Egyptian opposition to shun Mursi's national dialogue

CAIRO (Reuters) - President Mohamed Mursi was expected to press ahead on Saturday with talks on ways to end Egypt's worst crisis since he took office even though the country's main opposition leaders have vowed to stay away. Cairo and other cities have been rocked by violent protests since November 22, when Mursi promulgated a decree awarding himself sweeping powers that put him above...

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Philippine typhoon survivors 'loot' shops

TAGUM, Philippines: Hungry survivors of a deadly Philippine typhoon looted shops and warehouses in a hard-hit town in a bid to stay alive amid stalled aid deliveries, a rescue official said.Local officials monitored the desperate scenes in the early aftermath of Typhoon Bopha's onslaught in the isolated southern town of Cateel, Cedric Daep, a provincial public safety official, told AFP."The...

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India misguided, paranoid over China: Guha

MUMBAI: A good half-hour into the discussion on 'India, China and the World', historian Ramachandra Guha issued a disclaimer—all the three members on the panel had been to China only once. "We should learn their language, promote quality research, and have a panel on China driven by Chinese scholars," he said. And that was the general tenor of the debate—that the Indian attitude to China was influenced...

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Smokers celebrate as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — The crowds of happy people lighting joints under Seattle's Space Needle early Thursday morning with nary a police officer in sight bespoke the new reality: Marijuana is legal under Washington state law.Hundreds gathered at Seattle Center for a New Year's Eve-style countdown to 12 a.m., when the legalization measure passed by voters last month took effect. When the clock struck, they...

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Baby Gabriel's Mother Sentenced to Prison

Elizabeth Johnson -- who at one point admitted to killing her son, the missing infant Gabriel Johnson, before saying she gave him away -- told a judge she "deserved the maximum" sentence, before receiving a prison term of 5.25 years, half of the max.In October, Johnson, 26, was found guilty of custodial interference and unlawful imprisonment stemming from the disappearance of...

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Philippines starts to bury dead as toll hits 418

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Residents in the southern Philippines began to bury their dead on Friday even as rescue workers continued scouring remote areas for possible survivors of Typhoon Bopha, the country's strongest storm this year, which killed 418 people and left nearly as many missing. Officials in Compostela Valley, one of the worst hit provinces on the resource-rich...

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Indonesia anti-graft agency probes sports minister

JAKARTA: Indonesia's anti-corruption agency has named the country's sports minister as a suspect in a multi-million-dollar graft case, in the latest scandal to hit the president's party ahead of the 2014 elections.The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) asked authorities late Thursday to ban sports minister Andi Mallarangeng from travelling as it probes the construction of a sports...

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Tribal women wage war against IMFL

SHIMLA: Tribal women in Lahaul-Spiti and Kinnaur district have waged a unique war to curb social inequality, especially during marriages and other social functions. In a bid to curb show of wealth, women have come up with unique idea of banning the use of English liquor and those defying ban are being imposed heavy penalty.Liquor is an important part of tribal customs and social get together are incomplete...

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana

SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans...

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John McAfee Out of Hospital, Back in Cell

Software millionaire John McAfee has been returned to an immigration detention cell in Guatemala after being rushed to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance.McAfee, 67 -- who soon may be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly found prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive.He was...

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