After ‘fiscal cliff,’ Obama finishes recharging on Hawaiian holiday

HONOLULU — The place where President Obama vacations each winter is farther from Washington than almost any other place in the United States. So, it is not terribly surprising that less than 45 minutes after Congress passed a bill averting the “fiscal cliff” on Jan. 1, Obama was racing back here. The president’s vacation with his family and friends had already been cut short by the protracted,...

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ECB to ring in New Year with rates on hold

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank will usher in 2013 with steady interest rates at its first policy meeting this year to keep up the pressure on governments to solve the debt crisis, analysts predict.With ECB interest rates currently at record lows and its latest anti-crisis weapon ready and primed for action, central bank chief Mario Draghi will not pass up the opportunity to insist...

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Minor girl raped repeatedly, pregnant

SHIMLA: A 13-year-old pregnant rape victim's life is at risk as doctors have ruled out abortion in Himachal Pradesh's Kullu district. The orphaned girl was allegedly raped repeatedly by her maternal uncle and medical examination found she is 29-week pregnant. The elder sister of the girl had approached the Manali police on December 25 after she found out her sister was raped. After the death of...

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

Winner: PlacesPhotograph by Nenad SaljicA full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image...

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Gun Show Near Newtown Goes on Despite Anger

A little more than 40 miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School, where last month 20 first graders and six staff members were massacred, gun dealers and collectors alike ignored calls to cancel a gun show, and gathered for business in Stamford, Conn.Four other gun shows with an hour of Newtown, Conn., recently cancelled their events in the wake of the shootings, when 20-year-old...

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Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera

Al Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against global warming, may gross about $70 million from the sale of his Current TV network to al-Jazeera, the cable channel funded in part by oil-rich Qatar. Al-Jazeera will pay about $500 million for Current TV, including the stake held by Gore, 64, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. The network is one...

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Singapore, Turkey reaffirm excellent bilateral ties

ANKARA: The foreign ministers of Singapore and Turkey reaffirmed the excellent state of relations between their countries during talks in the Turkish capital, Ankara on January 4.Singapore's Foreign Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam and his Turkish counterpart, Professor Ahmet Davutoglu, also discussed ways to further broaden and deepen bilateral cooperation.In particular, they looked...

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Himachal: 2 brothers of murder-accused MLA booked for harbouring him

PANCHKULA: Himachal police on Friday booked two brothers of HP Congress MLA, Ram Kumar Chaudhary, a suspect in the murder case of 24-year-old Jyoti, for allegedly harboring him with the motive of avoiding his arrest.Panchkula police have failed to arrest Chaudhary and 3 others during the 14-day validity of arrest warrant against them. The warrants were issued on December 20.The case was registered...

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

Winner: PlacesPhotograph by Nenad SaljicA full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image...

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Quadruple Amputee Gets Two New Hands on Life

It's the simplest thing, the grasp of one hand in another. But Lindsay Ess will never see it that way, because her hands once belonged to someone else.Growing up in Texas and Virginia, Lindsay, 29, was always one of the pretty girls. She went to college, did some modeling and started building a career in fashion, with an eye on producing fashion shows.Then she lost her hands...

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Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

The fiscal pact Congress reached hours into the new year will delay $109 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts for two months. But it will make a down payment on those reductions that will affect federal operations this year and next. The eleventh-hour agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes put off the major cuts known as a sequester until March 1,...

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GIC names Lim Chow Kiat as new group CIO

SINGAPORE: The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has named Lim Chow Kiat as its next group chief investment officer, effective 1 February 2013.GIC said in a statement on Friday that Mr Lim will succeed Mr Ng Kok Song who is retiring.Mr Lim, 42, is currently GIC's deputy group chief investment officer. He joined the sovereign wealth fund in 1993 after graduating with...

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1 pilot, 3 airhostesses found drunk since Christmas

NEW DELHI: The fear of losing their flying licence led to pilots celebrating Yuletide and ushering in the New Year on a sober note this year. Authorities caught only one pilot — but three airhostesses — reporting to work in an inebriated state during breathalyser (BA) tests done at airports from Christmas to Wednesday.All four flight personnel were from Jet Airways. "We have a zero tolerance policy...

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Pictures We Love: Best of 2012

Photograph by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/APPowder-splattered, and powder-splattering, runners cross the finish line of The Color Run 5K in Irvine, California, on April 22. Each kilometer (0.6 mile) of the event features a color-pelting station dedicated to a single hue, culminating in the Pollock-esque riot at kilometer 5.The "magical color dust" is completely safe, organizers say, though...

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Ex-USC Player: Painkiller Injections Caused Heart Attack

Despite stated label risks of possible fatal heart attack, stroke or organ failure, college football players across the country are still being given injections of a powerful painkiller on game days so they can play while injured, an ABC News investigation has found.The drug, a generic version of Toradol, is recommended for the short-term treatment of post-operative pain in...

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Creative industry in China on the rise

SHANGHAI: The creative industry is becoming a new growth area of the Chinese economy.As one of the cities boasting the fastest growth in this sector, Shanghai's municipal government is injecting another US$32 million to further support its development.Located in one of Shanghai's creative industry parks, KRT is a young local design firm. It is known for doing detailed work that showcases...

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Pictures: Errant Shell Oil Rig Runs Aground Off Alaska, Prompts Massive Response

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast GuardWaves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel...

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Tax Deal Done - but How Can Obama Sign It?

Jan 2, 2013 6:29pm AP Photo/Charles DharapakCongress officially delivered the bill to avert the fiscal cliff to the White House this afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner’s office told ABC News.Now the question is when will the President sign it?The bill, passed late on New Year’s Day, expires tomorrow at 11:59 a.m. when the current session of Congress concludes....

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Helping VA rehabilitate those with multiple wounds of war

Micaela Cornis-Pop oversees more than 110 rehabilitation facilities around the country, helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stay at the forefront of developments in treating traumatic brain injury and other medical injuries and issues facing injured veterans and military service members. With the increase in battlefield survival rates of military personnel serving in Iraq and...

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New path for mid-career professionals to join accounting industry

SINGAPORE: Mid-career professionals in Singapore without accounting work experience or accounting-related qualifications can now be hired and trained as accounts or audit professionals.This has been made possible by a new pilot programme, a result of a partnership between NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) and professional accounting body CPA Australia.Under the programme,...

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NHAI slams GMR for termination notice for biggest highway project

NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has hit back at infrastructure major GMR on its termination notice for the country's biggest highway project worth at least Rs 6,000 crore. The Authority in its reply to GMR has said that the company did not give 90-day cure period (to rectify and address the deficiencies), and how it is in violation of the norms laid down in the concession...

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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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House Plans Up-or-Down Vote on 'Cliff' Deal

The Republican-dominated House of Representatives is taking an up-or-down vote on a bipartisan Senate deal to avert the "fiscal cliff."House Republicans agreed to the up-or-down vote Tuesday evening, despite earlier talk of trying to amend the Senate bill with more spending cuts before taking a vote.If House Republicans had tweaked the legislation, there would have been no clear...

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N.Korea leader vows "radical" economic shift

SEOUL: North Korea's young leader Kim Jong-Un called for a "radical turnabout" in the impoverished country's economy in a rare New Year's address Tuesday that also urged improved relations with the South.While the heart of his lengthy speech was devoted to turning the North into an "economic giant" and raising living standards, Kim stressed that military power remained a national priority."The...

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Global rights bodies slam India for 'weak' rape laws

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has come under attack from global human rights bodies for its inadequate laws against sexual violence or treatment of survivors.Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said, "The government needs to act now to prevent sexual assault, aggressively investigate and prosecute perpetrators, and ensure the dignified treatment of survivors."The US embassy,...

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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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