Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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Obama's 2nd Term: Who's Time Is 'Our Time'?

Jan 21, 2013 12:50pm Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty ImagesANALYSIS By RICK KLEINPresident Obama used a brief pause in the partisan warfare that’s scarred his time in office to return to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, with his own declaration of urgency and a call to action that reflects shared sacrifice and responsibility.This was no centrist conciliator. It...

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Algeria vows to fight Qaeda after 38 workers killed

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria's prime minister accused a Canadian of coordinating last week's raid on a desert gas plant and, praising the storming of the complex where 38 mostly foreign hostages were killed, he pledged to resist the rise of Islamists in the Sahara. Algeria will never succumb to terrorism or allow al Qaeda to establish "Sahelistan", an Afghan-style power base in arid northwest...

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US seeks quick vote on N.Korea sanctions resolution

UNITED NATIONS: The United States on Monday circulated a resolution on sanctions against North Korea to other UN Security Council members and hopes for a vote within days, diplomats said.The resolution condemns North Korea for staging a ballistic missile test in December and follows weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, diplomats said."The United States circulated...

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Train fares to go up from today

NEW DELHI: Rail travelers will have to pay more from Tuesday.Railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced across the board hike in passenger fares to raise an additional fund to the tune of Rs 6,600 crore in a year.The hike, which has come after a decade, will generate additional Rs 1,200 crore this fiscal.Though the minister had ruled out any hike in passenger tariff in the Rail Budget 2013-14...

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Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws

NEW YORK (AP) — Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn't afford to miss.A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn't have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best — and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home...

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Sasha's View: 'Good Job, Daddy. You Didn't Mess Up'

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden today officially embarked on their second term, taking the Constitutionally mandated oath of office in two separate private ceremonies inside their homes.Shortly before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, Obama raised his right hand, with his left on a family Bible, reciting the oath administrated by Chief Justice John...

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Algeria toll rises as attack claimed for al Qaeda

ALGIERS, Algeria (Reuters) - The death toll has risen to at least 48 hostages killed during a four-day siege at a gas plant deep in the Sahara as a veteran Islamist fighter claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda for the attack. Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal is expected to give details at a Monday news conference about one of the worst international hostage crises in decades,...

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Opposition beats Merkel team in knife-edge state poll: TV

BERLIN: Germany's centre-left opposition beat Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling alliance Sunday in a cliffhanger state poll eight months ahead of a national vote, estimates on public television showed.In one of the tightest German state races in recent memory, the Social Democrats together with the Greens eked out a one-seat lead in Lower Saxony, just ahead of the incumbent coalition of...

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Tiff over liquour shop stake led to Hindu terror accused Joshi’s murder?

NEW DELHI: There could be more personal and local reasons to the murder of key Hindu terror accused Sunil Joshi than the larger motive of protecting the saffron module from being exposed. Investigations into the December 2007 murder case by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have found that a liquor shop on Indore-Dewas road in Madhya Pradesh had become a bone of contention among saffron terror...

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