Football: Evergreen Totti cheers Romans

ROME: A double strike from Francesco Totti helped push AS Roma into the top four in Serie A on Saturday, proving instrumental in an entertaining 4-2 home win over Fiorentina, who missed the chance to leapfrog Inter Milan into third.Brazilian defender Leandro Castan gave Roma a seventh-minute lead but it was the sterling efforts of 36-year-old skipper Totti which had the home fans singing...

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

MUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the debate—that the Indian attitude to China was influenced...

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't...

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Dallas Cowboys Player Arrested in Teammate's Death

Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Joshua Price-Brent was arrested on an intoxication manslaughter charge today after a single vehicle roll-over killed his passenger, Jerry Brown Jr., who had been a linebacker on the team's practice squad and his former teammate at the University of Illinois.Price-Brent, 24, was allegedly speeding "well above" the posted 45 mph speed limit at about...

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US expects oil boom from oil shale extraction

WASHINGTON: The United States is set to become the largest producer of crude oil by 2030, according to a recent forecast by the United Nations (UN).The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts the US will overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia in production amid a boom in unconventional drilling.In Colorado, and other western US states, oil shale is one of the resources that could help make...

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Maldives must rein in quarters harming bilateral ties, India says

NEW DELHI: Amid a diplomatic row over cancellation of the GMR contract, India on Friday asked Maldives to control any quarters which may be trying to harm bilateral relations saying the issue should not put a "question mark" on the ties between the two sides. "If they have to take a decision in interest of their society and country and if that decision is taken properly as per laws there, what...

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Pictures: Timbuktu Under al Qaeda

TimbuktuPhotograph by Brent Stirton, Getty Images/National GeographicSince the 12th century, when Tuareg tribes founded Timbuktu as a seasonal camp on the southern edge of...

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Supreme Court to Take Up Gay Marriage Cases

The Supreme Court today decided to take up two major cases regarding gay marriage, one of which could ultimately lead the court to decide whether there is a fundamental right to same-sex marriage.The justices announced that the court would hear a challenge to Proposition 8, the controversial California ballot initiative that passed in 2008 that restricted marriage to opposite-sex...

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ECB forecast, rate hints send euro lower

NEW YORK: The euro only barely rebounded against the dollar in late trade Thursday, after plunging on the European Central Bank's sharp cut in its eurozone growth forecast for next year.The euro lost more than one cent after the ECB forecast that the euro area economy will shrink by 0.3 percent in 2013, instead of growing by 0.5 percent as previously estimated.Also pressing it lower were...

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'Time for India, Pak to stop blame game'

NEW DELHI: Pakistan senate chairman Syed Hussain Bokhari said here on Thursday that there was a wrong notion in India that relations with the neighbouring country improve only when a dictator is in power there. Bukhari is leading a delegation of seven Pakistani senators—three of them Hindus—to India at the invitation of vice president Hamid Ansari on a goodwill visit aimed to "create better understanding"...

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High-Voltage DC Breakthrough Could Boost Renewable Energy

Patrick J. Kiger Thomas Edison championed direct current, or DC, as a better mode for delivering electricity than alternating current, or AC. But the inventor of the light bulb lost the War of the Currents. Despite Edison's sometimes flamboyant efforts—at one point he electrocuted a Coney Island zoo elephant in an attempt to show the technology's hazards—AC is the primary way that electricity...

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Bodies Believed to Be Missing Iowa Cousins

Authorities believe two bodies found by hunters in Iowa this week are Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins, two young cousins who vanished in July."At this time, law enforcement is confident, based upon evidence at the scene and preliminary investigation, that the bodies are those of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins," Capt. Rick Abben, chief deputy of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's...

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Rubio, Ryan look to the future during award dinner speeches

Two high-profile Republican members of Congress who stand at the forefront of the effort to rebuild the party after a stinging presidential defeat delivered speeches Tuesday night aimed at turning the page with a fresh emphasis on inclusion and a renewed focus on growing the middle class. “Nothing represents how special America is more than our middle class. And our challenge and our opportunity...

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Three dead, 8 missing in North Sea cargo ship collision

THE HAGUE: Rescuers pulled at least three bodies from the icy waters of the North Sea on Wednesday and were frantically searching for eight missing crew from a cargo ship that sank following a collision in a busy shipping lane off the Dutch coast.The Dutch coastguard and navy plucked 13 survivors from the water after the Baltic Ace, a 23,000 tonne car carrier, collided with container ship...

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Large, Peanut-Shaped Asteroid Headed Toward Earth

A giant asteroid is set to buzz Earth next week, and astronomers are already keeping their eyes on the skies—but not because 4179 Toutatis poses any danger.Toutatis, at 2.7 miles (4.46 kilometers) long and 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide, is one of the largest asteroids that comes anywhere near Earth. But only an astronomer would consider its closest approach to be "near." When the peanut-shaped...

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WH 'Absolutely' Willing to Go Off Fiscal Cliff

President Obama's lead negotiator in the "fiscal cliff" talks said the administration is "absolutely" willing to allow the package of deep automatic spending cuts and across-the-board tax hikes to take effect Jan. 1, unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher income tax rates on the wealthy.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview with CNBC that both...

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Poll: Fiscal cliff blame would fall heaviest on GOP

Most Americans appear poised to blame Republicans, not President Obama, if negotiators fail to act in time to avert a “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax increases and spending cuts slated for January, according to a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. The new poll finds little confidence that leaders in Washington will reach a deal before the Dec. 31 deadline, and the level of pessimism...

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Football: Zenit secure Europa spot

MILAN, Italy: A 35th minute strike from Danny secured a 1-0 away win over seven-time champions AC Milan and a Europa League spot for Russia side Zenit St Petersburg here on Tuesday.With qualification secured two weeks ago, Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri could afford to rest a number of regulars including top scorer Stephan El Shaarawy, midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and defender Philippe...

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SC to decide on Sangma’s petition today

NEW DELHI: The SC on Wednesday will pronounce its decision whether or not Purno Sangma's petition challenging election of Pranab Mukherjee as president disclosed such material requiring a trial for determination of their veracity. A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices P Sathasivam, S S Nijjar, J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi will pronounce the order on Sangma's plea...

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Oldest Giant Panda Relative Found in Spain

The oldest relative of the giant panda has been discovered in Spain—suggesting that the animals' ancestors originated in Europe, a new study says.Dubbed Kretzoiarctos beatrix, the 11-million-year-old species was previously named Agriarctos beatrix based on a few fossil teeth found at a paleontological site near Zaragoza, Spain (map). Agriarctos is an extinct genus of European bear and...

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Obama Sees 'Potential' for Averting the Fiscal Cliff

President Obama says he sees "potential" for averting the "fiscal cliff" in 28 days, but that no deal will get done unless Republicans consent to raise income-tax rates on the top 2 percent of U.S. earners."We're going to have to see the rates on the top 2 percent go up and we're not going to be able to get a deal without it," Obama told Bloomberg TV in his first televised interview...

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Presidential campaigns rehash what worked and what did not in race for the White House

Top officials of President Obama’s reelection campaign have pulled back the curtain a bit on why, as public opinion polls were bouncing around during the 2012 race, they remained so certain that their strategy was working. The reason: Massive amounts of their own polling — not just nationally and in individual states, but in nightly surveys of 9,000 likely voters across 10 battleground...

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Typhoon smashes into Philippines

MANILA: Typhoon Bopha smashed into the southern Philippines early Tuesday as more than 40,000 people crammed into shelters to escape the onslaught of the strongest cyclone to hit the country this year.The state weather service said Bopha made landfall on Mindanao island's east coast at dawn, raking across the island of 10 million people, packing gusts of up to 210 kilometres (130 miles)...

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Maya gives Congress hope of rescue in RS on FDI vote

NEW DELHI: BSP chief Mayawati on Monday left the Congress hungering for more by strongly indicating that she might not support the Opposition's resolution opposing the decision to let in global supermarket chains. Her hint encouraged the Congress to lobby her to upgrade her support to side with the government during the crucial headcount in the Rajya Sabha. Sources said the government has clearly...

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified...

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Suspect Allegedly Told Cops He Traveled to Kill

A man charged in the death of a teenage barista in Alaska told police that he traveled the country with the sole purpose to kill strangers because he "liked to do it," prosecutors said today.Vermont and federal prosecutors detailed the meticulous and cold-blooded murder of Bill and Lorraine Currier in Essex, Vt., last year and said the information came from Israel Keyes before...

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