Obama’s second-term agenda will be shadowed by budget woes

Even if President Obama succeeds in getting Republicans to agree to tax hikes on the wealthy as part of a “fiscal cliff” deal, the country’s grim budget realities will still cast a long shadow — limiting his ambitions as he begins plotting a second-term agenda. Any agreement is likely to result in less than the $1.6 trillion in new taxes over the next decade that Obama requested in his...

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Italy's Monti to resign as premier

ROME: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is stepping down, the president's office announced Saturday, just hours after the man he replaced, Silvio Berlusconi, said he would run again for head of government.Monti "does not think it possible to continue his mandate and consequently made clear his intention to present his resignation," said the statement from President Giorgio Napolitano's...

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

MUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the debate—that the Indian attitude to China was influenced...

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't...

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Egypt Terror Leader Possibly Linked to Benghazi Attack Arrested

Dec 8, 2012 2:16pm Mohammad Hannon/AP PhotoThe leader of an Egyptian terrorist cell that planned attacks in Egypt and may be linked with the storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11 has been arrested by Egyptian intelligence officers, according to an official close to Egypt’s intelligence agency and a senior U.S. official.Mohammad Jamal Abdo Ahmed...

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Oil slips amid concerns about demand for crude

NEW YORK: Oil prices slipped Friday as a dip in the US unemployment rate failed to allay skepticism about economic recovery in the United States and Europe and the strength of crude demand.New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January, finished at $85.93 a barrel, down 33 cents from Thursday's closing level.In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for January...

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Supreme Court to Take Up Gay Marriage Cases

The Supreme Court today decided to take up two major cases regarding gay marriage, one of which could ultimately lead the court to decide whether there is a fundamental right to same-sex marriage.The justices announced that the court would hear a challenge to Proposition 8, the controversial California ballot initiative that passed in 2008 that restricted marriage to opposite-sex...

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Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson to step down

Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson, left, at the Senate Arms Services Committee about the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. (Kevin Lamarque - REUTERS) Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, will resign at the end of the year and return to private practice, the military announced on Thursday. Johnson, who has been the general counsel at the Department of Defense since 2009 and...

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ECB forecast cuts send oil lower

NEW YORK: Oil prices sank along with the euro Thursday after the European Central Bank forecast that the eurozone would continue to contract next year and only return to growth in 2014.New York's main contract, WTI crude for delivery in January, recoiled $1.62 to $86.26 a barrel.In London trade, Brent North Sea crude for January dived $1.78 to $107.03 a barrel.The falls paralleled that...

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NH8 stretch on Delhi-Gurgaon border is India’s deadliest road

NEW DELHI: Perhaps, the deadliest stretch in the country falls on the Delhi-Gurgaon border on NH8. Data available with TOI shows that 260 lives were lost on this 40-km stretch last year.While the Gurgaon section killed 160 people in 2011, another 100 died in road crashes on Kapdiwas border and Daruhera stretch. The high rate of fatalities has exposed how safety of road users has been the lowest priority...

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High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy

Patrick J. Kiger Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity...

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McAfee Mystery Deepens With Possible Heart Attack

Software millionaire John McAfee has been taken to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance after suffering a possible heart attack at the detention center where he is being held.McAfee, 67 -- who may soon be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive....

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Rubio, Ryan look to the future during award dinner speeches

Two high-profile Republican members of Congress who stand at the forefront of the effort to rebuild the party after a stinging presidential defeat delivered speeches Tuesday night aimed at turning the page with a fresh emphasis on inclusion and a renewed focus on growing the middle class. “Nothing represents how special America is more than our middle class. And our challenge and our opportunity...

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Ferry to Tanjong Pinang stranded after hitting corals

SINGAPORE: A ferry travelling from Singapore to the Indonesia island of Tanjong Pinang was stranded after hitting corals on Wednesday evening.Indonesian online media Batam Today reported the incident happened near Lobam island, in the Bintan region at about 6.50pm local time.No casualties were reported. However, one passenger suffered head injuries and was sent to a nearby hospital. The...

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Pranab escapes facing poll trial, SC bench knocks out Sangma plea 3:2

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday escaped an election trial in the Supreme Court as a five-judge Constitution bench dismissed by a 3:2 majority a petition by Purno Sangma seeking quashing of Mukherjee's election to the top constitutional post. While challenging Mukherjee's election on the ground that he was disqualified to contest as he had not resigned from two posts of offices...

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NYC Subway Pusher Charged With Murder

A New York City man was charged today with murder for shoving another man onto subway tracks where he was struck and killed by an oncoming train.Naeem Davis, 30, was charged after being questioned by police since Tuesday about the death of Ki-Suck Han, 58, of Queens, N.Y.The charges include murder second degree: intentional, as well as murder second degree: depraved indifference.He...

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Giant Sequoias Grow Faster With Age

Aging giant sequoia trees are growing faster than ever, with some of the oldest and tallest trees producing more wood, on average, in old age than they did when they were younger. (Read about redwoods, another species of giant tree, in National Geographic magazine.)A 2,000-year-old giant sequoia is just cranking out wood, said Steve Sillett, a professor at Humboldt State University in...

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Golf: McIlroy named US PGA Tour Player of Year

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida: Rory McIlroy, whose four US PGA Tour victories in 2012 included a major title at the PGA Championship, was named the US tour's Player of the Year on Tuesday.US tour members vote on the award, which made the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland the youngest player to be named Player of the Year since then 21-year-old Tiger Woods in 1997.McIlroy authored a strong...

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FDI: Congress woos Mulayam, Maya for Rajya Sabha numbers

NEW DELHI: With the BSP continuing to resist the Congress's persuasion to openly support the decision to allow foreign retail chains into the country, the government on Tuesday furiously cranked up its efforts to dodge a likely defeat in Rajya Sabha. On a day when the SP and the BSP, serial saviours of the government in crunch situations, slammed the FDI decision in the Lok Sabha debate, the government...

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Oldest Giant Panda Relative Found in Spain

The oldest relative of the giant panda has been discovered in Spain—suggesting that the animals' ancestors originated in Europe, a new study says.Dubbed Kretzoiarctos beatrix, the 11-million-year-old species was previously named Agriarctos beatrix based on a few fossil teeth found at a paleontological site near Zaragoza, Spain (map). Agriarctos is an extinct genus of European bear and...

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Republicans make 'fiscal cliff' counter-offer

WASHINGTON: Republicans on Monday laid out a proposal for closing the huge US deficit that raises half the income proposed by President Barack Obama and opposes a higher tax rate increase for the rich.Their $2.2 trillion deficit reduction proposal agreed to the permanent extension of tax cuts, a move that would mitigate much of the impact of the looming fiscal cliff.But they did not immediately...

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Samajwadi Party keeps UPA in suspense over FDI vote

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party is still playing a guessing game over the vote on FDI in Parliament. Political pundits have not ruled out the possibility of the SP voting against the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), at least in Rajya Sabha, to gain political edge over the Bahujan Samaj Party if it abstains from voting. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will, however, take the final call on his party's...

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Boehner Makes Fiscal Cliff Counter-Offer

Dec 3, 2012 3:19pm House Speaker John Boehner today sent President Obama a counter-proposal on how to cut the deficit that he called a “credible plan” to break the stalemate in negotiations to keep the country from going off the “fiscal cliff.”In the plan, Republicans offer a total of $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. That would give lawmakers...

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‘Fiscal cliff’ debate: Who are the key players?

The “fiscal cliff” nears, and judging from the rhetoric coming from congressional Republicans and the White House of late, a deal is not near. (House Speaker John Boehner declared “stalemate” late last week.) Of course, like a procrastinating college student writing an end-of-semester term paper, Congress tends to do its best work with a deadline looming, so veteran Capitol Hill watchers...

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French minister says 'no confidence' in steel tycoon Mittal

PARIS: A French minister cast doubt Sunday on whether the world's top steelmaker ArcelorMittal would keep its end of the bargain after a compromise deal on a key plant that Paris had threatened to nationalise.The dispute over the closure of blast furnaces at the Florange plant risked damaging France's image among investors, after a virulent attack by a minister on the company owned by...

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FDI in retail to safeguard international market mafias' interest: BJP

ANI Dec 1, 2012, 03.28PM ISTNEW DELHI: India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said retail reform is a step taken by the Congress led-federal government to safeguard the interests of the international market mafias at the cost of national interest. BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Saturday that voting inside the parliament would decide as to who is in favour of national...

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Chiefs: Jovan Didn't Have 'Long Concussion History'

The death of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, the latest in a string of tragic NFL suicides, has left the player's teammates, coaches, family and friends wondering what could have led a man described as generous and caring to murder his girlfriend -- the mother of his 3-month-old daughter -- and then kill himself.Kansas City police say Belcher, 25, shot and killed...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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