Strengthening security at the nation’s airports

Most people think of airport security as their walk through the metal detector and the eyeballing by transportation security officers (TSOs). Dan Liddell, whose job it is to protect the flying public at seven airports in central New York, instead sees 17 zones of worker responsibility and hundreds of different tasks. In pursuit of safeguarding the public, Liddell, a federal security director...

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Passion in US lower house immigration debate

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers debated plans on Tuesday to build a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants who remade their lives in America but found themselves at the heart of a fierce debate.President Barack Obama and a group of Republican and Democratic senators have submitted plans for reform, but as the House of Representatives took up the issue, there were signs the bipartisan...

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Railways seeks Cabinet nod for two key links to Chhattisgarh

NEW DELHI: In a bid to ensure connectivity to coal fields to ensure fuel supply to power plants, railways has sought Cabinet approval for construction of two crucial rail links in Chhattisgarh. Both these projects have been pending for long. The proposed rail links —122-km Gevra Road-Pendra Road and 63-km Raigarh (Mand colliery)-Bhupdeopur stretches — is part of an ambitious project aimed at ensuring...

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Life Found Deep Under Antarctic Ice For First Time?

For the first time, scientists believe they have collected life-forms from deep under the Antarctic ice.Last week, a team found and collected microbes in a lake hidden under more than a half-mile of ice. (Related: "Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice.")Among other things, the discovery may shed light on what lies under the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn.The newfound...

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Sierra's Family Selling Photos to Cover Funeral, Kids

The family of Sarai Sierra, an amateur New York photographer slain while on a trip to Turkey, put her photos up for sale today and quickly sold enough photographs to pay forher funeral, the woman's brother said today.The photos remain on sale and the profits will now be going to her two young sons, the family said.Sierra, 33, was found bludgeoned to death near a highway in Istanbul...

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IMF, Afghanistan agree path to fresh aid

WASHINGTON: The IMF said Monday it had reached agreement with Afghanistan on the reform path needed to unlock the next aid instalment for the war-ravaged country.The International Monetary Fund granted Afghanistan a US$133.6 million line of credit in November 2011 to help the country through the withdrawal of foreign military forces in 2014.But to date the IMF has only disbursed two instalments...

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Andhra Pradesh CM’s busy day in Delhi triggers Telangana rumours

NEW DELHI: A flurry of meetings that chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had with top Congress leaders here on Monday once again triggered speculations that the UPA government is keen on an early solution to the Telangana issue. While Kiran Kumar avoided the media after the meetings, sources claimed that apart from the separate state imbroglio, several state-related issues were discussed. The leaders...

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Space Pictures This Week: A Space Monkey, Printing a Moon Base

Illustration courtesy Foster and Partners/ESAThe European Space Agency (ESA) announced January 31 that it is looking into building a moon base (pictured in an artist's conception) using a technique called 3-D printing.It probably won't be as easy as whipping out a printer, hooking it to a computer, and pressing "print," but using lunar soils as the basis for actual building blocks could be a possibility."Terrestrial...

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Boy Safe, Kidnapper Dead as Ala. Standoff Ends

A week-long Alabama standoff in which a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker has ended with the kidnapper dead and the child safe, according to law enforcement."FBI agents safely recovered the child who's been held hostage for nearly a week," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said at a news conference.The agent said negotiations with the suspect,...

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Reid details positions in gun debate

The Senate’s top Democrat offered fresh details Sunday about his position in the renewed debate over guns, as he endorsed expanding background checks on gun sales and promised to consider bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. “Everyone acknowledges we should do something with background checks,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in an interview on...

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