Show mercy to Sarabjit: Justice Katju to Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju has once again appealed to the president and the prime minister of Pakistan to release Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh who is on death row for over two decades. Katju's appeal came on a day when 26/11 attack convict Ajmal Kasab was hanged in Pune following rejection of his mercy plea by President Pranab Mukherjee. "You must have heard that...

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US abortions fall 5 pct, biggest drop in a decade

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. abortions fell 5 percent during the recession and its aftermath in the biggest one-year decrease in at least a decade, perhaps because women are more careful to use birth control when times are tough, researchers say.The decline, detailed on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Both...

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Cease-Fire Reached in Israel/Hamas Conflict in Gaza

A cease-fire was reached today in the bloody clash between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Egyptian and American officials announced after a meeting between Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr appeared with Clinton at 12:30 p.m. ET to announce that a cease-fire would begin at 9 p.m. local time, or...

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Hamas and Israel agree to ceasefire

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel and Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt on the eighth day of intensive Israeli fire on the Gaza Strip and militant rocket attacks out of the enclave, Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said. First word of the truce came from a Palestinian official who has knowledge of the negotiations in Cairo, where U.S. Secretary of State...

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Deloitte denies HP claim on audit missteps

NEW YORK: The audit and consulting firm Deloitte on Wednesday rejected claims by US tech giant Hewlett-Packard that it missed "accounting improprieties" at the British firm Autonomy ahead of a takeover.Deloitte's comments came a day after HP reported a massive loss and blamed deliberate financial misstatements from the British software firm it bought in 2011.A statement from the London...

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India rejects OIC foreign ministers' references to Kashmir

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday rejected the "factually incorrect and misleading" references made by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir at its session of the council of foreign ministers in African nation Djibouti last week.Responding to a question on resolutions adopted during the 39th Session of the OIC foreign ministers in Djibouti Nov 15-17, an external affairs ministry...

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New push for most in US to get at least 1 HIV test

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a new push to make testing for the AIDS virus as common as cholesterol checks.Americans ages 15 to 64 should get an HIV test at least once — not just people considered at high risk for the virus, an independent panel that sets screening guidelines proposed Monday.The draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the latest recommendations that aim to make...

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Hopes Rise for Gaza Ceasefire

Hopes for a ceasefire between between Israel and Islamic militants in Gaza rose today as Hamas declared that a ceasefire would be announced and Israel indicated that a deal was possible.Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told ABC News the news would be announced at a press conference in Cairo where Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has been trying to broker an end to the fighting.An...

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Hamas says Gaza truce agreed, Israel says no deal yet

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we're not there yet". "An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9 o'clock (1900 GMT) and go into effect at midnight (2200 GMT)," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters...

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France must 'stay the course' after Moody's downgrade: Hollande

PARIS: French President Francois Hollande warned the country Tuesday that it must "stay the course" and stick with a policy of straightening out the public accounts after Moody's stripped France of its coveted "Aaa" rating."We must take account (of the decision), pursue our policy, stay the course and understand that it is in our interest to correct our public accounts," Hollande told...

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