China economy to rebound in 2013: survey

BEIJING: China's economy is poised finally to end a long downward trend in 2013, economists polled by AFP say, as the new communist leadership vows to retool the nation's investment-led development model and promote a "happy life" for all.The world's second-largest economy is not expected to return to double-digit growth, but the economists' predictions are a welcome spot of good news...

Read More..

Anju Ilyasi's death: HC stays medical board proceedings

NEW DELHI: In a relief to TV serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi, the Delhi high court has stayed the proceedings of a medical board constituted to examine afresh the reasons of his wife Anju Ilyasi's death in 2000. Ilyasi, also the editor-in-chief of Bureaucracy Today magazine, has been facing trial as an accused for last 12 years in dowry death case of his wife Anju Ilyasi. She had been rushed to...

Read More..

Q&A: Scramble for vaccine as flu season heats up

WASHINGTON (AP) — Missed flu-shot day at the office last fall? And all those "get vaccinated" ads? A scramble for shots is under way as late-comers seek protection from a miserable flu strain already spreading through much of the country.Federal health officials said Friday that there is still some flu vaccine available and it's not too late to benefit from it. But people may have to call around to...

Read More..

Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right."He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and,...

Read More..

Russia rejects Assad exit as precondition for Syria deal

MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia voiced support on Saturday for international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi but insisted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit cannot be a precondition for a deal to end the country's conflict. Some 60,000 Syrians have been killed during the 21-month-old revolt and world powers are divided over how to stop the escalating bloodshed. Government aircraft bombed...

Read More..

Basketball: Lakers' Bryant and wife Vanessa reconcile

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, confirmed they have reconciled in posts on social media.Vanessa Bryant, who had filed for divorce from the NBA star in December of 2011, posted a message on Instagram, and Bryant said on his Facebook page that the couple were back together."We are pleased to announce that we have reconciled," Vanessa Bryant wrote....

Read More..

Snowfall halts traffic on Srinagar-Jammu highway

SRINAGAR: The Kashmir Valley on Saturday experienced fresh snowfall, forcing authorities to close the Srinagar-Jammu highway. Light snowfall started here and other towns of the valley in the morning. There were reports of moderate snowfall in the higher reaches, especially in the Pir Panjal mountain range in south Kashmir. The Met Office here issued an advisory predicting moderate to heavy snowfall...

Read More..

Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says."If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes...

Read More..

CDC: Flu Outbreak Could Be Waning

The flu season appears to be waning in some parts of the country, but that doesn't mean it won't make a comeback in the next few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Five fewer states reported high flu activity levels in the first week of January than the 29 that reported high activity levels in the last week of December, according to the CDC's...

Read More..

Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

Read More..

Stop praising Modi, look at Maharashtra: Congress to Opposition

MUMBAI: With Maharashtra attracting one-third of all FDI in the country since 2000, the Maharashtra Congress Thursday urged Opposition parties to stop praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and "speak of Maharashtra". In an open letter to all Opposition parties, state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that as per official figures released by the centre recently, in the past 12 years...

Read More..

Flu season strikes early and, in some places, hard

NEW YORK (AP) — From the Rocky Mountains to New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some medical centers are turning away visitors or making them wear face masks, and one Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to deal with the feverish patients.Flu season in the U.S. has struck early and, in many places, hard.While flu normally doesn't blanket the country until...

Read More..

Judge: Holmes Can Face Trial for Aurora Shooting

Jan 10, 2013 8:45pm (Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo)In a ruling that comes as little surprise, the judge overseeing the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre has ordered that there is enough evidence against James Holmes to proceed to a trial.In an order posted late Thursday, Judge William Sylvester wrote that “the People have carried their burden of proof and have established...

Read More..

String of bombings kill 101, injure 200 in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 101 people were killed in bombings in two Pakistani cities on Thursday in one of the country's bloodiest days in recent years, officials said, with most casualties caused by sectarian attacks in Quetta. The bombings underscored the myriad threats Pakistani security forces face from homegrown Sunni extremist groups, the Taliban insurgency in the northwest...

Read More..

Google's Schmidt urges North Korea Internet freedom

BEIJING: Google chairman Eric Schmidt told North Korean officials their country would never develop unless it embraced Internet freedom, he said on Thursday as he returned from a visit to Pyongyang.Former US ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, who led the trip, urged North Korea to adopt a moratorium on ballistic missiles and nuclear tests following the communist state's...

Read More..

Some sort of goondaism going on in West Bengal, says governor

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan on Wednesday virtually rapped the Mamata Banerjee-led government over the clashes between CPM and Trinamool Congress workers, saying it was akin to "some sort of goondaism" which was "not acceptable".He asked the police and the administration to function impartially in arresting the guilty."This is not a good political culture. I think some sort of goondaism...

Read More..

Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in...

Read More..

Holmes 'Delighted' by Creepy Self-Portraits: Victims

After two days of apparent indifference, accused Aurora shooter James Holmessmiled and smirked at disturbing self-portraits and images of weapons shown in court today, according to the families of victims who watched him."When he sees himself, he gets very excited and his eyes crinkle," Caren Teves said outside of the courthouse, after the hearing. "Your eyes are the window...

Read More..

Analysis: Modi's Gujarat growth model might not work across India

SURAT, India (Reuters) - Turning a single Indian state with a long tradition of entrepreneurship and a solid political majority into an investor-friendly economic powerhouse is one thing. Replicating that experience across a diverse country of 1.2 billion would be a tougher prospect for Narendra Modi, whose leadership of booming Gujarat state has led to his being touted as a potential...

Read More..

China economy to overtake US by 2019: state research

BEIJING: China will overtake the United States economically within six years, an official research institute predicts, and go on to become the world's most important country in three decades more, state media said Wednesday.The findings came from the Nation's Health Report issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Global Times said, without giving details of the criteria used for...

Read More..

BJP condemns killing of Indian soldiers by Pak Army

NEW DELHI: Condemning the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistan Army, BJP today said it was a "warning" to India and asked the government to place all facts before the international community so that Islamabad can be "named and shamed" before the world at large. BJP leader Arun Jaitley also asked the government to "clearly define the dos and don'ts" in relations with the neighbouring...

Read More..

Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

Read More..

Dead Lotto Winner's Wife Seeks 'Truth'

The wife of a $1 million Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning told ABC News that she was shocked to learn the true cause of his death and is cooperating with an ongoing homicide investigation."I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better," said Shabana Ansari, 32, the wife of Urooj Khan, 46. "Who could be that person who hurt him?"It...

Read More..

U.S. does not rule out removing all troops from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration does not rule out a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan after 2014, the White House said on Tuesday, just days before President Barack Obama is due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The comments by U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes were the clearest signal yet that, despite initial recommendations by the...

Read More..

Indian guru blames Delhi rape victim, sparks outrage

NEW DELHI: A popular Indian spiritual guru sparked a backlash Tuesday after saying a 23-year-old student could have averted a murderous gang-rape by begging for mercy from her attackers.Self-styled godman Asharam, known to his followers as "Bapu" or father, told his devotees that blame for the assault on a moving bus in New Delhi on December 16 should not just rest with her attackers."This...

Read More..

Jharkhand cabinet recommends dissolution of assembly

RANCHI: Jharkhand Cabinet on Tuesday decided to recommend dissolution of the state assembly to prevent any "horse trading-like situation", a day after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha withdrew its support to the BJP-led government."Seven ministers (of the coalition government) were present during the Cabinet meeting, and it has decided to recommend dissolution of the state assembly," chief minister Arjun...

Read More..