Authorities charge 5 in New Delhi gang rape

NEW DELHI (AP) — Five men accused of raping a university student for hours on a bus as it drove through India's capital were charged Thursday with murder, rape and other crimes that could bring them the death penalty.The attack on the 23-year-old woman, who died of severe internal injuries over the weekend, provoked a debate across India about the routine mistreatment of females and triggered daily...

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The Most and Least Influential Social Media Celebs

While he isn’t currently available for promotional work, businesses would have the most success on social media with President Barack Obama endorsing their goods and services, new research shows.A study by social marketing platform SocialToaster revealed that Obama is considered the most influential celebrity on social media. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher and Anderson Cooper followed the...

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Depardieu, in tax fight, gets Russian citizenship

MOSCOW (AP) — Gerard Depardieu, the French actor who has waged a battle against a proposed super-tax on millionaires in his native country, has been granted Russian citizenship.A brief announcement on the Kremlin website on Thursday revealed that President Vladimir Putin signed the citizenship grant following an application from the actor.The former Oscar nominee and star of the movie "Green Card"...

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Flu? Malaria? Disease forecasters look to the sky

NEW YORK (AP) — Only a 10 percent chance of showers today, but a 70 percent chance of flu next month.That's the kind of forecasting health scientists are trying to move toward, as they increasingly include weather data in their attempts to predict disease outbreaks.In one recent study, two scientists reported they could predict — more than seven weeks in advance — when flu season was going to peak...

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Sandy Hook students resume classes for first time since school shooting

A bus carrying Sandy Hook students arrives at Chalk Hill School. (Dylan Stableford/Yahoo! News)MONROE, Conn.--Sandy Hook School students--many accompanied by their parents--resumed classes at a retrofitted school here on a bitterly cold Thursday morning, less than a month after a gunman opened fire at their elementary school in Newtown, killing 20 children and 6 adults, including principal Dawn Hochsprung,...

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Myanmar fetes 2013 with first public countdown

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar rang in 2013 with its first public New Year's Eve countdown and a grand fireworks display, a celebration unprecedented in the former military-ruled country.The party is the latest, and perhaps most exuberant, example of the country's emergence from decades of isolation.Organizers announced that about 90,000 people gathered at the countdown venue, a large field in Yangon,...

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Apple testing new iPhone, iOS 7: report

(Reuters) – Apple Inc has started testing a new iPhone and the next version of its iOS software, news website The Next Web reported.Apple shares were up 2.6 percent at $ 546.06 in premarket trading. The stock closed at $ 532.17 on the Nasdaq on Monday.Application developers have found in their app usage logs references to a new iPhone identifier, iPhone 6.1, running iOS 7 operating system, the website...

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Jon Stewart to host Grammy's MusiCares tribute

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jon Stewart is hosting the MusiCares salute to Bruce Springsteen.The Recording Academy also announced Wednesday that Elton John, Neil Young, Mumford & Sons, Sting, Mavis Staples and Kenny Chesney will be among more than a dozen performers who will help pay tribute to Springsteen during the Feb. 8 benefit concert, held in Los Angeles two days before the Grammy Awards.Springsteen...

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Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating

This is your brain on sugar — for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.It's a small study and does not prove...

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Tax deal in place to avert fiscal cliff, Congress gets ready for fights

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress' excruciating, extraordinary New Year's Day approval of a compromise averting a prolonged tumble off the fiscal cliff hands President Barack Obama most of the tax boosts on the rich that he campaigned on. It also prevents House Republicans from facing blame for blocking tax cuts for most American households, though most GOP lawmakers parted ways with Speaker John Boehner...

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Gunmen kill 5 female teachers in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen in northwest Pakistan killed five female teachers and two aid workers on Tuesday in an ambush on a van carrying workers home from their jobs at a community center, officials said.The attack was another reminder of the risks to women educators and aid workers from Islamic militants who oppose their work. It was in the same conservative province where militants shot...

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Relive the Paralympics’ Most Inspiring Moment of the Year

Back in July, we covered how social media would be critical to the success of the 2012 Paralympic Games. The Paralympics ended in September, but the International Paralympic Committee is still using the web to shine a light on unheralded athletes and tell stories of remarkable inspiration.[More from Mashable: Watch the Scariest Skiing Lesson of All Time]The committee revealed its top moment of 2012...

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DiDonato a luminous Mary Stuart at Met

NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Opera may have pretty much turned opening night over to the glamorous Anna Netrebko, but New Year's Eve belongs to a very different diva — Joyce DiDonato.Last year the Kansas-born mezzo-soprano headlined a starry lineup in the baroque pastiche "The Enchanted Island." On Monday night she brought a gala audience to its feet with a luminous performance in the title role...

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Clinton receiving blood thinners to dissolve clot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors treating Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for a blood clot in her head said blood thinners are being used to dissolve the clot and they are confident she will make a full recovery.Clinton didn't suffer a stroke or neurological damage from the clot that formed after she suffered a concussion during a fainting spell at her home in early December, doctors said in a...

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Senate passes 'cliff' deal, House up next

With 2013 just over two hours old, the Senate voted 89-8 on Tuesday to approve a last-minute deal to avert income tax hikes on all but the richest Americans and stall painful spending cuts as part of a hard-fought compromise to avoid the economically toxic “fiscal cliff.”The country had already technically tumbled over the cliff by the time the gavel came down on the vote at 2:07 a.m.. The House of...

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India rape sets off debate over women's rights

NEW DELHI (AP) — India's army and navy canceled New Year's celebrations on Monday out of respect for a New Delhi student whose gang-rape and murder has set off an impassioned debate about what the nation needs to do to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.Protesters and politicians have called for tougher rape laws, major police reforms and a transformation in the way the country treats its...

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Kanye West, Kim Kardashian expecting 1st child

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A kid for Kimye: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child.The rapper announced at a concert Sunday night that his girlfriend is pregnant. Kardashian was in the crowd at Revel Resort's Ovation Hall with her mother, Kris Jenner, and West's mentor and best friend, Jay-Z. West told the crowd of more than 5,000 in song form: "Now you having my baby."The crowd...

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FDA approves 1st new tuberculosis drug in 40 years

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it has approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with other older drugs to fight hard-to-treat tuberculosis.Sirturo is the first medicine specifically designed for treating multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis....

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Biden, McConnell 'jump-start' stalled talks

Vice President Joe Biden looks on as President Barack Obama announces the nomination of Senator John Kerry as Secretary …Merry Cliffmas Eve? Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday pursued their behind-closed-doors efforts to avoid the “fiscal cliff” with just hours to halt painful automatic income tax hikes from biting into American paychecks.McConnell...

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Pakistan official: 19 killed in attack on Shiites

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims in southwest Pakistan on Sunday, killing 19 people, a government official and eyewitnesses said.Earlier Sunday, 21 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region, government officials...

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NASA Sets Record with Ion Thrusters Test

NASA has completed a 43,000 hour stress test — a record for ion thrusters — on a new rocket propulsion system that could extend future space travel to farther reaches of the solar system.Developed by NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster Project, the 7-kilowatt ion thruster can burn 10-12 times longer than the conventional chemical thrusters used today. Though not practical for manned-spaceflight, the...

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