Al Jazeera eyes Gore-founded TV group: report

WASHINGTON: The Qatar-owned media group Al Jazeera is in talks to buy Current TV, a struggling cable channel founded by former US vice president Al Gore, The New York Times reported Wednesday.The deal could allow Al Jazeera broader entry into US homes, by acquiring the cable group available in around 60 million American households, the report said.Contacted by AFP, Current Media did not...

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Khurshid defends stay in Nilgiris resort

CHENNAI/UDHAGAMANDALAM: External affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said there was nothing wrong in his staying in a private resort in the Nilgiris which was ordered to be closed by the Madras high court as it fell on the elephant corridor.Speaking to TOI, Khurshid said the Supreme Court had granted a stay on the high court order, allowing the resort to continue its operations. "If the...

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

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast GuardWaves 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...

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Christie Calls Boehner's Sandy Decision 'Disgusting'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said today that it was "disgusting" that the House adjourned without voting on a $60 billion relief package for the victims of superstorm Sandy and put the blame squarely on a fellow Republican -- House Speaker John Boehner.Christie, who is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate four years from now, said there was "only one group...

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After a ‘fiscal cliff’ deal, what next?

The “fiscal cliff” was designed by Washington for Washington — it was intended to set up a scenario so severe that the president and Congress would, at last, have to take on the nation’s major tax and spending problems. Instead, lawmakers again found a way to sidestep many of the prickliest issues and in the process set up other, potentially more severe, showdowns in the new year. The...

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Motorcycle bomb kills four in Pakistan's Karachi

KARACHI: A motorcycle bomb exploded Tuesday near the venue of a major political rally in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, killing four people and injuring 42 others, officials said.The bombing appeared to be targeted at buses carrying supporters of the city's dominant political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which organised the rally attended by thousands of people."The latest...

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Cold kills 9 as mercury dips across north India

NEW DELHI: The cold wave intensified across north India and killed nine more people in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, pushing the death toll from it this season to around 110.Officials said three people died in Mirzapur, two each in Muzaffarnagar and Bareilly. One death each was reported from Moradabad and Amroha.Most cold-related deaths - 92 - have been reported from Uttar Pradesh, where Agra, with a...

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

Happy TrailsPhotograph by Alex Cherney, TWANAmateur astronomer Alex Cherney captured these star trails as they blazed above Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake in Victoria, Australia in...

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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," as new studies conclude that the compromise on taxes and spending would add trillions to the U.S. deficit.If House Republicans tweak the legislation, as they seem likely to do, there's no clear path for its return to the Senate before...

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Chief Justice Roberts stresses frugality in year-end report

The Supreme Court finished its most closely examined term in years last June when it narrowly upheld the Affordable Care Act. On the horizon are potentially landmark decisions on affirmative action and same-sex marriage. But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. mentioned none of that in his annual year-end Report on the Federal Judiciary issued Monday. Roberts stressed frugality rather...

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