President Obama courts emergent India as deeper ally
NEW DELHI — By endorsing India for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, President Barack Obama on Monday signaled the United States’ intention to create a deeper partnership of the world’s two largest democracies that would expand commercial ties and check the influence of an increasingly assertive China.
Attack on a Baghdad church <br /> strikes the country’s soul
BAGHDAD — Blood still smeared the walls of Our Lady of Salvation Church on Monday. Scraps of flesh remained between the pews. It was the worst massacre of Iraqi Christians since the war began here in 2003. But for survivors, the tragedy went deeper than the toll of the human wreckage: A fusillade of grenades, bullets and suicide vests had unraveled yet another thread of the country’s once eclectic fabric.
American colleges sound warning on ‘Four Loko’ drink
Packing several drinks’ worth of alcohol and a jolt of caffeine into a single container, Four Loko is a potent and increasingly popular brew, known on college campuses as “blackout in a can.’’
Decision on Boston Councilman Chuck Turner won’t be rushed
Boston’s City Council will wait a month before it decides the fate of Chuck Turner, the six-term councilor convicted Friday of accepting a $1,000 bribe in his district office from an FBI informant.
Tonight’s excitement: Races to watch for signs of political trends
WASHINGTON — Even for a nation that is, by now, used to drinking in political news through a fire hose, election night Tuesday could be a difficult one to absorb.
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A federal appeals court will allow the military to continue enforcing the law restricting the service of openly gay men and women in the military while a lower court decision that struck the law down as unconstitutional is being appealed.
Early packages shipped to U.S. <br /> were viewed as dry run by al-Qaida
WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials in September intercepted several packages containing books, papers, CDs and other household items shipped to Chicago from Yemen and considered the possibility that the parcels might have been a test run for a terrorist attack, two officials said Monday night.
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For $150 billion, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could have sent astronauts back to the moon. The Obama administration judged that too expensive, and in September, Congress agreed to cancel the program.
Calm, then rain on Fri.
A vast high pressure system will take hold of the northeast United States for the first half of this week, resulting in calm, sunny conditions for our area. In fact, there will likely not be a cloud in the sky today, as the high pressure system slowly approaches from our west. However, the same system is currently causing cold air to be advected from our north, meaning temperatures will likely not break 50°F for the next two days.
Companies aware of cement flaws before oil blast, report says
WASHINGTON — Halliburton officials knew weeks before the fatal explosion of the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement mixture they planned to use to seal the bottom of the well was unstable but still went ahead with the job, the presidential commission investigating the accident said Thursday.
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WASHINGTON — Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest mobile phone carrier, will pay $25 million to end an investigation into complaints that it had charged 15 million cell phone customers unauthorized data fees over the last three years, the Federal Communications Commission announced Thursday.
High above India’s poverty, tower will house five of India’s most rich
MUMBAI, India — The newest and most exclusive residential tower for this city’s super rich is a cantilevered sheath of steel and glass soaring 27 floors into the sky. The parking garage fills six levels. Three helipads are on the roof. There are terraces upon terraces, airborne swimming pools and hanging gardens in a Blade Runner-meets-Babylon edifice overlooking India’s most dynamic city.
Schumer readies possible leadership bid if Reid defeated
WASHINGTON — Sen. Charles E. Schumer shipped $500,000 to Nevada in recent weeks to help Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and Schumer’s political patron and close friend, as he fights for his political life in Nevada.
Halloween gives MIT a chi-i-i-i-illing weekend
Going out for Halloween festivities this weekend? Bring a jacket, as temperatures will dip into the low 40s (°F) each night.
Libraries replacing hard-cover books with digital technology
DENVER — A digital revolution is under way at the University of Denver’s Penrose Library, where a $30 million renovation will cut the number of bound books and journals and push the remainder into the basement to create space more friendly to tech-savvy students.
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Two new DNA-based tests, one of them described at a meeting in Philadelphia on Thursday, hold the promise of detecting early — and sharply reducing — colon cancer, a disease that afflicts 150,000 people a year in the United States and costs an estimated $14 billion to treat.
Obama administration lining up allies to pressure China
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, facing a vexing relationship with China on exchange rates, trade and security issues, is stiffening its approach toward Beijing, seeking allies to confront a newly assertive power that officials now say has little intention of working with the United States.
Few women take top positions in New York governor’s campaign
NEW YORK — Carl Paladino has recruited his wife to hit the campaign trail and has put his daughter in a new commercial urging voters to “get to know my dad.” At the same time, Andrew Cuomo has rolled out an advertisement touching on abortion and has ferried his daughters across New York state in an RV on a political tour.
Political divide on deficit likely to grow after midterm election
WASHINGTON — A midterm campaign that has turned heavily on the issue of the mounting federal debt is likely to yield a government even more split over what to do about it, people in both parties say, with diminished Democrats and reinforced Republicans confronting internal divisions even as they dig in against the other side.
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As banks, borrowers and regulators battle over how much faulty documentation by lenders should impede foreclosures, fresh evidence came Monday that the housing market remained very wobbly.