Law sacrosanct, let's not take it into our hands

PATNA: "What is illegal in the police raiding a journalist?" an IG of police asked a TV journalist defending Nawada SP Lalan Mohan Prasad and slamming the TOI report, 'Journalist raided after news on SP thumbing nose at judiciary' on February 28. "Nothing," the journalist replied and retorted, "how much it is legal for SP Prasad to sit on a non-bailable warrant of arrest against a sub-inspector...

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We Didn’t Domesticate Dogs. They Domesticated Us.

In the story of how the dog came in from the cold and onto our sofas, we tend to give ourselves a little too much credit. The most common assumption is that some hunter-gatherer with a soft spot for cuteness found some wolf puppies and adopted them. Over time, these tamed wolves would have shown their prowess at hunting, so humans kept them around the campfire until they evolved into dogs....

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Abandoned Baby's Tooth Used in Search for Parents

Authorities are using the bottom tooth of the week-old infant abandoned in a plastic bag outside an apartment complex in Cypress, Texas, as a clue in the search for her parents.The newborn's early tooth, seen in just one of 2,000 births, is a unique genetic trait that may prove to be a link to her family history, according to investigators.The baby, named Chloe by rescuers, weighed...

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SpaceX "optimistic" after space capsule mishap

WASHINGTON: SpaceX said it was "optimistic" Friday after a thruster outage delayed the latest resupply mission of its unmanned Dragon capsule en route to the International Space Station.SpaceX and NASA officials said the cargo resupply mission was still on track, but the technical mishap could fuel concerns about the US agency's ambitious plans to cut costs by privatizing elements of the...

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Tourism ministry seeks VoA facility for 16 more countries

NEW DELHI: Tourism ministry has sought greater travel flexibility by proposing visa-on-arrival (VoA) facilities in 16 more countries. Tourism minister K Chiranjeevi met home minister Sushilkumar Shinde for extension of services to countries like Germany, France, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and other CIS countries. "The extension VoA facilities for tourists to the countries is important as we feel...

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Stinkbug Threat Has Farmers Worried

Part of our weekly "In Focus" series—stepping back, looking closer.Maryland farmer Nathan Milburn recalls his first encounter.It was before dawn one morning in summer 2010, and he was at a gas station near his farm, fueling up for the day. Glancing at the light above the pump, something caught his eye."Thousands of something," Milburn remembers.Though he'd never actually seen a brown marmorated...

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Sequester Begins But Govt. Shutdown Looks Unlikely

Mar 1, 2013 4:13pm Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty ImagIt may not be readily obvious from the blizzard of news out there today on the “sequester,” but a government shutdown became significantly less likely today, even as the automatic budget cuts barreled ahead toward reality.What happened? Both sides – Republicans and Democrats – basically seem to have agreed that...

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Groupon CEO "fired" after losses, stock slump

NEW YORK: Groupon said Thursday it was replacing chief executive Andrew Mason, who said he was "fired," following the struggling daily deals firm's share price plunge of 24 percent after bad quarterly results.The company said executive chairman Eric Lefkofsky and vice chairman Ted Leonsis would take over the post of chief executive, effective immediately and that Groupon "will continue...

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Sariska villagers block tourists’ entry

ALWAR: About 2,500 villagers on Thursday blocked the main entrance of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, protesting their relocation from areas near the sanctuary. Sariska field director RS Shekhawat said the villagers had locked the entrance and didn't allow tourists to enter the park. "We are trying to sort out the problem on a priority basis," Shekhawat said. The villagers, who are on an indefinite sit-in,...

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Pictures: Saving Sumatra's Orangutans

Photograph by Paul HiltonA young boy shows off his illegally owned pet, a two-year-old orphaned orangutan that was later confiscated by SOCP and the local police, in April 2012.When the team first discovered the ape, he'd been tied up to the back of the house in a village located on the outskirts of the Tripa peat forest.A prompt health inspection by veterinarian Saraswati found that the young orphan...

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