US to open military ties soon with Myanmar

WASHINGTON: The United States is poised to take "nascent steps" to open up military ties with Myanmar as a way of bolstering political reforms undertaken by the former state, a senior US defence official said on Wednesday.The Pentagon said the cooperation likely would take the form of "non-lethal" training for Myanmar officers focusing on humanitarian assistance, military medicine and...

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WHO suggests raising liquor price to curb violence against women

NEW DELHI: Even as the national Capital remains shell shocked over the gruesome rape of the 23-year-old, the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested clamping down on alcohol availability and raising liquor price to reduce its consumption as an important intervention to reduce violence — both sexual and physical — against women. International studies conducted by the global health watchdog have...

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Obama Launches Gun-Violence Task Force

Five days after deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history, President Obama said his administration plans immediate action early next year on proposals to curb an "epidemic of gun violence."At a morning news conference, Obama announced the formation of a task force to be headed by Vice President Joe Biden that will formulate a package of policy recommendations by January."The...

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Grabbing Water From Future Generations

This piece is part of Water Grabbers: A Global Rush on Freshwater, a special National Geographic Freshwater News series on how grabbing land—and water—from poor people, desperate governments, and future generations threatens global food security, environmental sustainability, and local cultures.Suresh Ponnusami sat back on his porch by the road south of the Indian textile town of...

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Eric Cantor plays loyal lieutenant to Boehner

House Republicans, chastened by November election results and jittery about the weakened hand they have to play in the fiscal cliff negotiations with President Obama, gathered for their weekly closed-door meeting in the bowels of the Capitol last week. When it was his turn, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, their second-in-command, took the opportunity to plead for discipline and uni...

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South Koreans vote in presidential election

SEOUL: South Koreans went to the polls Wednesday to choose a new president in a close and potentially historic election that could result in Asia's fourth-largest economy getting its first female leader.Voters face a clear choice between the ruling conservative party candidate Park Geun-Hye and her liberal rival from the main opposition party, Moon Jae-In, with opinion polls unable to...

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Manipur rebels supplying arms to Maoists, says NIA

NEW DELHI: Left wing extremists (LWE) had been procuring Chinese arms and communication equipment from banned Manipuri outfit, People's Liberation Army (PLA), via Myanmar and routing it to Kolkata through Guwahati between 2006 and 2011, a supplementary chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the CPI (Maoist)-PLA nexus case has revealed. According to the chargesheet, all the...

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Pictures: "Beautiful" Geminid Meteor Showers Grace Skies

Over the Dunes Photograph courtesy Jack FuscoA Geminid meteor streaks across the sky above the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey, in a picture taken December 14. The piles come...

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Can Cops Read Shooter's Sabotaged Computer?

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter Adam Lanza may have tried to sabotage his own computer before going on a murderous rampage that claimed the lives of 20 children, but experienced investigators said today that law enforcement forensic experts could still recover critical evidence from the damaged drives.Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance revealed Monday that a computer...

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Morgan Stanley fined over Facebook IPO

WASHINGTON: Morgan Stanley agreed Monday to pay a $5 million fine to settle charges that it improperly handled crucial information on Facebook's earnings ahead of the company's disastrous IPO.The securities regulator of the state of Massachusetts had charged that Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for the $16 billion stock issue in May, coached Facebook on how to present lowered earnings...

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