Cyclone tears roofs off houses in Solomon Islands

SUVA: Freshly formed Cyclone Freda whipped roofs off houses and flattened trees in the Solomon Islands as it gathered strength en route to New Caledonia, forecasters said on Saturday.

There was also flooding from rising rivers as winds of up to 130 kilometres an hour (80 mph) blew in, but there were no reports of deaths or injuries, Solomon Islands Meteorological Service officer Manoah Tepa said.

"Cyclone Freda is now a category two cyclone and it is continuing to intensify. It will become category three by midnight tonight having very destructive winds," said Sajay Prakesh of the Nadi Tropical Cyclone Centre in Fiji.

Although the cyclone was moving away, parts of the Solomon Islands were being hit by "very strong winds and heavy rain," said Prakesh.

On Friday, the New Zealand-based meteorological service Weatherwatch said the storm was expected to be over New Caledonia on New Year's Day.

Earlier this month Cyclone Evan strengthened to a category four cyclone and left a swathe of devastation in its wake, destroying homes, flooding rivers and stranding thousands of tourists in Fiji.

Before arriving in Fiji, it pummelled neighbouring Samoa, killing at least five.

- AFP/xq

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Protesters at Jantar Mantar force Sheila Dikshit to return

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit faced public rage on Friday when she was forced to return from Jantar Mantar where she went to take part in mourning the death of the 23-year-old gang-rape victim.

Dikshit reached Jantar Mantar where around 500 people gathered for mourning the death of the girl at around 2pm but had to beat a hasty retreat as enraged protesters circled and forced her to return.

The chief minister and police tried to reason with the protesters and allow her to be part of the gathering but the demonstrators were in no mood to oblige.

However before leaving Jantar Mantar, she lit a candle and prayed for the departed soul.

"I had gone there to express my grief at the death of the girl," she said when asked about her visit to Jantar Mantar.

"Do you want to politicise somebody's death. Why didn't she come when the protests first began? She even asked police to remove us when we protested outside her residence," a protester said.

Within minutes, she was escorted out of the area by police.

People started gathering at Jantar Mantar here at around 10am and sat in silence.

Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Kumar Vishwas had also joined the protest along with some of their supporters with their mouth tied with black cloth.

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How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.

No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem is, one drink leads to two, then the party gets going and a third is generously poured. Soon, the music fades and the morning arrives—and with it, the dreaded hangover. (Explore a human-body interactive.)

Whether it's a pounding headache, a queasy stomach, sweating, or just general misery, the damage has been done. So now it's time to remedy the situation. What's the quickest way to banish the pain? It depends who you ask.

Doctors typically recommend water for hydration and ibuprofen to reduce inflammation. Taking B vitamins is also good, according to anesthesiologist Jason Burke, because they help the body metabolize alcohol and produce energy.

Burke should know a thing or two about veisalgia, the medical term for hangover. At his Las Vegas clinic Hangover Heaven, Burke treats thousands of people suffering from the effects of drinking to excess with hydrating fluids and medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"No two hangovers are the same," he said, adding that the unfavorable condition costs society billions of dollars-mostly from lost productivity and people taking sick days from work.

Hot Peppers for Hangovers?

So what's the advice from the nonmedical community? Suggestions range from greasy breakfasts to vanilla milkshakes to spending time in a steamy sauna. A friend insists hot peppers are the only way to combat a hangover's wrath. Another swears by the palliative effects of a bloody mary. In fact, many people just have another drink, following the old "hair of the dog that bit you" strategy.

Whether such "cures" actually get rid of a hangover is debatable, but one thing's for sure: the sorry state is universal. The only people immune to hangovers are the ones who avoid alcohol altogether.

So for those who do indulge, even if it's just once in awhile, see our interactive featuring cures from around the world (also above). As New Year's Eve looms with its attendant excuse to imbibe, perhaps it would be wise to stock your refrigerator with one of these antidotes. Pickled herring, anyone?

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Epic Journey: Did Moses' Exodus Really Happen?

In the Bible, he is called Moses. In the Koran, he is the prophet Musa.

Religious scholars have long questioned whether of the story of a prophet leading God's chosen people in a great exodus out of Egypt and the freedom it brought them afterwards was real, but the similarities between a pharaoh's ancient hymn and a psalm of David might hold the link to his existence.

Tune in to Part 2 of Christiane Amanpour's ABC News special, "Back to the Beginning," which explores the history of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus, on Friday, Dec. 28 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Christian scripture says Moses was content to grow old with his family in the vast deserted wilderness of Midian, and 40 years passed until the Bible says God spoke to him through the Burning Bush and told him to lead his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. According to tradition, that miraculous bush can still be seen today enclosed within the ancient walls of St. Catherine's Monastery, located not far from Moses' hometown.

But there was another figure in the ancient world who gave up everything to answer the call from what he believed was the one and only true God.

Archaeologists discovered the remains of the ancient city of Amarna in the 1800s. Egyptologist Rawya Ismail, who has been studying the ruins for years, believes, as other archaeologists do, that Pharaoh Akhenaten built the city as a tribute to Aten, the sun.

G.Sioen/De Agostini/Getty Images

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She said it was a bold and unusual step for the pharaoh to leave the luxurious trappings of palace life in Luxor for the inhospitable landscape of Amarna, but it might have been his only choice as the priests from the existing religious establishment gained power.

"The very powerful Amun-Ra priests that he couldn't stand against gained control of the whole country," Ismail said. "The idea was to find a place that had never been used by any other gods -- to be virgin is what he called it -- so he chose this place."

All over the walls inside the city's beautiful tombs are examples of Akhanaten's radical message of monotheism. There is the Hymn to the Aten, which translates, in part, to: "The earth comes into being by your hand, as you made it. When you dawn, they live. When you set, they die. You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you."

PHOTOS: Christiane Amanpour's Journey 'Back to the Beginning'

Some attribute the writing of the hymn to Akhanaten himself, but it bears a striking resemblance to a passage that can be found in the Hebrew Bible: Psalm 104.

"If you compare the hymns from A to Z, you'll find mirror images to it in many of the holy books," Ismail said. "And if you compare certain parts of it, you'll find it almost exactly -- a typical translation for some of the [psalms] of David."

Psalm 104, written a few hundred years later, references a Lord that ruled over Israel and a passage compares him to the sun.

"You hide your face, they are troubled," part of it reads. "You take away your breath, they die, And return to dust. You send forth your breath, they are created, And you renew the face of the earth."

Like the psalm, the Hymn to Aten extols the virtues of the one true God.

"A lot of people think that [the Hymn to Aten] was the source of the [psalms] of David," Ismail said. "Putting Egypt on the trade route, a lot of people traveled from Egypt and came back to Egypt, it wasn't like a country living in isolation."

Ismail believes it is possible that the message from the heretic pharaoh has some connection to the story of Moses and the Exodus, as outlined in the Hebrew Bible.

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As ‘fiscal cliff’ deadline nears, OPM updates furlough guidelines

With talks on averting the “fiscal cliff” apparently stalled, the Office of Personnel Management posted new guidance to federal workers for administrative furloughs on its Web site Thursday afternoon.

“We wanted to take some prudent steps to keep federal employees informed in case of an order for sequestration,” said Thomas Richards, OPM’s communications director.

He added that the guidelines were not issued as “a reaction to any specific action” involving the talks between President Obama and congressional leaders.

“It’s nothing more than that,” Richards said.

Nonetheless, after months of the White House expressing confidence that the standoff would be resolved before a crisis hit and that furloughs would be unnecessary, the guidance reflects the reality that little time remains on the calendar to avert the automatic cuts that will be triggered by a failure to reach a deal by the year’s end.

Obama returned to Washington from Hawaii on Thursday in an effort to keep the talks alive. As the deadline approaches, federal workers have grown increasingly worried about the potential threat to their jobs.

The guidance notes that “agencies are responsible for identifying the employees affected by administrative furloughs based on budget conditions, funding sources, mission priorities (including the need to perform emergency work involving the safety of human life or protection of property), and other factors.”

Employees will be given a minimum 60-day notice before any furlough of longer than 22 days takes place, according to the document. A 30-day notice will be given for shorter furloughs.

The guidance also specifies that employees may not take other forms of paid time off, including annual or sick leave, in lieu of being furloughed. Nor is an employee allowed to volunteer to do his or her job for free, unless otherwise authorized by law.

The guidelines are updated from a previous version issued in April by OPM in response to the possibility of a government shutdown at the time.

“The policy folks are diving down deep into the weeds,” Richards said. “We wanted to make sure the guidelines were up to date to reflect the possibility of sequestration.”

Richards said the OPM will soon post answers to frequently asked questions on the agency’s Web site (opm.gov/furlough).

“It will be questions like, ‘Do I need to show up for work on January 2nd? Yes, you do,’ ” Richards said.

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Temasek raises stake in Olam to 19%

SINGAPORE: Singapore-listed Olam International said its second-largest shareholder Temasek Holdings has further increased its stake to 19 per cent, from 18 per cent.

This is the third time in a month that the Singapore investment firm had boosted its shareholdings in the commodities group, which has been the target of short-seller Carson Block and his research firm Muddy Waters.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Friday, Olam said Temasek had increased its holdings via two units in open-market purchases.

Earlier this month, Olam said Temasek is backing its rights issue of bonds and warrants to raise as much as US$1.2 billion.

Kewalram Chanrai Group, Olam's largest investor with nearly a 20 per cent stake, has also said it will back the issue.

- CNA/xq

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Electronic media has become police, prosecution & judge: Digvijaya

BHOPAL: Deprecating the electronic media over coverage of protests following the gang-rape in Delhi, Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Friday said it was playing the roles of police station, prosecution and the judge.

"During the agitation following the gang-rape of a girl in New Delhi, the electronic media has become the police station, the prosecution and even the judge," Digvijay said.

After a policeman died during the agitation in the aftermath of the gang-rape, the electronic media showed an eyewitness who claimed to have seen the security personnel falling down, he said.

The eyewitness was even shown saying that the policeman had not been hit by anything, the Congress leader said, adding that all this was not the job of the electronic media.

"I think all of us have become irrelevant and the nation should be left at the mercy of the electronic media who will run it," Singh said.

He said, however, in contrast, the print media "behaves responsibly" and does not go on and on about any particular story.

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How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do.

So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

In his second edition of his book The Blue Zones, Buettner writes about a newly identified Blue Zone: the Greek island of Ikaria (map). National Geographic magazine Editor at Large Cathy Newman interviewed him about the art of living long and well. (Watch Buettner talk about how to live to a hundred.)

Q. You've written about Blue Zones in Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoa, Costa Rica and Okinawa, Japan. How did you find your way to Ikaria?

A. Michel Poulain, a demographer on the project, and I are always on the lookout for new Blue Zones. This one popped up in 2008. We got a lead from a Greek foundation looking for biological markers in aging people. The census data showed clusters of villages there with a striking proportion of people 85 or older. (Also see blog: "Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth.")

In the course of your quest you've been introduced to remarkable individuals like 100-year-old Marge Jetton of Loma Linda, California, who starts the day with a mile-long [0.6-kilometer] walk, 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 kilometers] on a stationary bike, and weight lifting. Who is the most memorable Blue Zoner you've met?

Without question it's Stamatis Moraitis, who lives in Ikaria. I believe he's 102. He's famous for partying. He makes 400 liters [100 gallons] of wine from his vineyards each year, which he drinks with his friends. His house is the social hot spot of the island. (See "Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100.")

He's also the Ikarian who emigrated to the United States, was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 60s, given less then a year to live, and who returned to Ikaria to die. Instead, he recovered.

Yes, he never went through chemotherapy or treatment. He just moved back to Ikaria.

Did anyone figure out how he survived?

Nope. He told me he returned to the U.S. ten years after he left to see if the American doctors could explain it. I asked him what happened. "My doctors were all dead," he said.

One of the common factors that seem to link all Blue Zone people you've spoken with is a life of hard work—and sometimes hardship. Your thoughts?

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

Sounds like another version of the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

Can you talk about diet? Not all of us have access to goat milk, for example, which you say is typically part of an Ikarian breakfast.

There is nothing exotic about their diet, which is a version of a Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, beans, fruit, olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. (Read more about Buettner's work in Ikaria in National Geographic Adventure.)

All things in moderation?

Not all things. Socializing is something we should not do in moderation. The happiest Americans socialize six hours a day.

The people you hang out with help you hang on to life?

Yes, you have to pay attention to your friends. Health habits are contagious. Hanging out with unhappy people who drink and smoke is hazardous to your health.

So how has what you've learned influenced your own lifestyle?

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity. My previous life was setting records on my bike. [Buettner holds three world records in distance cycling.] Now I use my bike to commute. I only eat meat once a week, and I always keep nuts in my office: Those who eat nuts live two to three more years than those who don't.

You also write about having a purpose in life.

Purpose is huge. I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

The Japanese you met in Okinawa have a word for that?

Yes. Ikigai: "The reason for which I wake in the morning."

Do you have a non-longevity-enhancing guilty pleasure?

Tequila is my weakness.

And how long would you like to live?

I'd like to live to be 200.

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White House Says It Has No New Fiscal Cliff Plan

The White House said today it has no plans to offer new proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff which looms over the country's economy just five days from now, but will meet Friday with Congressional leaders in a last ditch effort to forge a deal.

Republicans and Democrats made no conciliatory gestures in public today, despite the urgency.

The White House said President Obama would meet Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders. But a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican "will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act."

The White House announced the meeting after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the budget situation "a mess" and urged the president to present a fresh proposal.

"I told the president I would be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as I said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago," McConnell said of his phone call with Obama Wednesday night.

McConnell added, "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

"That having been said, we'll see what the president has to propose," the Republican Senate leader said.

But a senior White House official told ABC News, "There is no White House bill."

That statement, however, may have wiggle room. Earlier today White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "I don't have any meetings to announce," but a short time later, Friday's meeting was made public.

It's unclear if the two sides are playing a game of political chicken or whether the administration is braced for the fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Boehner.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

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Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as the president returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal.

The House of Representatives will meet for legislative business Sunday evening, leaving the door cracked open ever so slightly to the possibility of a last-minute agreement.

But on a conference call with Republican House members Thursday afternoon, Boehner kept to the Republican hard line that if the Senate wants a deal it should amend bills already passed by the House.

That was the exact opposite of what Reid said in the morning, that Republicans should accept a bill passed by Democratic led Senate.

Related: What the average American should know about capital gains and the fiscal cliff.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Related: Starbucks enters fiscal cliff fray.

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Related: Obama pushes fiscal cliff resolution.

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Hawaii’s lieutenant governor is named to the U.S. Senate

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) selected Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz on Wednesday to fill the vacancy created by the death last week of veteran U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D).

With the “fiscal cliff” five days away and critical decisions facing the Senate, the White House said Schatz would fly to Washington on Wednesday evening with President Obama. Schatz said he would be in place to be sworn in Thursday.

Abercrombie chose Schatz, 40, a former state Democratic Party chairman and state lawmaker, over U.S. Rep. Colleen W. Hanabusa (D), whom Inouye had indicated shortly before his death would be his preference to replace him.

“No one and nothing is pre­ordained,” Abercrombie told reporters in Hono­lulu. He said Inouye’s views were taken into account but so were those of grass-roots activists and his own analysis of what was best for the state.

He said Schatz, a native of Michigan, was best positioned to help Hawaii begin to rebuild its congressional seniority.

He called Schatz “intelligent, forceful, insightful, committed.”

Schatz will be joined in the Senate next month by Rep. Mazie K. Hirono (D), who was elected in November to replace retiring Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D).

The pair of newcomers will replace one of the nation’s most stable lawmaking teams: A modest World War II hero, Inouye had represented the Aloha State in the Senate since 1963, becoming president pro tempore of the chamber and chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. Akaka has served in the Senate since 1980.

Schatz will hold the job for two years until Hawaii voters choose a replacement to fill out the final two years of Inouye’s term.

Schatz, who will be one of the Senate’s youngest members, told reporters that he is planning to stand for election in 2014 to complete Inouye’s term and then to run for reelection in 2016.

“No one can fill Senator Daniel K. Inouye’s shoes — but together, all of us, we can try to walk in his footsteps,” Schatz said, indicating he would focus on retaining federal funding for the state and addressing climate change.

The selection of Schatz was something of a surprise, given Inouye’s wishes and the esteem with which he is held in the state. But Abercrombie is close to Schatz and indicated that he was hesitant to choose Hanabusa and force a new special election to fill her House seat.

Jennifer Sabas, Inouye’s chief of staff, indicated in a statement that Hanabusa’s selection was ­Inouye’s “final wish.”

“While we are very disappointed that it was not honored, it was the governor’s decision to make. We wish Brian Schatz the best of luck,” she said.

Rising Democratic star Tulsi Gabbard, 31, an Iraq war veteran and former Hono­lulu City Council member who was elected to the House in November, had some strong supporters nationally, including Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who endorsed her for the Senate seat via Twitter.

The appointment of Schatz came at a particularly critical time, with Democratic leaders anticipating a potentially close vote in the coming days on a tax plan designed to avert the most serious economic impacts of the year-end fiscal cliff.

In the absence of a broad, bipartisan deficit-reduction package, Obama has called on Congress to at least pass a bill to extend tax breaks for the middle class and potentially forestall automatic budget cuts set to hit in January.

Democrats hope that Republicans will agree to forgo a filibuster and allow an up-or-down vote on a temporary fix, requiring only a bare majority to pass. If the GOP requires a 60-vote threshold for the bill, as has increasingly become standard in the Senate, Democrats hope that a handful of Republicans would join Democrats in supporting the measure and send it to the House.

Either way, Democrats will need every vote they can muster if the legislation is brought to the floor. A bill passed by the Senate in July to extend tax rates first enacted under President George W. Bush for those making less than $250,000 a year was adopted by a narrow 51 to 48 margin.

All Republicans opposed the measure, along with Sens. James Webb (D-Va.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

With tax hikes set to hit virtually every American in a matter of days, a similar measure could pick up additional support this time around. But the possibility of a squeaker vote led Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to take the unusual step of urging Abercrombie to fill the Hawaii seat quickly.

“It is critically important to ensure that the people of Hawaii are fully represented in the pivotal decisions the Senate will be making before the end of the year,” Reid said in a statement Saturday.

Hawaii law required that Abercrombie choose a replacement from a list of three finalists selected by the state Democratic Party.

The party’s central committee met Wednesday — several days earlier than had been planned before Reid’s request for speed — to hear two-minute speeches from most of the 14 candidates who had formally asked the party to consider them for the role.

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