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 remaining 97 passengers were evacuated to a port at Tanjung Uban via several Indonesian boats.

Local media reported that 13 of the passengers are Singaporean, with the rest being Indonesians.

The ferry, MV Sindo 31, left Singapore's Tanah Merah Terminal at 6.30pm Singapore time. After travelling more than an hour, the ferry suddenly stalled when it hit corals. At the time of reporting, the ferry was still stranded at that location.

-CNA/ac

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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 of profit prior to filing of nomination, Sangma had pleaded with the bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices P Sathasivam, S S Nijjar, J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi for a detailed trial on his election petition and decide his objections after a thorough scrutiny.

But the bench decided that Sangma's petition did not disclose such documents and plead issues that required entertaining the plea beyond the preliminary scrutiny stage for a full-fledged trial which could have involved Mukherjee's possible cross-examination by Sangma's lawyer.

CJI Kabir and Justices Sathasivam and Nijjar formed the majority to say, "We are not convinced that in the facts and circumstances of the case, the petition deserves a full and regular hearing as contemplated under Rule 20 of Order XXXIX of the Supreme Court Rules, 1966." Justices Chelameswar and Gogoi, in separate judgments, dissented with the majority view and said the facts and documents annexed by Sangma with his petition challenging Mukherjee's election warranted a detailed hearing.

Justice Chelameswar did not agree with the majority view but said he would soon furnish reasons for his dissent. Justice Gogoi said that Mukherjee needed to prove during the detailed hearing that he did not hold any office of profit at the time of filing of nomination.

"No conclusion that a regular hearing in the present case will be a redundant exercise or an empty formality can be reached so as to dispense with the same and terminate the petition at the stage of its preliminary hearing under Order XXXIX Rule 13. The election petition, therefore, deserves a regular hearing," Justice Gogoi said in his dissenting judgment.

Senior advocate P H Parekh, who has represented the last four presidents, including Mukherjee, as counsel in SC, said V V Giri was the last president to face cross-examination in an election petition. "He was made to sit on the dais away from the judges when he answered questions from the petitioner's counsel," Parekh recalled.

After that, Rule 13 of the Supreme Court Rules was amended so as to provide for preliminary scrutiny of election petitions against the president so as to weed out frivolous pleas at an early stage without embarrassing the country's first citizen by calling him to answer questions during cross-examination.

The majority judgment, authored by the CJI for himself and Justices Sathasivam and Nijjar, was emphatic in rejecting Sangma's counsel Ram Jethmalani's plea for a detailed hearing on the petition, which alleged that Mukherjee incurred disqualification for filing nomination without resigning as leader of Congress in Lok Sabha and chairman of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

"In the instant case, the office of chairman of the institute did not provide for any of the amenities indicated hereinabove and, in fact, the said office was also not capable of yielding profit or pecuniary gain," Justice Kabir said. "In regard to the office of the leader of the House, it is quite clear that the respondent had tendered his resignation from membership of the House before he filed his nomination papers for the presidential election," the majority judgment said.

It said the controversy that Mukherjee had resigned from membership of the Congress party and its Central Working Committee allegedly on June 25, 2012 was set at rest by the affidavit filed by the president's private secretary Pradeep Gupta.

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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 is charged with murdering Han "with depraved indifference" not because he intended to kill Han, but because his lack of regard for Han's life resulted in the death. Two sources involved in Davis' arrest and charging say there is a question whether he intended to kill Han or whether his death was an unintended consequence of an altercation.

NYC Man Pushed on Subway Tracks, Killed by Train Watch Video

Davis admitted to police while explaining the incident that he shoved Han in a way that caused him to fall onto the subway tracks, according to multiple sources involved with the investigation.

Han struggled to pull himself up from the shoulder-high track bed and back onto the platform at the 49th Street and Seventh Avenue station around 12:30 p.m. on Monday, but was hit and killed by a Q train when it barrelled into the station.

Davis could be heard arguing with Han before the fatal shove, according to surveillance video from the station. Davis told police that Han was harassing him and would not leave him alone, so he pushed Han.

Detectives are investigating whether the altercation began at the subway station turnstile and whether Han had jumped that turnstile and bumped Davis.

Police are also awaiting toxicology results on Han, who was found with an empty pint bottle of vodka on him when he died, according to sources.

Davis has no currently known mental illness history. He has prior arrests for minor charges, although the search of his arrest record is not complete. Those arrests in New York City appear to be peddler related.

He is expected to be arraigned this evening in New York.

Han death shocked New York City and the moment was frozen in the city's psyche by a photograph that captured Han with his arms and head above the platform staring at the oncoming train.

A doctor who was standing nearby attempted to perform CPR on Han, but he was pronounced dead at Roosevelt Hospital shortly after the accident.

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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 California and author of recent research on the big trees.

Other long-lived trees like coast redwoods and Australia's Eucalyptus regnans also show an increase in wood production during old age, according to the journal Forest Ecology and Management.

That may be because a tree's leaf area increases as its crown expands over a long life span. The leaves produce more sugars through photosynthesis, Sillett said, and these sugars build wood across a growing cambium, or the living surface separating bark and wood in trees.

"What we're finding," Sillett said, "is that the rate of wood production in some species doesn't slow down until a tree gets to the end of its lifetime."

Sequoias Active in Old Age

Sillett's team recently measured the President, a 3,200-year-old giant sequoia tree in California's Sequoia National Park. By climbing and measuring the tree, they calculated that the 247-foot-tall (75-meter-tall) giant holds more than 54,000 cubic feet (1,500 cubic meters) of wood and bark, earning it the ranking of second largest tree on Earth, as reported in National Geographic. (Watch video: Photographing the President.)

"Eventually every tree will suffer structural collapse and fall apart," said Sillett. "All Earthlings have finite life spans, but some trees live more than a thousand years without slowing down."

(Interactive gallery: The creatures that call giant sequoias home.)

Sillett is also co-leading the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative group investigating how climate changes may affect tree growth. They've established long-term monitoring plots throughout the geographic ranges of both redwood species in California and have recorded growth histories of over a hundred trees.

Because the trees are still alive, Sillett said, they can go back to specific trees and evaluate predictions about their growth responses to climate variation.

"Annual rings provide a wonderful, long-term record of a tree's performance," Sillett said. "By studying a tree's rings, we can, in a sense, translate what it knows about the forest."

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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 finish to the season, including his eight-shot PGA Championship triumph at Kiawah Island, winning the money title and the Vardon Trophy for lowest adjusted scoring average.

"It's just a great way to end what has been a great year, my best season so far," McIlroy said.

McIlroy became the third European in five years to capture the award. Ireland's Padraig Harrington won it in 2008, and England's Luke Donald received it last year.

The tour does not announce the voting numbers for the award, but the ballot for Player of the Year also included Woods, who had three wins this season, Jason Dufner, Masters Champion Bubba Watson and Brandt Snedeker, who captured his second title of the season at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup playoff crown.

John Huh, the only rookie to make it to the Tour Championship, was named Rookie of the Year.

Huh, who secured his card in qualifying-school, won a tournament in Mexico in February that was played opposite the WGC Match Play Championship.

At Playa Del Carmen, Huh parred all eight playoff holes to beat Australian Robert Allenby in a marathon playoff for the title.

After his PGA Championship triumph, McIlroy went on to win the Deutsche Bank Championship and the BMW Cchampionship at Crooked Stick.

McIlroy's other victory was earlier in the season, when he held of Woods to win the Honda Classic and reach number one in the world for the first time.

He surrendered and regained the top spot several times over the season until settling in at number one with his strong late form.

"I think everyone knows that my game wasn't where I wanted it to be through the start of the summer and leading up to the PGA," McIlroy said on a conference call.

Once he had the second major of his career under his belt, however, he was off and running.

"From that I gained a lot of confidence, knowing that I could win my second major," he said. "And I went on from there."

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, said McIlroy's professionalism was as striking as his game.

"He has handled himself in terrific fashion," Finchem said. "He has been very direct with the media and entertaining to the fans inside and outside the ropes. He is at a very young age already making a very solid contribution to what is the most important asset of the PGA Tour, and that is the image of its players."

- AFP/fa

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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 was preoccupied with the worry of losing the numbers game in the other House. Unlike in the Lok Sabha, where the SP and BSP can help the government clear the numbers test by merely abstaining, the UPA will need the direct support of one of the UP outfits to score a certain win.

The BSP, just like the SP, did not join other non-UPA parties in insisting on a debate in Rajya Sabha under a voting clause, Rule 168 to be precise, besides declaring in Lok Sabha its inability to join communal forces: code for the BJP. However, the Congress's hopes of persuading the BSP to turn its indirect assistance into open support by voting against the opposition failed to materialize on Tuesday, leading UPA managers to fish for all possible numbers in the upper House.

Congress sources said the BSP has expressed its inability to move beyond abstention during the vote in LS on Wednesday, citing the SP's decision not to vote with the government and arguing that it cannot afford to cede political mileage to its main foe.

BSP chief Mayawati told Congress's emissaries that she would reveal her hand just before the Lok Sabha vote, at a meeting of her MPs she has called at 4 pm. However, Congress managers recognize that she may find it difficult to take a line different from Mulayam Singh Yadav, given their intense rivalry in UP; as well as that she may find it difficult to behave differently in RS when the upper House takes up the vote on Friday.

After an urgent meeting, Congress sources expressed hope that the government would squeak through by four votes if it manages to ensure the presence of all the members who are non-aligned — a category that covers Independents, the unattached as well as all nominated members except Sachin Tendulkar.

The absence of the BSP and the SP will reduce RS's effective strength to 220, leaving the opposition with a wafer-thin edge. The anti-FDI column has 110 votes, pushing the government into a situation where the absence of even one of its members can lead to a politically embarrassing defeat. The BSP, with 15 members, can tilt the scales decisively.

In contrast, the government is sure of smooth sailing in LS: its confidence reflected in its nonchalance when the SP and BSP launched a severe attack on FDI. With 43 seats between them, the two UP outfits can tilt the scales decisively in LS in case they choose to translate their rhetoric against FDI into a vote against government's decision, taking the number of anti-FDI votes to 261 as against 245 committed for the UPA.

In attacking FDI, Mulayam was unambiguous. Yet, his barbs elicited earnest nods from the Congress brass led by Sonia Gandhi. The FDI vote is another demonstration of how the Congress has successfully balanced arch-rivals from UP into backing the Centre.

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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 a possible panda ancestor that lived eight to nine million years ago. (Read about the previous research.)

Earlier this year, scientists found a piece of A. beatrix's jaw, allowing them to compare it with that of another ancient Agriarctos bear from Hungary. In doing so, the team determined that A. beatrix is actually its own genus, which they called Kretzoiarctos.

The newly named K. beatrix pushes back the origin of giant pandas by a few million years, making it the oldest recorded giant panda relative, said study leader Juan Abella, a paleobiologist at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain.

"Therefore, the origin of this group is not located in China, where the [giant panda] species lives, but in the warm and humid regions of [southwestern] Europe," Abella said in May.

(See: "Ancient Bear DNA Mapped—A First for Extinct Species.")

New Bear Was Panda-Like?

K. beatrix likely shared some similarities with today's giant panda.

For one, says Abella, the newfound jaw fragment shows the animal was likely an omnivore that fed on tough plants, like modern-day pandas. Also like them, and like most existing species of small bears, K. beatrix was probably a great climber. According to Abella, it would have had to scramble up trees to escape big predators of the day—such as extinct, doglike carnivores called bear-dogs—in the forests of what's now Spain.

But at 130 pounds (60 kilograms), K. beatrix was smaller than modern pandas and even more petite than the modern-day sun bear or spectacled bear.

(See "Biggest Bear Ever Found-'It Blew My Mind,' Expert Says.")

An Epic Trek?

It's still unclear how panda ancestors made the epic trek from Europe to China.

Previous research suggests bears generally can migrate easily if the climate is mild enough, Abella said. Eleven million years ago, southwestern Europe was warm and humid-good conditions for starting out, he said.

The bears likely migrated mostly on land. One potential barrier—an ancient European sea called Parathetys—was already shrinking during the Middle Miocene, when K. beatrix lived, said Abella.

As for whether K. beatrix made it to China, "We don't really know, but no fossil remains of this species have been found outside Spain."

Whatever its history, the new research shows that K. beatrix was not your average bear.

The oldest panda relative study was published November 14 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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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 address Obama's call to modify or delay the drastic "sequester" spending cuts slated to begin on January 1 that could sharply slow growth.

Instead they proposed slashing $1.2 trillion from federal spending over 10 years, including $600 billion from Medicare, which covers health insurance for the elderly.

In a letter to Obama, top Republicans assailed his focus on raising government income by $1.6 trillion rather than spending cuts to right the deficit as "neither balanced nor realistic."

And they rejected Obama's insistence on extending the tax cuts only for middle class households, while raising rates for the wealthy.

"The proposal also includes four times as much tax revenue as spending cuts, in stark contrast to the 'balanced approach' on which you campaigned," they said.

The Republicans countered with $800 billion in tax increases through "pro-growth tax reform" that lowers tax rates but boosts income by closing loopholes and special deductions for companies and households.

And against Obama's $600 billion in spending cuts, the Republicans proposed a $1.2 trillion package based on a plan first introduced a year ago that was rejected in Congress.

"This is by no means an adequate long-term solution, as resolving our long-term fiscal crisis will require fundamental entitlement reform," the letter said.

But it called the Republican proposal "fair middle ground that allows us to avert the fiscal cliff without hurting our economy and destroying jobs."

- AFP/fa

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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 stance in Lok Sabha.

Lok Sabha will debate and vote on FDI under Rule 184 while Rajya Sabha will do the same under Rule 168. Both the rules entail voting. The results may end up embarrassing the UPA ahead of 2014 general elections if it falls short of the numbers, albeit there is no threat to its survival.

Given the conflict of political interests, SP may stand against arch rival BSP in both the Houses without posing any immediate threat to the UPA. The party is trying to achieve dual goals: one, to show that it will not side with the UPA; and, second, to gain political edge over the BSP. Although SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav on Thursday stated that the party would not allow passage of FDI in Rajya Sabha, hours later Mulayam contradicted him claiming that the party was yet to decide on the issue.

The UPA is in minority in Rajya Sabha with 87 MPs and unlikely to reach 122 majority mark as it will require roping in "outside-supporters" like the BSP (15 MPs), SP (nine) and RJD (two) which totals 113 votes. The UPA can bank on nine out of the 10 nominated MPs whom it backed except Sachem Tendulkar who is playing the ongoing Test series against England. The UPA can also count on the remaining seven independent and those from smaller parties to cross the 122 mark.

A vote against FDI will help SP strengthen its ties with the Left parties, as a result of which he hopes to become third front's prime minister in 2014. Most SP leaders favour voting against FDI. The mood is a binding factor for Mulayam's new found bonhomie with veteran Congressman ND Tewari, who is believed to be depending on Mulayam to settle scores with the party. Tewari, sources said, has assured Mulayam of support from at least three of his loyalists, who are sitting Congress MPs, after 2014 elections.

SP's only concern is that voting against the FDI will see it aligning with the BJP which is set to reject FDI in multi-brand retail.

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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 enough savings to off-set $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts set to begin to take effect Jan. 2, 2013, but senior Republican aides said it does not explicitly include an offer to address the standoff over whether the president or Congress should have power over debt limit increases.

The GOP deal offers $800 billion in new revenue through tax reform, but Boehner insist that tax rates should not go up on the top 2 percent of taxpayers.

The offer also proposes $600 billion in health savings, $300 billion in additional mandatory savings, $300 billion in discretionary spending cuts, and $200 billion through revisions to the way the Consumer Price Index is calculated across federal pensions and programs like Social Security.

“What we’re putting forth is a credible plan that deserves serious consideration by the White House, and I would hope that they would respond in a timely and responsible way,” Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters today when he dropped into a staff briefing on the counteroffer. “We could have responded in kind, but decided not to do that.”

“Going over the cliff will hurt our economy and hurt job creation in our country. It’s one of the reasons why the day after the election, I offered a concession to try to speed this process up by putting revenue on the table,” Boehner said.

“Unfortunately the White House responded with the La-la-land offer that couldn’t pass the House, couldn’t pass the Senate.”

Boehner said the president’s offer last week was “basically the president’s budget from last February,” which he noted received no votes in the House and no votes in the Senate.

Now, in a letter to the president, House Republicans devised an offer based on Erskine Bowles’ proposal to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, the so-called super committee.

The president had asked for about $1.6 trillion in new revenue, including about $800 billion from allowing tax cuts on income over $250,000 a year expire. Obama also asked for about $400 billion in new stimulus spending.

The letter with the proposal was sent to the president around 2 p.m. today.

The speaker said he did not intend to speak with the president personally about the offer, but he “might run into him” tonight at a holiday reception at the White House.

Get more pure politics at ABC News.com/Politics and a lighter take on the news at OTUSNews.com

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