NASA Debunks Mayan Doom, 10 Days Early

Dec 13, 2012 2:57pm Kukulkan pyramid, Yucatan, Mexico. Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty.We’ll never know if they were wrong.NASA has quietly published a web video explaining why the world did not come to an end “yesterday,” Dec. 21, 2012.The date of its release, December 11, was no mistake, even if doomsayers would likely call it one last act of earthly hubris. NASA uploaded...

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Lobbying on taxes usually pays dividends

Business interests focused on the debate over the looming “fiscal cliff” are most concerned with making sure there’s a timely deal — any deal. The details of the compromise are less important than getting an agreement in place that removes the danger of a one-two punch to the economy that would flow from trillions of dollars’ worth of tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts set...

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Clashes as Argentines outraged by sex slavery case

BUENOS AIRES: Angry Argentines clashed with police and smashed windows and politicians voiced outrage on Wednesday after a court acquitted 13 people charged with running a sex slavery ring.Demonstrators furious over the legal ruling took to the streets of the capital and in at least seven provinces, including Tucuman in the north, where a court announced the acquittal Tuesday.Susana Trimarco,...

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'Shankar personified Indian soft power'

NEW DELHI: Pandit Ravi Shankar was possibly independent India's first and best-known cultural ambassador. "It's an understatement," says Ronen Sen, former diplomat and one of Shankar's close friends. "He personified Indian soft power at a time when the term had not even been invented."When India was under international pressure, particularly from the West and US over the 1971 Bangladesh war, it...

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Gold “Mining” Termites Found, May Lead Humans to Riches

Want to know if you're literally sitting on a gold mine? Get some termites, a new study suggests.New experiments in West Australia reveal that termites "mine" and stockpile the precious metal while they're collecting subterranean material for their nests.For the study, entomologist Aaron Stewart, with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, and colleagues...

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Mall Shooter Quit Job, Was Going to Hawaii

In the days before he stole a semiautomatic weapon and stormed into an Oregon shopping mall, killing two people in a shooting spree, Jacob Roberts quit his job, sold his belongings and began to seem "numb" to those closest to him.Roberts' ex-girlfriend, Hannah Patricia Sansburn, 20, told ABC News today that the man who donned a hockey mask and opened fire on Christmas shoppers...

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Freezing fog grounds British flights

LONDON: Severe fog has forced the cancellation of dozens of flights scheduled to take-off and land at Britain's airports on Wednesday with more disruption expected later in the day.Flights to Warsaw, Nice, Stockholm, Aberdeen and several German cities were among 20 cancelled by London's Heathrow."It's better to cancel flights when there's fog because in fog you can't land as many planes...

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Apna Ghar case: Contempt petition seeks action against Haryana chief secretary

CHANDIGARH: A contempt of court petition was filed on Tuesday before the Punjab and Haryana high court against the chief secretary (CS), Haryana, following the disappearance of two female inmates of Apna Ghar.Petitioner Usav Singh Bains, a member of Child Rights Protection Network (CRPN), has sought contempt of court proceedings against the chief secretary for state government's failure to provide...

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal ObservatoryThis image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon...

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Obama Recognizes Syrian Opposition Group

In a diplomatic shift, President Obama said today his administration now formally recognizes the newly-formed, leading coalition of Syrian rebels who are fighting to topple Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad."We've made a decision that the Syrian Opposition Coalition is now inclusive enough, is reflective and representative enough of the Syrian population that we consider...

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