Venezuela lawmakers elect Chavez ally as Assembly chief

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan lawmakers re-elected a staunch ally of Hugo Chavez to head the National Assembly on Saturday, putting him in line to be caretaker president if the socialist leader does not recover from cancer surgery. By choosing the incumbent, Diosdado Cabello, the "Chavista"-dominated legislature cemented the combative ex-soldier's position as the third most powerful...

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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,...

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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...

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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,"...

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FDA: New rules will make food safer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says its new guidelines would make the food Americans eat safer and help prevent the kinds of foodborne disease outbreaks that sicken or kill thousands of consumers each year.The rules, the most sweeping food safety guidelines in decades, would require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include making sure workers' hands are...

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Abbas sees Palestinian unity as Fatah rallies in Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Abbas predicted the end of a five-year split between the two big Palestinian factions as his Fatah movement staged its first mass rally in Gaza with the blessing of Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave. "Soon we will regain our unity," Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the 2007 civil war between the two factions,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Indian court to rule on generic drug industry

NEW DELHI (AP) — From Africa's crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging in the balance ahead of a legal ruling that will determine whether India's drug companies can continue to provide cheap versions of many life-saving medicines.The case — involving Swiss drug maker Novartis AG's cancer drug Glivec — pits...

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Vice President Maduro back in Venezuela, no news on ailing Chavez

CARACAS (Reuters) - Vice President Nicolas Maduro returned to Venezuela on Thursday after visiting Hugo Chavez in hospital in Cuba, but gave no new details on the cancer-stricken president as rumors grow about his condition. Flanked by senior government figures including Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly, Maduro toured a coffee production plant in Caracas - the type...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Flu? Malaria? Disease forecasters look to the sky

NEW YORK (AP) — Only a 10 percent chance of showers today, but a 70 percent chance of flu next month.That's the kind of forecasting health scientists are trying to move toward, as they increasingly include weather data in their attempts to predict disease outbreaks.In one recent study, two scientists reported they could predict — more than seven weeks in advance — when flu season was going to peak...

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Central African Republic rebels halt advance, agree to peace talks

DAMARA, Central African Republic (Reuters) - Rebels in Central African Republic said they had halted their advance on the capital on Wednesday and agreed to start peace talks, averting a clash with regionally backed troops. The Seleka rebels had pushed to within striking distance of Bangui after a three-week onslaught and threatened to oust President Francois Bozize, accusing him of reneging...

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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...

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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...

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

Jan 2, 2013 6:29pm AP Photo/Charles DharapakCongress 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....

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Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating

This is your brain on sugar — for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.It's a small study and does not prove...

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At least 61 crushed to death in Ivory Coast stampede

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - At least 61 people were crushed to death in a stampede after a New Year's Eve fireworks display at a stadium in Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan early on Tuesday, officials said. Witnesses said police had tried to control crowds around the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium following the celebrations, triggering a panic in which scores were trampled. "The estimate...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Clinton receiving blood thinners to dissolve clot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for a blood clot in her head said blood thinners are being used to dissolve the clot and they are confident she will make a full recovery.Clinton didn't suffer a stroke or neurological damage from the clot that formed after she suffered a concussion during a fainting spell at her home in early December, doctors said in a...

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Bombs kill 23 across Iraq as sectarian strife grows

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed and 87 wounded in attacks across Iraq on Monday, police said, underlining sectarian and ethnic divisions that threaten to further destabilize the country a year after U.S. troops left. Tensions between Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise this year. Militants strike almost daily...

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