content.
The printed edition of the People's Daily did not carry the online report, which made no mention of satire.
It quoted The Onion as saying: "With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true.
"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile."
The People's Daily article was in line with a series of reports carried by state media backing Beijing and its allies.
During the Communist Party's 18th congress this month, Xinhua news agency published a steady stream of stories quoting "world leaders" as praising the meeting.
Many congratulations were from politicians in countries such as Samoa, Guyana, Congo or Montenegro. Obscure groups such as the "Fund of Peace of Republic of Kazakhstan" were also quoted as following Xi Jinping's elevation to party general secretary.
The People's Daily also ran a series of articles citing foreigners lauding the party's showcase event, including one headlined "Reporters highly praise Press Center of the 18th National Congress".
The newspaper's website has previously published other picture slide-shows on Kim, usually depicting the North Korean leader in a heroic pose, on horses or with army generals.
China is North Korea's sole major ally and provides the bulk of its food and fuel imports.
The People's Daily could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
- AFP/ck
CHANDIGARH: Hundreds of devotees lined up at gurdwaras across Punjab and elsewhere in the country Wednesday to celebrate Gurpurab - the birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev.
Tight security arrangements were in place outside famous gurdwaras in Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Talwandi Sabo and other places in Punjab.
There was heavy rush of devotees at the Harmandar Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple, in Amritsar as people arrived to offer prayers. Devotees had started coming to the holiest of Sikh shrines Tuesday night itself.
The whole Golden Temple complex has been illuminated for the past few days.
'Langars' (community kitchens) were organised at all gurdwaras across Punjab and along major highways Tuesday.
Religious processions were taken out by the Sikh community in most cities and towns in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Tuesday on the eve of Gurpurab.
Guru Nanak Dev was born in 1469 at Nankana Sahib (now in Pakistan's Punjab province) and founded Sikhism later.
Hundreds of devotees from India left for Pakistan this week to offer prayers at the Nankana Sahib gurdwara.
Photograph courtesy Conservation India
A young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.
Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian authorities.
"They have taken it very well. They've not been defensive," Sreenivasan said.
"You're not dealing with national property, you're dealing with international property, which helped us put pressure on [them]." (Related: "Asia's Wildlife Trade.")
According to Conservation India, the same day the group filed their report with the government, a fresh order banning Amur hunting was issued. Local officials also began meeting with village leaders, seizing traps and confiscating birds. The national government has also requested an end to the hunting.
Much remains to be done, but because the hunt is so regional, Sreenivasan hopes it can eventually be contained and stamped out. Authorities there, he said, are planning a more thorough investigation next year, with officials observing, patrolling, and enforcing the law.
"This is part of India where there is some amount of acceptance on traditional bush hunting," he added. "But at some point, you draw the line."
(Related: "Bush-Meat Ban Would Devastate Africa's Animals, Poor?")
Published November 27, 2012
Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm
A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.
The bacteria infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but for every case that is confirmed with a laboratory test, about 120 more cases escape diagnosis. Symptoms can include fever, cramps and bloody diarrhea.
For its sample, Consumer Reports included the same pork products millions of Americans buy every day at their supermarkets. The study included 148 pork chops and 50 ground pork samples from around the United States.
In the samples tested, 69 percent tested positive for yersinia and 11 percent for enterococcus, which can indicate fecal contamination that can lead to urinary-tract infections. Salmonella and listeria, the more well-known bacterium, registered at 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
“The results were concerning,” Urvashi Rangan, one of the authors of the report, told ABCNews.com. “It’s hard to say that there was no problem. It shows that there needs to be better hygiene at animal plants. Yersinia wasn’t even being monitored for.”
In a written statement, the Pork Producer’s Council questioned the methods used by Consumer Reports, saying the number of samples tested, 198, did ”not provide a nationally informative estimate of the true prevalence of the cited bacteria on meat.”
Despite the findings, Rangan said it’s good to know that the bacteria can be killed by cooking the pork properly and by being vigilant about cross-contamination.
Pork cuts should be cooked to 145 degrees, while ground pork needs to reach a temperature of 160 degrees to kill the bacteria.
“Anything that touches raw meat should go into the dishwasher before touching anything else,” Rangan said. ”Juices from raw meat that touch the counter should be washed with hot soapy water.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the findings “affirm that companies are meeting the established guidelines for protecting the public’s health.
“USDA will remain vigilant against emerging and evolving threats to the safety of America’s supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products, and we will continue to work with the industry to ensure companies are following food safety procedures in addition to looking for new ways to strengthen the protection of public health,” the department said in a statement.
ABC News’ Dr. Anita Chu contributed reporting.
When members of Congress need factual information and insights into the effectiveness of the financial laws put in place after the 2008 economic crisis, they regularly turn to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Orice Williams Brown.
Initially as director and now as managing director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment section, Brown and her staff have issued dozens of reports examining the flaws and offering recommendations to improve the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout fund, the Wall Street regulatory reform law and the initiatives to prevent housing foreclosures.
SINGAPORE: HDB's My Waterway@Punggol project has won an international gold award.
It clinched the honour under the Project Built section in the 2012 International Award for Liveable Communities conferred by the LivCom Management Company.
The award recognizes International Best Practices in the management of the local environment and is endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
My Waterway@Punggol was chosen as the winner by an independent panel of environmental and landscape management experts.
All project entries were judged based on the following criteria: Enhancement of the natural and Built Landscape, arts, culture and heritage, environmental best practices, community participation and empowerment, healthy lifestyle and strategic planning.
The Livcom Awards are given out annually since 1997 and over 50 countries have been represented at the Awards.
Besides winning the LivCom Awards 2012, My Waterway@Punggol's most recent accolades include the FIABCI Singapore Property Award in October 2012 and the Global Superior Achievement Award by the International Water Association in August 2012.
The LivCom Awards 2012 winners were announced at the award ceremony held in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.
- CNA/ir
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha could not carry on with question hour as members of the opposition raised a din inside the two houses over the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy that they claim will hit small traders.
Within minutes of proceedings beginning, opposition MPs were on their feet raising slogans against the FDI policy.
In the Lok Sabha, Speaker Meira Kumar said, "The first question is on crime against women and you are not allowing it."
Despite her request to take their seats, the MPs continued with their sloganeering, resulting in Meira Kumar adjourning the house till 12 noon.
Similar scenes were witnessed in the Rajya Sabha with Hamid Ansari asking the MPs, who trooped near his podium carrying placards that had slogans against the FDI policy, to return to their seats.
As the MPs continued to raise slogans, Ansari adjourned the house till 12 noon.
Photograph by Greg Parker, Your Shot
The Horsehead Nebula rears its pretty head in a November 17 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot photo community.
Taken from the New Forest Observatory in the United Kingdom, the image shows how the nebula's horse head is part of a larger cloud of dust. Situated about 1,500 light-years away, the Horsehead Nebula is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against another, brighter nebula, according to NASA.
(See "'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")
Published November 26, 2012
Photograph by Jeremy La Zelle, My Shot
Green curtains of aurora stretch over the sky in the Alaska Arctic in a picture submitted to National Geographic's My Shot on November 17.
"The constantly changing kaleidoscope of colors are reminiscent of a fireworks display—but without sound," photographer Jeremy La Zelle wrote with his submission.
"All we hear is the quiet peaceful sounds of a freezing Alaska night."
(See "Aurora Pictures: Best Fall Photos of Northern Lights.")
Published November 26, 2012
Image courtesy Caltech/NASA
NASA's Curiosity rover snapped this picture after moving 83 feet (25 meters) eastward on November 18—the 102nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission to study whether life once existed on Mars.
The view shows Yellowknife Bay, part of the Glenelg area of the Gale Crater, which is located near the base of a three-mile-high (five-kilometer-high) mountain rich with layered sediment deposits laid down over hundreds of millions of years.
(Read more about the Gale Crater.)
Published November 26, 2012
Image courtesy ESA
The sands of the Sahara appear like golden brush strokes around the Tibesti Mountains in a March 2012 satellite image recently released by the European Space Agency.
Located in Chad and Libya, the mountains' highest peak is Emi Koussi-pictured above as a circular structure in the lower-right portion of the dark area.
Lava flows can be seen extending from the westernmost volcano, Toussidé.
(See volcano pictures.)
Published November 26, 2012
Photograph by Quang Nguyen Luong and F. Motte, Herschel SPIRE/ESA
Published November 26, 2012
A company that makes clothes for Sean Combs' clothing brand ENYCE and other U.S. labels reassured investors that a factory fire that killed 112 people over the weekend would not harm its balance sheet, and also pledged to pay the families of the dead $1,200 per victim.
In an announcement Monday, Li & Fung Ltd., a middleman company that supplies clothes from Bangladesh factories to U.S. brands, said "it wishes to clarify" that the deadly Saturday night blaze at the high-rise Tazreen Fashions factory outside Dhaka "will not have any material impact on the financial performance" of the firm.
The fire broke out on the ground floor of the nine-floor building as hundreds of workers were upstairs on a late-night shift producing fleece jackets and trousers for the holiday rush at American stores, including Wal-Mart, according to labor rights groups. Fire officials said the only way out was down open staircases that fed right into the flames. Some workers died as they jumped from higher floors.
PHOTOS from the factory fire.
After reassuring investors about its financial health, Li & Fung's statement went on to express "deepest condolences" to the families of the dead, and pledge the equivalent of $1,200 to each family. The company also said it would set up an educational fund for the victims' children.
As reported on "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" earlier this year, Bangladesh has become a favorite of many American retailers, drawn by the cheapest labor in the world, as low as 21 cents an hour, producing clothes in crowded conditions that would be illegal in the U.S. In the past five years, more than 700 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in factory fires.
READ the original ABC News report.
WATCH the original 'World News' report on deadly factories.
"[It's] the cheapest place, the worst conditions, the most dangerous conditions for workers and yet orders continue to pour in," said Scott Nova, executive director of Worker Rights Consortium, an American group working to improve conditions at factories abroad that make clothes for U.S. companies. Nova said the fire was the most deadly in the history of the Bangladesh apparel industry, and "one of the worst in any country."
Today, U.S. companies extended condolences to the families of the victims, and scrambled to answer questions about the dangerous factory that had been making their clothes.
Wal-Mart inspectors had warned last year that "the factory had violations or conditions which were deemed to be high risk," according to a document posted on-line.
Yet Wal-mart clothing continued to be made at the factory, according to workers groups who found clothing with Wal-Mart's private label, Faded Glory, in the burned out remains along with clothing for a number of other U.S. labels, including ENYCE, Dickies and a brand associated with Sears.
Wal-Mart confirmed Monday that its clothes were being made at the Tazreen factory. Even though Wal-Mart is famed for maintaining tight control over its supply chain, the company said its clothes were being made at the plant without its knowledge.
DHAKA: Bangladesh firefighters on Monday quelled a blaze at a 12-storey building housing four different garment factories in Dhaka, days after a fire killed 110 textile workers in a different facility.
Some workers had been trapped on the roof by the new fire, but authorities said that although they were still searching the building, they believed most had escaped and there were no reported deaths.
"We don't have any casualties but the firefighters will search the building and see whether anyone has been suffocated," Dhaka deputy commissioner of police Nisharul Arif told AFP.
"Most workers broke grills in the upper floors and escaped to a safe location at an adjacent building."
Thousands of garment workers staged protests on Monday demanding better protection after the deadly inferno on Saturday night that trapped more than 1,000 workers and forced many to jump from windows and roofs.
- AFP/ck
"Government is open for a discussion on the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail. The primary concern is that the house must be allowed to function," Kamal Nath told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
He said the government would try to strike an agreement in the all-party meet. However, he remained noncommittal on whether the government would allow a debate under rules that entail voting.
Major opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Left, have been demanding a debate in the Lok Sabha on the issue under rule 184, which entails voting.
Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon
Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were adjourned till 12 noon on Monday as differences continued over the issue of foreign investment in multi-brand retail and the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders.
Trinamool Congress members rushed towards the speaker's podium to noisily voice their protest, forcing the house to adjourn soon after it began.
Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.
Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")
Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.
Staring at a Star
An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)
"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.
It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.
Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.
"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.
If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.
Coming Into Focus
The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.
"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.
"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.
Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.
Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.
The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.
Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)
And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.
The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.
With the fiscal cliff looming for the United States, some Republican members of Congress said today they are ready to break a long standing pledge not to raise taxes.
"The only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece. And Republicans should put revenue on the table," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said on ABC's "This Week."
Read more of the discussion of the fiscal on "This Week" today.
Graham's comments followed those by another Republican senator, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, who said last week he'll no longer abide by the pledge.
"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," he said in a local interview.
He got support today from House member Peter King, another Republican from New York.
"I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss -- a pledge he signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago is for that Congress," King said on NBC's "Meet the Press." He added, "The world is changed and the economic situation is different."
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Read Matthew Dowd's analysis of the efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff.
This growing chorus is about the pledge that Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist has gotten hundreds of Republicans to sign. But in an interview with ABC News, Norquist says it's just a few deserters.
"The people who have made a commitment to their constituents are largely keeping it," he said. "The fact is there is more support for both protecting the rates, you saw the Republican leader in the house say rates are non-negotiable, and he also talked about revenue coming from growth."
But President Obama has said rates will go up for the wealthy. There could be some political cover for Republicans if the country actually goes over the cliff. All the Bush era tax cuts would expire, including those for the wealthy. Congress could then vote to actually reduce taxes for everyone expect the rich. Therefore, they wouldn't technically raise taxes and violate Norquist's pledge.
But Nordquist said he doesn't think the public would buy those political moves, and he also doesn't think the country will actually go over the cliff.
"I think we'll continue the tax cuts. Not raise taxes $500 billion. Obama made the correct decision (by extending the Bush tax cuts) two years ago," Norquist told us.
Leading Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin also said he believes a deal is possible now that the Thanksgiving holiday break is over.
"We can solve this problem," he said on "This Week," adding: "There's no excuse. We're back in town."
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