Oil prices slip on profit taking






NEW YORK: World oil prices fell Friday as investors booked profits from the previous day's rally amid sluggish global economic growth.

New York's main West Texas Intermediate (WTI) contract, light sweet crude for February, settled 26 cents lower at $93.56 a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February closed at $110.64 a barrel, down $1.25 from Thursday's close.

"Today we simply could be seeing profit taking as the oil markets have rallied over the last three weeks," Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

Traders were facing an overbought market with no significant news to take prices higher, Robert Yawger of Mizuho Securities said.

He noted that WTI had hit the highest level in several months on Thursday, at $94.70 a barrel. The surge was largely driven by upbeat trade data from China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer.

Tim Evans of Citi Futures said rising US petroleum product inventories were to blame for Friday's price weakness.

"The rally of the past few weeks largely ignored the rising stocks," he said.

-AFP/ac



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Police get Owaisi's custody

NIRMAL: : Nirmal munsif magistrate K Ajesh Kumar on Friday granted the local police five days custody of MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi. Arrested for delivering hate speeches on January 8, Akbaruddin has been lodged in the Adilabad district jail and is on judicial remand till January 22.

The Nirmal police had sought 7-day custody of the MLA but the magistrate granted them 5- day custody beginning Saturday. The cops can question Akbaruddin from 10 am to 5 pm every day till January 17 when he should be produced before the court.

According to sources, the cops want to record Akbaruddin's voice and match it with the videos in which the MLA is seen delivering the speech at a public meeting in Nirmal on December 22, 2012. A police team led by Nirmal rural circle inspector A Raju will question Akbaruddin in the Armed Reserve police headquarters in Adilabad town.

Meanwhile, a team of doctors from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) led by its superintendent Suresh Chandra conducted a health check-up on Akbaruddin after he complained of a pain in the stomach on Friday. After the check-up, the doctors said the pain in the stomach could be due to the food served in the jail and added that the MLA's condition was stable.

Earlier in the day, All India Human Rights Association state wing secretary Bahuddin Akbatull Hussain met Akabaruddin in the jail. However, the jail authorities refused 'mulaqat' permission to MIM MLA Mumtaz Khan, who wanted to meet Akbar. In other developments, Akbar's plea for special category prisoner status was listed for hearing on January 16.

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Exhumation Approved













A judge has approved the exhumation of the Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning.


Judge Susan Coleman of the Probate Division of the Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois today approved the county medical examiner's request to exhume the body of Urooj Khan at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.


Khan, 46, died July 20, 2012, from what was initially believed to be natural causes. But a family member whose identity has yet to be revealed asked the medical examiner's office to re-examine the cause of death, which was subsequently determined to be cyanide poisoning.


The office did so by retesting fluid samples that had been taken from Khan's body, including tests for cyanide and strychnine.


In explaining the request for exhumation, Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Cina has said, "If or when this goes to court, it would be nice to have all the data possible."


The Chicago businessman had won a $1 million lottery jackpot -- before taxes -- the month before he died.


In Photos: Biggest Lotto Winners


In the latest legal twist, Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter "receives her proper share." Khan reportedly did not have a will.


He left behind a widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, and a teenage daughter from his first marriage. Ansari and Khan reportedly married 12 years ago in India.






Andrew A. Nelles/Chicago Sun-Times via AP Photo













Authorities questioned Ansari in November and searched the home she shared with Khan. She and her attorney, Al Haroon Husain, say she had nothing to do with his death.


"It's sad that I lost my husband," she told ABC News. "I love him and I miss him. That's all I can say."


The siblings of the poisoned lottery winner have pursued legal action to protect their niece's share of her late father's estate. They also questioned whether he and Ansari were legally married, but Ansari's attorney said she has a marriage certificate from India that is valid in the United States.


ImTiaz Khan, 56, Khan's brother, and Meraj Khan, 37, their sister, had won a court order to freeze the lottery winnings after Ansari cashed the check.


Husain said Ansari cashed the lottery check after it was mailed to the home, which she did not request.


The lottery check, about $425,000 in cash, was issued July 19 by the Illinois Comptroller's Office, then mailed, according to Brad Hahn, spokesman for the Comptroller's Office. Hahn said it was cashed Aug. 15, nearly a month after Khan's death, but he did not know who cashed it.


The judge later approved Ansari's competing claim as an administrator of the estate.


"I don't care what they talk [sic]," Ansari told ABC News of what her in-laws are saying.


Ansari said she was married to Khan but declined to comment to ABC News about cashing the check after his death, although The Associated Press has reported that she denied removing any of the assets.


Meraj Khan filed in September to become the legal guardian of her niece. After the judge asked the 17-year old daughter with whom she wished to live, she chose her aunt and has been there since November, Husain said.


Neither sibling has petitioned to obtain a share of the dead man's estate, which is estimated to be $1.2 million in lottery winnings, real estate, Khan's laundry business and automobiles.


Neither the attorney for ImTiaz Khan nor the two siblings has responded to requests for comment.


A status hearing on the future of the estate is scheduled for Jan. 24, according to the AP.


ABC News' Alex Perez and Matthew Jaffe contributed to this report.



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Space Pictures This Week: Australia Burns, Pulsars Wobble

Image courtesy P. Kalas, U. California, and ESA/NASA

This new Hubble Space Telescope image of a nearby star, Fomalhaut, and its surrounding disc of debris have made astronomers sit up and take notice. That's because the picture, released January 8, reveals that the debris field—made of ice, dust, and rocks—is wider than previously thought, spanning an area 14 to 20 billion miles from the star.

Scientists have also used the image to calculate the path of a planet, Fomalhaut b, as it makes its away around the star. It turns out that the planet's 2,000-year elliptical orbit takes it three times closer to Fomalhaut than previously thought, and that its eccentric path could send it plowing through the rock and ice contained in the debris field.

The resulting collision, if it happens, could occur around the year 2032 and result in a show similar to what happened when the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkeley, said in a statement.

Published January 11, 2013

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Bibles used by King, Lincoln to be part of Obama’s second inauguration



President Obama will put his hand over King’s well-worn Bible at his public swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, the holiday celebrating the birthday of the slain civil rights leader. King’s Bible will be stacked with the burgundy velvet and gilded Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration.


Obama chose the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration in 2009, making him the first president to do so since it was initially used in 1861. President Harry S. Truman also used two Bibles, as did Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon.

The announcement about the Bibles, to be made publicly Thursday, is part of the slow unspooling of inaugural details that fascinates lovers of ceremonial Americana.

Presidential inaugurations have become more filled with rites, and such decisions are especially weighty now at a time when the White House is aware that Americans are struggling to come together.

King’s family said in a statement that he would be “deeply moved” to see Obama use the traveling Bible on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, “and we hope it can be a source of strength for the President as he begins his second term.”

“With the Inauguration less than two weeks away, we join Americans across the country in embracing this opportunity to celebrate how far we have come, honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through service, and rededicate ourselves to the work ahead,” the statement added.

According to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which organizes the swearing-in ceremony, King traveled with various books, including this Bible. “It was used for inspiration and preparing sermons and speeches, including during Dr. King’s time as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church” in Montgomery, the committee said in a statement.

Obama and Vice President Biden will be sworn in privately on Sunday, Jan. 20 — the date required by the Constitution. For that first ceremony, Obama will use the family Bible of his wife’s family. According to the inaugural committee, that Bible “was a gift from the First Lady’s father, Fraser Robinson III, to his mother, LaVaughn Delores Robinson, on Mother’s Day in 1958. Mrs. Robinson was the first African-American woman manager of a Moody Bible Institute’s bookstore.” That Bible was the only one Michelle Obama’s grandmother used after that, a committee statement said.

For both the private and then the Monday public ceremonies, Biden will be sworn in with a Bible that has been in his family since 1893: a five-inch-thick volume with a Celtic cross on the cover. He also used it for his swearings-in as a U.S. senator and in 2009 as vice president.

Some aspects of the inaugural ceremony have changed slightly over the decades. Having official prayers offered dates only to the 1930s, historians say. But presidents have used Bibles to be sworn in since George Washington, even though the Constitution does not require it. The Constitution also does not require the phrase “So help me God” at the end, but that has become standard, said Donald Ritchie, the historian of the U.S. Senate.

He also noted that the image of the president’s spouse holding the Bible dates only to Lady Bird Johnson doing so in 1965.

Chief justices of the Supreme Court now traditionally deliver the oath, but Ritchie said any federal official can do so.

Several non-Christian members of Congress have recently used other scriptures, including Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, in 2007. The Minnesota Democrat used a Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Obama veered from tradition in one key aspect of the ceremony: He invited Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights figure Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation prayer. It will be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than clergy, has done so.

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Bombs kill 92 in Pakistan's Quetta: police






QUETTA: Bomb attacks killed 92 people in Pakistan's city of Quetta on Thursday, as twin suicide bombers targeted a snooker hall frequented by Shiites in the deadliest single attack in the country for nearly two years.

At least 81 people were killed and 121 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the crowded club in an area of the southwestern city dominated by members of the Shiite Muslim community, a senior police officer said.

It was one of the worst single attacks ever on the minority community, which account for around 20 per cent of Pakistan's 180-million strong population.

It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since twin suicide bombers killed 98 people outside a police training centre in the northwestern town of Shabqadar on May 13, 2011 -- shortly after US troops killed Osama bin Laden.

The double suicide blasts came hours after a bomb ripped through a security forces' vehicle in a crowded part of the city, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more.

At the snooker club the first suicide bomber struck inside the building, then 10 minutes later an attacker in a car outside blew himself up as police, media workers and rescue teams rushed to the site, said officer Mir Zubair Mehmood.

"The death toll has risen to 81 so far," senior police official Mir Zubair Mehmood told a news conference, putting the number of wounded at 121.

"Both (attacks) were (carried out by) suicide bombers and the death toll could rise further," he added.

Mehmood said the dead also included nine police personnel and a local television camera man. Several rescue workers were also killed in the attacks, he said.

The snooker club is frequented mostly by Shiites, police said.

According to the US-based Human Rights Watch, 2012 was the deadliest year on record for Shiites in Pakistan.

The organisation late Thursday called the government's failure to protect the community, which accounts for around 20 per cent of the population, "reprehensible and amounts to complicity in the barbaric slaughter of Pakistani citizens".

People were seen wailing and crying beside the bodies lying on the ground, an AFP photographer said.

The bombings damaged several shops and nearby buildings. At least four vehicles of local ambulance service were destroyed. The blast site was also littered with the belongings of the victims.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Quetta has been a flashpoint for attacks against Shiites, in particular those from the ethnic Hazara minority, as well as suffering from attacks linked to a separatist insurgency and Islamist militancy.

Police said the attacks disrupted power supplies and plunged the area into darkness that hampered rescue work.

Quetta is the capital of the province of Baluchistan, one of the most deprived parts of Pakistan but rich in natural gas and mineral deposits on the Afghan and Iranian borders.

In the earlier attack bombers had targeted Frontier Corps personnel, planting their device underneath an FC vehicle, a senior police investigator said.

"At least one FC personnel was killed and 10 others wounded, two of them seriously," FC spokesman Murtaza Baig told AFP.

Bomb disposal official Abdul Razzaq said the bomb, packed with 20 to 25 kilograms of explosives, was detonated by remote control.

"I went out of my shop and saw a thick cloud of dust. I was very scared and saw people screaming in panic. There were dead bodies and injured people shouting for help," said Allah Dad, a local shopkeeper.

In the northwestern Swat valley on Thursday a gas cylinder blast at a religious gathering killed 22 people and wounded more than 80, officials said, prompting a probe into possible sabotage.

The explosion took place at a weekly meeting of the local Tableeghi Jamaat (preachers' party) at its centre on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town in the district, regional police chief Akhtar Hayat said.

It was the deadliest blast in Swat since the Pakistan army declared it back under government control in July 2009 following a two-year Taliban-led insurgency in the valley.

- AFP/jc



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India rejects Pak's call for UN probe into border row

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday rebuffed Pakistan's proposal for a UN probe into the border flare-up as a sly attempt to internationalize the issue.

After the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, finance minister P Chidambaram said, "We are certainly not going to agree to internationalize the issue or allow the United Nations to hold an inquiry. That demand is obviously rejected out of hand."

The terse comment came in reaction to Pakistan's offer that the UN could be asked to probe the charge that its troops killed Indian soldiers and mutilated their bodies.

Pakistan rejected the accusations from India as "propaganda", saying its troops were not involved in the attack.

However, India has chosen to keep up the heat on the ceasefire violation and inhuman treatment of its dead soldiers while being cautious of the neighbour's design.

Chidambaram's reaction came after defence minister AK Antony briefed the CCS on the Poonch flare-up. "We take a serious view of what happened ... whatever has to be done will be done," the finance minister said, adding there was no violation of ceasefire agreement from the Indian side.

Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said the action of Pakistani troops was inhuman and the government had taken the matter seriously. "It was inhuman. We have condemned it," he said.

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How "Cheating" Slime Mold Escapes Death


Cheaters do prosper—at least if you're a slime mold, a new study says.

The slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum, found in most warm parts of the world, has an unusual life cycle. Most of the time Dicytostelium cells are "happy" single cells that hang out and eat bacteria, according to study leader Lorenzo Santorelli of the University of Oxford, who conducted the research while at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine.

But sometimes, when food is scarce, different strains of Dictyostelium, including a mutated strain, form a mobile, multicellular organism called a "slug." This cluster then sprouts a stalk called a fruiting body, which produces spores that disperse into new slime molds. (Also see "Slime Has Memory but No Brain.")

For a slug to produce a stalk, however, nearly 20 percent of its cells must die—essentially sacrificing themselves to pass on their genes. (Get a genetics overview.) The remaining 80 percent live on and become spores.

Now, for the first time, Santorelli and colleagues have figured out the mechanism by which the mutated strain is able to survive in higher numbers than the others.

It suppresses normal cells from becoming spores, thereby forcing more of these cells to sacrifice themselves for the stalk and die. Meanwhile, more cells in the mutated strain become spores—and thus avoid dying as stalk cells. In other words, more than the "fair share" of cheater cells see another day.

Cheating Cells Surprisingly Healthy

To make the discovery, the team mixed the cheater strain with normal strains and observed that more cells in the cheater strain live on. (See "Smart Slime, Ovulating Strippers Among 2008 Ig Nobels.")

On one hand, this isn't all that surprising, Santorelli noted: "Cooperation is always under attack in any organism—trying to get something for [yourself], it's just nature."

But what is striking, he said, is that usually cheaters eventually cause the entire cooperative system to collapse. Not so in Dictyostelium—somehow it's evolved a way to keep everything running smoothly, said Santorelli, whose study was recently published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

What's more, cheaters are usually weaker than cooperative individuals. But not in Dictyostelium cheaters, which appear to be quite healthy.

Santorelli wants to find out how the cheater strain is so successful. And, just maybe, the lowly slime mold could unravel the evolutionary and genetic basis for cooperation, he added.

"Slime mold is an amazing organism."


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Hilda Solis resigns as labor secretary; some others in Cabinet to stay on



Announcing the resignation in a statement on Monday, Obama hailed Solis as “a tireless champion for working families” during “the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.” The president said that “her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work.”


Solis’s resignation, following the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson and the withdrawal of Susan Rice from consideration for secretary of state, adds to the issue of racial and gender diversity in Obama’s second-term Cabinet.

White House aides said, however, that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Attorney General Eric Holder will remain with the administration in their current posts.

Solis has been widely expected to resign to run for office in Los Angeles, most likely to be LA County supervisor.

In a December interview at a The Washington Post Live event, Solis recalled that a high school counselor “told me that I was not college material and that I should lower my sights and stay as secretary. Thirty years later, I can say my title is Secretary of Labor.”

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US urges India, Pakistan to cool Kashmir tensions






WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday called on India and Pakistan to seek to cool tensions after Delhi accused the Pakistani army of beheading one of two Indian soldiers killed in Kashmir.

"Violence is not the answer for either country," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland insisted.

"We've been counselling both governments to de-escalate, to work through this issue, to continue the consultations between them at a high level that we understand are ongoing now."

Pakistan has insisted no such incident had taken place in the disputed Kashmir region and suggested a UN inquiry be held.

But India has denounced the "inhuman" treatment of the two soldiers killed two days after a Pakistani soldier was also slain in the area.

Tensions have blown up along the Line of Control, the de facto border in Kashmir, over the past week with the two incidents again highlighting the six-decade long dispute over the Himalayan region.

Washington has been working through its embassies in both countries to calm tensions, and urging both governments to talk to each other, Nuland said.

The UN observer force in Kashmir is investigating an incident in which Pakistan said one of its soldiers was killed, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York. But he added no complaint has been made about the clash in which India alleged one of its soldiers was beheaded.

Nuland said that if both sides "can work it out themselves, that's obviously best. If both parties were interested in support from the UN... we'd obviously support that as well."

- AFP/jc



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