Egypt's constitution seen passing in referendum

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptians voted on a constitution drafted by Islamists on Saturday in a second round of balloting expected to approve the charter that opponents say will create deeper turmoil in Egypt. After a first round last week in which unofficial results showed 57 percent of those who voted approved the constitution, the opposition cried foul, saying a litany of alleged abuses...

Read More..

Five lynched in Jharkhand

KHUNTI ( JHARKHAND): Five youths, who were suspected of being involved in extortion, were on Saturday lynched at Manhu village of the district, police said.A group of villagers caught the five around 10 am and killed them with sharp weapons and stones, superintendent of police Amarnath Mishra told reporters here.All the bodies were recovered, he said, adding, the police were trying to establish their...

Read More..

Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

Read More..

Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.“Even though Democrats and Republicans are...

Read More..

Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said. The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect...

Read More..

Asian markets retreat as US fiscal cliff fears grow

HONG KONG: Asian markets mostly fell on Friday after Republicans scrapped a vote on putting in place a back-up plan if talks on averting the US fiscal cliff end in failure.The news out of Washington late Thursday cancelled out a rally on Wall Street and upbeat data on the US economy, while it also hit currency traders, who have sent the safe-haven yen higher despite more Bank of Japan...

Read More..

Fatwa prohibits uploading photos on matrimonial, social sites

BAREILLY: An organisation of Sunni Muslim clerics here have termed as 'haraam' the uploading of photos on the internet for matrimonial purpose and on social networking sites. The fatwa issued by Madarsa Manzar-e-Islam of Dargah Aala Hazrat came in response to a question posed by a man from Kanpur. He had asked whether it was appropriate according to Islamic laws to post pictures on matrimonial...

Read More..

AP IMPACT: Big Pharma cashes in on HGH abuse

A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows.The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico.But since then, Big Pharma has been...

Read More..

Fiscal Cliff 'Plan B' Is Dead: Now What?

Dec 20, 2012 11:00pm The defeat of his Plan B — Republicans pulled it when it became clear it would be voted down — is a big defeat for Speaker of the House John Boehner.  It demonstrates definitively that there is no fiscal cliff deal that can pass the House on Republican votes alone.Boehner could not even muster the votes to pass something that would only allow...

Read More..

Al Qaeda grows powerful in Syria as endgame nears

AMMAN (Reuters) - Having seen its star wane in Iraq, al Qaeda has staged a comeback in neighbouring Syria, posing a dilemma for the opposition fighting to remove President Bashar al-Assad and making the West balk at military backing for the revolt. The rise of al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, which the United States designated a terrorist organisation last week, could usher...

Read More..

Stocks likely to continue being investors' favourite

SINGAPORE: Stocks may continue to be a favourite asset for investors next year.Improving corporate earnings and attractive valuations are expected to drive stock prices higher. Experts said investor sentiment may also get a lift on hopes of a recovery in the Chinese and US economies. Equities are among the star performers in financial markets this year.In the US, key stock indices like...

Read More..

Perpetrators of rape should be made 'impotent', NCW chief Mamta Sharma says

NEW DELHI: Demanding enactment of stringent laws to deter people from committing crimes like rape, the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Thursday favoured capital punishment for perpetrators and even suggested that they should be made "impotent"."Capital punishment is very important. I suggest that they should be made impotent so they repent every day of their life. It is very important, unless...

Read More..

AP IMPACT: Steroids loom in major-college football

WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid...

Read More..