Exterminator Charged in Pa. Doctor's Murder

An exterminator named Joseph Smith was arrested and charged today in the strangling and burning death of Philadelphia pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti.Smith, 36, had been sent to Ketunuti's home on a service call where the two got into "some kind of argument" in Ketunuti's basement on Monday, Capt. James Clark of the Philadelphia police department said this morning."At her home...

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North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy". The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North...

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Japan presses Algeria for answers as toll hits nine

ALGIERS: A senior Japanese official met Algeria's prime minister on Wednesday to press for an explanation of the gas plant siege, as Tokyo confirmed the deaths of two more nationals, taking its toll to nine.Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shunichi Suzuki arrived aboard a government jet that is to repatriate the bodies of those known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, along with the...

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BJP accuses Congress of playing 'dirty politics'

MUMBAI: The BJP leaders from Maharashtra have alleged that I-T raids in Mumbai to investigate links of companies with the Purti group was a "well planned" move of the Congress led UPA. According to a senior party leader from Mumbai, "to scuttle chances of NitinGadkari's re-election as party president, the Congress engineered raids in Mumbai." The leader further stated that Gadkari was almost set...

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Beverage attorney: NYC drinks limit bad for public

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's limit on the size of sugary drinks is an "extraordinary infringement" on consumer choice, a lawyer for the American Beverage Association and other critics said in court on Wednesday."New Yorkers do not want to be told what to drink," attorney James Brandt told Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling.Opponents also are raising questions of racial fairness...

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Clinton Says Budget Cuts Undermine Security

Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood her ground today, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she has overseen plans to secure diplomatic outposts around the world while cuts in State Department funding undermine those efforts.Citing a report by the department's Accountability Review Board on the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans...

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Cameron promises Britons straight choice on EU exit

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Wednesday to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to stay in the European Union or leave if he wins an election in 2015, placing a question mark over Britain's membership for years. Cameron ended months of speculation by announcing in a speech the plan for a vote sometime between 2015 and the end of 2017, shrugging off...

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SGX's Q2 net profit rises 17% to S$76m

SINGAPORE : Rising interest in derivatives trading helped lift earnings for the Singapore Exchange (SGX) last quarter. Asia's second-largest bourse operator reported a 17 per cent on-year rise in second-quarter net profit to S$76 million.It also attracted a large number of new bond listings in the same quarter.Derivatives trading has been the star performer in SGX.Over the October to December...

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7 disciples of Asaram Bapu summoned by court today

AHMEDABAD: Seven disciples of self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, who were accused in the case of mysterious death of two children at his ashram here in 2008, were today summoned by a local court. Chief metropolitan magistrate D B Barot today issued the summons and ordered all seven disciples of Asaram to remain present tomorrow when they will be given copies of charge sheets filed against them by investigating...

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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