Washington News
Grapefruit nanoparticles can deliver anti-cancer drug: Study
Washington, May 22 : Scientists have engineered nanoparticles derived from grapefruit lipids that could be used to deliver anti-cancer and other drugs to tumour cells, says a study.
Grapefruit has long been known for its health benefits, and the subtropical fruit may revolutionise how medical therapies like anti-cancer drugs are delivered to specific tumour cells, say researchers.
The University of Louisville researchers have uncovered how to create nanoparticles using natural lipids derived from grapefruit, and have discovered how to use them as drug delivery vehicles, reports Science Daily.
FBI asked to track hate crimes against Sikhs
Washington, May 22 : A bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers have asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to begin tracking hate crimes against Sikhs, the way it does for other communities.
Formed last month to address the Sikh community's issues, the American Sikh Congressional Caucus, co-chaired by Democratic House member Judy Chu and Republican David Valadao, made the request in a letter to the FBI last week.
The new letter builds on earlier letters spearheaded by Democrat House member Joseph Crowley and Democrat senators Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin.
Microsoft unveils new all-in-one Xbox console
Washington, May 22 - Microsoft unveiled a new Xbox console Tuesday that represents a major upgrade on the US-market-leading Xbox 360 model.
The president of the IT giant's Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, revealed the hi-tech Xbox One entertainment and gaming console during an event at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus.
India, US to cooperate on law enforcement issues
Washington, May 22 - India and the US have agreed to work together institutionally to ensure the best possible outcomes within the laws of the two countries on issues relating to law enforcement, counter terrorism and judicial processes.
Visiting Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Attorney General Eric Holder agreed to such cooperation between the Home Ministry and the US Department of Justice during an "excellent meeting" Tuesday, according to the Indian Embassy.
Cooperation between the two departments would also address other pending issues relating to extradition, execution of Letters Rogatory and Red Corner Notices.
Tornado spanned length of 22 soccer fields
Washington, May 22 : Residents of suburban Oklahoma were returning home as rescue workers neared the end of the search for survivors and the dead after a mammoth tornado - said to be as wide as 22 football fields - flattened countless homes and claimed 24 lives, including nine children.
Even as officials revised the death toll down from the earlier 51, the National Weather Service gave Monday's tornado that hit suburban Moore, a community of 41,000 people about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, with powerful winds that topped 200 mph, a preliminary highest EF5 rating.
US immigration reform bill clears key Senate hurdle
Washington, May 22 - A bipartisan immigration reform bill cleared a key hurdle after its authors negotiated a compromise with a Republican senator to relax some restrictions on high-tech companies on hiring foreign techies, many of whom come from India.
Members of the Democratic-controlled panel Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure 13-5 with three Republicans joining 10 Democrats after the so-called "Gang of Eight" Tuesday worked out the compromise with Senator Orrin G. Hatch
India, US seek elimination of terror havens
Washington, May 22 : India and the US have called upon all nations - without naming any country - to take effective steps to work toward eliminating sanctuaries and infrastructure that supports terrorism and to increase efforts to counter violent extremism.
The call was made in a joint communiqué issued after the Second US-India Homeland Security Dialogue here Tuesday co-chaired by Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
High public debt raises fiscal crisis risk: IMF official
Washington, May 21 - An official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned here that high public debt would raise the possibility of fiscal crisis.
"We tend to underestimate the cost of fiscal crises before they occur," Carlo Cottarelli, director of IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department, said Monday during a luncheon speech hosted by the Washington-based think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
He said the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) has surpassed 90 percent in some advanced economies, and high debt would hamper economic growth, reported Xinhua.
Governments failing to protect minorities, says US
Washington, May 21 - US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed concern at global problems of discrimination and violence against religious groups, including Baha'is, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs besides increasing use of blasphemy and apostasy laws.
"In too many places, governments are also failing to protect minorities from social discrimination and violence," he said Monday releasing an annual State Department survey of religious freedom in nearly 200 countries.
Oklahoma City faces second deadly tornado in 13 years
Washington, May 21 - A devastating tornado in the Oklahoma City suburbs in southcentral US, that has killed at least 51 people, including seven children at an elementary school, was second only to one in May 1999 in its fury.
The twister 13 years ago, rated a maximum EF5 on the Fujita Tornado Scale, killed 36 people and smashed some of the same communities, according to CNN.
Massive Moon explosion captured on NASA video
Washington, May 21 : NASA cameras have captured video of the largest explosion it has ever seen on the moon, when a meteorite crashed into the lunar surface in a bright burst of light visible to the naked eye.
"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, in a statement.
"It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."
US lawmakers seek more internal-security cooperation with India
Washington, May 21 : Ahead of the second US-India Homeland Security dialogue here Tuesday, the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans has sought expanded cooperation between the two countries on internal security issues.
Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who arrived here Sunday, will be co-chairing the dialogue with the US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. He will also meet Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert S. Muller and the US Attorney General Eric Holder, before leaving for Boston Tuesday evening.
World Bank, UN chiefs to visit African Great Lakes region
Washington, May 21 : The World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a joint visit to Africa's Great Lakes region, a World Bank statement said Monday.
The visit is to be undertaken in support of a landmark peace agreement and to push for economic development in the troubled region.
"The visit will draw attention to the plight of fragile and conflict-affected countries struggling to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
51 killed as powerful tornado slams Oklahoma City
Washington, May 21 - At least 51 people, including seven children at an elementary school, were killed as a massive tornado slammed Oklahoma City in south central US leaving widespread destruction in its wake.
Emergency personnel were scouring the rubble at flattened Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, hours after the tornado struck Monday afternoon, a video from CNN affiliate KFOR showed.
As nightfall approached, determined searchers in hard hats dug in the debris for students possibly trapped, but officials cited by the news channel described the work as a recovery, not rescue, effort.
Massive tornado jolts Oklahoma City in US
Washington, May 21 : A gigantic tornado Monday ripped through a suburb of Oklahoma City in the US , destroying a school, sparking fires and flattening homes across whole neighbourhoods.
The twister struck about 4.00 p. m. (local time) Monday in Moore city, a suburb of about 55,000 people just south of Oklahoma City in the Oklahoma state.
Rescuers were searching for survivors as scores of primary school children were believed to be trapped under debris. The "mile-wide" storm came on the second day in a row that twisters hit the Midwestern state of Oklahoma, BBC reported.
Yahoo to buy Tumblr in $1.1 bn deal?
Washington, May 20 : The board of web pioneer Yahoo has reportedly approved a deal to buy popular blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash, according to various media reports.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Tumblr CEO David Karp were reported to be in talks last week. On Sunday, the board approved the deal, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The deal is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, the New York Times said citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.
It would be the largest acquisition of a social networking company in years, surpassing Facebook's $1 billion purchase of Instagram last year, it said.
Tornadoes tear through central US
Washington, May 20 - Tornadoes tore through three central American states of Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa with baseball-sized hail and wind blasts ripping roofs off homes and turning trees to matchsticks, as severe weather swept the region.
A large "violent and extremely dangerous" tornado was spotted Sunday night on the southwest side of Wichita, Kansas and a second confirmed one was seen near Edmond, Oklahoma, the National Weather Service said.
Another tornado was spotted in nearby Luther, Oklahoma, but it was not immediately clear whether that was the same twister, CNN reported
60 injured as trains collide in US
Washington, May 18 - At least 60 people were injured, five of them critically, in a head-on, rush-hour collision between two commuter trains Friday evening near New York City, officials said.
Metro-North Railroad described it as a "major derailment", just outside Bridgeport, the most populous city of Connecticut state in the US.
About 250 people were on the trains involved in the crash, BBC reported, adding no fatalities had been reported.
The accident occurred around 6.00 p. m. after a train which left New York City's Grand Central station en route to New Haven, Connecticut, derailed and then was hit by another train, said officials. (IANS)
Chandigarh-born poised to make history as US judge
Washington, May 17 - Chandigarh-born Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan has moved a step closer to making history as the first South Asian judge on the US Court of Appeals for the American capital.
Srinivasan, 46, who in August last year was named principal deputy solicitor general of the US, succeeding another Indian American, Neal Kumar Katyal, Thursday won unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Boston suspect scrawled bombing claim message on boat
Washington, May 17 - Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote a message on the wall of the boat in which he was captured, claiming responsibility for the April 15 bomb attack, CBS News reported.
CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, a former assistant FBI director, cited sources as saying that the 19-year-old Tsarnaev had written the message with a pen on the inside wall of the boat cabin as he hid from police, bleeding from gunshot wounds sustained in a shootout with police that killed his 26-year-old brother Tamerlan.