Maryland inches closer to decision time on hydraulic fracturing

As states in the mid-Atlantic region lined up for the jobs and tax revenue that would come with drilling deep into the shale to release gas, Maryland held back. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and other state officials said no thanks, wary that poisonous chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing could contaminate ground water in rural areas where it matters mo...

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Horse Racing: World's top horse pulls out of Hong Kong Cup

HONG KONG: The world's top racehorse Cirrus des Aigles has withdrawn injured from Sunday's Hong Kong International Races in a major blow to the competition, one of the richest meetings on the global calendar.The French gelding was set to headline a stellar line-up for the 2,000-metre Hong Kong Cup and was seeking to make it fourth time lucky at the meet, where he has failed to scoop a...

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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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Obama committee to accept corporate cash for January inauguration in Washington

President Obama’s inaugural committee will accept corporate donations this time around, reversing a policy from four years ago banning such contributions, a spokeswoman said Friday. The 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee will accept unlimited money from corporate and individual sources but will not accept contributions from political action committees or lobbyists, according to spokeswoman...

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Supreme Court to take up issue of gay marriage

WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court has decided to take up the sensitive issue of gay marriage, hearing challenges to a federal law denying benefits to same-sex couples and California's ban on such unions.The highest US court will likely hear arguments in the cases in March 2013, with rulings to come in June. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in nine states and the federal capital Washington...

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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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Baby Gabriel's Mother Sentenced to Prison

Elizabeth Johnson -- who at one point admitted to killing her son, the missing infant Gabriel Johnson, before saying she gave him away -- told a judge she "deserved the maximum" sentence, before receiving a prison term of 5.25 years, half of the max.In October, Johnson, 26, was found guilty of custodial interference and unlawful imprisonment stemming from the disappearance of...

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Bieber miffed at Grammys snub, Brubeck gets nod

LOS ANGELES: Justin Bieber's manager has lambasted the Grammys organisers after the Canadian teen sensation failed to garner a single nomination for this year's music awards.At the other end of the musical spectrum, late jazz icon Dave Brubeck was honoured with a posthumous nod for the music industry's top prizes, in a little-noticed category at Wednesday night's nominations show."The...

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Tribal women wage war against IMFL

SHIMLA: Tribal women in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur district have waged a unique war to curb social inequality, especially during marriages and other social functions. In a bid to curb show of wealth, women have come up with unique idea of banning the use of English liquor and those defying ban are being imposed heavy penalty.Liquor is an important part of tribal customs and social get together are incomplete...

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Space Pictures This Week: Lunar Gravity, Venusian Volcano

Cassiopeia’s BubbleImage courtesy T.A. Rector, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSFA new camera called the One Degree Imager, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, is responsible...

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Not 'Wild West': Talking Cyber Ops at Iran's Backdoor

Robert Clark, the operational attorney for U.S. Cyber Command, stood in a grand ballroom with gold flaked ceilings and sparkling chandeliers to address an audience that included men in flowing white robes and veiled women and tried to hammer home a single point: cyber warfare is not the "Wild West."Clark, who emphasized that he was speaking only in a personal capacity and not on...

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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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Critics give epic 'Hobbit' middle marks

NEW YORK: Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" opens in the US this month and critics say the movie, much like the epic journey it depicts, is adventurous - but an uphill slog.The fantasy about a Hobbit called Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the good wizard, 13 raucous dwarves, and a host of evil forces, takes viewers back to the lavishly filmed Middle-earth world that won Oscars...

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A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?

NASA is so delighted with Curiosity's Mars mission that the agency wants to do it all again in 2020, with the possibility of identifying and storing some rocks for a future sample return to Earth.The formal announcement, made at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting, represents a triumph for the NASA Mars program, which had fallen on hard times due to steep budget cuts....

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Bodies Found in Hunt for Missing Iowa Cousins

Nearly five months after Iowa cousins Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins disappeared, the girls' families have been told two bodies were found by hunters in a wooded area, though the identities of the bodies have not been confirmed, authorities said.Capt. Rick Abben of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office said at a press conference this afternoon that the bodies are being transported...

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Kerry balances refocused devotion to Senate, talk of Cabinet nomination

An international treaty promoting the rights of the disabled across the globe failed in the Senate Tuesday, but it gave Sen. John F. Kerry , chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, a chance to lay out a diplomatic vision that could serve as blueprint if he becomes President Obama’s next secretary of state. The point of the treaty, Kerry said, was to urge the world to be more the United...

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Britain braces for key budget update

LONDON: British finance minister George Osborne unveils his budget update on Wednesday, and will likely admit it could take longer than expected to slash the deficit as a result of the weaker-than-expected economy.Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne was to deliver his Autumn Statement before parliament at 1230 GMT, when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) fiscal watchdog will also...

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India urges Israel to speed up defence projects

NEW DELHI: India has asked Israel to speed up crucial bilateral defence projects, including the around Rs 13,000 crore development of two advanced surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems to arm Indian armed forces against hostile aircraft, drones and helicopters. This came at the 10th joint working group on defence cooperation here, co-chaired by defence secretary Shashikant Sharma and Israeli defence...

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Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker...

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Tasting DNA-Altered Salmon That May Hit US Plates

Deep in the rain forests of Panama, in a secret location behind padlocked gates, barbed-wire fences and over a rickety wooden bridge, grows what could be the most debated food product of our time.It may look like the 1993 hit movie "Jurassic Park," but at this real-life freshwater farm scientists are altering the genes not of dinosaurs -- but of fish.They are growing a new DNA-altered...

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Boehner, House GOP leaders offer ‘fiscal cliff’ counterproposal

House GOP leaders endorsed a debt-reduction plan Monday that would raise tax collections by $800 billion over the next decade, but they refused to budge on higher tax rates for the wealthy, the central issue dividing Republicans and Democrats. In making a counteroffer to President Obama, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and other senior Republicans suggested that a framework...

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Police raid highway operator over Japan tunnel collapse

TOKYO: Japanese police on Tuesday raided offices belonging to a highway operator over a weekend tunnel collapse that killed nine people.More than eight officers from the Yamanashi Police Department entered the office of NEXCO in Hachioji, western Tokyo, a spokesman for the highway operator said."We are fully cooperating with the authorities over the accident," the spokesman told AFP.Police...

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Shimla takes first step towards modern transportation

SHIMLA: Shimla residents can now hope to get a new transportation system in the near future with Global Energy Basil (GBL) of Germany, a partner of European Union, showing keen interest in Rs 3,000cr comprehensive mobility plan prepared by Shimla municipal corporation. Having shortlisted Shimla for funding purpose, GBL has invited Shimla municipal corporation for presentation in January.Shimla town...

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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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Retired military officers’ letter seeks to amend gun law to help battle suicides

A group of senior retired generals and admirals are calling for Congress to amend a recent law that they say “dangerously interferes” with the ability of commanders to battle the epidemic of suicides among members of the military. Legislation added to the 2011 defense authorization bill at the urging of gun-rights advocates prohibits commanders from collecting any information about weapons...

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