Six people die as blizzards hit northern Japan

TOKYO: At least six people died in a spate of snow-related incidents as blizzards swept across the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido over the weekend, police and news reports said Sunday.A 40-year-old woman and her three teenage children were found dead late Saturday in a car buried under snow in the town of Nakashibetsu, eastern Hokkaido, a local police spokesman said.They are believed...

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Pawar will be ready to become PM in case of a consensus: Praful Patel

NEW DELHI: NCP chief Sharad Pawar will be certainly ready to become the Prime Minister if there is situation where there is a consensus on the issue, his party leader and Union Minister Praful Patel has said. "And this gossip of merger with Congress, which happens many times, that is never possible," Patel said in an interview to Prabhu Chawla on 'Teekhi Baat' television programme. "If there is...

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk."The additional risk is quite small...

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Man's Body Recovery Effort Ends; Sinkhole 'Unstable'

Authorities have discontinued the rescue effort for a Florida man who was swallowed by a sinkhole when his home's foundation collapsed and said it is unlikely his body will ever be recovered."We feel we have done everything we can," Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrell said at a news conference this afternoon. "At this point, it's not possible to recover the body."Merell...

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Sydney set to sparkle for gay pride parade

SYDNEY: Up to 300,000 spectators were Saturday expected to brave the rain to watch Sydney's annual Mardi Gras gay pride parade, with an emphasis on the political as the nation prepares for elections.The event, which bills itself as the world's biggest night parade, is celebrating the theme "Generations of Love", focused on its origins in 1978 as a gay rights protest march that ended with...

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Two cops killed in shootout with terrorists in J&K

SRINAGAR: Two local policemen were killed by separatist guerrillas in a hit-and-run attack in Kupwara district of north Kashmir on Saturday. A senior police officer told IANS that militants fired from close range at two constables of an armed battalion near the bus stand in Handwara town, 75 kilometres from here this morning. "The two constables belonging to the Indian Reserve Police (IRP) were...

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk."The additional risk is quite small...

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Obama Signs Order to Begin Sequester Cuts

President Obama and congressional leaders today failed to reach a breakthrough to avert a sweeping package of automatic spending cuts, setting into motion $85 billion of across-the-board belt-tightening that neither had wanted to see.President Obama officially initiated the cuts with an order to agencies Friday evening.He had met for just over an hour at the White House Friday...

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Higher fines, longer jail term for animal abusers proposed

SINGAPORE: The Animal Welfare Legislative Review Committee is calling for heavier penalties for animal abuse and abandonment. After a year-long review, the committee has submitted its recommendations to the National Development Ministry for consideration. The current penalty for animal abuse is a fine of up to S$10,000, one year in jail, or both. The Committee calls for a more detailed...

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Congress MP Mukesh Gadhvi passes away

AHMEDABAD: Congress MP from Banaskantha, Mukesh Gadhvi, on Friday passed away at a private hospital in Ahmedabad, party sources said.Gadhvi, 50, was admitted to Sterling Hospital ten days back after he suffered a brain stroke. He died of multiple organ failure on Friday, sources said.Gadhvi was a two-time MP from Banaskantha and three-time MLA from Danta.He is survived by wife, two daughters and a...

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk."The additional risk is quite small...

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Sequestration: Surrender Is in the Air

The budget ax is about to fall, and there's little lawmakers in Washington are doing to stop it.Despite a parade of dire warnings from the White House, an $85 billion package of deep automatic spending cuts appears poised to take effect at the stroke of midnight on Friday.The cuts – known in Washington-speak as the sequester – will hit every federal budget, from defense to education,...

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Basketball: Knicks withstand Curry's 54 points to beat Warriors

NEW YORK: The New York Knicks withstood a dazzling 54-point display from Golden State's Stephen Curry on Wednesday to post a 109-105 NBA victory over the Warriors at Madison Square Garden.Curry's points total was the highest in the league this season, surpassing the 52 of Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant against Dallas last month.But his individual effort was not enough against a Knicks team...

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Assembly polls: Left Front heads for landslide victory in Tripura

AGARTALA: In a virtual status quo, the ruling formations were ahead and appeared to be romping back to power in the assembly elections in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya where counting of votes was taken up on Thursday. Tripura's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front was Thursday heading for a landslide victory and seemed set to retain power for a fifth straight term. TRIPURA...

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Medicare paid $5.1B for poor nursing home care

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Medicare paid billions in taxpayer dollars to nursing homes nationwide that were not meeting basic requirements to look after their residents, government investigators have found.The report, released Thursday by the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general, said Medicare paid about $5.1 billion for patients to stay in skilled nursing facilities that failed to...

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Arias Prosecutor Too Combative, Experts Say

He has barked, yelled, been sarcastic and demanded answers from accused murderer Jodi Arias this week.And in doing so, prosecutor Juan Martinez and his aggressive antics may be turning off the jury he is hoping to convince that Arias killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in June 2008, experts told ABCNews.com today."Martinez is his own worst enemy," Mel McDonald, a prominent...

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Iran upbeat on nuclear talks, West still wary

ALMATY (Reuters) - Iran was upbeat on Wednesday after talks with world powers about its nuclear work ended with an agreement to meet again, but Western officials said it had yet to take concrete steps to ease their fears about its atomic ambitions. Rapid progress was unlikely with Iran's presidential election, due in June, raising domestic political tensions, diplomats and analysts had...

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Ferrari goes up in flames at Teban Gardens

SINGAPORE: A red Ferrari went up in flames near Teban Gardens Road on Wednesday.A Channel NewsAsia viewer was having his lunch at a coffee shop in the vicinity when he heard an explosion.According to the viewer, the red Ferrari had stopped in front of block 54 Teban Gardens Road, along Penjuru Road. The Chinese male driver had gotten out of the car before the explosion. The driver did...

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Chuck Hagel's remarks against India 'bizarre': BJP

NEW DELHI: Terming as "outlandish and bizarre" the statement of Chuck Hagel, the new US defence secretary, that India has financed problems for Pakistan in Afghanistan, BJP on Wednesday asked the government to exert diplomatic pressure on Washington for unconditional withdrawal of his statement. The statement given by Hagel that India has financed problems in Pakistan is "outlandish, bizarre and...

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Advanced breast cancer edges up in younger women

CHICAGO (AP) — Advanced breast cancer has increased slightly among young women, a 34-year analysis suggests. The disease is still uncommon among women younger than 40, and the small change has experts scratching their heads about possible reasons.The results are potentially worrisome because young women's tumors tend to be more aggressive than older women's, and they're much less likely to get routine...

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Inside Organized Retail Crime Raids

We used to call it shoplifting, but these days the foot soldiers of retail crime rings are known as boosters. Police even have an acronym for these operations: ORC, which stands for Organized Retail Crime."It's just like a Fortune 500 company," said Sergeant Eric Lee of the Gardena Police Department in Gardena, Calif. "All of this is just organized."Watch the full story on "Nightline"...

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SDP to address Budget 2013 "shortcomings" in its own "Shadow Budget"

SINGAPORE: The opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) said it'll address the "shortcomings" of the government's Budget 2013 and propose a more efficient way of prioritising Singapore's expenditure estimates in its own "Shadow Budget".The party said on Tuesday that the measures in Budget 2013 have failed to address Singapore's long-term needs.It said while the Budget attempts to address...

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Koop, who transformed surgeon general post, dies

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era — and one of the most unexpectedly enduring.His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia,...

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Americans Targeted for Allegedly Running Underage Prostitution in Philippines

Arthur Benjamin is sitting at the edge of a small stage, wearing a lavender Hawaiian shirt and nursing a bottle of San Miguel Light beer. The 6-foot-6 mustachioed Texan lazily watches the half dozen or so girls dancing rather unenergetically around the stage's pole."I forgot your gift again, it's in the car," Benjamin says to one of the girls on stage, shouting above the pop music...

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Italy faces stalemate after election shock

ROME (Reuters) - Italy faced political deadlock on Tuesday after a stunning election that saw the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo become the strongest party in the country but left no group with a clear majority in parliament. "The winner is: Ingovernability," was the headline in the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, echoing the sentiment of a shock stalemate the...

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