Sahara hostage holders make new threat

ALGIERS (Reuters) - At least 18 foreign hostages were unaccounted for on Friday and their al-Qaeda-linked captors threatened to attack other energy installations after Algerian forces stormed a desert gas complex to free hundreds of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths. With Western leaders clamoring for details of a raid they said Algeria had launched on Thursday without consulting...

Read More..

Authorities checking on property agents who evade stamp duty

SINGAPORE: Channel NewsAsia understands authorities are conducting spot checks on at least seven property developers to find out if they have backdated their documents.It has been about a week since the latest round of property cooling measures kicked in.Among the changes is an increase in Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty of five to seven percentage points across the board.In a bid to help...

Read More..

Respect alliances, but don't compromise on Congress's revival: Sonia

JAIPUR: With the Lok Sabha polls just a little more than a year away, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said party's revival in weak states should not be compromised at the altar of alliance politics. In a candid admission in her opening speech at the 2-day "chintan shivir" (brainstorming conclave) that Congress was facing "increased competition and inroads" into its traditional base, she...

Read More..

Food servers more vulnerable to legal threats

WASHINGTON (AP) — People with severe food allergies have a new tool in their attempt to find menus that fit their diet: federal disabilities law. And that could leave schools, restaurants and anyplace else that serves food more vulnerable to legal challenges over food sensitivities.A settlement stemming from a lack of gluten-free foods available to students at a Massachusetts university could serve...

Read More..

Armstrong Admits to Doping, 'One Big Lie'

Lance Armstrong, formerly cycling's most decorated champion and considered one of America's greatest athletes, confessed to cheating for at least a decade, admitting on Thursday that he owed all seven of his Tour de France titles and the millions of dollars in endorsements that followed to his use of illicit performance-enhancing drugs.After years of denying that he had taken...

Read More..

Many dead at site of Algerian kidnapping

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Many people were killed when Algerian forces opened fire on a vehicle at a remote gas plant where gunmen were holding dozens of Western hostages, a resident of the locality and Arab news reports said on Thursday. The resident, who asked not to be identified, said there were many bodies at the scene. He did not give firm numbers of the dead or say whether they were...

Read More..

Cycling: IOC asks Armstrong to return Olympic medal

LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday asked disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong to return the Olympic bronze medal from the time-trial event at the 2000 Games in Sydney.The IOC had written to Armstrong late Wednesday to ask him hand back the medal, IOC spokesman Mark Adams told AFP.The IOC had to wait for world cycling's governing body to sanction Armstrong,...

Read More..

PHRO and Verka residents demands shifting of inquiry

AMRITSAR: Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) and residents of Verka have demanded CBI probe into the kidnapping and killing of a 9-year- old boy Gurkeerat Singh.Principal Investigator of PHRO, Sarabjit Singh Verka informed on Thursday that they had submitted a application with Amritsar police commissioner Ram Singh demanding that the investigation of the case should be transferred to CBI....

Read More..

Large study confirms flu vaccine safe in pregnancy

NEW YORK (AP) — A large study offers reassuring news for pregnant women: It's safe to get a flu shot.The research found no evidence that the vaccine increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths. Getting the flu while pregnant makes fetal death more likely, the Norwegian research showed.The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health...

Read More..

Notre Dame: Football Star Was 'Catfished' in Hoax

Notre Dame's athletic director and the star of its near-championship football team said the widely-reported death of the star's girlfriend from leukemia during the 2012 football season was apparently a hoax, and the player said he was duped by it as well.Manti Te'o, who led the Fighting Irish to the BCS championship game this year and finished second for the Heisman Trophy,...

Read More..