Mubarak appears in Cairo court, pleads not guilty

RANIA/PTI

Cairo, Aug 3: Egypt's once all-powerful President Hosni Mubarak today appeared a frail figure as he was wheeled into a courtroom on a stretcher to face trial on charges of corruption and killing protesters, pleading not guilty. If convicted, the 83-year-old former strongman, who was airlifted More

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Mubarak - the pharaoh in a cage

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Cairo, Aug 3:  "The pharaoh in a cage", that is how Egyptian newspapers summed up the downfall of Hosni Mubarak from once an all powerful president to his pathetic appearance on a hospital stretcher in a Cairo courtroom today to face trial on charges that could lead to his execution.  More

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Somali refugees: No food to break Ramadan fast

ABDI GULED

Mogadishu, Aug 3: Muslims around the world mark sundown during the holy month of Ramadan with extravagant dinners to break their daily fasts. That kind of nighttime celebration is unthinkable this year for most Somalis, who already are suffering empty stomachs during the worst famine in a generation More

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Chinese city bans dogs

Beijing: A Chinese city has prohibited dogs from public places and warned that dogs raised illegally will be hunted, an official said. The China Daily reported that dogs will not be allowed at public places and if they are illegally raised, they will be confiscated or hunted in Jiangmen city More

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New Spider-Man is half-Latino

New York: Marvel Comics revealed Tuesday that the heir to the Spider-Man costume following the death of Peter Parker will be Miles Morales, a teenager of half-Hispanic and half-black origin who will protect New York from the bad guys starting Wednesday, when "Ultimate Comics Fallout #4" hits the magazine More

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New gadget reminds you of extra calories

Washington: Now all your mindless munching can soon come to a halt with Bite Counter, a gadget to remind you of the number of bites you intake, claim researchers. Bite Counter is worn like a wrist watch. It tracks a pattern of wrist-roll motion to identify when the wearer has taken a bite of More

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'Musharraf refused to act on Afghan tip off on Osama'

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington: Afghan spies had "good" intelligence leads in 2007 on the possible hideout of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan proper but an "angry" Pervez Musharraf, the then president, refused to act, according to Afghanistan's former spy chief. "We did a lot of work in the tribal areas of Pakistan More

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Sound health depends on minority microbes

Washington, Aug 3: A one-hundredth of one percent of total microbes that inhabit the colon, a section of the large intestine, may be minor in number but are fundamental for health, a research says. The study is the first to sample these or any other microbes at specific places in the colon.  More

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Facebook buys digital publishing company

New York: Social networking giant Facebook has bought a digital publishing company Push Pop Press that develops technology to help make interactive books optimised for iPad and other Apple devices. "We're thrilled to confirm that we've acquired Push Pop Press, a startup whose groundbreaking More

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UN divided as tanks besiege Syrian cities

Damascus, Aug 3: Hundreds of tanks and troop carriers were deployed today near the Syrian protest hubs of Deir Ezzor and Hama, activists said, as the UN Security Council was to meet for a third day on the Syria crisis. The 15-member Security Council has been struggling since Monday over how More

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Italy approves draft law to ban burqa

Rome, Aug 3:  An Italian parliamentary commission on Tuesday approved a draft law banning women from wearing veils that cover their faces in public. The draft, passed by the constitutional affairs commission, would prohibit women from wearing a burqa, naqab or any other garb that covers More

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Radioactive decay keeps earth heated up

Washington, Aug 3: Nearly half of the earth's heat comes from the radioactive decay that can practically move mountains and sea floors and cause eruption of volcanoes. Itaru Shimizu of Tohoku University in Japan and collaborating physicist Horton Smith, associate professor of physics at Kansas More

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8 die in Brazil plane crash

Rio De Janeiro, Aug 3: A Brazilian Air Force plane crashed in the country's southern state Santa Catarina, killing all eight passengers aboard, the Brazilian military said. The plane took off from Rio de Janeiro at 11.35 a.m. and disappeared from the radar screen before it crashed into a ravine 135 More

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19 Indians indicted in health care fraud in US

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New York: A US court has indicted 26 people, including 19 Indians, for their roles in a massive health care fraud under which false insurance claims to the tune of USD 60 million were submitted to public and private insurance providers. Indian-origin pharmacist, Babubhai Patel, is accused More

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Desperate, sick Indonesians use railroad ‘therapy’

AGENCIES

Jakarta, Aug 3: Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks outside Indonesia’s bustling capital, lies down and stretches her body across the rails. Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes patient has all but given More

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Magnetic field exposure linked to asthma risk

REUTERS

Chicago, Aug 3: Children whose mothers had high exposure to electromagnetic fields while pregnant may have an increased risk of developing asthma, US researchers said on Monday in a study that adds to an ongoing debate. Many prior studies have failed to consistently show that chronic exposure More

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