After ‘fiscal cliff,’ Obama finishes recharging on Hawaiian holiday

HONOLULU — The place where President Obama vacations each winter is farther from Washington than almost any other place in the United States. So, it is not terribly surprising that less than 45 minutes after Congress passed a bill averting the “fiscal cliff” on Jan. 1, Obama was racing back here.

The president’s vacation with his family and friends had already been cut short by the protracted, painful negotiations in Washington over taxes and spending. Obama was eager to get away from it all and enjoy a few final days of rest before the next round of legislative battles begins.

“I think Hawaii for him is a place where he gets to recharge both physically and emotionally. The schedule is one that’s relaxing. The climate is warm like he likes it. And he’s surrounded constantly by family and the friends he grew up with,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary and a longtime adviser. “It’s the perfect elixir for having had a long and busy year in national politics.”

The president was scheduled to leave Hawaii late Saturday, returning to Washington on Sunday a little before noon. He will have spent a total of nine days here — and roughly 40 hours in the air going back and forth for both trips.

“Like any parent, the president enjoyed spending as much time with his family over the holidays as he could,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

The president first flew here Dec. 21, urging lawmakers to drink some eggnog and cool off over the Christmas holiday. Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, rented a house overlooking the beach in the town of Kailua, on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii’s most-populous island.

As has become his custom, Obama spent his time eating at Hawaii hot spots with family and friends, golfing with buddies for six-hour stretches and hanging out at home and around Oahu with his girls. He spent his first night in Hawaii out until 11:30, dining at Morimoto Restaurant Waikiki, owned by Masaharu Morimoto of “Iron Chef” fame.

The next day began with a memorial service for Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), whom Obama had previously called his “earliest political inspiration.” Following the service, which was at a veterans cemetery known as the Punchbowl, for the topographical imprint left by volcanic eruptions tens of thousands of years ago, Obama and his wife walked about a half-mile southeast to visit the grave site of his grandfather Stanley Dunham, who served in World War II.

Obama went for a hike with his family later that day and then spent part of Dec. 24 with his family at the beach. Many of the president’s activities were confined to the Marine Corps base here, about a 10-minute drive from his rental home.

The Obamas’ Christmas activities are an established routine. On Christmas Eve, Obama calls members of the armed forces and his wife calls children tracking Santa’s whereabouts, before the family sits down for dinner. The next morning, they open Christmas gifts, eat breakfast and sing carols. Later in the day, the president and his wife meet with a few hundred service members at the Marine Corps base.

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Football: Wolves sack Solbakken after FA Cup exit

LONDON: Stale Solbakken was sacked as manager of Championship side Wolves on Saturday, just hours after the club had been dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league Luton.

The struggling side, who were relegated from the Premier League last season, also terminated the contracts of assistant manager Johan Lange and Patrick Weiser, the first team coach.

Wolves are currently 18th in the Championship, having won just three out of their last 16 league games and a disappointing run of results culminated in Saturday's FA Cup third round 1-0 defeat to Luton Town.

Solbakken had only been in charge at Molineux for six months.

"Kevin Thelwell, head of football development and recruitment, will take charge of first team training until a new manager is appointed, assisted by development coach, Steve Weaver," said a club statement.

"The club would like to offer their thanks and best wishes to Stale, Johan and Patrick."

The 44-year-old Solbakken, who had previously been in charge of German side Cologne, replaced Terry Connor in the Wolves hotseat last summer.

He becomes the 10th Championship manager to leave his club this season while Wolves now search for their fourth boss in under a year.

Speaking after Saturday's match, the Norwegian had said he was not "embarrassed" by the defeat.

"There will be a lot of questions over me but that is normal, that's football and I have to take that, it's no problem," he said.

"I can put it right. I'm not embarrassed by the result, I can't fault the players' effort. First half we did well, but second half we didn't because our physical presence in the box was not enough."

- AFP/de

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Prices double as private vaccines flood market

NEW DELHI: The Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) seems to have slipped almost entirely into the grip of the private sector as the government's vaccine institutes that were reopened in February 2010 after being shut down two years ago are yet to contribute in any significant way. In the process, the cost of most vaccines has more than doubled since 2006-07.

Barring oral polio vaccine, the cost of other routine vaccines that added up to a little over a quarter of the annual routine immunization budget has increased to account for more than 50% of the entire budget, shows the response to an RTI application filed with the Vaccine Procurement Cell in the health ministry by Dr K V Babu, central council member of the Indian Medical Association.

In 2006-07, over 90% of the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine doses and over 80% of the tetanus toxoid vaccine used for UIP were supplied by the Pasteur Institute of India (PII) in Coonoor and the Central Research Institute (CRI) in Kasauli. In 2012-13, the two institutes together barely produced 36% of the DPT vaccines used and 23% of the TT vaccine used for the UIP.

The price of DPT vaccine has more than doubled between 2006-07 and 2012, going up from Rs 12 to Rs 28 per vial of ten doses. Similarly, the price of TT vaccine has gone up from Rs 6 to Rs 15.

The BCG Vaccine Laboratory in Guindy, Chennai was the sole supplier of BCG vaccine for the UIP. The government is now entirely dependent on the private sector as no other government institute produces BCG vaccine. The two other manufacturers of BCG vaccine, Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune and Green Signal Bio-Pharma Ltd in Chennia, are private companies. Since 2008, the price of BCG has gone up from Rs 13 to Rs 30 per vial of ten doses.

Interestingly, the least increase in cost has been in the case of measles, where prices have risen by less than 25% despite the demand for doses in 2012-13 being five times what it was in 2006-07. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the measles vaccine was the one that already had a private monopoly even in 2006-07.

The three government institutes, which produced the bulk of the vaccines required for the basic immunisation programme against six diseases, were shut down in 2008 reportedly for not being compliant with good manufacturing practices (GMP) by then health minister Anbumani Ramadoss. This move was sharply criticised by the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare which observed that it was the government's responsibility to invest in its own institutes to ensure they were GMP complaint instead of using that as an excuse to shut them down leaving the UIP at the mercy of the private sector.

Though all three institutes were reopened in February 2010, so far, the BCG Vaccine Laboratory has not produced a single dose of vaccine for the immunisation programme and PII Coonoor and CRI Kasauli have been producing a fraction of what they used to supply earlier.

The two other vaccines in the basic UIP are OPV and measles vaccine. For the measles vaccine, the RTI reply of the vaccine procurement unit of the ministry lists only one supplier, the Serum Institute of India in Pune, though the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) lists Indian Immunological Ltd and Human Biologicals Institute, two government units, as suppliers too. However, they do not seem to produce any significant amount. A measles vaccine dose currently costs the government over Rs 10.

In the case of OPV vaccine, the biggest suppliers seem to be two private companies Panacea Biotech Ltd and Bharat Biotech International Ltd in Hyderabad, which seem to meet the bulk of the demand. Though BIBCOl Bulandshahr, a government institute, and Haffkine Biopharmaceutical Ltd in Mumbai, a public sector unit (PSU), are listed as producers of OPV, their contribution seems negligible, going by the data of the CBHI.

The government units which made an insignificant contribution to the UIP were not chosen for being closed down. It is the units which contributed to a large share of the immunisation programme's demand that were shut down, resulting in the entire market for the vaccines produced by these units being turned over to the private companies.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

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• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

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City Answers Gang-Rape Cover-Up Allegations

As Steubenville, Ohio, prepares for the high-profile rape trial of two high school football players, officials, battling allegations of a cover-up, announced the creation of a new website today to debunk rumors and create what they said would be a transparent resource for the community.

"This site is not designed to be a forum for how the Juvenile Court ought to rule in this matter," the website, called Steubenville Facts, said.

A timeline of the case, beginning with the alleged gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at a party on Aug. 11-12, 2012, is posted on the site. Summaries of Ohio law relating to the case and facts about the local police force including statistics on how many graduated from Steubenville schools, is included.

The case gained national attention last week when hacking collective Anonymous leaked a video of Steubenville high school athletes mocking the 16-year-old female victim and making crude references to the alleged rape.

Steubenville Herald-Star, Michael D. McElwain/AP Photo

"It's disgusting, and I've had people calling, numerous people call here, upset, they have seen it, one woman, two women were crying, because of what they witnessed," Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said. "It really is disgusting to watch that video."

Anonymous has called for more arrests, however Steubenville Police have said their hands are tied.

"Steubenville Police investigators are caring humans who recoil and are repulsed by many of the things they observe during an investigation," the website said, addressing the video. "Like detectives in every part of America and the world, they are often frustrated when they emotionally want to hold people accountable for certain detestable behavior but realize that there is no statute that allows a criminal charge to be made."

Occupy Steubenville, a grassroots group, estimated 1,300 people attended a rally today outside the Jefferson County Courthouse, where rape victims and their loved ones gathered to share their stories.

The father of a teenage rape victim was met with applause when he shared his outrage.

"I've tried to show my girl that not all men are like this, but only a despicable few," he said. "And their mothers that ignore the truth that they gave birth to a monster."

Authorities investigated the case and charged two Steubenville high school athletes on Aug. 22, 2012.

The teenagers face trial on Feb. 13, 2013 in juvenile court before a visiting judge.

Attorneys for the boys have denied charges in court.

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Supreme Court to examine Indian Child Welfare Act requirements in adoption dispute

The Supreme Court added an emotional case to its docket Friday, agreeing to review a lower court’s decision that federal law requires a couple to return the child they cared for since birth to her Native American father.

The South Carolina Supreme Court, saying it acted with a “heavy heart,” agreed that Matt and Melanie Capobianco had to return Veronica, now 3, to her father Dusten Brown, a registered member of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. The court voted 3-2 that the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, passed to make it harder to remove children from Indian parents, trumped state law.

The Capobiancos “are ideal parents who have exhibited the ability to provide a loving family environment” for the little girl, Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal wrote. But “because this case involves an Indian child, the ICWA applies and confers conclusive custodial preference to the Indian parent.”

Veronica has been living with Brown and his parents in Oklahoma since the beginning of 2012.

The case is called
Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl
, and no names are used in the court documents.

But the battle over Veronica has attracted national attention, with the Capobiancos pleading their case on “Dr. Phil” and Indian activists defending the law as a necessary measure to protect tribal heritage and an answer to generations of abuse in removing children from their Indian parents.

The Supreme Court has experience in the emotional toll of such cases. Justice Antonin Scalia for years has said a previous case involving the ICWA was one of the toughest of his career.

In that 1989 case, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield, Scalia was in the majority saying the law required tribal courts to make decisions about Indian adoptions, even though it meant toddler twins might have to be removed from their adoptive parents. (In the end, a tribal court decided to leave the children where they were.)

The facts of the current case are no less wrenching. Veronica is the product of what appears to be a stormy relationship between Brown and Veronica’s mother. The two became in engaged in December 2008, and she informed him a month later that she was pregnant. Brown at the time was serving in the Army in Oklahoma.

Brown advocated for moving up the wedding; Veronica’s mother resisted, and the relationship soured. She broke it off in a text message in April.

In June, she asked Brown if he wanted to support the child or give up his parental rights. He replied, in another text message, that he would give up his rights. He said later he meant to pressure his former fiance to reconsider marriage.

But the mother, who already had two other children by another father, had by then decided to give up the baby, and the Capobiancos were eager to adopt. Matt Capobianco works for Boeing, and his wife, Melanie, has a PhD in developmental psychology. Matt Capobianco cut the umbilical cord when Veronica was born.

But Brown said that he was shocked when, just before shipping out for Iraq, he learned that the child was being put up for adoption. He called a lawyer and started the legal process that has arrived at the Supreme Court.

A South Carolina family court judge and a majority of the state supreme court said the ICWA mandates a clear preference for keeping the child with her biological Indian father, and there is no evidence that he is not a fit parent.

Both Veronica’s mother and a guardian appointed to look out for the child’s interests sided with the Capobiancos, as did Justice John W. Kittredge.

He said the court’s majority “has recast the facts to portray Father in an undeserved favorable light. . . . The reality is Father purposely abandoned this child and no amount of revisionist history can change that truth.”

The Supreme Court will look at whether it matters under the federal law that Brown is an unwed father who had given up his rights to the child. The justices will likely hear the case in April, along with two other cases accepted Friday.

One, United States v. Davila, concerns a federal judge’s role in a defendant’s decision to accept a plea bargain. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta said a magistrate judge’s involvement leading to the plea deal means the guilty plea must be thrown out. Other courts have said the plea should be overturned only if the judge’s action could be seen as inducing the defendant to take the deal.

The other, Tarrant Regional Water District v. Herrmann, concerns a water dispute between Fort Worth and Oklahoma over drawing water from the Red River.

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Tennis: Tsonga withdraws from Sydney event with injury

SYDNEY, Jan 5, 2013 (AFP) - French tennis star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has withdrawn from next week's Sydney International with a hamstring injury, tournament organisers said on Saturday.

The world number eight pulled out of the last major lead-up event to this month's Australian Open after suffering the injury playing for France in the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth on Friday.

"Unfortunately Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sustained an injury in Perth and has been forced to pull out of the Apia International Sydney with a left hamstring injury," tournament director Craig Watson said.

"We wish him a speedy recovery and all the best for a successful Australian Open."

Tsonga became the second top seed to drop out of the Sydney event after French compatriot Richard Gasquet, the world number 10, pulled out for personal reasons, organisers said.

- AFP/fa

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Centre seeks proposals on CCTV inside state buses

NEW DELHI: Centre has asked the state public transport corporations to send proposals on installing CCTV cameras inside their buses and setting up of monitoring station for keep track of the bus movements even on rural routes. Based on their fund requirement, the Centre would step in to provide financial assistance for vehicle and passenger safety.

The proposal was made on Thursday at the executive committee meeting of Association of State Road Transport Undertakings (ARSTUs) under the chairmanship of Union road transport secretary AK Upadhyaya. Sources said that the ministry is keen to provide aid to the STUs under its scheme to implement IT initiatives for better functioning of government owned public buses.

"We will send our proposals. Installation of CCTVs inside buses to keep eye on the activities is a good move, but we need to have proper monitoring centres. Moreover you need to be linked to local police so that they can take action in case of an emergency," said a senior official of a state transport corporation from south India said. He added that most of the major STUs operating buses in cities are going for global positioning system (GPS).

Mumbai's BEST and Andhra's APSRTC are some of the main corporations which are showing interest in this regard. The need for GPS and monitoring has gained importance due to the recent national uprising for women safety.

Sources said in the past two fiscal years, the road transport ministry has sanctioned Rs 71 crore to 15 SRTUs for IT projects. These transport bodies are investing another Rs 71 crores to implement the projects. ARSTU officials said another 30-40 transport corporations want the tracking system and to have a monitoring centre.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

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Obama Poised to Name New Defense, Treasury Chiefs

With the "fiscal cliff" crisis behind him, President Obama is poised to name two new key players to his cabinet, with both announcements expected to come next week.

Obama will name the replacement for outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as soon as Monday, sources told ABC News. Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is the likely nominee, they said.

Meanwhile, the president is also eyeing a replacement for outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the longest-serving member of Obama's first-term economic team and one-time lead negotiator for the administration in the "fiscal cliff" talks.

Current chief of staff Jack Lew is all but certain to get the nod for Treasury, according to people familiar with Obama's thinking.

A White House spokesman cautioned that the president has not yet made a final decision on either post, calling reports about Hagel and Lew "merely guessing."

Still, when Obama returns from his Hawaiian vacation on Sunday, he's expected to waste little time filling out his team for a second term.

Geithner has said he would remain at his post "until around the inauguration" Jan. 20, a Treasury spokesperson said Thursday, putting the department potentially in transition just as the administration confronts the next financial "cliffs" over automatic spending cuts and the nation's debt limit.

Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

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During an appearance on ABC's "This Week" in April, Geithner said the next Treasury secretary would need to be someone who is "willing to tell [Obama] the truth and, you know, help him do the tough things you need to do."

Lew, a former two-time Office of Management and Budget director and trusted Obama confidant who has held the chief of staff role since early 2012, is the front-runner for the job.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry -- Obama's nominee to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- has begun making more regular appearances at the U.S. State Department before his expected confirmation later this month.

His Senate hearings are set to begin shortly after Obama's inauguration, sources say. The administration still expects Clinton to testify about the Sept. 11 Benghazi, Libya, attacks before Kerry is confirmed.

But it is the potential nomination of Republican Hagel that has caused the most stir.

Critics from across the political spectrum have taken aim at the former senator from Nebraska's record toward Israel and what some have called a lack of experience necessary to lead the sprawling Pentagon bureaucracy or its operations. The controversy has set the stage for what would be a contentious confirmation process.

"A lot of Republicans and Democrats are very concerned about Chuck Hagel's position on Iran sanctions, his views toward Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, and that there is wide and deep concern about his policies," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told "Fox News Sunday."

He would not say whether Republicans felt so strongly as to expect a filibuster of the nomination.

"I can tell you there would be very little Republican support for his nomination," Graham said. "At the end of the day, they will be very few votes."

Still, Hagel, 66, a former businessman and decorated veteran who served in the Vietnam War, has won praise and admiration from current and former diplomats for his work on Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board and Panetta's Policy Advisory Board.

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Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

The fiscal pact Congress reached hours into the new year will delay $109 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts for two months. But it will make a down payment on those reductions that will affect federal operations this year and next.

The eleventh-hour agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes put off the major cuts known as a sequester until March 1, when another showdown is expected over the federal debt limit and how much to reduce the size of government.

Congress and the White House agreed to find $24 billion to pay for the delay, divided between spending cuts and a tax change that allows Americans holding traditional retirement plans to convert more of them to Roth IRAs, a process that requires tax payments up front.

The remaining $12 billion in cuts to domestic and defense agencies will not take effect until at least March 27, when the stopgap budget funding the government expires. The first $4 billion in cuts must come by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, and the remaining $8 billion in fiscal 2014, which will start Oct. 1.

The cuts will be rolled into budget deliberations on Capitol Hill, and no one knows what agencies and programs they will affect. Out of a discretionary spending budget of $1.04 trillion, $12 billion is relatively small. But it’s not a rounding error.

“There will be a few select cuts that will be painful,” said Patrick Lester, fiscal policy director at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (formerly OMB Watch). “We won’t know for months what those cuts are, which makes them easy to do.”

William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said $12 billion “spread across the government doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it depends on how it’s spread out.”

Even if each agency took a hit, some “will still be looking at furloughs and even [reductions in force] as a possible solution,” he said. Those are some of the near-certain actions many agencies have said they would take if they had to make the across-the-board cuts Congress imposed in 2011 to force itself to reckon with the federal deficit.

On Wednesday, government and union leaders said that threat, just two months away, is making them nervous.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Congress has “prevented the worst possible outcome by delaying sequestration for two months.”

But he warned that the “the specter of sequestration” threatens national security.

“We need to have stability in our future budgets,” Panetta said in a statement. “We need to have the resources to effectively execute our strategy, defend the nation, and meet our commitments to troops and their families after more than a decade of war.”

Several officials said they are still sorting out what the two-month delay means.

“We are working hard with [the Office of Management and Budget] to understand the impact, but we’re just not there yet,” said Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Defense consultant Jim McAleese said the deal to raise taxes on families with income above $450,000 and individuals earning more than $400,000 will bring in so much less revenue than the $250,000 threshold President Obama proposed that steep defense cuts are inevitable.

Instead of the $10 billion in cuts a year over 10 years that the Defense Department could have expected to see under Obama’s most recent deficit reduction plan, McAleese said the reductions could be more in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion a year over 10 years.

“People were talking before about defense cuts of $10 billion per year, but the sheer size of the disagreement is going to bring about an immediate, aggressive reaction that will impact the final outcome of the spending cuts,” he said.

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said of the $12 billion in cuts, “I would hope agencies could find these savings without impacts on front-line employees and without impacts on services to the public. We have more questions than answers right now.”

Steve Vogel contributed to this report.

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Australian soy milk action widened to Japanese firms

SYDNEY: Hundreds of Australians who became sick after drinking soy milk containing dangerously high levels of iodine have widened their class action to include two Japanese companies, lawyers said.

About 600 Australians became ill after consuming Bonsoy milk, many suffering thyroid problems, up until the product was withdrawn from sale in late 2009, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said late Thursday.

The case against the Australian brand owner Spiral Foods launched in the Victorian Supreme Court in 2010 had been widened to include manufacturer Marusan-ai Co Ltd and exporter Muso Co Ltd, the firm said.

"We say that these three companies had test results in mid-2006 which showed that Bonsoy contained extremely high levels of iodine, but they did nothing," said senior associate Irina Lubomirska in a statement.

Lubomirska said the companies had breached consumer protection laws in Australia and Japan.

"None of the three companies did anything to ensure that Bonsoy, which was marketed and sold as a premium health-food soy brand, was in fact safe to consume," she said.

The class action alleges that Spiral requested a reformulation of Bonsoy to include iodine-rich kombu instead of adding salt and that as a result the product had contained excessive iodine since mid-2003.

It also alleges that consumer concerns about iodine were repeatedly dismissed.

Victims are seeking compensation for medical expenses and loss of income as well as for the pain and suffering.

By the time Bonsoy was recalled in late 2009, after Australian authorities discovered that one glass contained seven times the upper safe dose of iodine for adults, it had been on the market for six years, Maurice Blackburn said.

Because it was touted as a healthy product, some consumers had increased their intake when they became ill, Lubomirska added.

A directions hearing on the matter is scheduled for March 8.

-AFP/ac

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1 pilot, 3 airhostesses found drunk since Christmas

NEW DELHI: The fear of losing their flying licence led to pilots celebrating Yuletide and ushering in the New Year on a sober note this year. Authorities caught only one pilot — but three airhostesses — reporting to work in an inebriated state during breathalyser (BA) tests done at airports from Christmas to Wednesday.

All four flight personnel were from Jet Airways. "We have a zero tolerance policy for this issue and carry out strict BA tests. Whoever fails the tests is, as per DGCA guidelines, suspended for three months," said aJet spokesperson.

A DGCA official said two flight crew members failed the BA test in Chennai and one each in Delhi and Kochi. "The punishment is very severe now for pilots failing BA tests as their licence is suspended for three months when caught first time and for five years for the second time. This means end of flying career as a five-year suspension will lead to all eligibilities lapsing," he added.

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Pictures We Love: Best of 2012

Photograph by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/AP

Powder-splattered, and powder-splattering, runners cross the finish line of The Color Run 5K in Irvine, California, on April 22. Each kilometer (0.6 mile) of the event features a color-pelting station dedicated to a single hue, culminating in the Pollock-esque riot at kilometer 5.

The "magical color dust" is completely safe, organizers say, though they admit it's "surprisingly high in calories and leaves a chalky aftertaste."

See more from April 2012 >>

Why We Love It

"Vibrant color floating through the air automatically brings to mind festive Holi celebrations in India. We expect to see revelers in Mumbai but instead find a surprise in the lower third of the frame—runners in California!"—Sarah Polger, senior photo editor

"There are a lot of eye-catching photographs of the festival of Holi in India that show colored powder in midair, but this particular situation has the people all lined up in a row—making it easy to see each of their very cinematic facial expressions."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published January 3, 2013

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James Holmes Defense: Was He Insane?

Jan 3, 2013 5:30pm

James Holmes appears in court, Centennial, Colo., July 23, 2012. RJ Sangosti/AP Images.

ABC’s Clayton Sandell and Carol McKinley report:

A judge ruled Thursday that public defenders for accused Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes can call two unidentified witnesses at next week’s preliminary hearing to testify about the defendant’s “mental state.”

Arapahoe County, Colo. prosecutors had sought to keep the witnesses out of court, but Judge William Sylvester ruled that the now-25-year-old accused killer has a right to call the witnesses at a preliminary hearing.

The Jan. 7 preliminary hearing will essentially be a mini-trial in which prosecutors will present witness testimony and evidence to convince the judge that there is enough of a case against Holmes to proceed to a trial.

Witnesses to be called for the prosecution include the Aurora police lead detective, first responders, the Arapahoe County coroner and likely a computer forensic specialist, according to prosecution sources who declined to be identified, citing a gag order in the case.

A top priority, the prosecution sources say, will be showing that Holmes acted with premeditation when he allegedly murdered 12 people and wounded 58 on the night of July 20 during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Defense attorneys may pursue a legal strategy to show that Holmes was not in his right mind at the time of the shooting.

Holmes, who has not yet entered a plea, has been repeatedly described in court by his legal team as mentally ill. While a graduate student at the University of Colorado, he was in the care of a psychiatrist.

Prosecutors say they will also present photos, video and 911 calls during the hearing, which is expected to last all week.

It’s not clear what the two witnesses’ relationship is to the shooting, or to Holmes.

Prosecutors, Judge Sylvester’s order says, contend that “neither witness has personal knowledge of the events at the Century Aurora 16 Theater.”

Sylvester said the witnesses are non-expert “lay witnesses” who have so far chosen not to be interviewed by defense investigators but have been cooperating with law enforcement.

SHOWS: World News

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Clinton out of hospital, keen to resume work

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was released from a New York hospital late Wednesday and is expected to make a full recovery from a rare blood clot in her head, a top aide said.

"Secretary Clinton was discharged from the hospital this evening," Deputy Assistant Secretary Philippe Reines said in a statement, three days after the 65-year-old diplomat was admitted for treatment.

"Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery," he said, adding that Clinton was "eager to get back to the office."

Earlier the top US diplomat, bundled up against the cold in a winter coat and wearing dark glasses, appeared in public for the first time in almost a month, when she came out of a building at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.

It was the first time Clinton had been seen since catching a stomach virus on returning from a trip to Europe on December 7, which triggered a series of health scares and forced her to cancel a planned visit to North Africa.

Accompanied by her smiling husband, former president Bill Clinton, as well as her daughter Chelsea and several aides, Clinton walked unaided to a waiting black van at the hospital, according to images broadcast by CNN.

Both Clinton and her family "would like to express their appreciation for the excellent care she received from the doctors, nurses and staff at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center," Reines added.

He did not say when the secretary would return to work though, promising only to issue an update in the coming days. She is due to step down after four years in office later this month, handing the baton to Senator John Kerry, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to replace her.

"Grateful my Mom discharged from the hospital & is heading home. Even more grateful her medical team confident she'll make a full recovery," Chelsea Clinton said in a tweet.

Kerry's appointment will have to be confirmed by the new Senate, due to be sworn in on Thursday, but as a veteran, well-respected senator he is expected to sail through the hearing.

Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton had been busy keeping in touch by telephone.

"She has been talking to her staff, including today. She's been quite active on the phone with all of us," Nuland told journalists.

The globe-trotting diplomat was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after a routine scan revealed the clot in a vein behind her right ear in the space between her skull and her brain.

Her doctors Lisa Bardack, from the Mount Kisco Medical Group, and Gigi El-Bayoumi, of George Washington University, said in a statement on Monday that Clinton had not suffered a stroke or any neurological damage.

They said however they would be treating Clinton with blood thinners to break up the clot, which if left untreated could be potentially dangerous.

The effects of the stomach bug caused her to become dehydrated. She then fainted and suffered a concussion, which is thought to have brought on the blood clot.

Clinton still has some unfinished business as she wraps up her popular tenure at the State Department, and is widely expected to testify before the end of the month on the September 11 attack on a diplomatic mission in Libya.

She had been due to appear at hearings last month, after a State Department inquiry found security at the Benghazi mission was "grossly inadequate" but was forced to cancel after she fell ill. Four Americans died in the attack.

Republican Representative Peter King said he believed she still needed to testify "and I think she will be pleased to do it. I never have known Hillary Clinton to back away from a fight."

But King told CNN she should not appear before Congress "until she is absolutely in perfect health."

-AFP/ac

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2 months on, victim gets rapist cousin arrested

REWARI: Nearly two months after she was raped and shot at by her cousin, a 19-year-old girl mustered enough courage to revealed the incident to police in Rewari on Wednesday. The cops registered a case and arrested accused Deepak Kumar, 23, a college student, immediately.

Rewari SSP Bharti Arora said that the girl, a second year college student, was accompanying her cousin in his car when he raped her on November 3. The victim told cops that when she tried to escape from the car, Deepak opened fire on her and threatened her with dire consequences.

A bullet hit her on the shoulder and she was admitted in a private hospital, where she remained for about a month.

Sources said that since the accused was a close relative, the family too kept the incident under wraps fearing social stigma. But the girl finally revealed her trauma to the Rewari SSP on Wednesday.

The SSP said that the police have registered a case under sections 376 (rape), 307 (attempt to murder) and 506 (criminal intimidation) against the accused.

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Pictures: Errant Shell Oil Rig Runs Aground Off Alaska, Prompts Massive Response

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard

Waves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.

The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel and the 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of diesel fuel and lubricants on board. The Kulluk came to rest just east of Sitkalidak Island (map), an uninhabited but ecologically and culturally rich site north of Ocean Bay, after a four-day odyssey, during which it broke free of its tow ships and its 18-member crew had to be rescued by helicopter.

The U.S. Coast Guard, state, local, and industry officials have joined in an effort involving nearly 600 people to gain control of the rig, one of two that Shell used for its landmark Arctic oil-drilling effort last summer. "This must be considered once of the largest marine-response efforts conducted in Alaska in many years," said Steve Russell, of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The 266-foot (81-meter) rig now is beached off one of the larger islands in the Kodiak archipelago, a land of forest, glaciers, and streams about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The American Land Conservancy says that Sitkalidak Island's highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska, attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait, which separates the island from Kodiak. Sitkalidak also has 16 wild salmon rivers and archaeological sites tied to the Alutiiq native peoples dating back more than 7,000 years.

Shell incident commander Susan Childs said Monday night that the company's wildlife management team had started to assess the potential impact of a spill, and would be dispatched to the site when the weather permitted. She said the Kulluk's fuel tanks were in the center of the vessel, encased in heavy steel. "The Kulluk is a pretty sturdy vessel," she said. " It just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather is severe."

—Marianne Lavelle

*Shell is sponsor of National Geographic's Great Energy Challenge initiative. National Geographic maintains editorial autonomy.

Published January 2, 2013

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Tax Deal Done - but Where's Obama to Sign It?

Jan 2, 2013 6:29pm

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Congress officially delivered the bill to avert the fiscal cliff to the White House this afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner’s office told ABC News.

Now the question is when will the President sign it?

The bill, passed late on New Year’s Day, expires tomorrow at 11:59 a.m. when the current session of Congress concludes. If President Obama doesn’t sign it by then, constitutionally the bill is dead.

But this evening, eighteen hours before the deadline, the President is on a golf course in Hawaii.  And the bill is in Washington at the White House.

Administration officials won’t say what they will do despite repeated inquiries from ABC News.

There seem to be two options:  1) An Air Force jet can deliver the bill to Hawaii (better leave quickly!) in time for the President to sign it before 11:59 Eastern Standard Time; or, 2) The White House can use a presidential “auto-pen.”

The simple mechanical device uses a template of the presidential signature to scrawl it on paper if activated by the White House at Obama’s direction.

But would an auto-pen – usually used to sign insignificant correspondence and photographs – pass constitutional muster?  We don’t know.  The question has never been tested by the courts.

A 2005 legal study commissioned by former President George W. Bush determined that use of the autopen is constitutional but acknowledged the possibility that its use could be challenged.  Bush never used the autopen, officials from his administration told ABC.

President Obama is only believed to have used the autopen once to sign a piece of major legislation — the 2011 extension of the Patriot Act — which reached his desk while he was on a diplomatic trip to Europe. Officials invoked national security concerns to justify the move.

Use of the autopen has been controversial.  Conservative groups alleged last summer that Obama used an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of Navy SEALs killed in a Chinook crash in Afghanistan — a charge the White House disputed flatly as false.

In 2004, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was criticized for using an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of fallen troops.

And in 1992 then-Vice President Dan Quayle even got into some hot water over his use of the autopen on official correspondence during an appearance on “This Week with David Brinkley.” More HERE.

ABC News’ Ann Compton and Devin Dwyer contributed reporting.

SHOWS: World News

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Helping VA rehabilitate those with multiple wounds of war

Micaela Cornis-Pop oversees more than 110 rehabilitation facilities around the country, helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stay at the forefront of developments in treating traumatic brain injury and other medical injuries and issues facing injured veterans and military service members.

With the increase in battlefield survival rates of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, service members live with more complex casualties, which led the VA to coin the word “polytrauma” to describe multiple injuries to one person, the most prevalent of which is traumatic brain injury, but also can include post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple amputations, burns, auditory and visual impairments and mental health issues.

In 2005, Cornis-Pop helped conceive, develop and implement the VA’s Polytrauma System of Care, an integrated network of facilities that provide specialized programs to help wounded men and women recover, and move from acute care to outpatient rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. She now leads and manages the system, developing policies and procedures and monitoring their implementation.

“We have a direct impact on how health care is delivered and is impacting veterans and service members, and that is tremendously gratifying,” said Cornis-Pop, national program manager of the Polytrauma System of Care at the Veterans Health Administration, Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, at the VA.

She also is responsible for providing education opportunities for VA health care providers who treat traumatic brain injuries. And the system works with another 39 VA locations that provide some, but not all elements of comprehensive polytrauma rehabilitation care, to define the care those facilities can provide and help make the decision when to refer patients to another level of care.

In addition, Cornis-Pop was the lead author and editor of a “massive project” to publish a 166-page book that came out in April 2010, which serves as an accredited independent study course on traumatic brain injury for members of VA health care teams around the country, said Joel Scholten, director of Special Projects at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program Office (PM&R), which manages the Polytrauma System of Care. Nearly 12,000 clinicians have completed the course between April 2010 and July 2012, using either the book or a Web version of it.

Cornis-Pop “has the innate ability to pull people together and get focused on a task and think creatively, and, most amazingly, develop an end product that is useful and veteran-centric,” Scholten said. “She develops programs and projects that have been sustained because they are clinically relevant. It’s not just policy that is developed and sits there.”

Dr. David Cifu, national director of the PM&R office, not only relies on Cornis-Pop to coordinate the care programs around the country but also to respond to outside requests for information, including from Congress. “She’s the person who makes it all happen,” he said. “She doesn’t care about getting credit. She just gets things done. That’s gold.”

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Tennis: Ferrer avoids falling into a hole

DOHA: Top-seeded David Ferrer started the new season with a dropped first set here Tuesday to Dustin Brown, a qualifier outside the world's top 150, and a damaged court which opened like a crater on the moon.

Repairs appeared to involve tape and glue on a tear about five feet behind the baseline where Ferrer's heel had ripped into the surface.

There was also an anxious-looking conference and a ball-boys' impromptu Gangnam-style dance session on the playing area during a delay which lasted more than an hour.

It was eventually two and a half hours before the world number five from Spain survived his first round in the Qatar Open by 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 against Brown who is a tall, Jamaica-based German nicknamed "Dreddy," with impressive locks flying down to the small of his back.

"None of it was easy," said Ferrer, which was an understatement. Brown was unusual for his aggressive serving, eager forward movement, and willingness to volley, and other circumstances must have seemed to Ferrer bizarrely familiar.

Two years ago, he and Andy Roddock were forced off their court at the US Open by a crack near the baseline which let the water through, and required them to change courts, and last year at New York, a tornado forced Ferrer and Novak Djokovic to interrupt their semi-final by an entire day.

Roddick tweeted a solution for Doha, suggesting they should "move Ferrer to court 13" - the court number where the American completed his 2011 US Open win over the Spaniard. Ferrer chortled his laughter when he heard.

Later Ferrer commented on the oddities which had afflicted him in the last two years by saying: "Yeah - so many things, yeah. Too many things."

Asked if something were following him around, he said: "Something, yes - it's bad luck. I don't even know why."

This time Ferrer had a more fortunate resumption. Though a set down he broke Brown's serve at once, and consolidated that advantage right through the second set.

He then making another crucial break at the start of the third set, by which time the favourite was accelerating towards safety.

The seedings say that Ferrer should play a final on Saturday with Richard Gasquet, the world number ten from France, whose fluency appeared only intermittently during a 6-3, 6-4 over Jan Hernych, a 33-year-old Czech qualifier.

Hernych struck his ground strokes more often inside the baseline than Gasquet - often a sign of potential dominance - but missed with three of his four break point chances.

Gasquet's confidence improved markedly after breaking serve at the start of the second set and never looked like being pegged back, dropping only five points in his next five service games.

He could have a semi-final with his compatriot Gael Monfils, last year's runner-up, whose first match in two and a half months was a comfortable re-introduction, a 6-0, 6-3 win over the local wild card player, Mousa Shanan Zayed.

However, Monfils' next encounter is a potentially tough one, against Philipp Kohlschreiber, the third-seeded German.

He may also be mindful of the fate of another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, the fifth seed but a 6-4, 6-4 loser to a German qualifier, Daniel Brands.

-AFP/ac

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Geetika suicide is a minor case: Haryana minister

CHANDIGARH: Haryana's minister of state for public relations and cultural affairs Shiv Charan Lal Sharma is under fire for describing Geetika Sharma as his former colleague Gopal Kanda's "mere servant". Kanda, a former Haryana home minister, is in jail for allegedly pushing Geetika to suicide.

Sharma had also described Geetika's suicide as a "minor one" while speaking at a gathering in Sirsa to celebrate Kanda's birthday on December 29.

"This is not a big case. It is a matter of time," he had said. "He hired a servant (Geetika) by mistake."

Sharma's statement triggered outrage with All-India Democratic Women Association's state unit vice-president Savita Malik asking chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to seek a clarification from him for passing such remarks.

Sarv Jat Sarv Khap Mahapanchayat women's wing president Santosh Dahiya said, "Allegations against Gopal Kanda are serious and the case cannot be termed as minor."

BJP national general secretary Captain Abhimanyu said such statement shows how Congress leaders have little respect for women. "It is a crude display of power."

Sharma was unavailable for comments on Tuesday.

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Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Happy Trails

  Photograph by Alex Cherney, TWAN

  Amateur astronomer Alex Cherney captured these star trails as they blazed above Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake in Victoria, Australia in October 2011 and posted to The World At Night website December 25, 2012.

  (See pictures of another Australian salt lake, Lake Eyre.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Tokyo From Space

  
  Image courtesy DLR

  The sprawling Japanese capital Tokyo looks like a funky computer chip in this image taken by Germany's Earth-observing satellite TerraSAR-X and released December 20.

  Launched in 2007, the satellite's radar sensors map Earth from 319 miles (514 kilometers) up in a near-polar orbit.

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Extreme View

  
  Image courtesy SDO/NASA

  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped this extreme ultraviolet view of an active region on the sun as it rotated into view from December 16 to December 18. Ultraviolet light makes it easier to trace the whorls and loops created by superheated gas, or plasma, and the sun's magnetic field lines.

  Active solar regions such as this create space weather that, when aimed at Earth, can disrupt satellite communications and electronics. (See more pictures of solar activity and space weather.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Saturn’s Dark Side

  
  Image courtesy SSI/Caltech/NASA

  This image of the unlit side of Saturn's S rings, released December 24, was taken with visible light by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

  The shadow of Saturn's innermost major moon, Mimas, is visible as a black oval south of the rings' shadow. For those with completely dust-free computer monitors, Janus, another Saturnian moon, is visible as a tiny white speck above the planet's north pole. (Learn about Saturn's major moons.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  A River Runs Through It

  
  Image courtesy ESA/JAXA

  The European Space Agency released this picture—taken by Japan's satellite ALOS—of Italy's longest river on December 14.

  The Po river and its surrounding fields divide Italy into its northern and southern regions. The Japanese used ALOS, which they lost contact with in late April 2011, to generate precise land maps, monitor disasters, and conduct resource surveys. (Read an excerpt from National Geographic magazine about the Po river.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Glacial "Broccoli"

  
  Image from DigitalGlobe/Getty Images

  The Moshniy glacier, located on the Russian archipelago Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, calves chunks of ice and debris into a pattern reminiscent of broccoli in an image released December 20.

  Novaya Zemlya was a sensitive military area during the Cold War, and was also the site of the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated. The energy released by the 50-megaton "Tsar" bomb was ten times that of all the explosions set off during World War II.

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Image courtesy Caltech/SSI/NASA

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  

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House Hesitates, Cites Cliff Deal Spending

Top House Republicans today opposed a bipartisan compromise that passed the Senate in the wee hours of New Year's Day to avert the "fiscal cliff," amid concerns about the cost of the deal's spending provisions.

If House Republicans tweak the legislation, as they seem likely to do, there's no clear path for its return to the Senate before a new Congress is sworn in Thursday.

GOP leaders emerged from a morning conference meeting disenchanted by the legislative package devised by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President Biden early this morning, with several insisting they cannot vote on it as it now stands.

"I do not support the bill," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said as he left the meeting. "We're looking for the best path forward. No decisions have been made yet."

It's almost certain that Republicans will attempt to amend the bill in order to win over the support of more conservatives.

House Speaker John Boehner refused to comment on the meeting, but his spokesman said "the lack of spending cuts in the Senate bill was a universal concern amongst members in today's meeting."

"Conversations with members will continue throughout the afternoon on the path forward," Brendan Buck said in a statement.

As lawmakers wrestled with the legislation, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill's added spending combined with the cost of extending tax cuts for those making under $400,000 would actually add $3.9 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. The Joint Committee on Taxation reached a similar conclusion.

Bill Clark/Roll Call/Getty Images

Fiscal Cliff Countdown: Missing the Deadline Watch Video

Obama on Fiscal Cliff: 'Agreement Within Sight' Watch Video

The impasse once again raised the specter of sweeping tax hikes on all Americans and deep spending cuts' taking effect later this week.

"This is all about time, and it's about time that we brought this to the floor," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said after emerging from a meeting with Democrats.

"It was a bill that was passed in the U.S. senate 89-8. Tell me when you've had that on a measure as controversial as this?" she said of the overwhelming vote.

Pelosi could not say, however, whether the measure had the backing of most House Democrats. "Our members are making their decisions now," she said.

Biden, who brokered the deal with McConnell, joined Democrats for a midday meeting on Capitol Hill seeking to shore up support for the plan.

While Congress technically missed the midnight Dec. 31 deadline to avert the so-called cliff, both sides have expressed eagerness to enact a post-facto fix before Americans go back to work and the stock market opens Wednesday.

"This may take a little while but, honestly, I would argue we should vote on it today," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who sits on the Budget Committee. "We know the essential details and I think putting this thing to bed before the markets is important.

"We ought to take this deal right now and we'll live to fight another day, and it is coming very soon on the spending front."

The Senate passed legislation shortly after 2 a.m. that would extend current tax rates on 98 percent of Americans, raise taxes on the wealthiest earners and delay by two months the pending automatic spending cuts to defense and domestic programs, known as the "sequester."

The measure passed by an overwhelming majority vote of 89-8, boosting the prospects that enough House members would follow suit to make it law.

If the House amends the bill, however, the fragile compromise could get shattered. The Senate would need to reconvene to consider the changes.

A Senate Democratic leadership aide told ABC News, "we did our work, and McConnell's office said they were confident of House passage. All bets are off if they amend our bill."

Meanwhile, most Senators have already returned home, dismissed early this morning by Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid.

"I've said all along our most important priority is protecting middle-class Americans, this legislation does that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said early this morning prior to the vote.

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Obama says ‘fiscal cliff’ deal is within sight but some issues still unresolved

President Obama said Monday that an agreement to avoid the worst effects of the year-end fiscal cliff is “within sight,” but he stressed that a deal is “not done yet,” and House Republican leaders announced they would hold no votes Monday night, ensuring that the nation would go over the “fiscal cliff” for at least a day.

The Senate was moving, however, toward a late-night or early-morning vote on a potential agreement being negotiated by Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). With the House likely to reconvene at noon on Tuesday, negotiations appeared likely to stretch into the new year in the effort to reach a deal to cancel historic tax hikes for most Americans.

“I think it’s highly likely that some time this evening there’ll be a vote on the Senate side,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Monday evening as he emerged from a meeting with fellow Republicans and signaled that talks are continuing. “This is one of those things that could well go into the early morning by the time it goes to a vote. ... I think they’re attempting to get the legislative language in order and vote on it tonight, you know, 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning, whatever.’’

Regardless of whether an agreement is reached to avoid the fiscal cliff, many Americans are all but certain to face a broad hike in taxes starting Tuesday because of the expiration of the payroll tax cut, which was enacted in 2011 as a temporary measure to boost economic growth. The increased payroll taxes, combined with hikes affecting the very wealthy, would effectively mark the end of a prolonged period of declining taxation that has become a defining characteristic of the American economy

The announcement that the GOP-controlled House would not vote on New Year’s Eve came after Obama urged lawmakers to “stop taxes going up for middle-class families, starting tomorrow,” and he called on them to remain focused on the needs of the American people rather than politics.

In what the White House billed as an event with middle-class Americans, Obama said there were “still issues left to resolve” in the talks. He said he was “hopeful that Congress can get it done. But it’s not done.”

Obama said the potential agreement that Biden and McConnell are crafting would prevent federal income taxes from rising on middle-class families, extend tax credits for children and college tuition, provide tax breaks to clean-energy companies and extend unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans.

He would have preferred to “solve all these problems in the context of a larger agreement,” the so-called grand bargain, that would have dealt with spending in a “balanced way,” he said.

“But with this Congress, that was obviously a little too much to hope for at this time,” Obama said, adding that perhaps “we can do it in stages.”

Congressional Republicans immediately pushed back, objecting to comments that one GOP senator described as “heckling Congress.”

The president made the remarks as negotiators moved closer to a deal but were still hung up on spending, with Democrats so far resisting Republican proposals for spending cuts that would come in exchange for delaying automatic spending cuts at federal agencies for just three months.

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No House vote before US 'fiscal cliff' deadline

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives will not vote on Monday on an 11th-hour proposal to prevent the country from tottering over the so-called "fiscal cliff," a senior Republican source told AFP.

US markets will not immediately feel the shock of the failure as January 1 is a public holiday, giving lawmakers a short breathing space in which to hammer out a stop-gap deal and pass it through the Senate and House on Tuesday.

Lawmakers worked feverishly through the night to hammer out a deal that would raise tax rates on the wealthy but preserve tax breaks for the middle class and maintain some key stimulus benefits like unemployment insurance.

At the end of the day Monday, while President Barack Obama and lawmakers acknowledged they were close, there was still no finalised deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden who is now playing a key part in negotiations.

"We don't have anything to vote on," the senior House Republican source said, referring to the lack of any bill in the Senate.

There was "no chance they pass something early enough that we could (vote) before midnight, even if we wanted to," he said.

Another House Republican source sought to downplay the fact that lawmakers were missing their self-imposed deadline.

"If a deal is reached, there's little difference between a vote tonight or tomorrow to give members a chance to review," the source said.

Some would argue there is a very clear distinction.

Passing a measure on New Year's Eve would mean Republicans - who by and large oppose raising taxes on anyone - vote for a tax hike on the wealthy.

If they wait until January 1, when the tax cuts first enacted under president George W. Bush expire and rates go up on everyone, Republicans could then turn around and vote to reduce taxes on the middle class.

As for whether the Senate could get it together to at least present a bipartisan deal before the year end, the number-two Republican in the chamber was non-committal.

"I don't know" if a Monday night vote was still possible, Senator Jon Kyl told AFP.

The Republican caucus was going to "try to get together here before long, and at least review the bidding and see where we are," he said.

"A lot of progress has been made, and I think it's obvious that we either have to have something finished here very soon or it's not going to happen."

- AFP/de

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