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Heavy rain and landslide stops life in Uttarakhand

58 dead, over 58,000 trapped as rains batter Uttarakhand, UP

Lucknow/Dehradun, June 18 (IANS) Rains lashed Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the fourth consecutive day Tuesday, taking up…

  • Rupee trading below 58, not far from record low Reuters
    Rupee trading below 58, not far from record low

    Reuters Market Eye - The rupee is not far from its record low of 58.98 hit last week, trading at 58.45 versus 57.87/88 at Monday's local close. A large private corporate USD seller is capping gains for the pair, say several dealers. BSE Sensex down 0.23 percent. USD/INR NDFs surge overnight, closing NY trade at 58.56-58.59. The local currency may find some comfort from RBI's concerns about the impact of the falling rupee on imported inflation. The U.S. dollar hovered above a two-month low against the yen on Tuesday but uncertainty ahead of the outcome of the U.S. ...

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    By Nidhi Verma NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government could this week take the unpopular measure of raising gas prices for the first time in three years as it pushes a package of reforms aimed at giving industry a boost, reviving a spluttering economy and boosting LNG imports. With local and national elections looming in the next 12 months, the coalition government is expected to try to minimise voter backlash by hiking gas prices sooner rather than later. ...

  • Road building revival offers rare hope for India infrastructure overhaul Reuters
    Road building revival offers rare hope for India infrastructure overhaul

    By Matthias Williams and Swati Pandey NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - K. Ramchand, managing director at one of India's biggest road builders, is doing something unusual to help dispel the gloom pervading much of the country's infrastructure sector today: bidding for new projects. His company, IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd , signed a $300 million contract in April to build a six-lane highway. The project will link an eastern industrial zone afflicted by some of India's worst traffic snarls to mining districts such as Dhanbad, the nation's coal capital. ...

  • Sensex falls on caution ahead of Fed meet Reuters
    Sensex falls on caution ahead of Fed meet

    Reuters Market Eye - The BSE Sensex falls 0.4 percent while the Nifty is 0.44 percent lower. Lenders fall, retreating from gains on Monday, ahead of the Fed's meeting ending on Wednesday as an early end to U.S. monetary stimulus is raising worries about a weaker rupee and hence a delay in any potential RBI rate cuts. The Reserve Bank of India kept interest rates unchanged on Monday, warning of upward risks to inflation as its currency is among the hardest hit amid a global emerging markets sell-off. ...

  • Gold slips on weak physical demand; Fed meet eyed Reuters
    Gold slips on weak physical demand; Fed meet eyed

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  • Google settlement clears way for new Class C stock Reuters
    Google settlement clears way for new Class C stock

    By Tom Hals REUTERS - Google Inc has settled a shareholder class action lawsuit that clears the way for the company to issue a new class of nonvoting stock, giving the company a currency for acquisitions that would not dilute the founders' control. The online search engine leader had planned to issue Class C shares as a dividend to investors. A shareholder, the Brockton Retirement Board, sued and claimed the plan gave the founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, added control without paying for it. ...

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    By Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Individual charitable giving in the United States grew almost 4 percent last year, while corporate donations rose at triple that rate, according to a report that shows donations by Americans to nonprofit groups mirroring the slow recovery of the larger economy. Overall, U.S. donations to bolster the arts, health, religion and other activities totaled $316.2 billion in 2012, a 3.5 percent increase from the $305.5 billion donated in 2011, according to the report, "Giving USA." That was just a 1.5 percent increase when adjusted for inflation. ...

  • Obama says Bernanke has 'stayed a lot longer' than he wanted at Fed Reuters
    Obama says Bernanke has 'stayed a lot longer' than he wanted at Fed

    By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hinted in an interview aired on Monday that he may be looking for a new chief of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, saying current Chairman Ben Bernanke has stayed a lot longer than he had originally planned. Obama, speaking to Charlie Rose, host of a PBS interview program, compared Bernanke to longtime FBI Director Robert Mueller, who agreed to stay two years longer than he had planned and is to leave in the coming months. "Well, I think Ben Bernanke's done an outstanding job. ...

  • INSIGHT - FBI relies on secret U.S. surveillance law, records show Reuters
    INSIGHT - FBI relies on secret U.S. surveillance law, records show

    By John Shiffman, Kristina Cooke and Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has used secret evidence obtained under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to prosecute at least 27 accused terrorists since 2007, according to a Reuters review of public records. While the recent spotlight has been on the use of the FISA law by the U.S. National Security Agency for surveillance programs following disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the FBI also makes extensive use of the law for domestic counterterrorism. ...

  • Batteries hold key to wearable device revolution Reuters
    Batteries hold key to wearable device revolution

    By Alexei Oreskovic and Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Longer-lasting batteries are crucial for a new crop of wearable computers whose rise may upend Apple and Google's dominance of mobile devices, two of the field's pioneers say. Wearable devices - from bracelets that monitor physical activity and sleeping patterns to clothing with built-in sensors and Web-ready glasses - may mark the next big technology shift, just as smartphones evolved from personal computers. That transition has put the unglamorous battery in a starring role. ...

  • Japan says G8 stance is sign of approval for "Abenomics" Reuters
    Japan says G8 stance is sign of approval for "Abenomics"

    By Stanley White TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese cabinet ministers welcomed the Group of Eight summit's stance on Tokyo's sweeping stimulus policies as a vote of confidence in the government's strategy to end 15 years of entrenched deflation and revive a lacklustre economy. Japan's economics minister also moved to parry any suggestion that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies, known as "Abenomics", are aimed at intentionally weakening the yen to benefit the country's exports. ...

  • U.S. identifies Guantanamo prisoners it wants to hold indefinitely Reuters
    U.S. identifies Guantanamo prisoners it wants to hold indefinitely

    By Jane Sutton GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday publicly identified for the first time 46 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay whom it wants to hold indefinitely without charge or trial because it says they are too dangerous to release but cannot be prosecuted. The Defense Department released the names on Monday after the Miami Herald and a group of Yale Law School students sued for its release in a U.S. District Court in Washington. ...

  • Obama sees Iran's election of moderate as hopeful sign Reuters
    Obama sees Iran's election of moderate as hopeful sign

    By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that Iran's election of a moderate as its next president is a sign that Iranians want to move in a different direction, but he was uncertain whether it would lead to a breakthrough over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. In an interview with public television anchor Charlie Rose, Obama said the United States and its allies would be willing to hold talks with Iran over its nuclear program, as long as Tehran recognized that international sanctions would not be lifted unless Iran proved it is not building a nuclear weapon. ...

  • US right to arm Syrian rebels, says Israeli president Reuters
    US right to arm Syrian rebels, says Israeli president

    By Crispian Balmer JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli President Shimon Peres has thrown his weight behind U.S. plans to arm Syrian rebels, shrugging off fears the weapons could be turned on Israel and exacerbate the conflict. In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters before his 90th birthday, Peres dismissed the idea that Israel could launch a unilateral military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities and urged Palestinians and Israelis to forge immediate peace. ...

  • Jury finds no negligence in trial over man's 8-month erection Reuters

    By Myles Miller WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - A jury on Monday cleared a doctor of negligence in a lawsuit filed by a Delaware truck driver who underwent a penile implant procedure and ended up with an erection that lasted eight months. "We're stunned," attorney Michael Heyden said as he left the New Castle County courthouse, where his client Daniel Metzgar, 44, of Newark, Delaware, was suing urologist Thomas Desperito of Wilmington, Delaware. In April 2010, four months after the procedure was performed, Metzgar experienced swelling and went to a hospital, where he underwent testing. ...

  • Confederations Cup: Oduamadi hat-trick sinks Tahiti IANS

    Belo Horizonte (Brazil), June 18 (IANS) Nnamdi Oduamadi scored a hat-trick as Nigeria crushed a spirited Tahiti 6-1 in their Confederations Cup football Group B clash here at the Mineirao stadium.

  • US, Cuba to discuss renewal of direct mail service IANS

    Washington, June 18 (IANS/EFE) The US and Cuba will discuss this week the possibility of re-establishing direct mail, suspended 50 years ago, a State Department spokesperson told EFE Monday.

  • Learnt to embrace simplicity from SRK: Puvisha IANS

    Chennai, June 18 (IANS) Tamil actress Puvisha M., who has worked with Shah Rukh Khan in the forthcoming Hindi film "Chennai Express", says she learnt the art of being humble and simple from King Khan, who despite being a superstar never behaves like one.

  • US immigration chief to resign IANS

    Washington, June 18 (IANS/EFE) The director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), John Morton, said Monday that he will leave his post next month to work in the private sector after four years at the head of the agency.

  • Playing the bad guy has never lost me fans: Chetan Hansraj IANS

    New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) Actor Chetan Hansraj is back to playing a bad boy on the small screen with "Jodha Akbar". He says his fans love watching him in negative roles. Moreover, "women love bad boys"!

  • Jennifer Lopez signs up for film on Chilean miners IANS

    Los Angeles, June 18 (IANS/EFE) Jennifer Lopez is the latest addition to the cast of "The 33", a film based on the story of survival of the miners trapped for more than two months below ground after a mine collapse in northern Chile, The Hollywood Reporter said Monday.

  • Modi meets Advani IANS

    New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi met senior BJP leader L.K. Advani here Tuesday, a week after the party patriarch quit following the former's elevation as the party's campaign committee chief.

  • Watch out for 'more intimacy' in 'Dedh Ishqiya' IANS

    Mumbai, June 18 (IANS) "Dedh Ishqiya", will go "much further" in intimacy than "Ishqiya". Actor Arshad Warsi is said to have some steamy lovemaking scenes with co-star Huma Qureshi, while even Madhuri Dixit has uninhibitedly shot for some cosy scenes with Naseeruddin Shah.

  • Yamuna flows over danger mark in Delhi IANS

    New Delhi, June 18 (IANS) The Yamuna river is flowing over the danger mark in the national capital, an official said Tuesday.

  • Man held in Odisha for rape in moving bus IANS

    Bhubaneswar, June 18 (IANS) A man was arrested in Odisha for raping a woman passenger in a moving bus, police said Tuesday.

  • Gisele Bündchen unveils new lingerie line IANS

    Sao Paulo, June 18 (IANS/EFE) Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen unveiled her new line of lingerie in Sao Paulo over the weekend, with its seductively vibrant colours, delicate lace, transparencies and a wink at eroticism.

  • Goya drawing to be auctioned off in London IANS

    Madrid, June 18 (IANS/EFE) The Goya drawing "Si yerras los tiras!" (If you miss the mark!), a political allegory in which the figure may be King Ferdinand VII, will be sold at auction July 2 in London, Christie's said.

  • Half of NASA's new astronaut class are women IANS

    Washington, June 18 (IANS/EFE) NASA announced Monday that it has selected its first new contingent of potential astronauts in four years and half of them are women.

  • Mexico to discuss deals worth $150 mn at Paris Air Show IANS

    Le Bourget (France), June 18 (IANS/EFE) The governor of the Mexican state of Queretaro said Monday that he planned to discuss seven aviation investment projects worth $150 million with different companies during the 2013 Paris Air Show.

  • Colombian bill bans use of wild animals in circuses IANS

    Bogota, June 18 (IANS/EFE) Elephants, lions, bears, tigers, monkeys and other wild animals will no longer be permitted in circuses in Colombia under a bill approved by Congress.