Congress withdraws second list of candidates in Gujarat after protests

NEW DELHI: Resentment in Congress ranks over ticket distribution for Gujarat elections broke out in the open, forcing the party to withdraw its second list of 46 candidates released late on Wednesday night.

The anger in Congress was evident when party MPs engaged heir apparent Rahul Gandhi in animated discussion in Parliament in the presence of the head of the screening committee and Union minister C P Joshi.

The discontent was evident with a Union minister from the state saying early in the day that the party had put the list on hold. The decision was announced only in the evening. He said the names of candidates may undergo serious changes after the protests.

Congress is locked in a lopsided battle with BJP headed by Narendra Modi in Gujarat and protests over nominations do no augur well for the party. Even the first list of 52 candidates led to protests and resignations in Ahmedabad.

Congress leaders conceded that the party had failed to build momentum despite favourable factors like rebellion by BJP veteran Keshubhai Patel. The selection of candidates was said to have been the final weapon to rally opinion in its favour but the initial reaction has disappointed the party.

An agitated Congress MP threatened to walk out of the party and even "expose" senior leaders for doing the bidding of an industrial house by "planting" candidates.

He said the partnership with NCP was being used to settle scores with in-house aspirants. NCP general secretary D P Tripathi said the junior partner was allocated nine of the 182 seats in the state.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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2 Dead, Dozens to Hospital After 100-Car Pileup

At least two people died and more than 80 were injured after a 100-plus car pileup in Texas today, according the Department of Public Safety.

A man and a woman died from their injuries, ABC News affiliate KBMT-TV reported. Their names were not immediately available.

The DPS said it won't know the exact number of cars involved in the pileup until officials finish untangling the wrecks.

At least five people who were taken to the hospital are in critical condition, KBMT reported.

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The accident happened in Jefferson County shortly after 8 a.m. Thanksgiving morning on Interstate 10 between Taylor Bayou and Hampshire Road.

Fog blinded drivers, with investigators saying most couldn't see a foot in front of them at the time of the crash.

"The cause of the accident was a heavy fog bank rolled into this area this morning, which caused nobody to be able to see and caused one accident that triggered another accident and then a chain reaction," said Deputy Rod Carroll of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department.

"Even as the deputies were pulling up we still had a continuous chain of accidents," Carroll said.

An 18-wheeler tanker truck began leaking after the chain-reaction accident, KBMT reported.

The eastbound side of the freeway was closed for hours and remained closed into the afternoon, DPS told ABC News. The westbound lanes opened shortly after noon.

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Survey: Federal workers’ morale dropping

Salary freezes, tight budgets and a dim view of federal work held by many Americans have soured the motivation and commitment of many government employees, a survey released Wednesday found.

Federal employees still think that their jobs are important, and many are passionate and dedicated to their agency’s mission. But increasing threats to their pay and benefits and criticism of their work that has percolated in the national debate over government spending have taken a toll on morale, results of the Employee Viewpoint Survey show.

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Pakistan attacks kill 28 on eve of summit

ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim procession in Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 16 people in the most deadly incident on a day of violence that left at least 28 dead on the eve of a major international summit.

The blast in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad came after a series of earlier attacks across the nation, a stark reminder of the security challenges facing a country plagued by Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence.

The Rawalpindi police chief said the blast in the city during the holy month of Muharram -- a magnet for sectarian attacks -- occurred when a suicide bomber entered the procession and security officials were checking him.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up when the security officials were checking (his body). We had prior information about the attacks and were fully alert," said Azhar Hameed Khokhar.

"The total number of dead people has now reached 16. Some 32, including nine children, have got injured," Waqas Rehman, a spokesman for the Rescue 1122 service, told AFP.

Another police official, Muhammad Haroon, told AFP that the attack took place when the procession was almost 500 metres (yards) from the mosque where it was heading.

In the southwestern city of Quetta, bombers hit an army vehicle escorting children home from school, killing four soldiers and a woman, police said.

More than 20 people were wounded when the bomb, planted on a motorcycle, was detonated by remote control, said city police chief Hamid Shakeel.

"The target was an army vehicle which was escorting a school bus carrying children of local army officers from different schools," he told AFP.

"Six or seven of them (the wounded) are in a serious condition," Shakeel added.

Witnesses said the motorbike appeared to have been parked near shops to avoid any suspicion in the Shahbaz Town neighbourhood near prestigious private schools.

"I was returning to my shop after saying prayers in a nearby mosque," said shopkeeper Mohammad Talib, 45.

"Soon after, I heard a huge blast. There was dust and smoke. I saw an army vehicle in flames. Shards of glass were littered on the road. There was panic, people were screaming, others were fleeing the area."

Fruit vendor Abdul Karim, 30, said the army vehicle took the same route every day after school.

"After some time police and FC (Frontier Corps paramilitary) troops arrived. They fired in the air to scare people away. Soon shops were closed and people emptied the area."

Two people were killed in the country's largest city, Karachi, as a bomb-laden motorcycle collided with a rickshaw near a mosque in the Orangi neighbourhood, city police chief Iqbal Hussain told AFP.

Minutes after the Karachi attack, there was another blast that wounded seven people including journalists, policemen and paramilitary soldiers who had gathered after the first explosion, said Javed Odho, another senior police official.

In northwest Pakistan, four police died when gunmen ambushed a routine patrol in Bannu district, Nisar Ahmed Tanoli, the local police official, told AFP.

And a roadside bomb in Shangla district killed another police official and injured four others, according to police.

Thousands of extra police and paramilitaries will be deployed in the city for the Developing 8 (D8) summit, which starts on Thursday, bringing together Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are among those expected to attend.

- AFP/xq

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Full stop for Ajmal Kasab, comma in terror war

NEW DELHI: Many questions are being raised over the timing of Ajmal Kasab's execution a day ahead of Parliament's winter session, but the date for it — November 21 — was actually set over two months ago.

After Supreme Court confirmed Kasab's death sentence on August 29, the Maharashtra government, in consultation with the additional sessions judge on September 11, agreed on November 21 as the date for his execution. Though a mercy petition was filed subsequently, it was turned down by Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan on September 26.

On October 1, the Maharashtra government reconfirmed November 21 as Kasab's hanging date, and conveyed this to the Union home ministry. The Centre acted with extraordinary prompteness in clearing the Kasab file, given the enormity of his crime. The MHA opinion was formulated in less than three weeks and the file forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee on October 16 with the recommendation that the mercy plea be rejected.

The President acted expeditiously. He sent back the file to MHA on November 5, accepting its recommendation to turn down Kasab's petition, again just 20 days after he received the MHA opinion.

Shinde signed the file on November 7 and sent it to Maharashtra for action on November 8. Still left with two weeks before the initially agreed date of Kasab's hanging, November 21, the Centre and Maharashtra had the leeway to stick to the original timeframe and decided to do so. The only uncertainty on that count arose because of Pakistan's reluctance to accept the communication that the government was obliged to send under rules, intimating the kin of the death convict.

Union home secretary R K Singh wrote to the foreign secretary on November 14 informing him of the decision to hang Kasab on November 21 at Yerwada Central prison and requesting that the information be passed on to Kasab's kin in Pakistan.

Consultations followed among Singh, foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai, additional secretary in the foreign ministry and India's high commissioner to Islamabad, Sharat Sabarwal, and it was decided that the deputy high commissioner in Islamabad would deliver the information to the Pakistan foreign office, to be passed on to Kasab's family in Okara, Pakistan.

Indian deputy high commissioner Gopal Baglay's interlocutor in the Pakistan foreign ministry refused to accept the communication after going through its contents. A fresh round of consultations followed with the home secretary taking the view that the obligation to inform would be deemed to have been discharged by sending a fax, so long as they had a transmission report.

There was no doubt about the execution on November 21 once the MEA sent across the "transmission report" to MHA. As a matter of ultraprecaution, MHA also asked the deputy high commissioner to courier the information to Kasab's family at the given Pakistani address in Faridkot village, Okara district. The courier was sent on November 20 morning. The Indian authorities did not have to wait to find out whether the document was actually delivered to Kasab's family, as home secretary took the view that the obligation to inform was fulfilled the moment the courier agreed to deliver the packet.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed

Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.

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White House: Cease-Fire Is 'Tenuous'

Bernat Armangue/AP Photo

The Israel-Hamas cease-fire brokered by the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, and announced today is fragile, White House officials acknowledged.

“The way we view this is that it’s an important step,” a senior White House official said, “but our concerns are Egypt can’t control all of Hamas,” the ruling party in Gaza designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, “and Hamas doesn’t control every extremist with a rocket in Gaza. So there is a tenuous nature to this.”

But for now, senior White House officials say that from their perspective, three phone calls with Egyptian President Morsi seemed significant.

The president spoke to Netanyahu every day since the crisis began, but his first significant call with Morsi was on Monday, November 19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

President Obama left a dinner for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations a tad early to phone Morsi, aides said. They discussed ways to “de-escalate” the violence in Gaza and Israel, with President Obama underscoring “the necessity of Hamas ending rocket fire into Israel,” aides said. The president offered his condolences for the loss of life in Gaza, as well as for the Saturday incident when a train collided with a school bus, killing more than 50 people most of them children.

He then spoke with Netanyahu, receiving an update on the situation, and expressing regret for the loss of Israeli lives.

The president then told his team that if Morsi called back to talk, they should wake him up. Morsi did so, at 2:30 a.m. Cambodia time. The president and Morsi spoke again.

Another senior White House official declined to get into the substance of the calls, but said the president was reviewing ideas with Morsi and Netanyahu, so it would be natural for him to follow up with Morsi after speaking to Netanyahu. The president told Morsi he intended to send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the region.

The next day, Tuesday, President Obama announced that Clinton would head to Egypt and Israel to try to broker a cease-fire. The president and Clinton, the second senior White House official said, talked about the Gaza-Israel fighting throughout the Asia trip.

The president today phoned both Morsi and Netanyahu “to seal the deal,” the first senior White House official said.

The president, this official said, was struck by the fact that Morsi “was being pragmatic. He wanted to get to yes.”

ABC News’ Reena Ninan asked Ben Rhodes, deputy National Security adviser for strategic communication, if Morsi was a better broker for peace than his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak.

“Egypt has been a critical part of our effort to manage that conflict and pursue peace,” Rhodes said. “That was the case under President Mubarak and it continues to be the case under President Morsi, who has upheld the peace treaty with Israel. What we’ve seen is, again, our engagement has been focused on practical and constructive cooperation that can reduce tensions but ultimately, again, it’s going to have to be Hamas within Gaza that takes the step of, again, not pursing rocket fire into Israeli territory. But we agree that Egypt can and should be a partner in seeking to bring about that outcome.”

Another interesting development, the White House official said, is that Hamas in this instance was looking to Egypt for leadership and not Iran, even though the latter country has been extremely supportive of Hamas.

-Jake Tapper

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Blazing a legal trail to help improve health care

Ariane Tschumi has spent more than a year in government as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF), taking on challenging assignments at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) designed to develop her leadership skills and give her a window into how government operates.

She has worked alongside health-care experts designing model programs intended to better health care and lower costs, and with attorneys in the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), who are trying to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the health-care system.

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Tennis: Nadal back in training after layoff

MADRID: Former world No.1 Rafael Nadal has returned to training at his Mallorca base after nearly five months on the sidelines with a knee injury.

"Today was my first training session after so many weeks out," the Spaniard said on his Facebook page "I am making progress and I hope to continue to do so."

Nadal last played at Wimbledon on June 28 when he lost to the unseeded Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic in the second round.

The 26-year-old was subsequently diagnosed as suffering with Hoffa syndrome, an inflammation of the fatty tissue situated behind the kneecap in his left knee, a problem that has sidelined him several times over the years.

He was unable to defend his title at the London Olympics, missed out on the US Open and was also unavailable for last weekend's Davis Cup final which saw the Czech Republic unseat Spain as title-holders.

Nadal's world ranking has fallen to fourth behind, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, and compatriot David Ferrer is close to moving past him also.

There was no word on when Nadal would return to competitive action, but he has said that his next target would be to get fully fit in time for the year's first Grand Slam event - the Australian Open in the second half of January.

- AFP/fa

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