TOKYO: Officials detected a radioactive gas associated with nuclear fission at Japan's tsunami-damaged atomic power plant Wednesday, indicating there could be a new problem at one of its reactors. They injected a substance that neutralizes nuclear reactions as a precaution. Gas from inside the reactor indicated the presence of radioactive xenon, which could be the byproduct of unexpected nuclear fission. Boric acid was being injected through a cooling pipe as a countermeasure because it can counteract nuclear reactions. The Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, said there was no rise in the re...
Published On: 2011-11-02

NEW YORK: The number of overdose deaths from powerful painkillers more than tripled over a decade, the government reported Tuesday — a trend that a U.S. health official called an epidemic, but one that can be stopped. Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That's more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999. Such painkillers "are meant to help people who have severe pain," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventi...
Published On: 2011-11-02

TOKYO: Japan's ruling Democratic Party will set up a panel to discuss corporate governance in response to the M&A scandal at Olympus Corp, a senior party official said on Wednesday. The panel will discuss ways to strengthen corporate governance and information disclosure in Japan, the official told Reuters....
Published On: 2011-11-02

LOS ANGELES: Michael Jackson's doctor on Tuesday declined to testify as both the prosecution and defense rested their cases in the trial in which he is charged in the 2009 death of the pop star. Asked by the judge whether he wanted to take the witness stand in his involuntary manslaughter trial, Dr. Conrad Murray replied: "My decision is that I will not testify in this matter, judge." Murray had said on Monday he was still undecided about testifying. His decision means that the only time the jury will have heard from Murray was in a two-hour tape of a police interview he gave two ...
Published On: 2011-11-02

PATNA: Neighbours have suddenly become courteous, shopkeepers are eager to help and long-forgotten friends have started calling again — the family members of Sushil Kumar, the first contestant to win INRs 5 crore on Kaun Banega Crorepati, are trying to make sense of all that is happening around them. Life has not been the same since Sushil, a 27-year-old computer operator and tutor who earns INRs 6,000 per month, won the top prize in the show hosted by megastar Amitabh Bachchan. Sushil’s father Amarnath Prasad is the first to notice the change. “All visitors respect me an...
Published On: 2011-11-01

KATHMANDU: German artist Roswitha Steinkopf has collected answers to the question ‘What is art’ in the art exhibition entitled ‘ART is...’ that started at Patan Museum, Durbar Square Patan from November 1. Organised by Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Centre, the exhibition is an interactive art campaign by the artist. In the artistic ambience of the museum, one can find the answers written on the sheets of Lokta papers lined up on the walls of museum. Also there are a few photographs where general people are seen writing their definitions of art . According to Steinkopf ...
Published On: 2011-11-01

BEIJING: Outspoken artist Ai Weiwei said Tuesday that Chinese authorities are demanding he pay $2.4 million in back taxes and fines in a new show of government pressure on the dissident detained for nearly three months earlier this year. The Beijing Local Taxation Bureau gave the artist notice Tuesday that he owed more than 15 million yuan ($2.36 million), after serving a similar notice in June for a smaller amount, Ai said in a phone interview. The new notice gave him around 10 days to make the payment, without saying what might happen if he failed, he said. Ai said he would not pay until ...
Published On: 2011-11-01

BAIJITAN: Using a tried and tested method, Wang Youde digs into a sand dune to build small square ramparts out of straw in which plants designed to check the desert's relentless advance will take root. Wang, 57, is the head of the Baijitan collective farm in Ningxia, a remote region of northern China that is regularly battered by ferocious sandstorms and whose capital is under threat from the expanding Maowusu desert. Ningxia, next to the vast Gobi desert, is often called the "thirsty country". As a youth, Wang witnessed the ravages of desertification, from lost cultures to famili...
Published On: 2011-11-01

TOKYO: Japan's royal palace said Tuesday Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, had been hospitalised because of a persistent high temperature. The nine-year-old princess has been running a fever since the weekend, the imperial household agency said. She "was hospitalised Monday for examinations and treatment... as the fever and symptoms such as a cough are continuing," it said in a statement. The Japanese public reacted with horror in March last year when the palace announced Aiko, a grandchild of the emperor, had stayed away from school...
Published On: 2011-11-01

COPENHAGEN: Danske Bank A/S says it will lay off around 2,000 employees in the coming three years as part of a plan to cut costs. The Danish bank said Tuesday it aims to reduce its expenditure by around 10 percent, or 2 billion kroner ($377 million) in 2012-2014. A large number of the reductions could be made without redundancies, if attrition and retirement remain at the usual levels, the bank said. Danske Bank Chairman Peter Straarup said the bank's results "are under pressure because of the financial crisis, new regulation and high funding costs," and that the cost cuts are nee...
Published On: 2011-11-01