Briton survived Outback by drinking contact lens fluid

SYDNEY: A British backpacker who endured three days missing in Australia's punishing Outback survived by drinking his contact lens fluid and urine, his mother said Sunday.Samuel Woodhead, 18, was found Friday on the sprawling remote property Upshot Station, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) from the far-flung central Queensland town of Longreach, from where he had set off on Tuesday.He became...

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Malik aimed to boost his relevance at home, Pak?

NEW DELHI: The Indian security agencies suspect that JKLF chief Yasin Malik may have secretly met 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed during his stay in Pakistan, apart from sharing the dais with him at a protest in Islamabad. Even as his alleged one-on-one meeting with the LeT boss is kept carefully under wraps, Malik, intelligence officials say, ensured a photo opportunity alongside Saeed to "score"...

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

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Meteor Blast Creates Rush to Cash In

The shattered glass and broken walls caused by the massive explosion of a monstrous meteor over this remote, industrial Russian city is not even cleaned up, and people are already trying to cash in.Some residents want to turn this city known mostly for its tank factory into a tourist destination, while others from all around the world are determined to find fragments of the meteorite.Meteor...

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Ecuador votes for president, Correa seen winning new term

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuadoreans vote for president on Sunday in a ballot expected to hand incumbent Rafael Correa a new term to advance his socialist agenda of heavy government spending and expansion of state power that critics slam as creeping authoritarianism. Generous state outlays to expand access to healthcare, pave decrepit roads and build new schools have given the combative economist...

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Earthquake strikes off New Zealand's North Island

WELLINGTON: A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the North Island of New Zealand on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported, but there were no reports of any damage.The quake at 6:16pm (0516 GMT) was centred 204 kilometres (126 miles) deep and about 300 kilometres northeast of Auckland.The tremor was not widely felt on the mainland and police said there were no immediate reports of...

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UN chief urges India, Pakistan to exercise restraint

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and resolve issues peacefully after a Pakistani soldier who intruded into the Indian territory was killed by the Indian Army along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters here yesterday that the UN Chief was aware of the latest incident on February...

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States' choices set up national health experiment

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is unfolding as a national experiment with American consumers as the guinea pigs: Who will do a better job getting uninsured people covered, the states or the feds?The nation is about evenly split between states that decided by Friday's deadline they want a say in running new insurance markets and states that are defaulting to federal...

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Carnival Cruise Ship Hit With First Lawsuit

The first lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines has been filed and it is expected to be the beginning of a wave of lawsuits against the ship's owners.Cassie Terry, 25, of Brazoria County, Texas, filed a lawsuit today in Miami federal court, calling the disabled Triumph cruise ship "a floating hell.""Plaintiff was forced to endure unbearable and horrendous odors on the filthy and...

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Exclusive: North Korea tells China of preparations for fresh nuclear test - source

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea has told its key ally, China, that it is prepared to stage one or even two more nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks, said a source with direct knowledge of the message. Further tests could also be accompanied this year by another rocket launch, said the source, who has direct access to the top levels of...

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2 chefs fined for receiving bribes from seafood supplier

SINGAPORE: Two chefs from two Chinese restaurants have been fined for receiving bribes from a seafood supplier.Chung Yiu Ming, 54, was fined S$17,000 and made to pay a penalty of about S$21,900 for receiving bribes from Tay Ee Tiong.Between July 2007 and July 2009, the former executive chef at Sheraton Towers Singapore pocketed close to S$21,900 from Tay, who owns Wealthy Seafood Product...

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Maoists involved in IAS officer's kidnapping arrested in Odisha

MALKANGIRI (Odisha): Two hardcore Maoists, including a woman, who were allegedly involved in the abduction of IAS officer R Vineel Krishna in 2011, have been arrested in Odisha's Malkangiri district, police said on Friday. The two ultras were nabbed during a combing operation by personnel of the elite special operation group (SOG) and district voluntary force (DVF) in a forest of Chitrakonda last...

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.The findings, published online Thursday in...

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Nightmare Ends: Passengers Leave Disabled Ship

The ordeal of the disabled Carnival Triumph cruise ship carrying 4,000 passengers and crew appeared to be almost over, with people starting to disembark in Mobile, Ala., after days at sea without power in often squalid conditions.After the ship arrived at port around 9:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. ET), Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill praised the ship's crew and told...

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Key U.S. general backs keeping Afghan forces at peak strength

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. general nominated to oversee a vast region that includes Afghanistan on Thursday backed keeping Afghan forces at a peak strength of 352,000, contrary to current plans to shrink them after NATO declares the war over next year. General Lloyd Austin, nominated to lead the U.S. military's Central Command, said at his Senate confirmation hearing that a more...

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Ex-CNB chief Ng Boon Gay back in court for verdict

SINGAPORE: Former anti-drugs chief Ng Boon Gay is in court for the verdict of his sex-for-contracts corruption case.Ng, 46, was accompanied by his wife Ms Yap Yen Yen.District Judge Siva Shanmugam started the court session on Thursday afternoon by explaining the grounds for his decision.He found Ms Cecilia Sue's credibility to be successfully impeached.He also said her explanations as...

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Stormy start to UP assembly Budget session

LUCKNOW: The Budget session of the Uttar Pradesh assembly today got off to a stormy start with BSP and RLD members creating ruckus during the governor's address to the joint session of the House and throwing paper balls towards the chair.As soon governor BL Joshi started his address, BSP and RLD members carrying placards and banners raised slogans and threw paper balls towards the chair forcing the...

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Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women

NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who'd had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That's up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went...

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Dorner Not IDed, But Manhunt Considered Over

Though they have not yet identified burned remains found at the scene of Tuesday's fiery, armed standoff, San Bernardino, Calif., officials consider the manhunt over for Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop accused of going on a killing spree."The events that occurred yesterday in the Big Bear area brought to close an extensive manhunt," San Bernardino County Sheriff John...

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South Korea unveils missile it says can hit North's leaders

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea unveiled a cruise missile on Thursday that it said can hit the office of North Korea's leaders, trying to address concerns that it is technologically behind its unpredictable rival which this week conducted its third nuclear test. South Korean officials declined to say the exact range of the missile but said it could hit targets anywhere in North Korea. ...

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Boxing: Botha claims offered US$155,000 to throw Williams bout

SYDNEY: Veteran South African boxer Francois Botha on Wednesday claimed he was offered A$150,000 (US$155,000) to throw his fight against Sonny Bill Williams, sparking an angry denial from the New Zealander's manager.Williams, a former World Cup-winning All Blacks rugby star, won the controversial heavyweight bout on points in Brisbane last Friday, which was marred by unsubstantiated reports...

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Kerala rape case: Kurien's wife rubbishes charge against husband

PATHANMTHITTA, KERALA: Amid growing clamour for resignation of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien in the Suryanelli gangrape case, his wife has rubbished the allegations against him and said those hurling "malicious charges" never bothered to appreciate sentiments of her family. Susan Kurien, a retired high school teacher, said in a statement here that her husband had reached home and they...

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Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk...

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State of the Union: Obama Pushes Job Creation

Pursuing an aggressive and diverse early second-term agenda, President Obama turned his focus Tuesday night squarely to the economy, using his State of the Union address to unveil new government initiatives aimed at creating jobs.The defining duty of the new Congress and new administration is to "reignite the true engine of America's economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle...

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U.S. says to take lead to contain North Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea's third nuclear test, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, was a threat and a provocation and that the United States would lead the world in responding. North Korea has said Tuesday's test was an act of self-defense against "U.S. hostility" and threatened stronger steps if necessary. "Provocations of the sort we saw...

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