‘American Idol’: Few Hits, Mostly Misses

We were promised hits, dammit. The ruthless Interscope executive Jimmy Iovine, now a significant member of the “American Idol” team, indicated that this season, he and his famous producer friends would treat contestants like future recording stars, not just as TV-show contestants.

But if Wednesday night’s performances, on the first proper competition night, revealed anything, it’s that the institutional memory of this show, and the tentativeness of its performers, will for now easily trump any early efforts to mold new stars.

Read more »

Posted in: america,american idol,americans,latest news,US

US doubts HAL's capability

NEW DELHI: The US seems to have committed a howler in the race to bag the "mother of all defence deals", the $10.4 billion project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft for IAF, which is in the final lap now.

Washington has expressed serious doubts on the ability of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to handle projects like the MMRCA, dubbing it "untested and suspect". This drew a sharp response from a defence ministry official, who pointed out the defence PSU was already engaged in producing a frontline "air dominance" fighter like Sukhoi-30MKI with Russia's help.

As per the MMRCA contract, which India hopes to ink this year, 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf from the foreign vendor finally selected, while the rest will be manufactured by HAL in India after transfer of technology. 

Read more »

Posted in: americans,hal,india,navy,US

Was Davis running drone programme in Pakistan?

WASHINGTON: A mysterious halt to U.S Predator strikes on Pakistan after the Raymond Davis incident in Lahore has led to intense speculation the American "diplomat" was connected to the Drone program even as Washington and Islamabad are going eyeball-to-eyeball over his status.

Davis, 36, was apprehended by Pakistani police after he shot dead two Pakistanis on a busy Lahore thoroughfare on January 27, four days after the last drone U.S Drone strike in Pakistan. There has not been a single strike in the 25 days since then, making it the third-longest period of inactivity since the U.S ramped up the Predator program to take out terrorists infesting Pakistan's frontier regions, according to Long War Journal (LWJ), a blog that tracks U.S Predator attacks. 

Read more »

Posted in: americans,davis,drone,pakistan,US

Nasa picks Thursday for final Discovery launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Nasa will try to launch space shuttle Discovery next week following a four-month delay.

Discovery's final liftoff is set for Thursday afternoon. Senior managers voted unanimously Friday on the new launch date.

Discovery has been grounded since the beginning of November. Cracks in the external fuel tank were discovered following a launch attempt that was foiled by leaking hydrogen gas. It's taken this long to understand and repair the cracking.

Read more »

Posted in: cape carnaval,nasa,US

US-has-very-complicated-relationship-with-Pakistan-CIA-chief

WASHINGTON: CIA director Leon Panetta has told US lawmakers that his country has a very complicated relationship with Pakistan and both the countries often have conflicting view point on different issues.

"I have to tell you that it (US-Pakistan) is very complicated and it does involve oftentimes conflicting viewpoints of how we deal with issues," Panetta told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing of the senate select committee on intelligence.

The relationship between Pakistan and the US is one of the most complicated relationships that he has seen in a long time, he said in response to a question. 

Read more »

Posted in: americans,army,cia,pakistan,US

Indians-among-111-charged-in-major-US-healthcare-fraud

BOSTON: At least six Indian-origin persons are among over 100 doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals arrested on charges of alleged involvement in a massive Medicare fraud estimated at $225 million, in one of the biggest crackdowns on healthcare fraud-related crimes in the US.

The 111 people charged across nine cities are accused of crimes, including conspiracy to defraud Medicare, criminal false claims, money laundering and aggravated identify theft.

"With this takedown, we have identified and shut down large-scale fraud schemes operating throughout the country. This is the largest federal healthcare fraud takedown in our nation's history," said Attorney General Eric Holder who announced the charges with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. 

Read more »

Posted in: 111,americans,fraud,health care,india,united states,US

The September 11, 2001 attacks also known as 9/11 were a series of well planned, suicide attacks by al-Qaeda terrorists upon the United States. The aim of that attack was to destroy the US economy by attacking its one of the main centers for trade and commerce, the world trade center. On that morning, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners the they crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building, causing both buildings to collapse within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. It caused death of more than 6000 innocent people.

Read more »

Posted in: ATTACKS,US