Bomb kills two, wounds 12 in Thai south

BANGKOK: Two security officials died and 12 people were wounded in a blast in Thailand's restive south on Saturday, an army spokesman said, as unrest continued despite plans for talks with a key rebel group.The bomb hidden in a motorcycle in Yala provincial town was aimed at paramilitaries who had been manning a nearby checkpoint, said southern army spokesman Colonel Pramote Promin. Six...

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Congress is synonymous with price rise, Nitish Kumar says

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today attacked the UPA government by saying that the Congress was synonymous with price rise. "Congress party ka dusra naam mahangai party hai....jab tak ye log satta mein rahenge mahangai badhti rahegi (Congress is synonymous with price rise .... as the Congress is in power prices will rise)," Kumar told reporters here. On the phone tapping of BJP leader...

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WHO: Slight cancer risk after Japan nuke accident

LONDON (AP) — Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.In fact, experts calculated that increase at about 1 extra percentage point added to a Japanese infant's lifetime cancer risk."The additional risk is quite small...

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Obama Signs Order to Begin Sequester Cuts

President Obama and congressional leaders today failed to reach a breakthrough to avert a sweeping package of automatic spending cuts, setting into motion $85 billion of across-the-board belt-tightening that neither had wanted to see.President Obama officially initiated the cuts with an order to agencies Friday evening.He had met for just over an hour at the White House Friday...

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"Don't Stop Believin'" tops 2012 most-watched dramas list

SINGAPORE: Singapore broadcaster MediaCorp on Friday unveiled the list of most-watched television programmes over its main free-to-air channels.School drama "Don't Stop Believin'", which features stars like Felicia Chin, Romeo Tan, Elvin Ng and Ian Fang, topped the list of popular Mandarin dramas on Channel 8, with an average viewership of 918,000.Heartland drama "It Takes Two" trailed...

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Hyderabad blasts: NIA interrogates Indian Mujahideen operatives

HYDERABAD: Two suspected Indian Mujahideen operatives are being questioned by the NIA today in connection with the February 21 twin blasts here that left 16 people dead. A court in Delhi had yesterday granted the NIA five-day custody of Syed Maqbool and Imran Khan for their interrogation following which the two were brought here by the agency. The agency had told the court that it would take both...

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Sequestration: Surrender is in the Air

The budget ax is about to fall, and there's little lawmakers in Washington are doing to stop it.Despite a parade of dire warnings from the White House, an $85 billion package of deep automatic spending cuts appears poised to take effect at the stroke of midnight on Friday.The cuts – known in Washington-speak as the sequester – will hit every federal budget, from defense to education,...

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Western governments to discuss military assistance to Syrian rebels: source

ROME (Reuters) - Western and Arab officials will meet representatives of the Syrian opposition in Istanbul next Monday to discuss military and humanitarian support for rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, a European diplomatic source said on Thursday. "The meeting aims to work directly with opposition structures to increase the level of support," the source said, adding that both...

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Retired Taiwan general charged with spying for China: media

TAIPEI: A retired Taiwanese lieutenant general has been charged with spying for China in the latest of a string of espionage cases to shock the island, according to media reports on Thursday.Chen Chu-fan, a former vice chief at the Military Police Command allegedly collected intelligence on Taiwan's military and political situation and handed his findings to Beijing, according to the country's...

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Union Budget 2013: No IT exemption for cash donations to political parties by cos

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday proposed to take away the income tax benefit on donations made in cash by corporates to political parties from April 2014 onwards.Under the existing provisions of section 80GGB of the Income Tax, contribution by an Indian company to any political party or an electoral trust in the previous year, is allowed as deduction in computing the total income of the firm.Currently,...

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