Football: Returning Carroll steers West Ham past Swansea

LONDON: On-loan striker Andy Carroll scored only his second goal of the season as West Ham United won 1-0 at home to Swansea City on Saturday to end a run of four Premier League games without victory.West Ham were largely dominant at Upton Park but could find no way past Swansea's inspired goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel until Carroll powered home a header from a corner with 13 minutes to play.Victory...

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Ten killed in road accident near Barmer

JAISALMER: Ten people including two children died while two others were injured in an accident between a jeep and a dumper on Saturday near Barmer in Rajasthan. All the deceased were returning home after a marriage party. The accident happened at 3am on Saturday. Barmer SP Rahul Barhat and other administrative officers rushed to the spot immediately. Barhat said 10 persons died in in collision between...

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Obama Clings to Shotgun in WH Photo

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)After a week of speculation over the authenticity of claims by President Obama that he regularly participated in skeet shooting at Camp David, the White House released a photograph today showing him firing a shotgun.The photo shows Obama targeting clay pigeons at the presidential retreat last August, according to the White House. In an interview published...

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VA study finds more veterans committing suicide

Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to a two-year study by a VA researcher. The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by...

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Oil prices rise after upbeat US, China data

NEW YORK: Oil prices finished higher Friday in New York, buoyed by greater optimism about global growth following encouraging indicators from the US and China.A barrel of West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, settled 28 cents higher at US$97.77 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.Even stronger was the price of European oil benchmark Brent futures, which closed at US$116.76 a barrel...

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India irked as China gets Pakistan's strategic Gwadar port

NEW DELHI: Pakistan's cabinet formally agreed to hand over the operation of its strategically located Gwadar port to China on Wednesday. This puts in place China's famed "string of pearls" strategy which may have significant implications for India. On Wednesday, the Pakistan cabinet, in one of its last decisions, transferred the operations responsibility of the Gwadar port from Singapore's PSA (Port...

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Secret Video Shows Bomb Dogs Failing Tests

A new government investigation suggests that the Transportation Security Administration is not collecting enough detailed information to know if its bomb dogs are well trained and capable of finding bombs at the nation's airports, and includes secret video that shows the dogs failing tests to detect explosives.TSA has been testing bomb dogs in Miami and Oklahoma City and will...

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Pictures: Super Bowl Caps Banner Season in NFL Green Drive

Multiple-exposure photograph by Gerard Lodriguss, Getty ImagesWhen the Ravens and 49ers face off Sunday in Super Bowl XLVII, it will be in a city—and stadium—that have spent more than six years battling back from natural and ecological disaster.So it's no surprise that New Orleans aims to set a new mark for environmental sustainability in its ninth turn at hosting the NFL's marquee event, reflecting...

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Judge to US government: stop censoring 9/11 hearings

GUANTANAMO BAY: A military judge overseeing September 11 pre-trial hearings revealed Thursday the government had censored discussion of secret CIA prisons from outside the courtroom, and angrily ordered such censorship not happen again.The proceedings at the high-security courtroom where five alleged 9/11 plotters are to be tried are heard in the press gallery and in a room where human...

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Ensure our states aren’t hit by your Brahmaputra dams: India to China

NEW DELHI: India took an unusually sharp stand against China's unilateral moves to dam the Brahmaputra, saying it had "established user rights" to the river. Asserting itself for the first time, India asked China "to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by any activities in upstream areas". In its new blueprint for the energy sector for 2011-2015, China announced it would...

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Beyonce Admits to Singing With Pre-Recorded Track

Jan 31, 2013 3:52pm Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images. Beyonce proved the critics wrong at a press conference for the Super Bowl.As the singer walked on stage, she asked the audience to please stand. She then kicked off the press conference with a show-stopping, live performance of the national anthem.RELATED: 7 Revelations From Beyonce“I am a perfectionist...

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Opinion: Sizing Up Google’s New North Korea Map

Editor's note: Juan José Valdés is National Geographic's geographer and director of editorial and research for National Geographic Maps.Google this week unveiled its first detailed maps of North Korea.Where most of the reclusive police state had formerly appeared as white space, the new maps include street names in the capital, government buildings and businesses, and four sites that Google...

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Brazil night club owner attempts suicide

SANTA MARIA: An owner of the Brazilian night club where 235 people perished in a weekend fire tried to commit suicide, police said Wednesday, as the number of survivors seeking medical treatment after the disaster continued to rise.Elissandro Sphor tried to kill himself with a plastic shower hose, said senior police official Lilian Carus in the town of Cruz Alta 125 kilometres from Santa...

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Asaram foot-in-mouth again, turns abusive

JABALPUR: Within days of a tsunami of protest over his remark that the Delhi gang-rape victim should have pleaded with her rapists that she was their sister, controversial godman Asaram said during a satsang here that doctors who carry out abortions are "haraami" (illegitimate) and that women who charge their in-laws with dowry harassment are 'manchali' (giddy, frivolous). Asaram said this in presence...

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Phoenix Gunman Shoots Three at Office Complex

A gunman shot and wounded three people at an office building in Phoenix, Ariz., today and police are now searching for the shooter, authorities told ABC News.One of the victims is in critical condition, the others received non-life threatening injuries, according to police.Police are clearing the office complex in the in the 7310 block of 16th Street, near Glendale Avenue.Officials...

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Water Demand for Energy to Double by 2035

Marianne Lavelle and Thomas K. Grose The amount of fresh water consumed for world energy production is on track to double within the next 25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects.And even though fracking—high-pressure hydraulic fracturing of underground rock formations for natural gas and oil—might grab headlines, IEA sees its future impact as relatively small.By far the...

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British paper sorry for 'inexcusable' Israel cartoon

LONDON: The acting editor of Britain's Sunday Times newspaper apologised Tuesday for a "grotesque" cartoon that sparked accusations of anti-Semitism when it was printed on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.Martin Ivens met with representatives of the Jewish community to say sorry for last Sunday's image by veteran cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, which showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

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Mamata, Gurung in war of words over Gorkhaland

DARJEELING: Mamata Banerjee got a cold welcome in Darjeeling on Tuesday. In a clear sign of the bonhomie being put on ice, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung and the chief minister crossed swords at a public meeting at Darjeeling Mall. While Gurung expressed his annoyance over the state government's stepping on new Hills council's toes, Mamata was irked by the display of Gorkhaland posters...

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Palin and Fox Part Ways, but Is She Really Over?

Sarah Palin's break up with Fox News should not have been, well, breaking news, as she had publicly complained in August on Facebook that the network had canceled her appearances at the Republican National Convention. And going back even further, Palin didn't give Fox the scoop in October 2011 when she announced she wasn't going to run for president. Still, the news of the...

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Space Pictures This Week: Martian Gas, Cloud Trails

Image courtesy SDO/NASAThe sun is more than meets the eye, and researchers should know. They've equipped telescopes on Earth and in space with instruments that view the sun in at least ten different wavelengths of light, some of which are represented in this collage compiled by NASA and released January 22. (See more pictures of the sun.)By viewing the different wavelengths of light given off by the...

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Bipartisan group of senators to unveil framework for immigration overhaul

A key group of senators from both parties will unveil on Monday the framework of a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, including a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants. The detailed, four-page statement of principles will carry the signatures of four Republicans and four Democrats, a bipartisan push that would have been unimaginable just...

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IMF grants Mali US$18m emergency loan

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund agreed Monday to provide an US$18.4 million emergency loan to Mali, a move likely to lead other donors to release more funds after having cut off aid following the March 2012 coup.The IMF executive board approved the loan under the Rapid Credit Facility aiming to help the government bridge a huge budget hole as its fights off an Islamist insurgency...

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SC commutes rapist-killer father's death

NEW DELHI: A man, released on parole after being arrested on wife's FIR accusing him of raping his minor daughter, came home and hacked to death his wife and daughter, but the Supreme Court on Monday found it not to be a "rarest of rare" crime and commuted his death penalty to imprisonment for entire life. To deviate from the concurrent view of the trial court and the Punjab & Haryana high court...

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Sicilian Mummies Bring Centuries to Life

Arrayed in crypts and churches, with leering skulls and parchment skin, the desiccated dead of Sicily have long kept mute vigil.But now, centuries later, these creepy cadavers have plenty to say.Five years into the Sicily Mummy Project, six macabre collections are offering scientists a fresh look at life and death on the Mediterranean island from the late 16th century to the mid-20th.Led...

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Asia's gambling apartheid

SEOUL: The casino industry is booming across Asia, offering anyone looking for high-stakes action a wide choice of venues, from high-tech South Korea to the Himalayan nation of Nepal and communist Vietnam.Anyone, that is, except South Koreans, Nepalese or Vietnamese.For conservative Asian countries, the financial pros and social cons of casino gambling pose something of a dilemma - one...

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