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Drone strikes are legal and extend to US citizens as well, says Obama
WASHINGTON In a major counter-terrorism speech, President Barack Obama Thursday defended the covert US drone program and stressed that despite the controversies around it, the strikes are legal and save lives. He also said the use of lethal force extends to U.S. citizens as well. This disclosure comes a day after his administration acknowledged publicly for the first time that four US ...
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Kerry holds talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials
JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday separately began meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials but appeared doubtful about his success on getting the two warring sides back to peace negotiations. This is Kerry's fourth trip to the Middle East in as many months of his assuming the office of the top US diplomat. He was been trying to revive a peace process that has been ...
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Senate confirms Chandigarh-born as top US judge
Chandigarh-born Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan made history Thursday as the US Senate confirmed his nomination as a top US judge in a 97 to 0 vote. Srinivasan, 46, currently principal deputy solicitor general of the US, would be the first judge of South Asian descent on the powerful appeals court for the American capital, often called the nation's second-highest ...
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Chidambaram says U.S. Federal Reserves statement misunderstood calls for calm
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday sought to calm stock markets in India after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested bond purchases could be scaled back if the U.S. economy improves. Addressing a news conference here, Chidambaram said fears that the Federal Reserve would start reversing its U.S. monetary stimulus programme were being misunderstood in stock market and investor ...
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Over 7 in 10 Americans favour more moral policing in US Gallup Poll
A whopping 72 percent of Americans or more than seven in ten, believe the country needs more moral policing as the state of the union is 'getting worse'. According to a Gallup Poll, these percentages are slightly more optimistic than 2006-2008, when more than 80 percent of Americans thought moral values were getting worse and only 11 percent thought they were getting better. According to the ...
Movie Review
Trekkies
Did Gene Roddenberry know? Did he have any idea what he was unleashing when he created "Star Trek," a sci-fi TV series that started in 1966 and was canceled after three years of dismal ratings? Did he understand the implications of his actions, that hordes of die-hard fans would devote their lives to his personal vision of a better future? Did he know it would create an entire subculture that is ... ...
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US officials say hypersonic weapons likely to hit battlefield by 2025
US military officials say high-tech weapons may be flying through the skies at five times the speed of sound by the middle of the next decade. According to military officials, it depends on continued research into hypersonic vehicles like the Air Force's X-51A Waverider, which completed its final test flight earlier this month, reports Fox News. Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air ...
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Lydia Davis pips Indian writer U.R. Ananthamurthy to win Booker International Prize 2013
American short story writer Lydia Davis, whose works can be as brief as a single sentence, has won the fifth Man Booker International Prize topling other authors including an Indian named U.R. Ananthamurthy. The influential American writer accepted the 60,000 pounds honour, which is presented every two years to a living, non-UK author for a body of work published in English, at a ceremony held ...
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Self-regulation skills better in American girls than boys
A new study has shown that there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children - one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia. In the United States, girls had higher levels of self-regulation than boys. Self-regulation is defined as children's ability to control their behavior and impulses, follow directions, and persist on a task. It has ...
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Sharp decline in US drone strikes in Pakistan
Islamabad, May 23: (ANI): Drone strikes in Pakistan have fallen sharply since their peak in 2010, perhaps in response to increasing scrutiny of the programme by the US Congress and the American public, according to a media report. This comes just ahead of President Barack Obama's long-awaited address on drones at Washington's National Defence University on Thursday. Bruce Riedel, a former CIA ...
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US senate panel approves immigration reform
Immigration reform that plans to legalize some 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US passed its first test as the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 to approve a bipartisan bill to overhaul the system. The draft prepared by the "Gang of Eight" Republican and Democratic senators will next go to the full Senate for debate. President Barack Obama congratulated the Judiciary Committee ...