Many 2011 federal budget cuts had little real-world effect

Late on the night of April 8, 2011, Washington’s leaders announced that they’d just done something extraordinary. They had agreed to cut the federal budget — and cut it big. “The largest annual spending cut in our history,” President Obama called it in a televised speech. To prevent a government shutdown, the parties had agreed to slash $37.8 billion: more than the budgets of the Labor...

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Taiwan's "King of the Trees" fights for the forests

TAICHUNG, Taiwan: With his blue stetson and thick grey jacket, Lai Pei-yuan looks like a modern-day cowboy, but rather than raising cattle, he grows trees.The 57-year-old Taiwanese entrepreneur made his fortune in transportation and property, but his real mission in life is to reinstate at least some of the forests that once covered most of the island."It was just a simple idea I had,"...

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I was detained for talking with media: SAR Geelani

NEW DELHI: A day after he was detained following the hanging of Afzal Guru, Delhi University lecturer SAR Geelani Sunday said his detention by police happened because he had spoken to the media. "They did not want me to speak to the press, so they detained me," Geelani told IANS. Geelani, who teaches at Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the parliament...

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Mars Rover Curiosity Completes First Full Drill

For the first time in history, humans have drilled a hole into rock on Mars and are collecting the powdered results for analysis, NASA announced Saturday.After weeks of intensive planning, the Mars rover Curiosity undertook its first full drill on Friday, with NASA receiving images on Saturday showing that the procedure was a success.Curiosity drilled a hole that is a modest 2.5 inches...

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LAPD Reopens Case of Suspected Cop-Killer's Firing

The Los Angeles Police Department announced today it will reopen the case of the firing of Christopher Dorner, but said the decision was not made to "appease" the fugitive former cop suspected of killing three people.Dorner, a fired and disgruntled former Los Angeles police officer, said in the so-called "manifesto" he released that he was targeting LAPD officials and their...

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Kite-flying regaining popularity in Singapore

SINGAPORE: An old hobby is once again being picked up in Singapore. Its soaring popularity can be seen dotting the country's skyline, especially at weekends, as more and more people come out to fly kites.At the Marina Barrage Green Roof in downtown Singapore, people do not seem to mind the heat as they wrestle to keep their kites in the sky. On weekends, hundreds of kite flyers head there,...

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Afzal Guru buried inside Tihar jail complex

NEW DELHI: Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged on Saturday morning at Tihar Jail, was buried inside the prison complex soon after his execution. "He (Guru) was buried near jail number three," a top Tihar Jail official said. Guru spent over 10 years on death row in the Tihar prison and was hanged at the jail at 8 AM in an operation shrouded in secrecy. The mercy plea of 43-year-old...

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Space Pictures This Week: Sun Dragon, Celestial Seagull

Solar DragonImage courtesy SDO/NASAResembling a dragon's tail, remnants of a solar filament strain to escape the sun's gravity in an image released this week by NASA's Solar Dynamics...

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Northeast Shuts Down as Blizzard Batters Millions

A blizzard of possibly historic proportions battered the Northeast Friday into Saturday, and forecasters feared as much as two feet of snow and strong winds could shut down densely populated cities such as New York and Boston, where cars were ordered off the streets.State officials declared states of emergencies throughout the region, and utilities estimated more than a half-million...

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Lawmakers divided on Postal Service plan

Lawmakers wrestled Thursday with how to address Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe’s announcement that the U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery in August. Donahoe moved to circumvent Congress’s long-standing resistance to the proposal for five-day delivery, a move the Postal Service thinks will save about $2 billion annually and help ease its financial losses....

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Olam profit soars but Muddy Waters keeps sell rating

SINGAPORE: Farm commodities supplier Olam reported a near 20 percent jump in quarterly net profit but US-based short-seller Muddy Waters on Friday maintained its "strong sell" rating on the Singapore company.Olam said net profit for the October-December period soared 19.9 percent from a year earlier to S$154.14 million ($124.30 million), shrugging off recent claims by Muddy Waters that...

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Sri Lankan president's visit to India: Karunanidhi leads protest, Vaiko courts arrest

NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: Protests have broken out in Chennai and New Delhi against the visit of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India. Tamil groups have taken to the street demanding that the Sri Lanka president return to his country.In Delhi, MDMK chief Vaiko has courted arrest after leading a protest opposing Rajapaksa's visit. In Chennai, DMK chief Karunanidhi is spearheading the agitation.Rajapaksa...

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Asteroid to Make Closest Flyby in History

Talk about too close for comfort. In a rare cosmic encounter, an asteroid will barnstorm Earth next week, missing our planet by a mere 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers).Designated 2012 DA14, the space rock is approximately 150 feet (45 meters) across, and astronomers are certain it will zip harmlessly past our planet on February 15—but not before making history. It will pass within...

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Cop Shooting Rampage: Manhunt on Mountain

The truck owned and driven by suspected cop killer Christopher Dorner during his alleged rampage through the Los Angeles area was found deserted and in flames on the side of Bear Mountain, Calif., this afternoon -- with tracks in the snow leading away from the vehicle.The San Bernadino Sheriff's Department confirmed the truck was Dorner's, but said at a news conference this...

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In the Loop: Interior pick could watch, but not deliver, a State of the Union address

The nomination announcement Wednesday afternoon of Sally Jewell, chief executive of outdoor company REI, to be secretary of the interior would put her eighth in the line of presidential succession should anything happen to President Obama, Vice President Biden, House and Senate leaders and the top four Cabinet officials at State, Treasury, Defense and Justice. Except for one problem: She...

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Google boosts mobile ad campaigns

SAN FRANCISCO: Google began letting businesses target mobile ads based on how close smartphone users might be to shops or what they might be craving at certain times of day.Google began upgrading its AdWords service with "enhanced campaigns" for advertisers trying to better connect with people accessing the Internet on the move with smartphones or tablet computers."People are constantly...

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Suryanelli gang-rape case rocks Kerala assembly again, House adjourned

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM-led LDF opposition forced the adjournment of the Kerala assembly on Thursday over alleged police excess against women MLAs demanding re-investigation of charges against Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien in the Suryanelli gang-rape case. Though chief minister Oommen Chandy announced that the government was prepared for a judicial inquiry into the police action on...

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Humans Swap DNA More Readily Than They Swap Stories

Jane J. Lee Once upon a time, someone in 14th-century Europe told a tale of two girls—a kind one who was rewarded for her manners and willingness to work hard, and an unkind girl who was punished for her greed and selfishness.This version was part of a long line of variations that eventually spread throughout Europe, finding their way into the Brothers Grimm fairytales as Frau Holle, and...

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Armstrong May Testify Under Oath on Doping

Facing a federal criminal investigation and a deadline that originally was tonight to tell all under oath to anti-doping authorities or lose his last chance at reducing his lifetime sporting ban, Lance Armstrong now may cooperate.His apparent 11th-hour about-face, according to the U.S. Anti Doping Agency (USADA), suggests he might testify under oath and give full details to...

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Strengthening security at the nation’s airports

Most people think of airport security as their walk through the metal detector and the eyeballing by transportation security officers (TSOs). Dan Liddell, whose job it is to protect the flying public at seven airports in central New York, instead sees 17 zones of worker responsibility and hundreds of different tasks. In pursuit of safeguarding the public, Liddell, a federal security director...

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Five dead, three injured in Solomon Islands 8.0 quake

  HONIARA: At least five people were killed, including a child, and three more were injured when a 8.0 magnitude earthquake jolted the Solomon Islands Wednesday, hospital officials said."We can report five dead and three injured. One of the dead was a male child, three were elderly women and one an elderly man," Chris Rogers, a registered nurse at Lata Hospital in the Santa Cruz...

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Bikaner baby bitten, maimed by father turns critical

JAIPUR: A five-month-old baby girl from Bikaner, whose father had bitten off parts of her lips, nose and cheek last month, was put on ventilator support on Wednesday after her condition deteriorated, doctors said here."The baby was operated upon on February 1 at the Sawai Man Singh government hospital and she was stable but her condition turned critical following which she was put on ventilator today,"...

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The Real Richard III

It's a question that actors from Laurence Olivier to Kevin Spacey have grappled with: What did Richard III, the villainous protagonist of Shakespeare's famous historical drama, really look and sound like?In the wake of this week's announcement by the University of Leicester that archaeologists have discovered the 15th-century British king's lost skeleton beneath a parking lot, news continues...

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