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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