Yen down against dollar, euro on Abe comments

NEW YORK: The yen dipped against the dollar and the euro Monday after Japan's incoming prime minister Shinzo Abe renewed calls on the central bank to take further steps to ease monetary policy.At about 1900 GMT in quiet Christmas Eve trade, the dollar stood at 84.83 yen, compared to 84.25 yen late Friday. The common European currency reached 111.87 yen, up from 110.05 yen Friday.Abe has...

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Govt draws up plan to revamp cyber security of critical sectors

NEW DELHI: In its bid to meet the challenge of ever increasing cyber attacks and security in the virtual world, the government has set in motion a five-year project to revamp the entire cyber security apparatus of critical sectors in the country. In the past one year, India has suffered 13,000 cyber incidents. The responsibility for the job has been vested in National Critical Information Infrastructure...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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4 Firefighters Shot, 2 Killed in NY 'Trap'

A man who served nearly 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother set a house and car on fire this morning in upstate New York and then began shooting at emergency personnel who showed up, killing two firefighters, police said.In all, William Spengler, 62, shot four firefighters, killing two and severely injuring two more after setting his "trap," police said.An off-duty...

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Cycling: British paper sues Armstrong over libel payment

LONDON: British newspaper The Sunday Times said on Sunday that it is suing Lance Armstrong for over £1 million over a libel payment made to the disgraced cyclist in 2006.The newspaper paid Armstrong £300,000 to settle a libel case after previously suggesting that he may have cheated.But the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) subsequently found that he had led the "most sophisticated"...

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Haryana politicians, bureaucrats using front men to buy land

NEW DELHI: Haryana politicians and bureaucrats have been allegedly putting their front men to buy property, which are often parts of common land or of panchayats. Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who hit the headlines after ordering a probe into Robert Vadra's land deals, had exposed this during his brief tenure in the land consolidation department. Khemka's two orders and a particular noting...

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NRA Chief LaPierre: 'Call Me Crazy'

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre fired back at his critics today, defending his proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country as a way to prevent future tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults."If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call...

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit

Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter InstituteMounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to."You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations,"...

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History of gun control is cautionary tale for those seeking regulations after Conn. shooting

At 3 a.m. on July 2, 1993, Steve Sposato sat down in his darkened living room to write, by hand, a letter to the president of the United States. His life had just been shattered. Hours earlier, in the afternoon, a deranged man armed with semi-automatic weapons went on a rampage, slaughtering eight people at an office building in downtown San Francisco. The gunman’s motive would remain...

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Iran fighting 'smart economic war': Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN: Iran is engaged in a "smart economic war" with Western powers whose sanctions against its nuclear programme are hurting some Iranians, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday."Targeted sanctions, which the enemies say are supposed to be crippling, have led to a drop in our oil" sales, Ahmadinejad said in a live interview on state television, referring to an oil embargo imposed...

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