Bomb hits school bus in Pakistan

"PESHAWAR: A bomb hit a school bus in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, killing a passerby and wounding two young girl students and two others, officials said.

Senior city administration official Siraj Ahmed said the bomb was placed in a dustbin on a roadside.

“When I saw the smoke, I ran toward my teachers at the back (of the bus). The teachers said ‘come, come’. So we got off the bus,” 6-year-old Eman, one of the wounded, said from a hospital where she was lying on a bed with her head bandaged.

The driver of the bus, who was also wounded said the bomb went off shortly after some of the teachers stepped off: “There was a sudden explosion. After that, I did not have my senses. I fell.”

Ahmed said one passerby was killed and the driver, two girl students and another passerby were wounded."

Bomb hits school bus in Pakistan - Arab News

Storms, snow, rains lash Mideast; Madinah valley being evacuated

JEDDAH/BEIRUT: Heavy rain, snow and fierce winds pummeled countries across the Middle East on Sunday for a second day, killing at least four people and wreaking havoc as a months-long drought came to a sudden, drastic end.

Saudi Arabia too braced for inclement weather as the Met office forecast heavy rains and thunderstorms in parts of the Kingdom.

Farm workers and company employees in Jazal Valley in Madinah’s Al-Ula principality have been asked to vacate the area immediately to ensure their safety following heavy rains there.

The Civil Defense gave the warning on Sunday after water levels rose at Jazal Dam. The Presidency for Meteorology and Environment (PME) predicted the possibility of heavy downpours, accompanied by lightning in many parts of the Kingdom on Monday, especially in the southwestern areas of Abha and Baha.

Hussein Al-Qahtani, spokesman for PME, said low temperatures were expected in the eastern and northern parts of the Kingdom, adding that surface winds in these areas would reduce visibility to less than three km, especially in areas between Hafr Al-Baten, Qassim and Rafha.

“We expect the speed of surface winds in the northern and central parts of Red Sea to reach 50 km an hour and waves to reach more than two meters high. It will be the same conditions in the northern part of Arabian Gulf,” the spokesman said.

Security authorities in the northern parts of the Kingdom have taken precautionary measures in anticipation of any incidents due to heavy rains and duststorms. Poor visibility is expected in Tabuk, Al-Jouf, Hail, and Northern Border Province as well as in the Kingdom’s northern, western, central and eastern parts, Al-Qahtani said.

Storms, snow, rains lash Mideast; Madinah valley being evacuated - Arab News

Summer weather for a winter festival

"A blinding winter sun and clear blue skies melted five-decade-old records around Los Angeles on Sunday, driving people to beaches and parks to soak up a winter heat wave that pushed temperatures into the upper 80s.

Thermometers at Los Angeles International Airport and UCLA broke records set in 1952. Long Beach, Burbank, Oxnard and Camarillo broke record highs set in the 1980s. In downtown Los Angeles, temperatures scraped a 115-year-old high of 86, but fell a degree short.

Revelers at the annual Winter Holiday Festival in downtown's Pershing Square were in blissful denial as scores of children lined up to sled down a 12-foot, 100-ton hill of snow, albeit the man-made version."

Summer weather for a winter festival - latimes.com

In Tax Benefits to the Middle, Political Lift for Obama

WASHINGTON — With the Senate poised to hold a key vote on Monday on the tax cut deal between President Obama and Republicans, the political jousting has focused on what the agreement does for the wealthy by extending all of the Bush-era tax rates, and for the unemployed, by continuing jobless aid.

But a hefty portion of the $858 billion tax package will benefit middle- and upper-middle-income Americans — precisely the demographic that felt neglected the last two years as the White House and Congress focused on the major health care law and on helping the unemployed and people facing foreclosure.

These new tax breaks are in addition to the cuts Mr. Obama had always planned to maintain on all but the highest incomes, and they could pay big political dividends to Mr. Obama and other Democrats in 2012 — a point that the president and some senior advisers are counting on, and one reason that they were willing to give in to Republican demands to extend all Bush-era tax rates.

In Tax Benefits to the Middle, Political Lift for Obama - NYTimes.com

I have got records, I did speak to Karkare: Digvijay

GUWAHATI/NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who created a flutter by stating that slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare was under threat from right-wing groups, today insisted that he has spoken to the police officer a few hours before the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in 2008 and he has proof of this.

"I have got records for that. Absolutely, I am firm on this. I did speak to him and I have stated that already," he told reporters in Guwahati.

"I am sure those who are saying that I did not talk to Karkare would be proved wrong," he later said.

Digvijay's remarks came following a media report which said that call records of Karkare's cell phone showed that he had neither called nor received a call from the Congress general secretary during that period.

As he came under fire, Digvijay had yesterday stuck to his stand that Karkare had spoken about threats from right-wing groups during the telephonic conversation with him.

I have got records, I did speak to Karkare: Digvijay - The Times of India

Fifa-South Africa

Johannesburg - Following a meeting with President Jacob Zuma, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter presented the 2010 FIFA World Cup Legacy Trust at Soccer City in Johannesburg. This trust will support a wide range of public benefit initiatives in the areas of football development, education, health and humanitarian activities in South Africa. The trust forms part of FIFA’s 2010 FIFA World Cup related legacy programmes and delivers on FIFA’s pledge to ensure that South Africans will continue to benefit from the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The trust amounts to USD 100 million, USD 80 million of which is being allocated directly to social community projects. The remaining USD 20 million was already provided to the South African Football Association (SAFA) in the build-up to the event for preparations and for the construction of SAFA House. As a first project financed by the trust, FIFA purchased 35 of the team buses and a fleet of 52 cars, which were handed over to SAFA today for transport of their regional teams.

The trust will be administered by international auditing company Ernst and Young while the trustees, consisting of a representative each from FIFA, SAFA, the government and the private sector, will evaluate into which public-benefit projects the money is invested. All projects must be submitted to the trustees for review with one of the decisive conditions being that they must be for public benefit only.


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Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest - NYTimes.com

"Inmates in at least seven Georgia prisons have used contraband cellphones to coordinate a nonviolent strike this weekend, saying they want better living conditions and to be paid for work they do in the prisons.

Inmates said they would not perform chores, work for the Corrections Department’s industrial arm or shop at prison commissaries until a list of demands are addressed, including compensation for their work, more educational opportunities, better food and sentencing rules changes."

Inmates in Georgia Prisons Use Contraband Phones to Coordinate Protest - NYTimes.com:

Iran’s Foreign Minister Is Abruptly Fired While Abroad

"TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the country’s long-time foreign minister on Monday, a sudden move that caught many here by surprise and appeared to reflect a strengthening of the president’s power.
Enlarge This Image

Hasan Sarbakhshian/Associated Press
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran in 2008.
Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a presidential order that he had dismissed the minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who was currently traveling on an official trip in Senegal. The overseas location of Mr. Mottaki at the time of his dismissal made the announcement even more intriguing.

It has been well known that the Iranian leader had long sought to replace Mr. Mottaki but had been prevented from doing so until now by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in appointing the heads of several key ministries."

Iran’s Foreign Minister Is Abruptly Fired While Abroad - NYTimes.com:

End of Privacy: The Web knows Poppy Harlow's personal data

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two simple pieces of data -- your name and e-mail address -- can unlock a shocking number of details about you, even if you consider yourself to be a very private person who carefully guards your online identity.

Just ask CNNMoney anchor Poppy Harlow. She doesn't have a personal Facebook profile. She doesn't have a LinkedIn account. She is on Twitter, but she typically limits her tweets to links for CNNMoney stories and videos."

End of Privacy: The Web knows Poppy Harlow's personal data - Dec. 13, 2010:

Twitter co-founder goes unrecognized

"Washington (CNN) -- He has approximately 1.6 million Twitter followers, but does that make Twitter co-founder Biz Stone a recognizable celebrity wherever he goes? Stone laughed when answering that question during an interview Sunday on CNN's 'Reliable Sources' with Howard Kurtz.
'No, no, I don't think internet dorks are necessarily the kind of people that get stopped in restaurants,' he said. 'They get me in little 140-character bursts of information.'
The Twitter co-founder also brushed off any notion that Twitter was stealing thunder from the popular social-networking site, Facebook.
'It doesn't feel like that for us, at least internally,' said Stone. 'I feel like we're adding to, you know, this sort of brave new world of information where we get what we need when we need it.'"

Twitter co-founder goes unrecognized - CNN.com

Snowstorm heads east after delaying travel and 'deflating' Metrodome

(CNN) -- A raging winter storm that dumped snow in parts of the Midwest over the weekend moved eastward Monday, bringing brutal wind chills, the possibility of even more snow and potential air travel delays.

In Cleveland, residents could see 5 to 9 inches of snowfall on Monday. By the end of this week, it could be covered in a few feet of snow, CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said.

In Minneapolis, workers will continue trying to repair the roof of the massive Metrodome, which collapsed under the weight of snow. Meanwhile, school children there will get a day off. Minneapolis Public Schools called of classes for Monday as a result of heavy snows and dangerously cold temperatures.And airlines and passengers will continue to grapple with cancellations and delays as stranded travelers across the country become reluctant residents of airport terminals. High winds and snow in some locations will cause delays in some parts of the eastern United States.

Snowstorm heads east after delaying travel and 'deflating' Metrodome - CNN.com

Metrodome's dome collapses

(CNN) -- A powerful snowstorm barreled east through the Midwest on Sunday, bringing with it more precipitation and gusty winds and leaving behind a trail of significant damage, large snow drifts and subarctic temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.
Winter storm warnings and advisories Sunday extended as far west as Illinois, as far east as Pennsylvania, and as far south as northern Alabama and Georgia.
Meanwhile, residents of the upper Midwest who braved at-times blizzard conditions on Saturday faced the prospect Sunday night of wind chills dipping, in spots, as low as 30 degrees below zero. This comes after up to 23 inches of snow fell in parts of Minnesota and as many as 18.5 inches in Wisconsin since Friday.
"We could see wind chills (that are) obviously extremely dangerous for people, to have that kind of exposure for any length of time," said Tod Pritchard, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Emergency Management agency.

Bowe Bergahl Appears In New Taliban Video - ABC News

"Looking gaunt and scared and with a cut on his face, Bowe Bergdahl appears in a newly released Taliban video, a sign that the captive Army soldier is still alive, but that his nearly 18-month ordeal has taken a toll.

In the Line of Fire
The 44-minute video, which was widely distributed on the web, shows a clean-shaven Bergdahl standing with the senior Taliban commander responsible for his capture near the Pakistani border in June 2009. Bergdahl is on-screen for about 15 seconds just over halfway through the video. Some of the footage of Bergdahl is recycled fromer earlier videos."

Bowe Bergahl Appears In New Taliban Video - ABC News:

Hanoi Happy Birthday

"HA NOI — Spending for the 10-day celebration of Thang Long-Ha Noi's 1,000th anniversary hit VND265 billion (US$13.25 million), VND85 billion ($4.25 million) less than the amount expected by authorities.
The figures were released by Hoang Manh Hien, deputy chairman of the Ha Noi People's Committee in the 22nd meeting of the municipal People's Council on Wednesday.
Hien said that during the preparations for the ceremony, the city had been determined to fight waste, save costs and avoid wrongdoing.
The money was mainly spent on the welcoming ceremony, gifts for guests, communication program-mes and cultural activities, he said."

click on the link to read more:http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Social-Isssues/206531/Happy-birthday-present-for-Ha-Noi.html

Estonia passes 2011 budget

"TALLINN - Estonia's parliament has passed a budget for next year that will see a 2 percent increase in revenue.

The Riigikogu passed it with a vote of 55-32. the budget increases spending by 5 percent to 6 billion euros while increasing evenue to to 5.7 billion euros - a modest deficit of 1.6 percent."

Estonia passes 2011 budget

Israel draws global rebuke

"RAMALLAH, West Bank: The European Union, the United Nations and the Arab League have rebuked Israel after its refusal to halt settlement construction forced Washington to drop efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday stuck to his position that he won't negotiate without a freeze of Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — lands captured by Israel and sought by the Palestinians for their state. He spoke after meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. 'Without halt of settlements, there will be no talks,' Abbas said.

With the path to direct talks effectively blocked, it is not clear what the Obama administration will do next.

Israeli and Palestinian envoys were summoned to Washington for separate meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She saw Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho on Thursday, to be followed by talks with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Friday. Molcho also met Obama envoy George Mitchell for three hours, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said."

Israel draws global rebuke - Arab News

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - Palin warns of new 'death panels'

"Death Panels" could be back, Sarah Palin says. But this time they are not the creation of the Obama administration. No, these are the handiwork of the bipartisan debt commission.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the former Alaska governor takes aim at several of the controversial commission's recommendations, saying the cuts it proposes "implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing."

Palin highlights the commission's proposal for an Independent Payments Advisory Board, a committee, she says, that will make "bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare."

Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - Palin warns of new 'death panels' « - CNN.com Blogs

Obama predicts success for tax deal - CNN.com

"Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Friday he's confident that Congress will pass a compromise tax package despite the objections of House Democrats.
'Nobody -- Democrat or Republican -- wants to see people's paychecks smaller on Jan. 1 because Congress didn't act,' Obama said in an interview with National Public Radio.
'And I think that the framework that we've put forward, which says not only that people's taxes don't go up on Jan. 1, but also that we extend unemployment insurance for a year, that we make sure that key provisions like the college tax credit, the child tax credit, the earned-income tax credit are included -- that that framework is going to serve as the basis for compromise.'"

Obama predicts success for tax deal - CNN.com:

Falcon 9 Takeoff

(CNN) -- Call it one small step for a cheese, one giant leap fromage-kind.

A wheel of Le Brouere cheese was the secret cargo aboard the SpaceX Dragon, the first commercial spacecraft to be recovered from Earth orbit, the company revealed Thursday. SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk hinted at the cargo after the capsule's successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting it had something to do with the British comedy troupe Monty Python.

The block of fermented curd was a nod to one of the group's best-known sketches, "Cheese Shop." The wheel, described only as "very big," was being towed back to California aboard a barge along with the spacecraft and "basking in the glow of being the first cheese to travel to orbit on a commercial spacecraft," company spokeswoman Kirstin Brost told CNN.

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Nepal Tourism Year-2011 promoted in India Travel Mart

Nepal promoted Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY-2011) in India International Travel Mart (IITM) in Hyderabad, India.

Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) along with other private travel trade companies participated in the travel mart from December 3 to 5, 2010 to promote NTY campaign.

During the event, Nepal promoted and distributed all tourism information. The event was fruitful for promotion of NTY-2011 as the visitors were interested and interacted with private tour companies and looked for special tour package, NTB said.

Most of the visitors were seen interested to visit Nepal for adventure, leisure and religious purposes.

Nepal Tourism Year-2011 promoted in India Travel Mart: "Nepal Tourism Year-2011 promoted in India Travel Mart"