Bus crash kills two at Miami airport

Travelling at 20mph, the bus smashed into a bridge by the arrivals area.
The large white bus was too tall for the 8ft 6" entrance to the area, said airport spokesman Greg Chin. Buses are supposed to go through the departures area, which has a higher ceiling, he said.
Three people were at hospitals in critical condition. The other 27 passengers had been hurt, but their injuries were less extensive, authorities said.

Police revealed that the passengers on the bus were all Jehovah's Witnesses travelling from Miami to a conference in West Palm Beach. Jehovah's Witnesses' religious beliefs do not allow them to accept blood transfusions - potentially a critical factor in the treatment of those who suffered major injuries.
Fire trucks and police cars swarmed the area on Saturday morning, and the bus was blocked off by yellow police tape.

Dubai-style atoll 'to be built in the Adriatic'

The atoll, which would be a kilometre in diameter, would consist of hotels, villas, shops, parks and a deepwater port to service cruise ships plying the Adriatic between Venice and countries like Montenegro, Greece and Croatia.
The artificial island, which would lie three nautical miles off the town of Riccione on the Adriatic riviera, would support a permanent population of 3,000.
It has inevitably invited comparisons with The World and the Palm Jumeirah, the artificial islands created off the coast of Dubai.
But backers of the Adriatic atoll say that it would not be a haunt of super-rich magnates and celebrities, but ordinary tourists.
The project is being pushed by authorities in Riccione, with technical expertise from Luca Emanueli, who runs a coastal research centre at the University of Ferrara.

St Andrew's Day celebrated with new Google Doodle

                                                                                                                            Photo:-Google
The traditional multi-coloured Google logo has been temporarily displaced with a tribute to Scotland created for St Andrew's Day on November 30, celebrated by those with Scots lineage all over the world.
St Andrew was a fisherman and one of the disciples of Jesus responsible for spreading the new faith throughout Asia Minor and Greece.

He was killed by the Romans in Patras, Greece, by being crucified on an X-shaped cross, the diagonal shape of which is said to be the basis for the Cross of St Andrew, which appears on the Saltire.
St Andrew is also the patron saint of fishmongers, singers, spinsters, maidens, old maids and women wishing to become mothers.

Two people win share of $580 million Powerball lottery

The numbers drawn on Wednesday night are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.
A lottery official said late Wednesday that the jackpot increased to $579.9 million by the time of the drawing.

The drawing Wednesday night's prize followed 16 consecutive drawings that produced no top winner, boosting the Powerball to become the second-largest potential lottery payout in US history.

Tickets were selling at an average of 130,000 a minute across the United States in the hours before the drawing, said Chuck Strutt, executive director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs the Powerball game. That equates to players buying 7.8 million tickets an hour, spending $15.6 million an hour for a chance at the huge jackpot.

The huge sales volume, which was about six times the rate of the week before, prompted game officials to boost the jackpot twice in two days.


There had been no Powerball winner since Oct. 6, and the jackpot was initially posted at $425 million, which was a record for the game. However, it was revised upward on Tuesday to $500 million when brisk sales increased the payout.

New York records rare day with no violent crime

From 10.25pm on Sunday until 11.20am on Tuesday, no gun crime or knife attacks were reported to police, marking the most peaceful 24 hours in the Big Apple in decades.
Just once gun shot was reported to the authorities, but the incident involved a 16-year-old accidentally shooting himself in the thigh.
Paul Browne, a police spokesman for the city, told the New York Daily News that lull in violent crime was a nice way to start the week.
While days without any serious violent crime are rare, the number of murders in New York have been steadily falling. So far there have been 366 murders in the city this year, compared to 472 in 2011. If the trend continues, the city is on track to record its lowest murder rate since 1960. New York's murder rate hit a peak of 2,245 in 1990 before a concerted effort by the mayor's office to clean up the streets with a zero tolerance policy on crime.

Source: New York Daily News, AP

Via:-Telegraph

Afghanistan: teenage girl killed by spurned suitors

The girl, Geesa, was attacked earlier this week by two men from the spurned family as she went to collect water from a stream in her village in northern Afghanistan.
The attack came after her father, Mohammad Rahim, had turned down a marriage offer for the girl, saying she was too young to be engaged.

"At this stage it looks like they wanted to marry her and the father refused, so they killed her," said Syed Sarwar Hosseini, police spokesman for Kunduz province.

Two men, named as Massoud and Sadeq, have been arrested on suspicion of the murder, in Kulkul village of Imam Sahib district, he said. The two men were relatives of Geesa and lived in the same village.
The provincial director of women's affairs said the province had been hit by a wave of violence against women.


Nadira Giah said 11 girls and women had been killed this year, up fivefold from last year.
In January, a young woman was reportedly murdered in the province by her husband and her mother-in-law for giving birth to a daughter. The 22-year-old woman called Stori was strangled after giving birth to a third daughter, when her husband wanted a son.

Source:-Telegraph

Two bombs kill 28 people in Iraq Shi'ite cities

HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - Bombs in two majority Shi'ite Muslim cities in southern Iraq killed 28 people on Thursday, police and hospital sources said.

Scores were wounded in the blasts, which struck during a month Ashura, a holy month for Shi'ites who are often targeted by al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Muslim insurgents.

Two explosions near a restaurant in the city of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, killed 26 people.
In the city of Kerbala, a car bomb near a bus terminal where Shi'ite pilgrims usually gather killed another two people, a spokesman for the local health office said.

Violence in Iraq has eased since the carnage of 2006-2007, but Sunni Islamists still launch frequent attacks, seeking to reignite sectarian strife and undermine the Shi'ite-led government's efforts to provide security.
On Tuesday, car bombs targeting Shi'ites in mourning processions killed 14 people in Baghdad.
(Reporting by Ali al-Rubaie; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source:-Yahoo News

U.N. set for implicit recognition of Palestinian state, despite U.S., Israel threats

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly is set to implicitly recognize a sovereign state of Palestine on Thursday despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding much-needed funds for the West Bank government.

A Palestinian resolution that would change the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican, is expected to pass easily in the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly.
Israel, the United States and a handful of other members are planning to vote against what they see as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been leading the campaign to win support for the resolution, and over a dozen European governments have offered him their support after an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.

Syria launches air strikes as combat rages in Damascus

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian war planes attacked towns in the country's north and east and killed at least five civilians in a strike on an olive oil press as fighting raged in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, opposition activists said.

The latest fighting follows recent battlefield gains by the rebels in their struggle to topple President Bashar al-Assad, but it is far from clear if a strategic breakthrough is likely.
More than 90 people were killed on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group.

Rebels trying to make inroads into the capital battled government forces in the suburb of Kfar Souseh on the edge of the centre of the capital, activists said.

In Aleppo province in the north, rebels shot down a military helicopter, according to video footage posted on YouTube that showed what appeared to be a missile hitting the aircraft.

Egyptians challenge Mursi in nationwide protests

CAIRO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied on Tuesday against President Mohamed Mursi in one of the biggest outpourings of protest since Hosni Mubarak's overthrow, accusing the Islamist leader of seeking to impose a new era of autocracy.
Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets near the main protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square, heart of the uprising that toppled Mubarak last year. Clashes between Mursi's opponents and supporters erupted in a city north of Cairo.

But violence could not overshadow the show of strength by the normally divided opponents of Islamists in power, posing Mursi with the biggest challenge in his five months in office.

"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir chanted, echoing slogans used in the 2011 revolt.

Protesters also turned out in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and other Nile Delta cities.
Tuesday's unrest by leftists, liberals and other groups deepened the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed the deep divide between the newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

SEC's Walter may take similar path to ally Schapiro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the past four years, Elisse Walter stood out at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for her deep loyalty to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro.
Now the veteran regulator and SEC commissioner - one of two Democrats on the SEC - is moving to the fore at the powerful agency, taking over the chairmanship after Schapiro steps down next month. The promotion is prompting regulatory watchers to talk about whether Walter will blaze her own path.
"She has been very loyal to Mary Schapiro, and there are times when I thought she prioritized her loyalty to Mary over sometimes even her own positions on an issue," said Barbara Roper, the director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America.

"It will be interesting to see what she is like when she comes out of Mary's shadow. Will it be more of the same? Or ... will her own style and views become more apparent?"
Walter's and Schapiro's strong working relationship has carried through their closely intertwined career paths to their nearly uniform agreement on controversial regulations.

'Two and a Half Men' actor apologizes

NEW YORK (AP) — Teenage actor Angus T. Jones of the comedy "Two and a Half Men" apologized Tuesday for a series of interviews denouncing his own show, an episode that has rivaled former colleague Charlie Sheen's meltdown as an off-screen oddity.
Speaking to religious media outlets, the 19-year-old Jones has called the CBS comedy "filth" and "very inappropriate" and talked about how his religious awakening has affected his attitude toward life and work.
"Two and a Half Men," television's third most popular comedy, remains heavy on sexual innuendo even with Ashton Kutcher replacing bad-boy Sheen following his firing for drug use and a subsequent public meltdown. Jones, who started on the show when he was 10, plays Jake Harper, son of the uptight character portrayed by Emmy winner Jon Cryer.

Global first: Brit visits all 201 states without flying

A British adventurer has become the first person to travel to all 201 sovereign states in the world without flying, ending his four-year odyssey early Monday when he arrived in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.

Graham Hughes has used buses, boats, taxis, trains, and his own two feet – but never an airplane – to travel 160,000 miles in exactly 1,426 days, spending an average of less than $100 a week.
“I love travel, and I guess my reason for doing it was I wanted to see if this could be done, by one person traveling on a shoestring,” Mr. Hughes tells the Monitor Monday by telephone from Juba, South Sudan’s capital. “I think I also wanted to show that the world is not some big, scary place, but in fact is full of people who want to help you even if you are a stranger.”
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Hughes, 33, set out from his home in Liverpool in northern England on New Year’s Day 2009.
Since then, he has visited all 193 United Nations member states plus Taiwan, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo, Western Sahara, and the four home nations of the United Kingdom.

NASA Discovers Cracks in Deep-Space Orion Capsule

WASHINGTON — NASA's first orbital flight-model Orion crew capsule will have to be repaired before its planned 2014 debut after its aft bulkhead cracked during recent pressure testing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a NASA spokeswoman said Nov. 19.
The cracks were discovered during a proof pressure test the week of Nov. 5. Proof testing, in which a pressure vessel is subject to stresses greater than those it is expected to encounter during routine use, is one of the many preflight tests NASA is performing on Orion to certify the craft is safe for astronauts, agency spokeswoman Rachel Kraft said.
"The cracks are in three adjacent, radial ribs of this integrally machined, aluminum bulkhead," Kraft wrote in an email. "This hardware will be repaired and will not need to be remanufactured."
It took Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver about a year to make the vehicle that was damaged. Kraft did not say how long it would take to repair the capsule, built as part of a program intended to take astronauts to destinations beyond low Earth orbit. [Photos: NASA's Orion Spaceship Test Explained]

Arafat's grave opened for poison tests.....

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Forensic experts took samples from Yasser Arafat's buried corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered by Israeli agents using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium.
Palestinians witnessed the funeral of their hero and longtime leader eight years ago, but conspiracy theories surrounding his death have never been laid to rest.
Many are convinced their icon was the victim of a cowardly assassination, and may stay convinced whatever the outcome of this autopsy. But some in the city of Ramallah where he lies deplored the exhumation.
"This is wrong. After all this time, today they suddenly want to find out the truth?" said construction worker Ahmad Yousef, 31, who stopped to watch the disinterment, carried out behind a wall of blue plastic near the Palestinian presidency headquarters.

Mursi opponents rally in Cairo's Tahrir

CAIRO (Reuters) - Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fifth day on Tuesday, stepping up calls to scrap a decree they say threatens Egypt with a new era of autocracy.
The protest called by leftist, liberal and socialist groups marks an escalation of the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June and exposes the deep divide between newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.