India stampede kills 36 at world's largest religious festival

India stampede kills 36 at world's largest religious festival

India stampede kills 36 at world's largest religious festival

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:49 PM PST

Hindu devotees cross the river Ganges during the ongoing "Kumbh Mela" in AllahabadALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - A stampede at a railway station in northern India killed at least 36 Hindu pilgrims on Sunday, the busiest day of the world's largest religious festival at which some 30 million had gathered to wash away their sins in the sacred Ganges river. Twenty-seven of the dead were women, mostly elderly and poor. An eight-year-old girl was also crushed to death. A Reuters witness saw a woman weeping at the train station, surrounded by six bodies dressed in brightly colored saris. ...

Exclusive: U.N. monitors see arms reaching Somalia from Yemen, Iran

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:02 PM PST

Fighters from moderate Ahlu Sunna forces arrive at a road checkpoint outside Mareergur townUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - As the United States pushes for an end to the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, U.N. monitors are reporting that Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa nation are receiving arms from distribution networks linked to Yemen and Iran, diplomats told Reuters. The U.N. Security Council's sanctions monitoring team's concerns about Iranian and Yemeni links to arms supplies for al Shabaab militants come as Yemen is asking Tehran to stop backing armed groups on Yemeni soil. Last month Yemeni coast guards and the U.S. ...

2 dead in Indian Kashmir protests after man hanged

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:51 PM PST

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Government forces are enforcing a rigid curfew for the third straight day in Indian-controlled Kashmir after India executed a Kashmiri man convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on Parliament.

Calling All Cars! Apple Working On A Dick Tracy Watch?

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 11:06 PM PST

Will the next great product from Apple be...a connected watch?

Healthcare's Pricing Cabal

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:07 PM PST

Of all the trending (and trendy) topics in healthcare today, pricing transparency has grown quickly in popularity and focus. Whole companies are now committed to cracking this "secret code," and then selling the information to us (as either employers or consumers) as a way to enable pricing comaprison for healthcare services. The wisdom, of course, is that if we knew pricing we could wistfully bring "free market" influences to bear and those, in turn, would defy all logic of supply and demand or cost and value. The result would be sweeping (and desperately needed) pricing relief. As consumers, all of us could then easily shop for healthcare services in much the same way that we shop for other goods and services online. At least that's the theory – and the hope. It's definitely a big hope. One big assumption (here in the U.S.) is that opaque pricing itself is the primary culprit of our healthcare cost crisis. How else do we arrive at almost $9,000 per capita annually? The Milliman Index (which I wrote about here) suggests that the average family of 4 spends about $20,728 per year on healthcare. That's more than 7 times what the average household spends annually on gas ($2,912). So let's try to remove at least some of this mystery. We'll start with a simple question. Who actually sets healthcare pricing in the U.S.? We're a market-driven economy – so who's the "market maker?" For a system that's running at $3.5 trillion per year (about 18% of GDP) that seems like a pretty basic and important question. Personally, I think most Americans assume it's a combination of the Government and Commercial Insurance companies which does pay for Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, Federal Employees and healthcare services on behalf of millions of beneficiaries. Those are definitely the public and private institutions writing the checks, but how are the prices actually calculated – and by whom? Surprisingly, the organization that calculates pricing for almost all of U.S. healthcare is a little known cabal. Say what? How can that be? First of all, what's a cabal? Wikipedia describes it this way: A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views or interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue. Lot's of intrigue here – starting with a relatively obscure (and comparatively tiny) organization with a bulky name – the AMA / Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee. Today it's known less formally as the Relative Value Scale Update Committee – or simply RUC (pronounced "ruck"). Here's the member list of the RUC. Now granted, this is just an opinion (there's no legal definition of a cabal), but here are 10 reasons why I think the RUC easily qualifies as one:

VIDEO: Mali troops battle rebels in Gao

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:47 PM PST

French and Malian troops have fought running battles with Islamist rebels in the centre of Gao, the main city in northern Mali.

2014 Winter Olympic Games Alert: Tickets On Sale Today For Sochi!

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:57 PM PST

Individual tickets go on sale today, Monday February 11, at Noon Eastern Standard Time on a first come, first served basis for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. The games will be held February 7-23, 2014.

'The Walking Dead' Midseason Premiere Review: The Suicide King

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:46 PM PST

AMC's 'The Walking Dead' is back, but the fate of the cast is less certain.

Indonesia's Bakrie Clan Prefers Coal Mines To Television Stations

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:41 PM PST

Indonesia's politically influential Bakrie family are past masters of 11th-hour debt workouts. As the clock ticks on a restructuring of an ill-fated UK-listed venture, the Bakries may be preparing to sell down Visi Media Asia, a television firm which they hold a majority stake. Reuters reported Friday that Visi is on the block and that the Bakries are seeking a hefty premium over the stock price, which promptly rose 9% to IDR610 in Monday trading. With a market cap of roughly $850 million, a Visi disposal would give the Bakries access to cash at a critical time. Shareholders in Bumi plc, the UK-listed entity, are holding an extraordinary general meeting on Feb. 21 amid intense wrangling between financier Nat Rothschild and the Bakrie family. Led by patriarch Aburizal Bakrie, the family is proposing to buy back its coal mines that were injected into the venture, along with other non-family assets. Rothschild wants to appoint independent directors to Bumi and block the Bakries' influence (he says that alleged financial irregularities must be investigated). The Bakrie proposal to Bumi investors involves $278 million in cash, which is where Visi comes in handy.

VIDEO: Millions make 'spiritual journey'

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 08:53 AM PST

The organisers of the world's largest religious festival, the Kumbh Mela, have said 30 million Hindu pilgrims have bathed at the confluence of the Ganges and Jamuna rivers.

VIDEO: Tunisia PM warns of 'chaos'

Posted: 09 Feb 2013 06:25 PM PST

Tunisia's Prime Minister is warning the country could slide into "chaos" unless he succeeds in forming a new non-partisan government in the next few days.

VIDEO: Medieval order in Vatican procession

Posted: 09 Feb 2013 12:55 PM PST

At the Vatican 4,000 members and volunteers of the Knights of Malta, a medieval religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, marched in procession to St Peter's basilica to receive a papal blessing.

VIDEO: Who is tipped to win at Baftas?

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 11:11 AM PST

Stars such as Daniel Day-Lewis, George Clooney and Dame Judi Dench are attending the ceremony as London plays host to the Bafta film awards.

India stampede kills 36 at world's largest religious festival

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:49 PM PST

ALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - A stampede at a railway station in northern India killed at least 36 Hindu pilgrims on Sunday, the busiest day of the world's largest religious festival at which some 30 million had gathered to wash away their sins in the sacred Ganges river.

VMware: Evercore Turns Bullish; Sees Opening After Recent Fall

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:21 PM PST

Evercore Partners analyst Kirk Materne has upped his rating on VMware shares to Overweight from Equal following a recent post-earnings slide which chopped the virtualization software company's stock price by 20% since late January.

Seeking Cardiovascular Safety Data, FDA Blocks Approval Of Novo Nordisk's Long-Acting Insulin

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:10 PM PST

The FDA informed Novo Nordisk on Friday that it would not approve the company's highly anticipated long-acting insulin degludec products (Tresiba and Ryzodeg) until it receives data from a cardiovascular outcomes trial. Approval of the drugs had been widely anticipated for this year, following a positive recommendation from an FDA advisory committee last fall. But the committee also unanimously recommended that the company be required to perform a cardiovascular outcomes trial.

Grammy Winners 2013: The Full List

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:04 PM PST

The 55th annual Grammys are over, and unlike last year, a wide range of artists is heading home with hardware.

Sudan, Darfur rebels sign ceasefire deal in Qatar: QNA

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:38 PM PST

DOHA (Reuters) - The government of Sudan has signed a ceasefire deal in Qatar with a main Darfur rebel group in a fresh bid to end a decade-old conflict in western Sudan, Qatar's state news agency QNA reported late on Sunday. Years of international efforts have failed to end a rebellion in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab insurgents took up arms in 2003 to fight against what they called the Arab-dominated government's neglect of the region. ...

Exclusive: U.N. monitors see arms reaching Somalia from Yemen, Iran

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:56 PM PST

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - As the United States pushes for an end to the U.N. arms embargo on Somalia, U.N. monitors are reporting that Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa nation are receiving arms from distribution networks linked to Yemen and Iran, diplomats told Reuters.

Dell Insists LBO Offer Is 'Attractive' For Shareholders

Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:02 PM PST

Dell has issued a response to the growing list of institutional investors who have declared their opposition to founder and CEO Michael Dell's $13.65-a-share bid to take the company private.

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