Tennis: Nadal struggles into Brazil Open final

SAO PAULO: Rafael Nadal struggled into the Brazil Open final on Saturday by downing Argentine lucky loser Martin Alund in three sets.The former world number one, who is recovering from a knee injury, battled hard to dismiss his 27-year-old opponent, who is ranked 111 in the world, winning 6-3, 6-7 (2/7), 6-1 in nearly two hours.Sunday's final will pit the 26-year-old Spanish star against...

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Finmeccanica ex-CEO denies knowing kin of former air chief

NEW DELHI: Former Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi has denied knowing the family of Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi in the ongoing investigations in Italy into the alleged payment of kickbacks of Rs 362 for supplying 12 VVIP choppers to India. Orsi was arrested earlier this week by the Italian investigators in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore deal. Appearing before an Italian magistrate there, Orsi...

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Picture Archive: Making Mount Rushmore, 1935-1941

Photograph from Rapid City Chamber of Commerce/National GeographicThere's no such thing as Presidents' Day.According to United States federal government code, the holiday is named Washington's Birthday, and has been since it went nationwide in 1885.But common practice is more inclusive. The holiday expanded to add in other U.S. presidents in the 1960s, and the moniker Presidents' Day became popular...

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Meteor Blast 'Something We Only Saw in Movies'

A day after a massive meteor exploded over this city in central Russia, a monumental cleanup effort is under way.Authorities have deployed around 24,000 troops and emergencies responders to help in the effort.Officials say more than a million square feet of windows -- the size of about 20 football fields -- were shattered by the shockwave from the meteor's blast. Around 4,000...

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Mexico to slaughter 486,000 chickens over bird flu

CELAYA, Mexico: Mexico will slaughter 486,000 chickens after an outbreak of bird flu was detected in the central state of Guanajuato, officials said Friday.Poultry producer Bachoco reported a possible case of H7N3 influenza in five breeder farms late Wednesday, which agriculture ministry officials confirmed on Friday.Authorities launched preventive measures, testing nearby farms to check...

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Police nab Suryanelli absconder Dharmarajan

KOTTAYAM: Dharmarajan, the absconding convict in the Suryanelli sex scandal, over which Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien is facing the heat, was arrested on Friday by Kerala police from a hotel at Sagar in Karnataka. The third accused in the 17-year-old case, Dharmarajan, a former lawyer, was arrested by a five-member special team of Kerala police, said C Rajagopal, superintendent of police,...

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Meteorites: Best Places to See Them Up Close

The meteorite that touched down in central Russia on Friday sent many people running, hoping to avoid getting hurt. Now, plenty of others will be running in search of valuable meteorite pieces, which can be filled with precious metals.Although it can be cost prohibitive to collect them, museums and other tourist sites offer an inexpensive way to admire space rocks. (Related: Asteroid Impacts:...

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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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Postmaster takes case for five-day mail delivery to skeptical senators

Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe took his controversial plan for five-day mail delivery before a congressional hearing Wednesday, where he told senators that the Postal Service “needs your help.” Donahoe’s refrain was familiar. ●The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is losing $25 million a day.●Last year, the Postal Service lost $15.9 billion.●It defaulted on $11.1 billion...

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Capriles says Venezuela lying about Chavez health

CARACAS: Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles on Thursday again accused the government of lying about the health of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez, who is convalescing in Cuba."Most probably, they have lied to us about the condition of the president of the republic during the past two months," Capriles told a press conference.He said authorities in Caracas had already...

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Two kids crushed to death as school bus falls into gorge

DEHRADUN: Two school kids, six to seven years old, were crushed to death and four others seriously injured after a school mini bus fell into a gorge in Haridwar district of Uttarakhand on Thursday. Haridwar SSP Arun Kumar Joshi said incident occurred at 8.10 am as the bus driver, Sunil, was trying to overtake a tempo. Joshi said that in the process the speeding bus overturned and fell into a gorge....

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Why We Walk … and Run … And Walk Again to Get Where We're Going

You have to get to a bus stop to catch the once-an-hour express ... or to a restaurant to meet a friend ... or to a doctor's office. You've got maybe a half a mile to cover and you're worried you'll be late. You run, then you stop and walk, then run some more.But wait. Wouldn't it be better to run the whole way?Not necessarily.A new study by an assistant professor of mechanical engineering...

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Obama urges a move away from narrow focus on politics of austerity

Just about every argument in Washington since the 2010 midterm elections, which returned control of the House to Republicans, has centered on reducing the federal deficit. On Tuesday night, President Obama leaned into his second term by declaring that a single-minded focus on deficit reduction would jeopardize the nation’s future. And he sounded an urgent call to rebuild. Reelected by...

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Tennis: Nadal out of Brazil Open doubles over knee fear

SAO PAULO: Rafael Nadal will not play his scheduled doubles match at the Brazil Open Wednesday because of "knee overuse", organisers said.But they added that the Spanish star intends to play his opening singles match Thursday against Brazilian Joao Souza.World number five Nadal had been scheduled to team up with Argentina's David Nalbandian in a second-round encounter against Argentine...

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When loves turns into hate

Once, love was all about getting romantic. Now, it's about getting back. The number of cases of possessive lovers hacking mail accounts and spamming their ex-partners have soared. "Creating fake profiles and indiscriminate sending of mails for harassment are complaints that we often encounter," admits a senior police officer in Bangalore, the country's IT capital which regularly sees such cases....

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Are Honeybees Losing Their Way?

A single honeybee visits hundreds, sometimes thousands, of flowers a day in search of nectar and pollen. Then it must find its way back to the hive, navigating distances up to five miles (eight kilometers), and perform a "waggle dance" to tell the other bees where the flowers are.A new study shows that long-term exposure to a combination of certain pesticides might impair the bee's ability...

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Ship Stranded: Love Boat to Horror Honeymoon

A Texas couple's fantasy wedding quickly turned into a nightmare honeymoon when the fire-damaged Carnival Cruise ship carrying them became stranded in the Gulf of Mexico.Rob Mowlam, 37, and Stephanie Stevenson, 27, of Nederland, Texas, got married on the Carnival Triumph on Saturday. The four-day cruise was meant to be back to shore on Monday, but was left disabled by an engine...

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17 gunmen dead in Thai military base attack

  BANGKOK, Thailand: Scores of heavily-armed gunmen stormed a military base in unrest-plagued southern Thailand, an army spokesman said on Wednesday, in a major assault that left at least 17 militants dead."Some 100 fully armed militants stormed the base, where there were 60 marines," Colonel Pramote Promin, southern army spokesman, told AFP. He said the attack, one of the most ambitious...

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'I have emerged stronger after blast'

PUNE: AmrapaliChavan, who suffered severe burns in the German Bakery blast, says the incident made her mentally and physically strong."I have become a strong woman now. It taught me some bitter lessons as well as some rewarding ones. The realisation that I am a fighter and have a strong will power dawned upon me after I fought back. I did so because I wanted to live. I have also realised that people...

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Where Will Pope Benedict XVI Retire?

Someone with a suspicious mind and deep knowledge of Vatican trivia might have guessed that something was going on months ago. Last November, a community of cloistered nuns vacated the  Mater Ecclesiae monastery, located inside Vatican Gardens, two years before they were expected to do so.The monastery has since been closed for renovation.On Monday, in the press conference that followed...

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Gauging the probability of success for Obama’s agenda post-State of the Union

LAS VEGAS — UPS worker Don Clark hobbled on injured knees to see President Obama come to his warehouse last year to tout the main ideas in the annual State of the Union address — clean energy, tax fairness, a manufacturing revival and a stronger economy. A year later, Clark still believes in Obama, but feels frustrated by the president’s struggle to get enough support for his agenda. “It’s...

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IBM puts supercomputer to work on cancer

WASHINGTON: IBM is putting its Watson supercomputer to work fighting cancer, in what is described as the first commercial program of its kind to use "big data" to help patients with the disease.The US computing giant last week unveiled its initiative with health insurer WellPoint and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.The supercomputer, which gained fame by defeating two...

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Punjab cop among 2 held for minor's rape

FARIDKOT: Police on Monday arrested two persons, including a Punjab Police constable, for allegedly abducting and gang raping a minor girl in a Faridkot village.The accused have been identified as Kulwinder Singh, 25, a constable posted with the Faridkot police, and Kuldeep Singh, 24. Both the accused, who belong to the victim's village, were produced in the local court on Monday which remanded...

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Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival

Holy BathPhotograph by Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty ImagesThe Hindu festival known as Kumbh Mela, often referred to as the world’s largest gathering of humanity, peaked on Sunday at...

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Benedict's Legacy Marred by Sex Abuse Scandal

When Pope Benedict XVI resigns at the end of this month, he leaves behind a Church grappling with a global fallout from sex abuse and a personal legacy marred by allegations that he was instrumental in covering up that abuse.As the sex abuse scandal spread from North America to Europe, Benedict became the first pope to meet personally with victims, and offered repeated public apologies...

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Marco Rubio emerges as GOP’s star. But is he the answer for Republicans?

Lately, it seems just about everyone is fascinated by the junior senator from Florida. Time’s current cover proclaims Marco Rubio “The Republican Savior.” The Web site BuzzFeed last week solicited his views on immigration, climate change, gay rights — and the relative artistic merits of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. That test of his hip-hop fluency came after Rubio released a Spotify...

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Basketball: Balanced attack propels Clippers past Knicks

NEW YORK: The Los Angeles Clippers defeated the New York Knicks 102-88 with the help of a strong bench attack and Chris Paul's 25 points, seven assists and a half dozen rebounds.Jamal Crawford had a team high 27 points and Blake Griffin finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers, who won despite 42 points from New York forward Carmelo Anthony at Madison Square Garden.Los...

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CRPF’s braveheart men and women foiled terrorists’ designs

NEW DELHI: Not many of them fell to fidayeen bullets but they were bravehearts no less. The men and women of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who were guarding various gates of Parliament on the fateful day of December 13, 2001, were the reason why the five rampaging militants' designs were thwarted. They killed with clinical precision all the terrorists one by one before the jihadis could...

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Year of the Snake: The Serpent Behind the Horoscope

On February 10, people all around the world will ring in the Lunar New Year with paper lanterns and firecrackers. At the heart of it all sits the snake, a slithery reptile feared for its sharp fangs and revered for its undeniable charm. (Watch videos of some of the world's deadliest snakes.)Those born in the Year of the Snake are said to be intelligent and quick thinking, but they can...

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