WEST, TEXAS: Hundreds of people were likely injured in a fiery explosion on Wednesday night at a fertilizer plant near Waco, Texas, that damaged or destroyed numerous buildings including a nursing home, authorities said.

The blast was reported at about 8pm CDT (0100 GMT on Thursday) in West, a town of some 2,700 people about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Dallas and 20 miles (32 km) north of Waco.

A spokesman for the Texas department of public safety, DL Wilson, told Reuters the blast had probably caused "hundreds of casualties" and damaged many homes.

He added that a nearby nursing home collapsed from the explosion and that people w

Psy releases a new video Gentleman on April 13 and has managed to get more than 85 million views till now. His earlier song Gangnam Style  holds the YouTube record for most views ever with more than 1.5 billion. The dance step of the song was seen imitated all over the world, the most famous being by Chris Gayle after West Indies won the T20 World Cup.   Gentleman got more than 20 million hits in the first 24 hours after its release on Saturday night which easily outstripped the 8 million views for Justin Bieber's Boyfriend in its first 24 hours.

    By now you've enjoyed "Gentleman M/V," Psy's followup to his massive hit, &quo

Boston: At least three people died and over 100 injured as serial blasts rocked the north-eastern city of Boston on Monday afternoon at 02:50 pm( EDT). While the first explosion took place three hours after winners had crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon, second bomb exploded several seconds later at the same venue.   A third explosion went off at JFK Library, which is at an approximate distance of five miles from the site of first two blasts. However, reports suggested that the third explosion was 'fire-related'.   Further, two more explosive devices were recovered from the Marathon venue, which were defused.   Six among those injured are b

WASHINGTON: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said the media coverage of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to ban telecommuting was about Mayer 'being a woman'.

During a lecture at Stanford University on Tuesday to promote her new memoir, 'Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead', Sandberg offered a harsh assessment of the negative media coverage surrounding Mayer's decision to end telecommuting at Yahoo.

According to the New York Daily News, Sandberg said that it is really hard to know what is happening at Yahoo.

Mayer, who built a nursery next to her own office at Yahoo! so as to be close to her newborn son, was widely

CHENNAI: The Centre's Pink Revolution to promote meat production and export has led to a 44% increase in meat consumption and export in four years, but it has failed to regulate the industry.

According to data compiled by the animal husbandry departments of all states, meat from registered slaughterhouses increased from 5.57 lakh tonnes in 2008 to 8.05 lakh tonnes in 2011. Export earnings from bovine (beef and cattle) meat expected to touch Rs 18,000 crore in 2012-2013. India became the world's top exporter of beef in 2012.

Uttar Pradesh is the top buffalo meat-producing state with 3 lakh tonnes in 2011. At least 70% of the buffalo meat is exported. &quo

'We are doing a disservice to Tamils in Sri Lanka'   Cho Ramaswamy, editor of the Tamil political weekly Thuglaq, is the most admired political analyst in Tamil Nadu. In this exclusive interview to Shobha Warrier, he talks about the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam [ Images ] walking out of the United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] and also his thoughts on the next Lok Sabha elections.   When the DMK threatened to pull out of the UPA, many thought they were enacting one more drama. But they eventually did withdraw support. Did you expect them to come out of the UPA this time?   I am still not sure Karunanidhi [ Images ] is happy with t

China ‘Superpower’ to produce genius babies Beijing: In its relentless pursuit to be the world’s next big superpower, China is believed to be working on a project to produce genius babies.

According to a Vice news report, Monday, scientists in China have collected DNA samples of 2,000 of the world’s smartest people.   The scientists at the BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute) Shenzhen are now sequencing the entire genomes in a bid to recognise the alleles which determine human intelligence.

Once it is done, embryo screening will let parents choose their brightest zygote.

The process will reporte

Call for disclosure of meat sources by Hindus in UK Hindu groups based in the UK have called on the government to enforce stricter disclosure norms after it emerged that many restaurants serving Indian food in Scotland were using the wrong kind of meat.

In the wake of the Europe-wide horsemeat scandal that is still under investigation, it emerged that more than a third of Scottish curry restaurants could be using cheaper meat such as beef in dishes that claimed to be lamb.

"The issue does raise religious concerns as some Hindus who may eat meat would prefer not to consume beef as cows are considered sacred in our religion," said Anil Bhanot, managing

Mission status report   PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has transitioned from precautionary "safe mode" to active status on the path of recovery from a memory glitch last week. Resumption of full operations is anticipated by next week.   Controllers switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer, the rover's "B-side" computer, on Feb. 28 when the "A-side" computer that the rover had been using demonstrated symptoms of a corrupted memory location. The intentional side swap put the rover, as anticipated, into minimal-activity safe mode.   Curiosity exited safe mode on Saturday and resumed using its high-gain an

WASHINGTON — John O. Brennan’s first difficult challenge at the C.I.A. may not be confronting the agency’s future, but its past. Mr. Brennan, whose nomination is expected to be eventually approved by the Senate, will take charge at the agency where he worked for 25 years just as it faces a sweeping indictment of its now-defunct interrogation program — a blistering, 6,000-page Senate study that includes incendiary accusations that agency officials for years systematically misled the White House, the Justice Department and Congress about the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding that were used on Qaeda prisoners. By the account of people bri

SAN FRANCISCO: The founder of a company acquired by Yahoo for $270 million said in a lawsuit filed that Yahoo tried to "cheat" and "humiliate" him by firing him at a bar weeks before his first retention bonus was due.

The plaintiff, Michael Katz, said he was promised several annual payments of $1.35 million, as well as other compensation, when his online advertising company Interclick was acquired by Yahoo in December 2011, according to the lawsuit filed in New York state court.

Katz continued to run the Interclick business after the acquisition, the lawsuit stated.

The complaint, which alleges breach of contract as well as oth

SAO PAULO: From life, Hugo Chavez has moved into history. A living legend for millions of poor in his country and a divisive figure in global politics, the Venezuelan president died on Tuesday evening. He was 58.

After battling cancer for two years during which he underwent multiple rounds of surgeries and chemotherapy in Cuba and at home, the Venezuelan president breathed his last at a military hospital in the capital Caracas. With his death, the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country with the largest reserves of oil in the world has come to an end. Now as per the constitution, Venezuela must elect a new president within 30 days.

In t

Kerry says US releasing millions in aid to Egypt CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's "future as a democracy." Yet Kerry also served notice that the Obama administration will keep close watch on how Morsi, who came to power in June as Egypt's first freely elected president, honors his commitment and that additional U.S. assistance would depend on it. "The path to that future has clearly been difficult and much work remains," Kerry said in a statemen

Florida home where sinkhole swallowed man is partially razed..     SEFFNER, Florida (Reuters) - A wrecking crew on Sunday partly razed a Florida house where a sinkhole had swallowed up a man as he slept but the demolition team went about its job as carefully as possible to preserve the home's contents for survivors.

Rescue workers had given up the search for Jeff Bush, a 37-year-old landscaper, on Saturday. He was officially declared "presumed dead" by county officials after disappearing into the hole, which opened up under his bedroom on Thursday night.

Sinkholes are common in Florida due to the state's geology a

Budget offer to cut social safety nets-Barack Obama renews WASHINGTON DC: President Barack Obama raised anew the issue of cutting entitlements such as medicare and social security as a way out of damaging budget cuts, a White House official said on Sunday, as both sides in Washington tried to limit a fiscal crisis that may soon hit millions of Americans.

Signaling he might be ready to explore a compromise to end automatic spending cuts that began late Friday, Obama mentioned reforming these entitlement programs in calls with lawmakers from both parties on Saturday afternoon.

"He's reaching out to Democrats who understand we have to make serious pro

SAN FRANCISCO: A federal judge on Friday slashed nearly half of the $1 billion damage award a jury ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple Inc after a high-profile trial over the rights to the design and technology running some of the world's most popular smartphones and tablet computers.

US District Court Judge Lucy Koh lowered the damages awarded to Apple by $450.5 million for 14 Samsung products including some products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup, saying jurors had not properly followed her instruction in calculating some of the damages.

She also concluded that mistakes had been made in determining when Apple had first notified Samsung about the all

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo is shutting down seven products, including its mobile app for Blackberry smartphones, as new chief executive Marissa Mayer takes a page from Google's book by eliminating unsuccessful products en-masse.

The product shutdowns, which Yahoo announced on its official company blog on Friday, are part of what the company said are regular efforts to evaluate and review its product line-up.

"The most critical question we ask is whether the experience is truly a daily habit that still resonates for all of you today," wrote Jay Rossiter, Yahoo's executive vice president of Platforms.

The announcement represents Yahoo

WASHINGTON: Huge spending cuts will start to hit the US military and a vast array of other government programs on Saturday after President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans failed to find a compromise that would have blocked the $85 billion budget reduction, a move designed to whittle away at the country's enormous debt but one that could threaten the still-weak economy.

Both Obama and the Republican leaders in the House and Senate declared themselves still deadlocked after a last-minute White House meeting on Friday. The two sides are at odds over the president's insistence on increasing tax revenue as part of any plan for attacking the country's $16.6 tr

Best Film: Argo
Director: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman     Best Actor In A Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln     Best Actress In A Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook     Best Director: Ang Lee - Life Of Pi     Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained     Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables     Best Animated Short Film: Paperman
Director John Kahrs accepts the award.     Best Animated Short Film: Paperman

Jennifer Lawrence in Dior: Best Actress winner for Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence was stunning in a strapless white dress. She almost tripped over her voluminous skirt as she climbed the steps to the stage, but made a valiant recovery.   Michelle Obama in Naeem Khan: The First Lady, who announced the winner of Best Picture via video link, wore a glittering silver dress and her now-famous bangs.  
Jennifer Aniston in Valentino: Presenter Jennifer Aniston accessorized her big red ballgown with easy, undone hair.   Samantha Barks in Valentino: Les Miserables star Samantha wore one of our favourite dresses, black with a plunging neckline. &n