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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M'sian police to investigate rally participants' violation of terms

KUALA LUMPUR: Police will carry out investigations on participants who violated the three conditions agreed to by the rally organiser, Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainuddin Ahmad said. The three conditions prohibit the participants from bringing children below the age of 15 and waving placards and banners with seditious words; and compel the organiser to ensure that no more than 30,000...

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Martyr's family on hunger strike, wants govt to bring back severed head

LUCKNOW: Family members of Lance Naik Hemraj Singh, who was killed and beheaded by Pakistani troops last Tuesday, along with the villagers of Sher Nagar in Mathura, went on a hunger strike on Saturday to protest the neglect, apathy and inaction of the state and central governments.The family and the villagers want central government to give a befitting reply to Pakistan and bring back the head...

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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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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right."He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business...

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Syria rebels seize base as envoy holds talks

BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - Rebels seized control of one of Syria's largest helicopter bases on Friday, opposition sources said, in their first capture of a military airfield used by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Fighting raged across the country as international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi sought a political solution to Syria's civil war, meeting senior U.S. and Russian officials in...

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"Tsunami" of property cooling measures, say analysts

SINGAPORE: Property analysts have described the latest set of government measures as the "tsunami" of property cooling measures, as it affects public and private housing, executive condominiums, and industrial properties.Some say, the additional stamp duty will hit investors wanting to own a second or subsequent property. Mr Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex, said: "Such a drastic move will...

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Hate speech: Akbaruddin Owaisi sent to 5-day police custody

NIRMAL/HYDERABAD: A court at Nirmal in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday granted police a five-day custody of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, accused of sedition over his "hate speech".In a related development, a court in Hyderabad directed police to investigate a speech made by Owaisi in Nanded in 2012, which allegedly targeted a particular community.Upon a...

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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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Teen to Hero Teacher: 'I Don't Want to Shoot You'

A California teacher'sbrave conversation with a 16-year-old gunman who had opened fire on his classroom bullies allowed 28 other students to quickly escape what could have been a massacre.Science teacher Ryan Heber calmly confronted the teenager after he shot and critically wounded a classmate, whom authorities say had bullied the boy for more than year at Taft Union High School."I...

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NATO official says more missiles launched in Syria

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A short-range ballistic missile was fired inside Syria on Wednesday, following similar launches last week, a NATO official said on Thursday. The official condemned as "reckless" the missile launches, which U.S. officials called an escalation of the 21-month-old Syrian civil war when their use was first spotted last month. "The use of such indiscriminate...

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"Lincoln", "Life of Pi" lead Oscar nominations

  LOS ANGELES: Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln" earned the most Oscar nominations with 12, ahead of Lee Ang's "Life of Pi," with 11 nods, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday.Both movies are nominated for the coveted best film prize, along with "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Les Miserables," which each earned eight nominations, and Ben Affleck's political...

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Teach Pakistan a lesson like 1965: Hazare

RALEGAN-SIDDHI (Maharashtra): Social activist Anna Hazare Thursday demanded that India should "teach Pakistan a lesson" like it did in 1965 for the brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir. "What they have done is simply unacceptable. How can they mutilate and take away the head of our soldier? This cannot be tolerated by any person," Hazare told reporters here....

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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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Historic old Jeddah awaits life-saving restoration

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - In the heart of Saudi Arabia's sprawling Red Sea port city of Jeddah, centuries-old buildings tilt and buckle above the historic district's narrow alleys, withering away in the absence of decisive action to protect them. The seventh-century historic district, with its mud and coral town houses adorned with ornate wooden balconies, holds the only remnants...

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Malaysian opposition to rally for poll reforms

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's opposition on Wednesday received rare permission to hold a weekend political rally in a historic stadium, ahead of hotly anticipated elections due within months.Opposition organisers say the gathering on Saturday at the 30,000-seater Stadium Merdeka (Independence Stadium), in the capital Kuala Lumpur, will focus on continued widespread criticism of a voting system...

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Rail fares hiked across the board, opposition demands immediate rollback

NEW DELHI: In a rare decision just a month ahead of the Union budget, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Wednesday effected an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year, the first such increase in a decade.The proposals will rake in an additional Rs 1200 crore between January 21 and March 31 this year, the minister said...

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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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Hospitals Flooded With Flu Patients

U.S. emergency rooms have been overwhelmed with flu patients, turning away some of them and others with non-life-threatening conditions for lack of space.Forty-one states are battling widespread influenza outbreaks, including Illinois, where six people -- all older than 50 -- have died, according to the state's Department of Public Health.At least 18 children in the country...

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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens,...

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India says two soldiers killed in clash with Pakistan troops

SRINAGAR, India: Pakistani troops killed two Indian soldiers on Tuesday near the tense disputed border between the nuclear-armed neighbours in Kashmir and one of the bodies was badly mutilated, the Indian army said.The firefight broke out at about noon on Tuesday (0630 GMT) after an Indian patrol discovered Pakistani troops about half a kilometre (1,600 feet) inside Indian territory, an...

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SP leader Abu Azmi endorses RSS chief, says western culture to blame for rapes

MUMBAI: Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi said on Tuesday that western culture had ruined Indian culture and led to increasing atrocities on women including rapes."Young girls and women must not roam around with any men except their parents, brothers or husband," Azmi said here."Having boyfriends and girlfriends has become a fashion in cities. This is why incidence of rapes is higher in urban...

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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 Say 'Enough' to 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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Five accused of rape in India appear in court for charges

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of the 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 the case that has provoked widespread anger. The five men, along with a teenager, are accused of raping the 23-year-old physiotherapy student after she boarded their bus...

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Boom expected in mobile app industry

SINGAPORE: The rising use of mobile applications has been a boon for the industry.The mobile appplication industry recorded a 68 per cent rise in global sales last year, from US$8.5 billion to US$14.3 billion. With the growing shipment of tablets and smartphones, experts say sales growth may increase by almost four times by 2017.Cooliris, a photo sharing and browsing application, has become...

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Water rationing in Bangalore, Mysore not ruled out

BANGALORE: The state government is likely to go in for rationing of water in Bangalore and Mysore cities till the end of summer to meet the demand.The storage level has drastically reduced in KRS following release of water to Tamil Nadu. While the maximum capacity of the dam is 124.80 feet, storage has reduced to 80 feet. With summer expected to be severe this year, water level is further expected...

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