Tribal Fighting Kills Dozens in Kenya

NAIROBI — About 40 people, many of them children, were killed and scores of others were seriously injured on Friday in renewed tribal attacks along the coastal Tana River Delta, Kenyan police officials said. According to the police, the fighting broke out when armed attackers from the Pokomo community raided a village belonging to the neighboring Orma ethnic group on Friday morning. ...

Read More..

Nintendo’s amazing triumph in Japan may doom the company

According to Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, Nintendo 3DS sold 333,000 units in the week ending December 16. Sony’s PS Vita limped along at 13’000 units. The new Wii U did an OK 130,000 units and PS3 managed 46,000 units.  The utter hardware domination of the 3DS is reshaping the Japanese software market. Franchises that were thought to be fading have been revitalized in their portable versions....

Read More..

Michael Phelps voted AP male athlete of year

Now that he's away from the pool, Michael Phelps can reflect — really reflect — on what he accomplished.Pretty amazing stuff."It's kind of nuts to think about everything I've gone through," Phelps said. "I've finally had time to myself, to sit back and say, '... that really happened?' It's kind of shocking at times."Not that his career needed a capper, but Phelps added one more honor to his staggering...

Read More..

Stigma Fading, Marijuana Common in California

Jim Wilson/The New York TimesAt a San Francisco concert in 2010, marijuana use was general while signatures were collected for a measure to decriminalize it. LOS ANGELES — Let Colorado and Washington be the marijuana trailblazers. Let them struggle with the messy details of what it means to actually legalize the drug. Marijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California. ...

Read More..

Boehner Tax Plan in House Is Pulled, Lacking Votes

Brendan Hoffman for The New York TimesSpeaker John A. Boehner of Ohio leaving a meeting Thursday with fellow House Republicans on talks over the “fiscal cliff.” WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner’s effort to pass fallback legislation to avert a fiscal crisis in less than two weeks collapsed Thursday night in an embarrassing defeat after conservative Republicans refused to support legislation that...

Read More..

Park Geun-hye, South Korean President-Elect, Calls for Reconciliation

Yonhap/European Pressphoto AgencyPresident-elect Park Geun-hye met with Koro Bessho, Japan's ambassador to South Korea, on Thursday. SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s president-elect, Park Geun-hye, called for national reconciliation on Thursday and met with foreign envoys in Seoul, a day after she was elected the country’s first female leader in a close contest that reflected generational and regional...

Read More..

Google to sell part of Motorola for $2.35 billion

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is selling Motorola Mobility‘s TV set-top business for $ 2.35 billion, lightening the load that the Internet search leader took on earlier this year when it completed the biggest acquisition in its history.The cash-and-stock deal announced late Wednesday will turn over Motorola‘s set-top division to Arris Group Inc., a relatively small provider of high-speed Internet equipment...

Read More..

AP IMPACT: Steroids loom in major-college football

WASHINGTON (AP) — With steroids easy to buy, testing weak and punishments inconsistent, college football players are packing on significant weight — 30 pounds or more in a single year, sometimes — without drawing much attention from their schools or the NCAA in a sport that earns tens of billions of dollars for teams.Rules vary so widely that, on any given game day, a team with a strict no-steroid...

Read More..

Recipes for Health: Spiced Roasted Almonds

Andrew Scrivani for The New York TimesSpiced roasted almonds. Roasted nuts are standard snacks, and almonds are a healthy food. But it is easy to eat too many. I find that if they are a little spicy or hot, delicious as they are, they are not quite as addictive.   3 cups (about 400 grams) almonds 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil Salt to taste 1/4 to...

Read More..

U.N. Suspends Immunization Work in Pakistan

 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The United Nations suspended all polio-related field activities in Pakistan on Wednesday after more attacks on public health workers attempting to immunize children. Two two people were killed and another wounded around the northwestern city of Peshawar.  The shootings followed a day of violence on Tuesday in the port city of Karachi in which four female health...

Read More..