Second leak at North Sea oil platform forces evacuation

LONDON: An oil leak at a North Sea platform caused it to be partially evacuated on Saturday, its Middle East operator said, the second such incident at the installation in less than two months.The Alpha Cormorant platform and the pipeline system it services were shut down as a precaution, operator Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) said in a statement.The company said it had evacuated...

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Law sacrosanct, let's not take it into our hands

PATNA: "What is illegal in the police raiding a journalist?" an IG of police asked a TV journalist defending Nawada SP Lalan Mohan Prasad and slamming the TOI report, 'Journalist raided after news on SP thumbing nose at judiciary' on February 28. "Nothing," the journalist replied and retorted, "how much it is legal for SP Prasad to sit on a non-bailable warrant of arrest against a sub-inspector...

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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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Rescuers Search for Man as Fla. Sinkhole Grows

Rescuers early Saturday morning returned to the site where a sinkhole swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom after the home's foundation collapsed.Jeff Bush was in his bedroom when a sinkhole opened up and trapped him underneath his home at 11 p.m. Thursday night.While the sinkhole was initially estimated to be 15 feet deep on Thursday night, the chasm has continued to grow. Officials...

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Turkish PM's Zionism comments "objectionable": Kerry

ANKARA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday criticized a comment by Turkey's prime minister likening Zionism to crimes against humanity in a disagreement that cast a shadow over talks between the NATO allies. Kerry, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, met Turkish leaders for talks meant to focus on the civil war in neighboring Syria and bilateral...

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SpaceX "optimistic" after space capsule mishap

WASHINGTON: SpaceX said it was "optimistic" Friday after a thruster outage delayed the latest resupply mission of its unmanned Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station.SpaceX and NASA officials said the cargo resupply mission was still on track, but the technical mishap could fuel concerns about the US agency's ambitious plans to cut costs by privatizing elements of the...

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Tourism ministry seeks VoA facility for 16 more countries

NEW DELHI: Tourism ministry has sought greater travel flexibility by proposing visa-on-arrival (VoA) facilities in 16 more countries. Tourism minister K Chiranjeevi met home minister Sushilkumar Shinde for extension of services to countries like Germany, France, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and other CIS countries. "The extension VoA facilities for tourists to the countries is important as we feel...

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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, Congress Fail to Avert 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.Obama met for just over an hour at the White House today with Republican leaders House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell...

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Groupon CEO "fired" after losses, stock slump

NEW YORK: Groupon said Thursday it was replacing chief executive Andrew Mason, who said he was "fired," following the struggling daily deals firm's share price plunge of 24 percent after bad quarterly results.The company said executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky and vice chairman Ted Leonsis would take over the post of chief executive, effective immediately and that Groupon "will continue...

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Sariska villagers block tourists’ entry

ALWAR: About 2,500 villagers on Thursday blocked the main entrance of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, protesting their relocation from areas near the sanctuary. Sariska field director RS Shekhawat said the villagers had locked the entrance and didn't allow tourists to enter the park. "We are trying to sort out the problem on a priority basis," Shekhawat said. The villagers, who are on an indefinite sit-in,...

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Benedict Departs Vatican for the Last Time as Pope

Pope Benedict XVI bade his final farewell to the faithful today, lifting off from the Vatican in a white helicopter as the first pope to resign in six centuries.Just before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict, 85, walked out of the Vatican for the last time as pope, waving to a cheering crowd in the Courtyard of San Damaso as he entered a black Mercedes for the short drive to a nearby...

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Brin sees Google glasses hitting market this year

LONG BEACH, California: Sergey Brin envisions Google's Internet glasses hitting the market this year with an eye toward freeing people from unsocial habits engendered by "emasculating" smartphones.Brin spoke of inspiration behind Google Glass eyewear during a brief appearance Wednesday on stage at a TED Conference known for an inspiring mix of influential big thinkers and "ideas worth...

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Cash-in-bag case: HC notice to CBI on Yadav's plea regarding prosecution sanction

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday issued a notice to the CBI on a petition filed by Justice Nirmal Yadav (retired), an accused in cash-in-bag case, seeking photocopies of the record of ministry of law and justice pertaining to her prosecution sanction.While issuing notice to the CBI for March 21, Justice Ranjit Singh asked CBI to file its reply on the demand of Yadav, who...

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Vt. lye victim gets new face at Boston hospital

BOSTON (AP) — The 2007 chemical attack left the Vermont nurse unrecognizable to anyone who knew her.But now Carmen Blandin Tarleton's face has changed again following a facial transplant this month.Doctors at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston said Wednesday that the 44-year-old's surgery included transplanting a female donor's facial skin to Tarleton's neck, nose and lips, along with facial...

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Bring on the Cuts: Some Want the Sequester

Mark Lucas wouldn't mind seeing America's defense budget cut by billions."There's quite a bit of waste within the military," Lucas, who serves as Iowa state director for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), told ABC News. "Being in there for 10 years, I've seen quite a bit of it."With the budget sequester set to kick in on Friday, the former Army ranger is among...

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Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties searched for a way forward on Tuesday after an inconclusive election gave none of them a parliamentary majority and threatened prolonged instability and a renewal of the European financial crisis. The results, notably the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority...

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Lack of sleep leads to groggy genes: study

WASHINGTON: Lack of sleep has a potentially harmful effect on gene expression, according to a study out Tuesday that sheds light on the link between sleep deficits and a wide range of health conditions.A sleep deficit -- even just a week's worth -- can have damaging effects on our genes, researchers said in a new study out Tuesday.Lack of adequate shut-eye had already been linked to conditions...

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IB sulks over govt bid to place NCTC outside its ambit

NEW DELHI: As it tries to assuage the concerns of states over the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which sees the concept as an encroachment on their turf, now the Centre also has to contend with the resentment of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to the proposed mechanism. Anxious to win over the states on the issue of NCTC which it sees as imperative for better co-ordination among counter-terror...

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C. Everett Koop, 'rock star' surgeon general, dies

NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. C. Everett Koop has long been regarded as the nation's doctor— even though it has been nearly a quarter-century since he was surgeon general.Koop, who died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H., at age 96, was by far the best known and most influential person to carry that title. Koop, a 6-foot-1 evangelical Presbyterian with a biblical prophet's beard, donned a public health uniform...

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'93 WTC Bombing Crushed Lives, Not Memories

Edward Smith remembers vividly the call from the morgue 20 years ago today, that his pregnant wife had died in the World Trade Center bombing hours before she was supposed to start her maternity leave."It seems like kind of yesterday sometimes," he told ABC News, "but it seems like a long time ago, too."Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 1993 WTC bombing, which was overshadowed...

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Football: Brilliant Bale shines again as Spurs edge thriller

LONDON: Gareth Bale fired Tottenham into third place in the Premier League as his sublime last minute goal capped a majestic performance in a 3-2 win over West Ham at Upton Park on Monday.Bale has been in the form of his life in recent weeks and the Wales winger added another chapter to his growing legend with a brilliant brace that would surely have been appreciated by Hammers legend...

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Army renews hunt for bunker-bursting rifles 8 years after bribery scandal

NEW DELHI: The Army is launching a fresh hunt for anti-material rifles, meant for "bunker-bursting" as well as "penetrating" light-armoured vehicles, eight years after its earlier project with South African company Denel got derailed mid-way due to kickback allegations and political mudslinging. The Army is now ready with the technical parameters, or GSQRs (general staff qualitative requirements),...

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