Obama, Karzai accelerate end of U.S. combat role in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed on Friday to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated U.S. withdrawal from the country and underscoring Obama's determination to wind down a long, unpopular war. Signaling a narrowing of differences, Karzai appeared to give ground...

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WoW! fund to be enhanced

SINGAPORE: The Manpower Ministry will be enhancing the Work-Life Works! (WoW!) fund this year.Channel NewsAsia understands that the review of the fund is in its final stages.It was set up in 2004 to encourage employers to better support their employees' need for work-life balance. A spokesperson from the ministry told Channel NewsAsia that details of the enhancement may come together with...

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Four stamps released on Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary

JAMMU: (PTI) The Department of Posts (DoP) here today released four special postage stamps and the First Day Cover on Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth anniversary. Chief postmaster general Jammu and Kashmir John Samuel today released the stamps and cover on Vivekananda at a simple but impressive function held at Gandhi Nagar Head Post Office here today. These stamps have been brought out by...

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Flu season puts businesses and employees in a bind

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half the 70 employees at a Ford dealership in Clarksville, Ind., have been out sick at some point in the past month. It didn't have to be that way, the boss says."If people had stayed home in the first place, a lot of times that spread wouldn't have happened," says Marty Book, a vice president at Carriage Ford. "But people really want to get out and do their jobs, and sometimes...

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CDC: Flu Outbreak Could Be Waning

The flu season appears to be waning in some parts of the country, but that doesn't mean it won't make a comeback in the next few weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Five fewer states reported high flu activity levels in the first week of January than the 29 that reported high activity levels in the last week of December, according to the CDC's...

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Rights group warns of worsening Pakistani sectarian violence

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Violence against Pakistani Shi'ite Muslims is rising and some communities are living in a state of siege, a human rights group said on Friday, warning that sectarian violence will only get worse a day after 114 people were killed in bombings. Most of the deaths were caused by twin attacks aimed at members of the Muslim Shi'ite sect in the southwestern city...

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Malaysia prepares for joint opposition mega-rally

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is preparing for a big rally on Saturday - what organisers are calling the People's Uprising rally.It is the first of its kind, bringing together opposition parties and non-governmental organisations.Dubbed the KL112, the mega rally this Saturday promises to be a historic event for the country. The rally venue, Merdeka stadium, is a heritage site and the management...

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Fire at ONGC, two dead

SIBSAGAR: (Assam) A massive fire swept through an unit of the ONGC at upper Assam's Sibsagar district killing two persons and destroying property worth lakhs of rupees, ONGC officials said. The fire started from a part of the Group Gathering Stations (GGS) number 3 of ONGC's Assam Asset at Geleki in Sibsagar around midnight. The fire rapidly spread through the entire GGS burning thousands of tonnes...

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Flu season strikes early and, in some places, hard

NEW YORK (AP) — From the Rocky Mountains to New England, hospitals are swamped with people with flu symptoms. Some medical centers are turning away visitors or making them wear face masks, and one Pennsylvania hospital set up a tent outside its ER to deal with the feverish patients.Flu season in the U.S. has struck early and, in many places, hard.While flu normally doesn't blanket the country until...

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Judge: Holmes Can Face Trial for Aurora Shooting

Jan 10, 2013 8:45pm (Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo)In a ruling that comes as little surprise, the judge overseeing the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre has ordered that there is enough evidence against James Holmes to proceed to a trial.In an order posted late Thursday, Judge William Sylvester wrote that “the People have carried their burden of proof and have established...

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Swiss trains collide, 17 injured

NEUHAUSEN, Switzerland (Reuters) - Two Swiss trains collided on Thursday, injuring 17 people, none of them seriously, and closing the line near the German border, police said. The two local trains, one travelling from Winterthur and the other from Schaffhausen, crashed just outside the Neuhausen station in northern Switzerland, not far from the German border. Swiss railways...

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India's Kingfisher airline boss promises restart

MUMBAI: The boss of India's troubled Kingfisher airline has sought to allay fears about jobs in a rare communication to staff, which outlines plans to restart limited operations and win a foreign investment deal.Kingfisher, whose operations have been grounded since October, lost permission to fly after a deadline to renew its suspended licence with the aviation regulator expired at the...

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LeT chief Hafiz Saeed was present in PoK: Shinde

NEW DELHI: Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said that visa agreement between India and Pakistan will be carried out as per schedule.There will be no change in visa policy for Pakistan in view of the Tuesday's incident on Line of Control (LoC) in which two Indian soldiers were killed by Pakistan army with the body of one being badly mutilated.Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafeez Saeed was present...

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Retooling Pap test to spot more kinds of cancer

WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, doctors have lamented that there's no Pap test for deadly ovarian cancer. Wednesday, scientists reported encouraging signs that one day, there might be.Researchers are trying to retool the Pap, a test for cervical cancer that millions of women get, so that it could spot early signs of other gynecologic cancers, too.How? It turns out that cells can flake off of tumors in...

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Biden, NRA to Meet During Day 2 of Gun Talks

Vice President Joe Biden will start day two of this week's meetings on gun violence Thursday, and the participants in the latest round of talks will include two powerhouses in the gun industry -- the National Rifle Association and Wal-Mart, one of the largest sellers of firearms in the country.Spokesmen for the NRA and Wal-Mart confirmed representatives from their organizations...

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Exhausted Egyptians count cost of political turmoil

ZAGAZIG, Egypt (Reuters) - These days, craftsmen, shopkeepers and other inhabitants of the Egyptian Delta town of Zagazig are often too busy making ends meet to ponder why life seems to be getting harder every day. But when, exhausted, they finally come home and sit down to their evening meal, conversations inevitably turn to growing hardship and the frightening prospect of cuts in food...

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Japan's foreign minister on two-day visit to Singapore

SINGAPORE: Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida will visit Singapore from Thursday till Friday.This will be Mr Kishida's first official visit to Singapore in his current capacity. During his visit, Mr Kishida will call on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Istana, and meet with Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law K Shanmugam. Mr Shanmugam will also host Mr Kishida to...

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Enough proof of Pak army's involvement in Indian jawans' killing: Antony

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Outraged by the brutal killing of two of its soldiers by intruding Pakistani troops, India on Wednesday strongly protested to Pakistan, warning that the "unacceptable" incident will have adverse impact on the ties.As strong reactions by the government and political parties came, Pakistan high commissioner Salman Bashir was summoned by foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai, who conveyed...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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Dead Lotto Winner's Wife Seeks 'Truth'

The wife of a $1 million Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning told ABC News that she was shocked to learn the true cause of his death and is cooperating with an ongoing homicide investigation."I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better," said Shabana Ansari, 32, the wife of Urooj Khan, 46. "Who could be that person who hurt him?"It...

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Afghan peace efforts show flickers of life

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai will discuss matters of war, including future U.S. troop levels and Afghanistan's army, when they meet on Friday, but matters of peace may be the most delicate item on their long agenda. After nearly 10 months in limbo, tentative reconciliation efforts involving Taliban insurgents, the Karzai government...

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Karzai on US visit as Obama mulls Afghan troop plan

WASHINGTON: President Hamid Karzai will begin a four-day US visit on Tuesday as President Barack Obama weighs how fast to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and whether to leave a "residual force" behind after 2014.Foreign combat soldiers are due to exit Afghanistan by the end of next year, more than a decade after a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime in 2001, but the country...

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer."There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer...

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Giffords, Kelly Launch Initiative to Curb Gun Violence

After she was gravely wounded by gunfire two years ago in Tucson, Ariz., former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, imagined a life out of the public eye, where she would continue therapy surrounded by the friends, family and the Arizona desert she loves so much.Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly Speak Exclusively to Diane SawyerBut after the slaughter of 20 first-graders...

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Turmoil in Indian court as five accused of rape appear

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of the gang rape and murder of an Indian student appeared in court on Monday to hear charges against them, after two of them offered evidence possibly in return for a lighter sentence in a case that has provoked widespread anger. The five men, along with a teenager, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student when she boarded their...

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