India to continue to push for David Headley's extradition after he gets 35 years in jail

NEW DELHI: India on Friday said it will continue to press for extradition of David Headley from the US after the Pakistani-American LeT terrorist escaped death penalty for helping plot the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and sentenced to 35 years in jail by an American court.External affairs minister Salman Khurshid said the government was "slightly disappointed" over the quantum of sentence, saying...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

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It's Official: Women Will Serve in Combat

Women will soon be able to serve in combat, as things officially changed with the stroke of a pen today at the Pentagon.At a joint news conference, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Charman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed a memorandum rolling back a 1994 directive prohibiting women from doing so."They serve, they're wounded, and they die right next to each...

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OPM plans to shake up charity program raise concerns about reduced donations

The Office of Personnel Management wants to shake up the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), the charitable-giving system for federal employees, but in the process the agency could risk losing donors and reducing contributions. One rule under review by the Obama administration would “eliminate the use of cash, check and money order contributions. Instead, all donations will be required to...

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Resurgent inflation dampens Vietnam stimulus hopes

HANOI: Vietnam's inflation accelerated in January, according to official data, reducing expectations of further monetary stimulus to boost the economy.Consumer prices were up by 7.07 percent this month from a year earlier, following a 6.8 rise in December, the General Statistics Office in Hanoi said in a statement. Month-on-month prices gained 1.25 percent.A further increase in prices...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

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Pentagon to Allow Women in Combat

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a longstanding ban on women serving in combat, according to senior defense officials.The services have until this May to come up with a plan to implement the change, according to a Defense Department official.That means the changes could come into effect as early as May, though the services will have until January 2016 to complete the...

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Indian panel likely to recommend tougher rape law

NEW DELHI: A government commission tasked with looking at India's sex crime laws after the gang-rape of a student on a New Delhi bus is expected to recommend tougher sentences as it reports its findings Wednesday.A three-member commission led by former chief justice of India Jagdish Sharan Verma will hand over its recommendations to the government, which faced violent protests following...

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Slight respite from cold conditions in Kashmir Valley

SRINAGAR: Residents of Kashmir got a slight respite from the bitter cold conditions as the night temperatures across the Valley registered an increase of several degrees. The weather has remained dry even as the met department predicted light rainfall or snowfall for Wednesday and Thursday. Most of the water bodies across the Valley, including the world famous Dal Lake, continued to be partially...

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The Promise and Perils of Mining Asteroids

Encouraged by new space technologies, a growing fleet of commercial rockets and the vast potential to generate riches, a group of entrepreneurs announced Tuesday that they planned to mine the thousands of near-Earth asteroids in the coming decades.The new company, Deep Space Industries (DSI), is not the first in the field, nor is it the most well-financed. But with their ambition to become...

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