Hollande gets hero's welcome in a Mali fearful of future

BAMAKO: President Francois Hollande received a rapturous welcome in Mali on Saturday as he promised that France would stay as long as necessary to continue the fight against Islamist rebels in the country's north.As troops worked to secure Kidal, the last bastion of radicals who occupied the vast desert north for 10 months before the French army's surprise intervention, Hollande told Malians...

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MBAs, doctors, engineers surrender soul to service and prayers

* Even a Macintosh Pro often finds it difficult to catch up with Vidhi Desai, 30, its owner and user. An archetypal south-Mumbaiite, she is rich, aggressive, super-confident, loud and questioning. An alumna of JB Petit School and HR College, Vidhi went on to do a double major in international politics and philosophy from Penn State University. The poor little rich kid never had to wait for anything...

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out...

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Body of Missing Mom Reportedly Found in Turkey

The body of an American woman who went missing while on a solo trip to Turkey has been pulled from a bay in Istanbul, and nine people have been held for questioning, according to local media.Sarai Sierra, 33, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board a flight home to New York City.The state-run Andolu Agency reported that residents found a woman's body today...

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Turkey says tests confirm leftist bombed U.S. embassy

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A member of a Turkish leftist group that accuses Washington of using Turkey as its "slave" carried out a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy, the Ankara governor's office cited DNA tests as showing on Saturday. Ecevit Sanli, a member of the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), blew himself up in a perimeter gatehouse on Friday as he tried...

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Football: Fergie surprised by Beckham's PSG move

LONDON: Alex Ferguson admits he was surprised to see his former Manchester United star David Beckham sign for Paris St Germain.Beckham had been looking for a new club since leaving LA Galaxy in November and snubbed interest from several Premier League clubs and other lucrative offers from around the world to join the French outfit on transfer deadline day.Ferguson didn't think Beckham...

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High corruption risk in defence purchases by India: Study

NEW DELHI: India is among the countries that suffer from "high corruption risk" in defence purchases, one of the most elaborate global assessments of corruption in the high spending sector has concluded. According to the report, 'Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index 2013' by Transparency International UK, 36% of the countries assessed by the index was found to have high corruption risk. India...

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Healthier schools: Goodbye candy and greasy snacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — Goodbye candy bars and sugary cookies. Hello baked chips and diet sodas.The government for the first time is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful, a change that would ban the sale of almost all candy, high-calorie sports drinks and greasy foods on campus.Under new rules the Department of Agriculture proposed Friday, school vending...

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Hillary Clinton Says Goodbye...Until 2016?

Feb 1, 2013 6:48pm Image Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP PhotoAfter four years, nearly a million miles traveled and 112 countries visited, Hillary Clinton stepped down as the 67th secretary of state on Friday. But even on this, her final day as America’s top diplomat, she could not escape the questions about what she’ll do four years from now.Many of the 1,000 employees...

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Mexico blast kills at least 33, flagging Pemex safety woes

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Rescue workers pulled out more bodies from debris at the headquarters of Mexican state oil giant Pemex on Friday after a powerful explosion killed at least 33 people and threw a spotlight onto the state-run company's poor safety record. Scenes of confusion and chaos outside the downtown tower block in Mexico City have dealt another blow to Pemex's image, just as...

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14 dead in Mexico City skyscraper blast: government

MEXICO CITY: At least 14 people died and 80 were injured in a blast that rocked the Mexico City skyscraper that houses the headquarters of oil giant Pemex on Thursday, Mexico's interior minister said."We have 13 dead at the scene and one more at the hospital. There are more than 80 wounded and we continue to look for survivors in the debris," Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong...

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TOI Social Impact Awards: When an IT mind took the organic route to farming

BORIAVI (ANAND): Devesh Patel, 30, graduated in computer applications in 2005. But the idea of flying off to the US didn't attract him. He followed in his father's footsteps and became a farmer, returning to the land of his forefathers — Anand's Boriavi village. Until recently, Devesh's father Ramesh, 56, suffered from chronic breathing problems induced by the chemical fertilizers he used. Nausea...

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What If Undocumented Immigrants Had Voted?

If every undocumented immigrant had cast a vote for President Obama in 2012, he would have won Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, and he would have beaten Mitt Romney by nearly 11 percentage points nationally, instead of three.Only citizens can vote, however, and 11.2 million unauthorized residents didn't get the chance.But with immigration overhaul on the table, legalizing...

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Syria protests over Israel attack, warns of "surprise"

BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria protested to the United Nations on Thursday over an Israeli air strike on its territory and warned of a possible "surprise" response. The foreign ministry summoned the head of the U.N. force in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to deliver the protest a day after Israel hit what Syria said was a military research centre and diplomats said was a weapons convoy...

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Japan December factory output up 2.5% on-month

TOKYO: Japan on Thursday said the nation's factory output for December rose 2.5 per cent from the previous month thanks to brisk production of cars and semiconductors.The gain -- still worse than a 4.0 per cent expansion expected by the market -- came as Japan's new government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vows to breathe new life into the world's third-largest economy with huge stimulus...

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Don’t curse the darkness, light a lamp instead: Vineet Jain

Following are excerpts from Times Group managing director Vineet Jain's welcome address: We emerged into the New Year in a somber mood — our hearts broken by the brutal death of a 23-year-old girl right here in Delhi. But it has been inspirational to see so many young people rise up and decide that this girl's death must never be forgotten. This spirit of looking at the injustices that surround you...

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Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting...

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Obama Confident Immigration Reform Will Pass

President Barack Obama expressed confidence on Wednesday that he would sign comprehensive immigration reform into law by the end of this year.In an interview with Univision's Maria Elena Salinas, Obama explained that significant details of a bill still must be worked out by lawmakers, including the structure of a pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented...

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French troops deployed in last Mali rebel strongholds

DOUENTZA, Mali/PARIS (Reuters) - French troops seized the airport in Mali's northern town of Kidal, the last urban stronghold held by Islamist insurgents, as they moved to wrap up the first phase of a military operation to wrest northern Mali from rebel hands. France has deployed some 4,500 troops in a three-week ground and air offensive to break the Islamist rebels' 10-month grip on...

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US judge postpones Texas woman's execution

CHICAGO: A Texas judge on Tuesday granted a last-minute reprieve to death row inmate Kimberly McCarthy, who had been scheduled to become the first woman executed in the United States since 2010.District Judge Larry Mitchell postponed her execution until April 3 after her lawyers asked for time to bring forward an appeal on grounds of racial discrimination.McCarthy -- who has been on death...

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Free power behind Punjab's decline: Report

CHANDIGARH: Punjab's biggest strength, its agriculture, is proving to be its curse as well. A report, Economic Freedom of the States in India, 2012, has analyzed the reason for Punjab's decline from 6th position to 12th and has put the blame at the doors of politicians for monopolizing trade in mandis and inflicting the curse of free rural electricity on the entire state.The report, which was recently...

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after...

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Jodi Arias Borrowed Gas Cans Before Killing Ex

Accused murderer Jodi Arias borrowed two five-gallon gas cans from a former boyfriend the day before she drove to Arizona to kill another ex, Travis Alexander, according to testimony in Arias' murder trial today.In cross examination, prosecutors also forced Arias' former live-in boyfriend Darryl Brewer to describe his sex life with Arias as "pretty aggressive."Brewer, 52, dated...

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