Nitish will have a keen eye on Modi’s rise

NEW DELHI: With "Modi-for-PM" chants growing, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar must be closely watching BJP leadership's response to the pressure from within to anoint the resurgent Gujarat chief minister as the party's prime ministerial choice. Nitish has made it clear that he will walk out of the NDA if the BJP declares Modi to be its choice for the coveted job and, according to sources, is...

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..

Manhunt Heats Up for Two Escaped Bank Robbers

The manhunt for two bank robbers who escaped from a downtown Chicago prison this week intensified overnight, with police chasing multiple leads as new footage shows the men getting into a taxi minutes after their brazen escape.Investigators say surveillance cameras captured Joseph "Jose" Banks, 37, and Kenneth Conley, 38, getting into a taxi minutes after their early Tuesday...

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..

US to open military ties soon with Myanmar

WASHINGTON: The United States is poised to take "nascent steps" to open up military ties with Myanmar as a way of bolstering political reforms undertaken by the former state, a senior US defence official said on Wednesday.The Pentagon said the cooperation likely would take the form of "non-lethal" training for Myanmar officers focusing on humanitarian assistance, military medicine and...

Read More..

WHO suggests raising liquor price to curb violence against women

NEW DELHI: Even as the national Capital remains shell shocked over the gruesome rape of the 23-year-old, the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested clamping down on alcohol availability and raising liquor price to reduce its consumption as an important intervention to reduce violence — both sexual and physical — against women. International studies conducted by the global health watchdog have...

Read More..

Experts: Kids are resilient in coping with trauma

WASHINGTON (AP) — They might not want to talk about the gunshots or the screams. But their toys might start getting into imaginary shootouts.Last week's school shooting in Connecticut raises the question: What will be the psychological fallout for the children who survived?For people of any age, regaining a sense of security after surviving violence can take a long time. They're at risk for lingering...

Read More..

Obama Launches Gun-Violence Task Force

Five days after deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history, President Obama said his administration plans immediate action early next year on proposals to curb an "epidemic of gun violence."At a morning news conference, Obama announced the formation of a task force to be headed by Vice President Joe Biden that will formulate a package of policy recommendations by January."The...

Read More..

Clinton not responsible for Benghazi shortcomings: inquiry

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of an official inquiry into the fatal attack on a U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, did not find Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responsible for security lapses even as they outlined widespread failings within her department. The unclassified version of the report, released late Tuesday by the State Department, concluded that the mission was completely...

Read More..

South Koreans vote in presidential election

SEOUL: South Koreans went to the polls Wednesday to choose a new president in a close and potentially historic election that could result in Asia's fourth-largest economy getting its first female leader.Voters face a clear choice between the ruling conservative party candidate Park Geun-Hye and her liberal rival from the main opposition party, Moon Jae-In, with opinion polls unable to...

Read More..