Japan votes in poll likely to eject ruling party

TOKYO - Voters in Japan went to the polls Sunday in an election likely to return conservatives to power at a time of growing tension with China and as the nation seeks to arrest economic decline.

Polls point to a heavy defeat for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government, but observers say the electorate will hand the reins of power only reluctantly to the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Hawkish one-time premier Shinzo Abe appeared set for a return to office, after a campaign in which he has sketched out a harder line on foreign policy, as tensions rise with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Polls opened early Sunday and exit polls from broadcasters will be released shortly after the ballot boxes are sealed at 8:00 pm (1100 GMT).

Abe, whose brief stint as premier in 2006-2007 ended ignominiously, has pledged to right Japan's listless economy, which has suffered years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

"With stronger monetary policies, fiscal policies and growth policies, we will end deflation, correct a high yen, and grow the economy," said Abe Saturday.

"It's time to put an end to the confusion and doldrums of three years and three months," Abe said, referring to the stint in power of Noda's Democratic Party of Japan.

"We've got to take a fresh step forward. Please join us for the fight," added the former premier, whose party ruled Japan almost continuously for more than five decades until it was ousted by the DPJ.

He has also pledged to boost spending on infrastructure projects at a time when large parts of the tsunami-ravaged northeast have yet to see significant rebuilding following the March 2011 catastrophe.

The collapse of an ageing highway tunnel that claimed nine lives earlier this month lent credence to his calls, which have been criticised by opponents as a return to the LDP's "construction state" of the last century.

Public unease about a deteriorating security environment -- North Korea launched a rocket over Japan's southern islands last week and China sent a plane into Japanese airspace -- has bolstered Abe's cause.

He has promised to boost defences and revitalise a security alliance with the United States that is widely thought to have drifted under Noda's party.

"It is an urgent task to rebuild the Japan-US alliance as unshakable and achieve peace and stability in Asia," Abe's LDP said in a statement issued ahead of the Sunday vote.

The DPJ disappointed voters who handed it a hefty majority in 2009 polls. Policy missteps, diplomatic gaffes and vicious factional infighting saw it burn through three premiers in as many years and squander its electoral hand.

A plodding and sometimes confused response to the disaster at Fukushima where nuclear reactors went into meltdown after the tsunami last year did it no favours either.

"Let us have another try... a lot of promises have yet to be fulfilled," Noda was quoted as saying in newspaper adverts published on Sunday.

Opinion polls show that despite a strong anti-nuclear feeling in Japan, an array of smaller parties promising an atomic exit may struggle to get much traction.

But commentators say there is little enthusiasm for any party, and the LDP's likely victory will come from their perceived status as the least-worst option.

- AFP/ir

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Haryana residents prefer khaps over courts: Report

CHANDIGARH: A survey carried out by a sub-committee constituted by Haryana Backward Class Commission (HBCC) to ascertain possibility of reservation for jats and other communities has found out that rustic Haryanvis have more faith in social panchayats than judicial courts and prefer to approach khaps for remedial measures.

During the survey conducted on 49,870 households in rural areas, it was found that 66.6% families from 16 different castes said they preferred approaching khap panchayats than opting for judicial remedies for seeking justice whenever disputes arise. The survey was tasked to ascertain khaps' influence in Haryana and was conducted by a sub-committee headed by K S Sangwan, a former HoD of department of sociology at Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

The research was one of the 12 social indicators used by the sub-committee for determining social, educational and economical backwardness of various castes and communities of Haryana. While this part of the report has come as a shot in the arm for khap leaders, who claim khap panchayat to be legitimate dispute disputes platform, they have very conveniently chosen to trash the rest of the report.

"This is the only portion where the commission could not manipulate. We cannot rely on any other recommendations made in the report,'' said Sube Singh Samain, a spokesperson of Sarvjat Khap Panchayat.

Khaps in Haryana have been inviting criticism from various sections of the society as well as Punjab and Haryana High court for their diktats on barring same-village marriages and inter-caste marriages, which has led to incidents of honor killings in the state.

"Bhaichara (brotherhood) concept still exists in rural Haryana. Khaps have played important role in solving common problems. Villagers feel that in courts only one party wins the case. But when it comes to khap panchayats, it is a win-win situation for both the parties,'' said Sangwan.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Conn. Victim's Father Remembers 'Loving' Daughter

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman’s bullets not claimed her life, her father said.

“My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that’s the kind of kid she is,” her father, Robbie Parker said as he fought back tears, telling the world about his “bright, creative and loving” daughter who was one of the 20 young victims in the Newtown, Conn., shooting.

“She always had something kind to say about anybody,” her father said.  ”We find comfort reflecting on the incredible person Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch.”

Emilie, 6, was helping teach her younger sisters to read and make things, and she was the little girls would go to for comfort, he said.

“They looked up to her,” Parker said.

READ: Complete List of Sandy Hook Victims

Parker moved his wife and three daughters to Newtown eight months ago after accepting a job as  a physician’s assistant at Danbury Hospital. He said Emilie, his oldest daughter, seemed to have adjusted well to her new school, and he was very happy with the school, too.

“I love the people at the school. I love Emilie’s teacher and the classmates we were able to get to know,” he said.

      (Image Credit: Alex von Kleydorff/AP Photo)

The family dealt with another tragic loss in October when Emilie lost her grandfather in an accident.

“[This] has been a topic that has been discussed in our family in the past couple of  months,” Parker said. “[My daughters ages 3 and 4] seem to get the idea that there’s somebody who they will miss very much.”

Emilie, a budding artist who carried her markers and pencils everywhere, paid tribute to her grandfather by slipping a special card she had drawn into his casket, Parker said.  It was something she frequently did to lift the spirits of others.

“I can’t count the number of times Emilie would find someone feeling sad or frustrated and would make people a card,” Parker said. “She was an exceptional artist.”

The girl who was remembered as “always willing to try new things, other than food” was learning Portuguese from her father, who speaks the language.

(Image Credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

On Friday morning, Emilie woke up before her father left for his job and exchanged a few sentences with him in the language.

“She told me good morning and asked how I was doing,” Parker said. “She said she loved me, I gave her a kiss and I was out the door.”

Parker found out about the shooting while on lockdown in Danbury Hospital and found a television for the latest news.

“I didn’t think it was that big of deal at first,” he said. “With the first reports coming in, it didn’t sound like it was going to be as tragic as it was. That’s kind of what it was like for us.”

CLICK HERE for full coverage of the Sandy Hook shooting.

Parker said he knows that God can’t take away free will and would have been unable to stop the Sandy Hook shooting. While gunman Adam Lanza used his free agency to take innocent lives, Parker said he plans to use his in a positive way.

“I’m not mad because I have my  [free] agency to use this event to do whatever I can to make sure my family and my wife and my daughters are taken care [of],” he said. “And if there’s anything I can do to help to anyone at any time at anywhere, I’m free to do that.”

(Image credit: Emilie Parker Fund/Facebook)

Friday night, hours after he learned of his daughter’s death, Parker said he spoke at his church.

“I don’t know how to get through something like this. My wife and I don’t understand how to process all of this,” he said today. “We find strength in our religion and in our faith and in our family. ”

“It’s a horrific tragedy and I want everyone to know our hearts and prayers go out to them. This includes the family of the shooter. I can’t imagine how hard this experience must be for you and I want you to know our family … love and support goes out to you as well.”

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A normally stoic president sheds tears over mass shooting of ‘our children’

President Obama, so often cool and unemotional, struggled to maintain his composure Friday as he addressed a nation reeling from a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

“The majority of those who died today were children — beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” Obama said partway into a four-minute statement.

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Japan election candidates make final pitches

TOKYO: Hundreds of candidates vying for a seat in Japan's parliament are making their final pitches in an election expected to see the return of the country's old guard.

Opinion polls show the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on course for a convincing victory in Sunday's lower house election, over Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's Democratic Party of Japan.

Hawkish LDP leader Shinzo Abe is predicted to return to the premiership, a job he held without much distinction in 2006-7, in a move that may herald a hardening of Japan's foreign policy at a time of heightened tensions with China.

As light rain fell over Tokyo, some of the over 1,500 candidates running in the poll stood before train stations to make final pleas to voters, while their staff held banners with the candidates names and parties printed in bold typeface.

Abe donned a white windbreaker to speak with with voters in Wako-city, Saitama prefecture, north of the capital, reiterating his promise to reform Japan's education system, Kyodo News said.

Abe has pledged in previous campaign speeches to "repair the Japan-US alliance and firmly defend our territorial soil and waters".

Candidates have until 8:00 pm (1300 GMT) to campaign.

In one of the last gauges of the public mood before Sunday's vote, polls published Friday showed the LDP and its junior coalition party set to achieve a possible two-thirds majority in the lower house ballot.

That would hand Abe a mandate to try to fulfil his campaign pledge of bolstering Japan's military and coastal defences, particularly on the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus.

On Thursday, Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese plane entered airspace over the Japanese-held chain. Tokyo said it was the first time a Chinese state-owned plane had breached its airspace.

North Korea's rocket launch earlier this week could also boost the right-wing vote in a country that lives uneasily next door to an unpredictable Pyongyang.

Polls indicate that despite a strong current of anti-nuclear feeling since the March 2011 tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at Fukushima, an array of smaller parties promising an atomic exit may struggle to gain traction.

On the economic front, Abe has been vocal in calls to tackle deflation that has beset the economy, vowing to impose a three percent inflation target on the Bank of Japan and forcing it to buy bonds -- effectively deficit financing.

He has since rowed back after criticism he was endangering the independence of the central bank. But his comments helped pull down the high yen, delighting exporters hit hard by the surging currency.

The Democratic Party of Japan struggled in government to live up to the promise of its barnstorming 2009 election win that cracked the LDP's half-century virtual stranglehold on power.

- AFP/lp

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HC allows auction of 25 quarries in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Around four months after banning all mining activities, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday allowed auction of 25 quarries in various districts of Punjab.

While permitting the state to initiate the process of auctioning the mining quarries under a close and strict monitoring mechanism, the court of Justice Rajive Bhalla observed that the system of issuing manual slips for lifting minerals from the quarries was being misused.

The court also issued directions to instal weighing machines at the quarries to keep a tab on each vehicle's weight to prevent contractors from extracting material in addition to the prescribed limit by over-digging and thereby harming the ecology.

In August this year, the HC had imposed complete and immediate ban on mining in the state without environmental clearance in operational quarries of up to five hectares in the state.

The court also directed that environment impact assessment committee would grant permission in each case so that there was no ecological degradation. The HC has also told the trial courts to avoid releasing vehicles and equipment used for illegal mining.

The division bench also made it clear that the HC's endeavour was only to ensure the undertaking of mining after obtaining requisite permission and following the rules, which was not being done.

Justice Bhalla was miffed over the recent statements made by the state governments that rates of building material have reached all time high because of stay on mining by the Punjab and Haryana high court.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Conn. Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.

This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.

There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot and killed 20 children, who President Obama later described as "beautiful little kids" between five and 10 years of age. Six adults were also killed at the school. Nancy Lanza was found dead in her home.

A relative told ABC News that Adam was "obviously not well."

Family friends in Newtown also described the young man as troubled and described Nancy as rigid. "[Adam] was not connected with the other kids," said Barbara Frey, who also said he was "a little bit different ... Kind of repressed."

State and federal authorities believe his mother may have once worked at the elementary school where Adam went on his deadly rampage, although she was not a teacher, according to relatives, perhaps a volunteer.

Nancy and her husband Peter, Adam's father, divorced in 2009. When they first filed for divorce in 2008, a judge ordered that they participate in a "parenting education program."

Peter Lanza, who drove to northern New Jersey to talk to police and the FBI, is a vice president at GE Capital and had been a partner at global accounting giant Ernst & Young.

Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24, has worked at Ernst & Young for four years, apparently following in his father's footsteps and carving out a solid niche in the tax practice. He too was interviewed by the FBI. Neither he nor his father is under any suspicion.

"[Ryan] is a tax guy and he is clean as a whistle," a source familiar with his work said.

Police had initially identified Ryan as the killer. Ryan sent out a series of Facebook posts saying it wasn't him and that he was at work all day. Video records as well as card swipes at Ernst & Young verified his statement that he had been at the office.

Two federal sources told ABC News that identification belonging to Ryan Lanza was found at the scene of the mass shooting. They say that identification may have led to the confusion by authorities during the first hours after the shooting. Neither Adam nor Ryan has any known criminal history.

A Sig Sauer handgun and a Glock handgun were used in the slaying and .223 shell casings – a round used in a semi-automatic military-style rifle -- were also found at the scene. Nancy Lanza had numerous weapons registered to her, including a Glock and a Sig Sauer. She also owned a Bushmaster rifle -- a semi-automatic carbine chambered for a .223 caliber round. However, federal authorities cannot confirm that the handguns or the rifle were the weapons recovered at the school.

Numerous relatives of the Lanzas in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, as well as multiple friends, are being interviewed by the FBI in an effort to put together a better picture of the gunman and any explanation for today's tragedy.

"I think the most important thing to point out with this kind of individual is that he did not snap this morning and decide to act out violently," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "These acts involve planning and thoughtfulness and strategizing in order to put the plan together so what may appear to be snap behavior is not that at all."

With reporting by Pierre Thomas, Jim Avila, Santina Leuci, Aaron Katersky, Matthew Mosk, Jason Ryan and Jay Shaylor

MORE: 27 Dead, Mostly Children, at Connecticut Elementary School Shooting

LIVE UPDATES: Newton, Conn. School Shooting

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

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Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s 2012 Christmas card: Fiscal cliff, Gretzky in heaven

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen — your Rep. Loretta Sanchez Christmas card for 2012!

(Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez)
Over the past decade, the California Democrat’s wacky holiday greetings have drawn a cult following. “I’ve seen them being sold on eBay,” the congresswoman told us.

(Courtesy of the Office of Rep. Loretta Sanchez)
Nice topical theme this year! “The ‘fiscal cliff’ is a very serious situation, so we didn’t want to make light of it,” she said. “But sometimes a chuckle makes things a lot easier.” (Last year’s card tipped a hat to Occupy Wall Street and all that 99 percent talk: “May the joy of the holidays occupy 100 percent of your heart.”)

That’s husband Jack Einwechter dancing with her. Sanchez’s late beloved cat Gretzky, the star of so many cards over the years, is represented inside the card, a halo over his furry head. “Of course — Angel Gretzky,” she said. “We keep Gretzky every year because he has so many followers.”

Earlier:
Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ parody, with summer interns, 7/2/12

Last year:
Rep. Loretta Sanchez carries on holiday card tradition, without beloved cat Gretzky, 12/9/11

Loretta Sanchez’s 2011 Christmas card, 12/16/11

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China manufacturing hits 14-month high: HSBC

BEIJING: China's manufacturing activity hit a 14-month high in December, a further sign of a rebound in the world's number two economy as domestic demand improved despite external weakness, HSBC said on Friday.

The preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) released by the British banking giant hit 50.9 this month, up from a final 50.5 in November, when the figure returned to growth after 12 consecutive months of contraction.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the key sector, while one below signals contraction.

The index, compiled by information services provider Markit and released by HSBC, tracks manufacturing activity and is a closely watched barometer of the health of the economy.

The December reading is the highest since October last year, when the figure was 51, according to HSBC data.

China's economic growth hit a more than three-year low of 7.4 per cent in the three months to September, but recent data reflecting domestic conditions including industrial output and retail sales has fuelled optimism that the worst is over.

But exports in November, which rose just 2.9 per cent year-on-year to US$179.4 billion, came in much lower than market expectations, fanning concerns on the sustainability of the recovery.

Qu Hongbin, a Hong Kong-based economist with HSBC, said the PMI figure "confirmed that China's ongoing growth recovery is gaining momentum, mainly driven by domestic demand conditions".

"However, the drop of new export orders and the downside surprise of November exports growth suggest the persisting external headwinds," he added, saying Beijing was expected to keep policy loose to offset such impacts.

Authorities have cut interest rates twice this year and have also reduced the amount of funds banks must keep in reserve three times since last December to encourage lending.

The country's top leadership is expected to hold a key annual meeting on Saturday and Sunday that will lay out major economic policies and goals for the next year, Chinese media reported earlier this week.

The preliminary PMI is based on approximately 85-90 per cent of total PMI survey responses each month, HSBC said, adding that the month's final reading will be released on December 31.

- AFP/xq

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Anna’s crusade gets a Gen Singh boost

VARANASI: Aimed at mobilising the country's youth against corruption, Anna Hazare and former Army chief General VK Singh will begin a campaign from Patna's Gandhi Maidan on the occasion of martyrs' day on January 30.

Anna and Gen Singh announced the schedule of their proposed one and a half year long campaign to create awareness among youth while addressing an impressive gathering of students at Bharat Mata Mandir premises here on Wednesday. On finding an enthused crowd, Hazare announced that the campaign will begin on the day the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi attained martyrdom. "The campaign will be aimed at creating awareness among youngsters for their active participation in nation-building. We will be travelling across the country to hold meetings with youths in this regard. Around four to five such meetings will also be held in the districts of UP," he said.

A huge gathering of students and student leaders from various universities and colleges of eastern UP districts was present at this meeting. Before addressing the crowd, Anna along with Singh offered prayers at Bharat Mata Mandir. Hinting that the campaign will be held in view of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he said that until the youth of the country realize the importance of their vote, the wrong people would continue reaching the parliament. One must have the right to reject wrong people contesting the election, said Anna, encouraging youngsters to be ready for a massive agitation during which they may face brutality and also go behind the bars.

He said that it was easier to fight for freedom against British rule than it is to fight with our own corrupt people, but the task is not impossible. He said that in last 65 years, the country has witnessed immense increment in cases of loot, cheat and corruption. Expressing concern over the existing education system, he said that the poor are still deprived of their right to education and rich people are busy in trading of education for commercial gains.

Reacting over FDI in retail, Anna said that inviting foreign companies and snatching land from farmers, selling rivers, forests and natural resources can't be termed development. Development can't be ensured at the cost of nation, nature and countrymen, he said. It is really unfortunate to see that a majority of the people are struggling for three square meals while some people are living to eat, he added. Anna also appealed to the gathering to stay in touch with the campaign by sending SMS on 9923599234.

Meanwhile, Gen Singh emphasised on generating employment opportunities for youngsters. He said that over 200 districts of the country are Naxal-affected due to lack of employment and development in their areas. He said around 71 percent of India's population is young, but this is not reflected in the Parliament. "We are being divided on the basis of caste, creed and religion. Common man's participation has completely vanished from our democracy. Youngsters should come forward to remove those people who have been exploiting the country for 65 years. Like Army personnel, everyone should consider their country as the first priority, he said, and called upon youngsters to join their campaign which will be launched from Patna.

After addressing this meeting, the two left for Sarva Sewa Sangh, Rajghat to take part in a meeting with activists of India Against Corruption (IAC).

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Global Checkup: Most People Living Longer, But Sicker

If the world's entire population went in for a collective checkup, would the doctor's prognosis be good or bad? Both, according to new studies published in The Lancet medical journal.

The vast collaborative effort, called the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, includes papers by nearly 500 authors in 50 countries. Spanning four decades of data, it represents the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of health problems around the world.

It reveals that, globally, we're living longer but coping with more illness as adults. In 1990, "childhood underweight"—a condition associated with malnutrition, measles, malaria, and other infectious diseases—was the world's biggest health problem. Now the top causes of global disease are adult ailments: high blood pressure (associated with 9.4 million deaths in 2010), tobacco smoking (6.2 million), and alcohol use (4.9 million).

First, the good news:

We're living longer. Average life expectancy has risen globally since 1970 and has increased in all but eight of the world's countries within the past decade.

Both men and women are gaining years. From 1970 to 2010, the average lifespan rose from 56.4 years to 67.5 years for men, and from 61.2 years to 73.3 years for women.

Efforts to combat childhood diseases and malnutrition have been very successful. Deaths in children under five years old declined almost 60 percent in the past four decades.

Developing countries have made huge strides in public health. In the Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, and Peru, life expectancy has increased by more than 20 years since 1970. Within the past two decades, gains of 12 to 15 years have occurred in Angola, Ethiopia, Niger, and Rwanda, an indication of successful strategies for curbing HIV, malaria, and nutritional deficiencies.

We're beating many communicable diseases. Thanks to improvements in sanitation and vaccination, the death rate for diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory infections, meningitis, and other common infectious diseases has dropped by 42 percent since 1990.

And the bad:

Non-infectious diseases are on the rise, accounting for two of every three deaths globally in 2010. Heart disease and stroke are the primary culprits.

Young adults aren't doing as well as others. Deaths in the 15 to 49 age bracket have increased globally in the past 20 years. The reasons vary by region, but diabetes, smoking, alcohol, HIV/AIDS, and malaria all play a role.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking a toll in sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy has declined overall by one to seven years in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and young adult deaths have surged by more than 500 percent since 1970 in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

We drink too much. Alcohol overconsumption is a growing problem in the developed world, especially in Eastern Europe, where it accounts for almost a quarter of the total disease burden. Worldwide, it has become the top risk factor for people ages 15 to 49.

We eat too much, and not the right things. Deaths attributable to obesity are on the rise, with 3.4 million in 2010 compared to 2 million in 1990. Similarly, deaths attributable to dietary risk factors and physical inactivity have increased by 50 percent (4 million) in the past 20 years. Overall, we're consuming too much sodium, trans fat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages, and not enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fiber, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Smoking is a lingering problem. Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, is still the top risk factor for disease in North America and Western Europe, just as it was in 1990. Globally, it's risen in rank from the third to second leading cause of disease.

To find out more and see related charts and graphics, see the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which led the collaboration.

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Health-Exchange Deadline Looms

All of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," doesn't go into effect until 2014, but states are required to set up their own health care exchanges or leave it to the federal government to step in by next year. The deadline for the governors' decisions is Friday.

The health insurance exchanges are one of the key stipulations of the new health care law. They will offer consumers an Internet-based marketplace for purchasing private health insurance plans.

But the president's signature health care plan has become so fraught with politics that whether governors agreed to set up the exchanges has fallen mostly along party lines.

Such partisanship is largely symbolic because if a state opts not to set up the exchange, the Department of Health and Human Services will do it for them as part of the federal program. That would not likely be well-received by Republican governors, either, but the law forces each state's chief executive to make a decision one way or the other.

Here's what it looks like in all 50 states and the District of Columbia:

20 states that have opted out -- N.J., S.C., La., Wis., Ohio, Maine, Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Ga., Pa., Kan., Neb., N.H., N.D., Okla., S.D., Tenn., Texas and Wyo.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

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Several Republican governors have said they will not set up the exchanges, including Chris Christie (N.J.), Nikki Haley (S.C.), Bobby Jindal (La.), Scott Walker (Wis.), John Kasich (Ohio), Paul LePage (Maine), Robert Bentley (Ala.), Sean Parnell (Ark.), Jan Brewer (Ariz.), Nathan Deal (Ga.), Tom Corbett (Pa.), Sam Brownback (Kan.), Dave Heineman (Neb.), John Lynch (N.H.), Jack Dalrymple (N.D.), Mary Fallin (Okla.), Dennis Daugaard (S.D.), Bill Haslam (Tenn.), Rick Perry (Texas), and Matt Mead (Wyo.).

3 States Out, but a Little More Complicated -- Mont., Ind. and Mo.

The Montana outgoing and incoming governors are both Democrats, but the Republican state legislature rejected the Democratic state auditor's request to start setting up a state exchange. So a federal exchange will be set up in Montana as well.

The Indiana outgoing and incoming governors are both Republicans and outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels deferred the decision to governor-elect and U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, who said his preference is not to set up a state health care exchange, paving the way for the feds to come in too.

In Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon is a Democrat, but Prop E passed on Nov. 6, which barred his administration from creating a state-based exchange without a public vote or the approval of the state legislature. After the election, he sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services saying he would be unable to set up a state-based exchange, meaning the federal government would have to set up its own.

1 State Waiting for the White House -- Utah

Utah already has a state exchange set up, a Web-based tool where small-business employees can shop and compare health insurance with contributions from their employee. In a letter Republican Gov. Gary Herbert sent to the White House Tuesday, he asked for its exchange, called Avenue H, to be approved as a state-based exchange under the Affordable Care Act as long as state officials can open it to individuals and larger businesses.

Norm Thurston, the state's health reform implementation coordinator, says authorities there "haven't received an official response" from the White House, but "we anticipate getting one soon."

There are some sticking points that don't comply with the exchanges envisioned by the Affordable Care Act and Utah would like to keep it that way.

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Cultural exchange at National Gallery offers glimpse of Italian politics

On Wednesday morning, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata stood in front of Michelangelo’s David-Apollo in an atrium of the National Gallery of Art. The sculpture last graced the museum in 1949 as a post-World War II sign of friendship between the two countries. The statue — one of the master’s many unfinished works — was not the only unfinished project in the room.

By the end of the month, Terzi di Sant’Agata will most likely be out of a job and the administration he serves will be out of power.

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Unsafe ride-on animal toy recalled

SINGAPORE: SPRING Singapore has found that a toy given out as a free gift contains unsafe levels of phthalates, commonly used as a plasticiser in toys.

The free gift comes in the shape of cows, deers and ponies.

SPRING had sent samples of the toy for testing in response to a consumer's complaint.

As a precaution, SPRING had asked the retailer Aura Roboclean Singapore Pte Ltd to immediately stop distributing the product.

The retailer is contacting customers who were given the toys to stop using them and dispose of them immediately, or return them to the company.

So far, between 300 and 400 toy animals have been given out.

- CNA/ck

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Chilkur temple stage for Pandit Shankar’s secret wedding

HYDERABAD: For the older priests of the Balaji temple in Chilkur, the news of Pandit Ravi Shankar's sudden demise brought back vivid memories of the day he landed in Hyderabad and paid them a quiet visit, taking them all by surprise.

Not many people know but the sitar maestro married Sukanya Devi, mother of Anoushka Shankar in 1989 at the very temple, when it was frequented by only a handful of devotees.

"They came in a car on that day with their own purohit and nobody had even a faint idea that the marriage of a celebrity was going to take place," said M V Soundara Rajan, hereditary trustee of the Chilkur Balaji temple . "The temple authorities were not informed beforehand. It was a very low-key and simple affair bereft of any celebrity wedding. The marriage ritual was finished within an hour and the guests left soon," recalls Rajan, whose 99-year-old uncle C M Srinivasa Raghava Chary performed the marriage. The maestro, according to temple authorities, was a big devotee of Balaji and had visited the temple several times. Popularly known as the "visa god" as students pray there before applying for visa counseling, the temple witnesses over 5000 people visiting it every day.

Back in the days, the temple was very popular among members of Gujarati and Marwari community from the city who were ardent devotees of the lord.

A Gujarati businessman from the city, who was the patron of the temple, was instrumental in getting Ravi Shankar married here, priests say. "Ravi Shankar was a close friend of a Gujarati devotee who used to visit our temple. Probably this was the reason why he chose this temple. He had accompanied Ravi Shankar and his would-be wife to the temple that day," Rajan recalled.

Soundara Rajan also remembered the Gujarati devotee, whose name he does not remember , speaking of organizing a benefit programme with Ravi Shankar and promising to donate its proceeds to the development of the temple. "But our family had rejected that idea since we did not want any monetary help raised through such programmes since we consider this as a service," he said.

Recalling the marriage, priests said the marriage at this temple would have been confidential and not known to many had it not been for a lucky reporter who stumbled on the information . "Only after the news was splashed many knew that he had visited the city" a priest said.

According to them, Ravi Shankar also chose the temple as he was also a devotee of Chilkur Balaji. "He seemed to have visited the temple before and after the marriage."

C S Rangarajan, chief priest of the temple and son of Soundara Rajan recalled his conversation on this topic with his grandfather , who was the in-charge of the temple then. "This temple might have been chosen because it was quiet and hardly visited by any devotees. He had visited again in 2009 which showed he had faith in Chilkur Balaji," Rangarajan added.

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Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy

The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.

The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang.

"This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist Richard Ellis with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Rather, galaxies appear to have been formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Ellis led a team that used Hubble to look at one small section of the sky for a hundred hours. The grainy images of faint galaxies include one researchers determined to be from a period 380 million years after the onset of the universe—the closest in time to the Big Bang ever observed.

The cosmos is about 13.7 billion years old, so the newly discovered galaxy was present when the universe was 4 percent of its current age. The other six galaxies were sending out light from between 380 million and 600 million years after the Big Bang. (See pictures of "Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries.")

Baby Pictures

The images are "like the first ultrasounds of [an] infant," said Abraham Loeb, a specialist in the early cosmos at Harvard University. "These are the building blocks of the galaxies we now have."

These early galaxies were a thousand times denser than galaxies are now and were much closer together as well, Ellis said. But they were also less luminous than later galaxies.

The team used a set of four filters to analyze the near infrared wavelengths captured by Hubble Wide Field Camera 3, and estimated the galaxies' distances from Earth by studying their colors. At a NASA teleconference, team members said they had pushed Hubble's detection capabilities about as far as they could go and would most likely not be able to identify galaxies from further back in time until the James Webb Space Telescope launches toward the end of the decade. (Learn about the Hubble telescope.)

"Although we may have reached back as far as Hubble will see, Hubble has set the stage for Webb," said team member Anton Koekemoer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "Our work indicates there is a rich field of even earlier galaxies that Webb will be able to study."

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McAfee Lands in Miami: I'm Free

Software mogul John McAfee has been released from detention in Guatemala City and has landed in Miami.

Immediately upon landing, according to passengers on the plane, McAfee's name was called and he was whisked off the aircraft. Federal officials escorted the 67-year-old Internet antivirus pioneer through customs spirit him out a side door, out of the view of reporters, according to Miami International Airport's communication director, Greg Chin.

It was not clear whether officials intended to help McAfee avoid the inevitable media circus or wanted to question him. However, he has not been charged with committing a crime in Guatemala or Belize, where the authorities have sought to question him about the murder of his neighbor.

McAfee's departure from Guatemala came earlier today.

"They took me out of my cell and put me on a freaking airplane," he told ABC News. "I had no choice in the matter."

McAfee said, however, that Guatemalan authorities had been "nice" and that his exit from the Central American country was "not at all" unpleasant.

"It was the most gracious expulsion I've ever experienced," he said. "Compared to my past two wives that expelled me this isn't a terrible trip."

McAfee said he would not be accompanied by his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend, but is seeking a visa for her. He also said he had retained a lawyer in the U.S.

Guatemala's National Police/AP Photo

John McAfee Arrested in Guatemala Overnight Watch Video

Software Founder Breaks Silence: McAfee Speaks on Murder Allegations Watch Video

When he was released earlier today, McAfee told the Associated Press, "I'm free. ... I'm going to America."

McAfee, who had been living in a beachfront house in Belize, went on the run after the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull. Belize police said they wanted to question McAfee about the murder, but McAfee said he feared for his life in Belizean custody.

He entered Guatemala last week seeking asylum, but was arrested and taken to an immigration detention center. He was taken to the hospital after suffering a nervous collapse and then returned to the detention center. The U.S. State Department has visited McAfee, who is a dual U.S.-British citizen, several times during his stay in Guatemala.

During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.

He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.

Investigators in Belize said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of Faull, a former developer who was found shot in the head in his house.

McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

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Birds, fish replace queen on Fiji currency

SUVA: Fiji dropped the image of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II from a new range of bank notes and coins, replacing her with plants and animals native to the Pacific island state.

Fiji President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said on Wednesday the new currency was a milestone for the former British colony, which became independent in 1970 and declared itself a republic in 1987 following a military coup.

Nailatikau said the royal family had featured on Fiji's currency since 1934 but it was time for the country to move on and introduce new coins and notes, which will enter circulation in January.

"With the new series comes a little sadness for many of us," he said.

"We will witness a historical change. A change involving much feeling and sentiment and representing an emotional severance of a link to the British crown.

"But it is a change that is necessary. Our notes and coins will no longer feature the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II -- some will liken this to the dawning of a new era."

He said Fiji was "forever grateful" to the royal family for allowing it to use their likenesses on the currency, adding: "It is now time to move forward as we strive to create our own identity synonymous to what Fiji is all about."

Images on the polymer bank notes include the rare kulawai lorikeet, the beli fish and the tagimoucia flower, while the coins depict flying foxes, parrots and the banded iguana.

Reserve Bank governor Barry Whiteside said the new currency was more relevant to Fiji and would encourage pride in its environment.

"We've been a republic for 25 years, which means the queen has not been our head of state for 25 years," he said.

"We're just looking at the natural wonders around us and trying to reflect that in this issue."

- AFP/ck

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India successfully tests nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-I missile

Bhubaneswar: India Wednesday carried out a successful test of its nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-I missile from a military base in Odisha, an official said.

The intermediate-range ballistic missile, which can strike a target 700 km away, was tested from a facility on Wheeler Island near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, 170 km from here.

The test was carried out by the Strategic Forces Command of the Indian armed forces as part of a training exercise to ensure preparedness, director of the Integrated Test Range, M.V.K.V. Prasad, said.

"The mission was successful," he said.

Scientists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which developed the missile, witnessed and supervised the test, Prasad added.

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory

This image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.

To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.

"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge.

Full story>>

Why We Love It

"I like the way this view of the Milky Way also shows us a compelling foreground landscape. It also hints at the astronomy problems caused by light pollution."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published December 11, 2012

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Shooter Kills Self After Oregon Mall Rampage

A masked gunman opened fire today at Clackamas Town Center, a mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two people, injuring one, and then killing himself.

"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound," Lt. James Rhodes of the Clackamas County, Ore., Sheriff's Department said today. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."

Police have not released the names of the deceased. Rhodes said authorities are in the process of notifying victims' families. The injured victim has been transported to a local hospital.

Rhodes described the shooter as an adult male.

Witnesses from the shooting rampage said that a young man in a white hockey mask and bulletproof vest tore through the Macy's, food court, and mall hallways firing rounds at shoppers beginning around 3:30 p.m. PT today.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the busy mall full of holiday shoppers after the shooting began.

READ: Guns in America: A Statistical Look

911 Calls From New Jersey Supermarket Shooting Watch Video

The gunman entered the mall through a Macy's store, ran through the upper level of Macy's and opened fire near the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after another, with what is believed to be a black, semiautomatic rifle, according to witness reports.

Katie Tate said she was in the parking lot of the mall when she saw the shooter run by, wearing a mask and carrying a machine gun, headed for the Macy's.

"He looked like a teenager wearing a gun, like a bullet-proof vest and he had a machine, like an assault rifle and a white mask and he looked at me," she said.

Witnesses described the shooter as being on a mission and determined, looking straight ahead. He then seemed to walk through the mall toward the other end of the building, shooting along the way, according to witness reports.

Those interviewed said that Macy's shoppers and store employees huddled in a dressing room to avoid being found.

"I was helping a customer in the middle of the store, her and her granddaughter and while we were looking at sweatshirts we heard five to seven shots from a machine gun fire just outside my store," Jacob Rogers, a store clerk, told ABC affiliate KATU-TV in Portland.

"We moved everyone into the back room where there's no access to outside but where there's a camera so we can monitor what's going on out front," Rogers said.

Evan Walters, an employee at a store in the mall, told ABC News Radio that he was locked in a store for his safety and he saw two people shot and heard multiple gunshots.

"It was over 20, and it was kind of surreal because we hear pops and loud noises," he said. "We're next to the food court here and we hear pops and loud noises all the time, but we don't -- nothing like that. It was very definite gunshots."

Police are tracing the weapon used in the shooting.

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All politicians aren't criminals: Sukhbir Badal

AMRITSAR: Completely disowning the leaders of his Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) found to be involved in recent criminal activities, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal, who on Monday visited the house of ASI Ravinderpal Singh, who was shot dead by an Akali leader, said all politicians are not criminals.

"If some low rung Akali leader or his remote relative was is involved in some criminal case, it doesn't mean that all Akalis are criminals," he said.

"And in these particular cases they were very low level leaders whom we never knew," said Badal adding that wherever required, the party would re-examine its enrolments.

About Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, arrested in the Ponty Chadha murder case, Sukhbir said he had ordered registration of FIR and detailed investigations against him.

Badal also asked the Amritsar deputy commissioner of police to probe about the presence of policemen at the spot when the shooting happened. "Amritsar commissioner of police would finalize this report by 9am tomorrow and erring policemen would be straightway dismissed for running away from their duty," said Sukhbir.

He issued these instructions after meeting the family members of slain Ravinderpal Singh at their residence at Rampura village. He said the commissioner of police has also been asked to probe the conspiracy angle in the killing of ASI as the victim girl complained she was deliberately targeted by accused Ranjit Singh Rana, as she was daughter of ASI.

She complained to Sukhbir that when her scooter was hit by them on the first instance they had uttered that she was a daughter of thanedar and on second occasion also they pointed out that she was the same girl, daughter of thanedar.

"Commissioner of Police would examine the fact that whether there was a conspiracy to eliminate ASI," Sukhbir said. He also issued instructions to the district president of SAD to probe that who recommended the induction of Rana in the SAD fold and strict action would be taken against that person. He said the state government had already decided to enlist Robinjit Kaur, the daughter of the deceased, as sub-inspector in Punjab Police keeping in view the exemplary bravery shown by her.

He said he had already issued orders to provide two security guards permanently to the family.

Was Rana high on drugs?

Was Ranjit Singh Rana, the main accused in the killing of Assistant Sub-Inspector Ravinderpal Singh, under the influence of drugs when he confronted Singh and his daughter on December 5 near Chheharata? Rana had also ignored the advice of his co-accused to not harass policeman's daughter but he didn't listen to them. According to sources, Rana who allegedly used to sell and consume heroin was under the influence of the drugs.

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Woman Gets Life for Lottery Winner's Murder

DeeDee Moore, the Tampa woman accused of swindling and then killing lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare, was found guilty today of first degree murder and other charges, after she declined to take the stand and the defense rested without calling a single witness.

In addition to the murder charge, Moore was also found guilty of possessing and discharging a firearm resulting in death. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty in the case, and Moore was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

"After trial and listening to all of this over two weeks, words that were said cool, calculated, manipulated. Abraham Shakespeare was your prey and victim. Money was the route of evil you brought to Abraham. You are sentenced to life in prison you shall not be elegible for parole," Judge Emmet Battles said.

Jurors deliberated for more than three hours Monday before delivering their verdict.

Prosecutors argued that Moore, 40, befriended Shakespeare before he vanished in April 2009 after he'd won $30 million in the Florida lottery. After Shakespeare had given away most of his money to people who simply asked for it, Moore agreed to manage the little he had left, but instead, prosecutors said, stole his winnings and killed him.

During a dramatic trial Moore has broken down in tears several times, and at one point said that she went into anaphylactic shock while in custody after taking the drug Bactrim when she was having problems with cuts on her ankles from being cuffed every day.

Early today the defense announced it would rest its case without calling any witnesses. Moore did not testify during her trial.

Jay Conner/The Tampa Tribune/AP Photo

Florida Lotto Murder Trial: Bizarre Moments Watch Video

Florida Lottery Murder Trial: Letters to Victim's Family Watch Video

Dee Dee Moore Trial: Woman Accused of Murdering Lottery Winner Watch Video

"There is no witness that can say she ever admitted to doing the killing or participating as a principle in helping anyone else do the killing," Moore's defense attorney Byron Hileman said today.

In the courtroom this morning, Moore's friend, former inmate Rose Condora was accused of threatening witnesses by Tampa Judge Emmett Battles, and was thrown out of the courtroom.

Authorities say Shakespeare, 47, was shot twice in the chest by a .38-caliber pistol sometime in April 2009. He wasn't reported missing until November 2009. His body was found under a slab of cement in a backyard in January 2010.

Polk County authorities claim Moore offered someone a $200,000 house in exchange for reporting a false sighting of Shakespeare. She also allegedly sent the victim's son $5,000 in cash for his birthday, and used the victim's cellphone to send text messages purportedly from him.

Shakespeare's mother, Elizabeth Walker, also testified that Moore tried to hide that her son was missing, and said that he had AIDS.

Sentorria Butler, Shakespeare's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child, also testified. Butler told the court last week that Moore is a divisive and manipulative woman who told her Shakespeare "ran off with the lady from the bank."

During the trial, jurors also watched a Walmart surveillance video that the prosecution said links Moore to Shakespeare's killing. The footage shows Moore making a $104 cash purchase of gloves, duct tape, plastic sheeting and other items detectives later found close to where Shakespeare's body was buried.

Jurors hearing the case also heard a rambling two-page letter that witness Greg Smith, a police informant who was a former friend of Shakespeare and supposed friend of Moore, says Moore allegedly forged while at a Comfort Inn & Suites in Lakeland, Fla.

The letter was meant to appear to be from Shakespeare, prosecutors said. They say the letter was a ruse to convince Shakespeare's mother that he was still alive. Moore attempted to cover her tracks while it was written, according to prosecutors.

During the trial, jurors had to be accompanied by a security escort into the courtroom after they told the judge Smith and Shakespeare's family and friends were making them feel uncomfortable outside the courthouse. None of the jurors had to be excused by the judge.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The right to petition the White House prompts grievances, gags online

Forget the “fiscal cliff”: When it comes to the nation’s most pressing concerns, other matters trump financial calamity.

Several thousand Americans, for example, are calling on President Obama to nationalize the troubled Twinkies industry to prevent the loss of the snack cake’s “sweet creamy center.”

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N. Korea replacing faulty rocket stage: report

SEOUL: North Korea is replacing a faulty section of a long-range rocket in a bid to put its launch schedule back on track, and is receiving help from Iranian missile experts, a South Korean newspaper reported Monday.

North Korea had said Sunday it was considering delaying the launch -- slated for some time between December 10-22 -- because of unspecified "problems" uncovered by technicians at its Sohae satellite launch station.

But the Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Monday cited new satellite images that suggested the faulty component was being replaced to allow the launch to go ahead.

"A new third stage of the North's three-stage missile Unha-3 was seen being moved Saturday afternoon from a missile plant... towards the launch site," the newspaper quoted an unidentified government source as saying.

The South's Yonhap news agency quoted a separate government source as saying a component was being moved but that it was unclear what kind.

"We have yet to analyse information that it is a third stage of the rocket or other parts," the Yonhap source said.

North Korea says the rocket launch is a peaceful mission aimed at putting a satellite in orbit.

The United States and its allies view it as a disguised ballistic missile test banned under UN resolutions prompted by the North's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

In a separate report Monday, the Chosun Ilbo -- known for its comprehensive North Korean coverage -- said a group of Iranian missile experts was in North Korea offering technical assistance for the planned launch.

The Iranians were invited after Pyongyang's last rocket launch in April ended in failure, the newspaper said, citing a Seoul government official.

"A car seen at the... launch site has been spotted driving back and forth from the accommodation facility nearby. It is believed to be carrying Iranian experts," the official said.

Earlier this month, Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a western diplomatic source as saying Iran had stationed defence personnel in North Korea since October to strengthen cooperation in missile and nuclear development.

North Korea and Iran are both subject to international sanctions over their nuclear activities and their governments share a deep hostility towards the United States.

Leaked US diplomatic cables in 2010 showed that US officials believe Iran has acquired ballistic missile parts from North Korea. A 2011 UN sanctions report said the two countries were suspected of sharing ballistic missile technology.

On Sunday, the North's Korean Committee of Space Technology said its scientists were "seriously examining the issue of readjusting the launching time of the satellite for some reasons."

The committee gave no further details, but analysts suggested potential technical troubles. A US think-tank, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said Friday that preparations may have been delayed by heavy snow.

Some analysts said the new leader, Kim Jong-Un, may have been rushing the event to mark the first anniversary of the death of his father and former leader Kim Jong-Il on December 17.

- AFP/ck

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

Shreya Roy Chowdhury, TNN Dec 8, 2012, 06.12AM IST

MUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the debate—that the Indian attitude to China was influenced by a mix of ignorance, cautious optimism about partnerships and a whole lot of misguided paranoia. "Don't demonise the Chinese, please," Guha finally said in response to a question.

"China has existed in our imaginations," observed Sunil Khilnani, professor of politics and author of The Idea Of India. "There's been very little sustained engagement with the reality of China and very little of our own produced knowledge about China." It was after the events of 1962 ('war' in the popular imagination, 'skirmish' to the scholars participating in the discussion), explained Khilnani, that a miffed India "withdrew". It's the 50th anniversary of that exchange this year, and "what we haven't been able to do is learn from the defeat", observed Khilnani. Both could have benefited from greater engagement. "China has had a very clear focus on primary education and achieved high levels of literacy before its economic rise. It has also addressed the issue of land reform," said Khilnani. Guha added that China could learn from the "religious, cultural and linguistic pluralism" in India.

But China and India weren't always so out of sync with each other. Srinath Raghavan, a scholar of military history, got both Guha and Khilnani to talk about pre-1962 relations between the two when the picture was rosier. Tagore was interested in China and so was Gandhi. Both were very large countries with large populations and shared what Guha calls a "lack of cultural inferiority". "They were both," he continued, "also heavily dependent on peasant communities." Nehru was appreciative of China's will to modernize and industrialize and its adoption of technology to achieve those ends. In turn, Chinese politicians argued for Indian independence.

Things soured more, feel both Khilnani and Guha, after the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. "He was welcomed here as a spiritual leader but the intensification of the conflict dates to the Dalai Lama's flight," said Guha. Both Guha and Khilnani argued that Nehru's decision to not react aggressively to China's occupation of Tibet was, in the long run, the right one and prevented further "militarization" of the region. An audience member wondered if that didn't make India "China's puppet". Guha disagreed. "If there's a Tibetan culture alive today," he said, "it's not because of Richard Gere. Don't believe in the hypocrisy of the Western countries. Will they give them land, employment, dignified refuge? The Tibetans is one of the few cases in which our record is honorable."

But the difference in levels of development and the lopsided trade relations between the two countries have only fuelled the suspicions many Indians seem to harbour about China. People were worried, said Guha, even about cricket balls made in China. Audience questions reflected those worries. A member asked about China's "strategy to conquer the world" and its likely impact on India. Guha cautioned against stereotypes; Khilnani explained, "History is littered with the debris of states that have tried to dominate the world. What we're doing may be more long-lasting."

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Plants Grow Fine Without Gravity

When researchers sent plants to the International Space Station in 2010, the flora wasn't meant to be decorative. Instead, the seeds of these small, white flowers—called Arabidopsis thaliana—were the subject of an experiment to study how plant roots developed in a weightless environment.

Gravity is an important influence on root growth, but the scientists found that their space plants didn't need it to flourish. The research team from the University of Florida in Gainesville thinks this ability is related to a plant's inherent ability to orient itself as it grows. Seeds germinated on the International Space Station sprouted roots that behaved like they would on Earth—growing away from the seed to seek nutrients and water in exactly the same pattern observed with gravity. (Related: "Beyond Gravity.")

Since the flowers were orbiting some 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth at the time, the NASA-funded experiment suggests that plants still retain an earthy instinct when they don't have gravity as a guide.

"The role of gravity in plant growth and development in terrestrial environments is well understood," said plant geneticist and study co-author Anna-Lisa Paul, with the University of Florida in Gainesville. "What is less well understood is how plants respond when you remove gravity." (See a video about plant growth.)

The new study revealed that "features of plant growth we thought were a result of gravity acting on plant cells and organs do not actually require gravity," she added.

Paul and her collaborator Robert Ferl, a plant biologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, monitored their plants from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida using images sent from the space station every six hours.

Root Growth

Grown on a nutrient-rich gel in clear petri plates, the space flowers showed familiar root growth patterns such as "skewing," where roots slant progressively as they branch out.

"When we saw the first pictures come back from orbit and saw that we had most of the skewing phenomenon we were quite surprised," Paul said.

Researchers have always thought that skewing was the result of gravity's effects on how the root tip interacts with the surfaces it encounters as it grows, she added. But Paul and Ferl suspect that in the absence of gravity, other cues take over that enable the plant to direct its roots away from the seed and light-seeking shoot. Those cues could include moisture, nutrients, and light avoidance.

"Bottom line is that although plants 'know' that they are in a novel environment, they ultimately do just fine," Paul said.

The finding further boosts the prospect of cultivating food plants in space and, eventually, on other planets.

"There's really no impediment to growing plants in microgravity, such as on a long-term mission to Mars, or in reduced-gravity environments such as in specialized greenhouses on Mars or the moon," Paul said. (Related: "Alien Trees Would Bloom Black on Worlds With Double Stars.")

The study findings appear in the latest issue of the journal BMC Plant Biology.

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Fiscal Cliff Talks: Boehner, Obama Meet Face-to-Face

For the first time in more than three weeks, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met face-to-face today at the White House to talk about avoiding the fiscal cliff.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest would offer no details saying only, "The lines of communication remain open."

Erskine Bowles, the co-creator of a debt reducing plan, who was pessimistic a couple weeks ago, said he likes what he's hearing.

"Any time you have two guys in there tangoing, you have a chance to get it done," Bowles said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

The White House afternoon talks, conducted without cameras or any announcement until they were over, came as some Republicans were showing more flexibility about approving higher tax rates for the wealthy, one of the president's demands to keep the country from the so-called fiscal cliff -- a mixture of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that many economists say would send the country back into recession.

Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

Fiscal Cliff Battle: President Obama vs. Speaker John Boehner Watch Video

"Let's face it. He does have the upper hand on taxes. You have to pass something to keep it from happening," Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said on "FOX News Sunday."

This comes after the White House moderated one of its demands about tax rate increases for the wealthy.

The administration was demanding the rate return to its former level of 39.6 percent on income above $250,000. The so-called Bush tax cut set that rate at 35 percent. But Friday, Vice President Joe Biden signaled that rate could be negotiable, somewhere between the two.

"So will I accept a tax increase as a part of a deal to actually solve our problems? Yes," said Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn on ABC's "This Week."

The problems the senator was referring to are the country's entitlement programs. And there was some progress on that front, too.

A leading Democrat said means testing for Medicare recipients could be a way to cut costs to the government health insurance program. Those who make more money would be required to pay more for Medicare.

"I do believe there should be means testing, and those of us with higher income and retirement should pay more. That could be part of the solution," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

But Durbin said he would not favor raising the eligibility age from 65 years old to 67 years old, as many Republicans have suggested.

The White House and the speaker's office released the exact same statement about the negotiating session. Some will see that as a sign of progress, that neither side is talking about what was said behind closed doors.

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