US helicopter pilots train in Rocky Mountains before Afghan deployment

FORT CARSON, Colorado: Rugged cliffs with sudden spikes in elevation, shifting wind patterns, and thin air - those are the rough Rocky Mountain conditions that are ideal for preparing US helicopter pilots heading to similar terrain in Afghanistan. Nearly 300 pilots and crew are undergoing a training session at Colorado's Fort Carson Army Base, preparing for deployment to a war in which...

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India needs to cultivate its food security and plan for 2020: ASSOCHAM study

KOLKATA: Having done very well in raising foodgrains production in the last decade, India will have to do 'out-of-box' and adopt a fresh strategy to ensure food security for its growing population in the next 10 years, an ASSOCHAM study has pointed out. The country's food grain production, comprising mainly rice, wheat, coarse grains and pulses, increased from 197 million tones in 2000-01 to 257...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Newtown Christmas: 'We Know They'll Feel Loved'

As residents prepared to observe Christmas less than two weeks after a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at an elementary school, people sharing in the town's mourning brought offerings of cards, handmade snowflakes and sympathy.Tiny empty Christmas stockings with the victims' names on them hung from trees in the neighborhood where the children were shot. On Christmas...

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Egyptians fret over economy after rancorous vote on constitution

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt prepared to announce on Tuesday the result of a vote on a new constitution that Islamist President Mohamed Mursi hails as a step toward stability in a country beset by political and economic crisis. But critics say that by ramming through the basic law, Mursi has angered his liberal, leftist and Christian opponents, and may have squandered any chance of building...

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Top Philippine communist rebel arrested

MANILA: A top Philippine communist rebel with a US$128,000 bounty on his head was arrested on Tuesday, the military said.The arrest of Filemon Mendrez, the country's sixth most-wanted man, comes amid a Christmas ceasefire and as the government and rebels are engaged in high-level peace talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.Mendrez, a key New People's Army rebel...

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HC allows transfer of Gayatri Devi's shares to grand children

NEW DELHI: The legal battle over transfer of late Maharani Gayatri Devi's shares in royal family's firms has been decided in favour of her grandchildren, Devraj and Lalitya Kumari with the Delhi high court ordering rectification of share registers of the companies. Jagat Singh, son of Gayatri Devi and Sawai Man Singh, held 99 per cent shares in firms including Jai Mahal Hotels Pvt Ltd and later...

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Predicting who's at risk for violence isn't easy

CHICAGO (AP) — It happened after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colo., and now Sandy Hook: People figure there surely were signs of impending violence. But experts say predicting who will be the next mass shooter is virtually impossible — partly because as commonplace as these calamities seem, they are relatively rare crimes.Still, a combination of risk factors in troubled kids or adults including...

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Newtown Inspires Country to Spread Kindness

While the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have no doubt left the nation shaken, they have also inspired an outpouring of acts of kindness from across the nation and around the world.The central hub of many of these is on display in the U.S. Post Office in Newtown, Conn., a community shaken by the killing of 20 children and six school staff members by 20-year-old Adam...

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Afghan policewoman kills coalition contractor in Kabul: NATO

KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan woman wearing a police uniform shot dead on Monday a civilian contractor working for Western forces in the police chief's compound in Kabul, NATO said. The incident is likely to raise troubling questions about the direction of an unpopular war. It appeared to be the first time that a woman member of Afghanistan's security forces carried out such...

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