Taunts start at home for the obese: Study

MUMBAI: Parvati Sharma will never forget her engagement. Just as the traditional puja for Lord Ganapati was about to begin, a relative seated at the far end of the hall started chanting loudly, "Parvati Ganapati, Parvati Ganapati." Relatives tittered as Parvati, the bride-to-be who weighed 127kg, wanted to cry. "It was clear they were comparing my shape with Ganapati's and were laughing about it,"...

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, APThe magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg...

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Body of Missing Mom Reportedly Found in Turkey

The body of an American woman who went missing while on a solo trip to Turkey has been pulled from a bay in Istanbul, and nine people have been held for questioning, according to local media.Sarai Sierra, 33, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board a flight home to New York City.The state-run Andolu Agency reported that residents found a woman's body today...

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VA study finds more veterans committing suicide

Every day about 22 veterans in the United States kill themselves, a rate that is about 20 percent higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs’ 2007 estimate, according to a two-year study by a VA researcher. The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by...

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Israeli raid hit Syrian missiles, buildings: US official

WASHINGTON: An Israeli air raid in Syria this week struck surface-to-air missiles and a nearby military complex on the outskirts of Damascus, as Israel feared the weapons would be transferred to Hezbollah, a US official said Friday.Earlier reports had suggested Israeli warplanes may have targeted two separate locations in Wednesday's raid in Syria: a military site outside of the capital...

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Centre wants others to follow Surat’s self-financing model for road building

NEW DELHI: At a time when municipal bodies are facing huge funds crunch for infrastructure projects, Surat has come out with a model where the proposed outer ring road (ORR) around the industrial city would be self-financed by the project. Moreover, it would generate additional revenue for the city. The Centre has now issued an advisory to states to identify such projects and follow this model for...

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Best Science Pictures of 2012 Announced

Image courtesy Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian, U.W. Madison via Science/AAASA micrograph, or microphotograph, of a sea urchin's crystalline tooth won first place and people's choice for photography in the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.Colors applied with Photoshop reveal the interlocking crystals that form the choppers of Arbacia punctulata. The...

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Arias Trial Puts Mormon Sex Rules in Spotlight

The murder trial of Jodi Arias has been filled with salacious details of phone sex, graphic text messages, and an erotic sexual relationship between her and her devout Mormon ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander.Arias, 32, converted to Mormonism when she began to date Alexander, then 29, in 2006. Though they were both outwardly devout, they immediately developed a sexual relationship.The...

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Candidates to head WTO clear hurdle

GENEVA: The last of a record nine candidates to lead the World Trade Organization finished defending their candidacies on Thursday, but the real campaign is only just getting started."This is a procedure that is all but unique in the world -- a selection rather than an election that takes several months to complete," a source close to the process told AFP.The candidates -- six men and...

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Singapore to look into 'hair cutting issue' of Sikh prisoners

AMRITSAR: Singapore prison services department has assured to look into the issue of cutting of head and facial hairs of Sikh jail inmates in the prisons there.Former prison volunteer for Singapore Anti-Narcotics Association, Madan Mohan Singh, told TOI on Thursday that the quality service manager of Singapore prison services, Kok Weng Chew, has promised him on January 29 that he would look into...

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