Obama, Senate Republicans reach agreement on ‘fiscal cliff’

President Obama and Senate leaders struck a bipartisan agreement late Monday to let income taxes rise sharply for the first time in two decades, fulfilling Obama’s promise to raise taxes on the rich and avoiding the worst effects of the “fiscal cliff.” The agreement, brokered by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), primarily targets taxpayers who earn...

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Slew of new measures to take effect on Jan 1

SINGAPORE: A slew of new measures kick in on Tuesday. Among them - parents getting better support in raising a child, and employers abiding by a weekly day-off policy for foreign maids. Car buyers and taxi users too will benefit from new regulations.With the new year, comes new policies.One of the new policies is the Child Development Account (CDA) under the Baby Bonus scheme, which is...

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Curfew lifted from Pulwama town in J&K

SRINAGAR: Authorities today lifted four-day curfew from Pulwama town in south Kashmir following improvement in law and order situation in the area, officials said. "Curfew has been lifted from the affected areas this morning," the officials said. They said senior officials of the district administration and police are monitoring the situation in the area. Curfew was imposed in Pulwama town on...

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Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm

Happy TrailsPhotograph by Alex Cherney, TWANAmateur astronomer Alex Cherney captured these star trails as they blazed above Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake in Victoria, Australia in...

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Fiscal Cliff Deal Vote Likely in Senate

The so-called "fiscal cliff" came tonight -- but now there is a specific deal on the table to try to soften it after the fact, according to congressional sources.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the deal -- brokered by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- would get a vote in the Senate sometime after midnight. The House would...

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Senate negotiators yet to reach ‘fiscal cliff’ deal as clock winds down

Vice President Joseph Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell were locked in urgent talks late Sunday over the “fiscal cliff” after Democrats offered several significant concessions on taxes, including a proposal to raise rates only on earnings over $450,000 a year. With a New Year’s Eve deadline hours away, Democrats abandoned their earlier demand to raise tax rates on household income over $250,000...

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Asian markets weighed by US fiscal cliff gridlock

HONG KONG: Asian markets fell in New Year's Eve-shortened trade on Monday as hopes that US lawmakers will reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff faded just a day before the deadline.However, there was some bright news out of China, where a survey by HSBC showed manufacturing activity hit a 19-month high in December.Hong Kong closed flat, edging down 9.67 points to 22,656.92, but it closed...

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2012: Impact makers

NIRBHAYA: A city that registers two rapes a day was shocked into outraged protests when this 23-year-old was gangraped and brutalized in a moving bus. The large-scale protests forced the govt to promise a review of rape laws setting up of fast-track courts to deal with rape.ARVIND KEJRIWAL: Having remained a loyal lieutenant to Anna Hazare through 2011 and the first half of 2012, Kejriwal came into...

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How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem...

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Hillary Clinton Hospitalized With Blood Clot

(MICHAL CIZEK/AFP/Getty Images)By DANA HUGHES and DEAN SCHABNERSecretary Hillary Clinton was hospitalized today after a doctors doing a follow-up exam discovered a blood clot had formed, stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago.She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours, Deputy...

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Senators trade proposals into night to avoid ‘fiscal cliff’

Senate negotiators labored late into Saturday over a last-ditch plan to avert the “fiscal cliff,” struggling to resolve key differences over how many wealthy households should face higher income taxes in the new year and how to tax inherited estates. As the clock ticked toward a Jan. 1 deadline, the halls of the Capitol were dark and silent. The House and the Senate are shuttered until...

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K Shanmugam stresses protection of women's rights

SINGAPORE: Minister for Law and Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam has condemned the horrific gang rape of a young Indian woman in New Delhi, who died in a hospital in Singapore on Saturday.He said on his Facebook page that it is a heartbreaking case and added that this is a type of case where the abusers should face the death penalty.He said he would often cite similar cases in discussions with...

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July blasts in Valley a terror strike: Cops

SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir police have claimed that two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed in an encounter on Friday in Pulwama were responsible for a blast on a bus that had killed four tourists in Anantnag in July. The claim contradicts their statement that ruled out a terror angle to the blast then and had said that an LPG cylinder inside the bus had exploded and killed the four women...

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How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem...

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Woman Charged With Murder in NYC Subway Push

A woman who allegedly told New York City police she pushed a man onto the subway tracks because she hated Hindus and Muslims has been charged with murder as a hate crime.Erica Menendez, 31, allegedly told police that she "pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I've been beating them up."Menendez...

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Agreement within reach on ‘fiscal cliff’ deal, officials say

President Obama and Senate leaders were on the verge of an agreement Friday that would let taxes rise on the wealthiest households while protecting the vast majority of Americans from historic tax hikes set to hit in January. The development marked a breakthrough after weeks of paralysis. After meeting with Obama at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority...

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Fukushima 'unprecedented challenge': Japan new PM

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI, Japan: The clean-up at Fukushima after its tsunami-sparked nuclear meltdowns is unlike anything humanity has ever tried, Japan's prime minister said Saturday during a tour of the plant."The massive work toward decommissioning is an unprecedented challenge in human history," the newly-elected Shinzo Abe said. "Success in the decommissioning will lead to the reconstruction...

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Silent protests over death of Delhi gang-rape victim

NEW DELHI: Scores of people on Saturday mourned in silence the death of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim and demanded stringent punishment for the culprits.People started gathering at Jantar Mantar here at around 10am and sat in silence.Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas also joined the protest along with some of their supporters with their mouth tied with black...

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How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem...

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Epic Journey: Did Moses' Exodus Really Happen?

In the Bible, he is called Moses. In the Koran, he is the prophet Musa.Religious scholars have long questioned whether of the story of a prophet leading God's chosen people in a great exodus out of Egypt and the freedom it brought them afterwards was real, but the similarities between a pharaoh's ancient hymn and a psalm of David might hold the link to his existence.Tune in...

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As ‘fiscal cliff’ deadline nears, OPM updates furlough guidelines

With talks on averting the “fiscal cliff” apparently stalled, the Office of Personnel Management posted new guidance to federal workers for administrative furloughs on its Web site Thursday afternoon. “We wanted to take some prudent steps to keep federal employees informed in case of an order for sequestration,” said Thomas Richards, OPM’s communications director. He added that the...

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Nikkei 225 index surges almost 23% in 2012

TOKYO: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 finished higher Friday, sending the benchmark index surging nearly 23 per cent this year as Japan's new government pledges to turn around the nation's long-suffering economy.The Nikkei ended the last trading day of the year up 0.70 per cent, or 72.20 points, closing at 10,395.18, its best finish since Japan's 2011 quake-tsunami disaster, and 22.9 per cent up over...

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Centre has no intention to encroach states' rights on water: PM Manmohan Singh

NEW DELHI: In the wake of apprehensions expressed by the states over proposed national legal framework on water resources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday sought to allay fears by saying the Centre has no intention to encroach their rights on water management. "I would like to emphasise the need to see the proposed national legal framework in proper perspective. The framework would be an...

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How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do. So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)In his...

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Gen. 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf Dead at 78

H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the retired general credited with leading U.S.-allied forces to a victory in the first Gulf War, died today at age 78.The man who Defense Secretary Leon Panetta today called "one of the great military giants of the 20th century" died in Tampa, Fla., where he lived in retirement, the Associated Press reported."The men and women of the Department of Defense...

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Hawaii’s lieutenant governor is named to the U.S. Senate

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) selected Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz on Wednesday to fill the vacancy created by the death last week of veteran U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D). With the “fiscal cliff” five days away and critical decisions facing the Senate, the White House said Schatz would fly to Washington on Wednesday evening with President Obama. Schatz said he would be in place to be sworn...

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FairPrice extends price freeze on housebrand rice

SINGAPORE: Supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice has said it will continue to hold prices of all its 10 housebrand Thai and Vietnamese rice till end of March 2013.The announcement on Thursday came amid talks that rice-exporting nations may raise prices.There are also threats of natural disasters affecting rice-producing countries. FairPrice CEO, Seah Kian Peng, said FairPrice was founded with...

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