NATIONAL ―Senate Democrats are pushing ahead with a vote Tuesday on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, rejecting Republican demands for more information from Hagel in a politically-charged fight over President Barack Obama’s second-term national security team. In a brief statement, Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the panel would meet Tuesday afternoon with the “intention to vote last Tuesday, but postponed it amid complaints from Republicans that Hagel hadn’t sufficiently answered questions about his personal finances. President Obama chose Hagel, a former two-term Nebraska Republican senator and twice wounded Vietnam combat veteran, to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after serving as CIA director and Pentagon chief in the president’s first term.
WORLD ―A Tibetan monk set himself on fire in front of a famous Bhuddist shrine in the capital of Nepal yesterday, police said, becoming the latest Tibetan to adopt this harrowing form of protest over Chinese rule. The man, believed to be in his early 20s, has yet to be identified. Witnesses reported seeing him come out of a nearby restaurant doused in petrol and set himself on fire in front of the revered Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, said Keshav Adhikari, a police spokesperson. Self-immolation has become a dramatic and desperate form of protest in recent years for ethnic Tibetans unhappy with the current Chinese regime. Tibetan advocacy groups say the number of self-immolations by Tibetans inside China since Feb. 2009 stood at 99 by the end of this January and now stands at an even 100 with this latest report of self-immolation.
SCIENCE ―An asteroid half the size of a football field will travel close by Earth tomorrow, coming closer than many weather and navigational satellites, but scientists at NASA say there is no chance that it will crash into the planet. The asteroid, dubbed 2012 DA14, will travel within 17,200 miles, one thirteenth the distance the moon is from the Earth when it travels by the planet Friday. It will be 5,000 miles closer than the ring of communications, weather, and gps navigational satellites that orbit Earth and will be visible to stargazers through telescope and binoculars in Europe and western parts of Asia. According to detailed observations of the 150-foot 2012 DA14 since its discovery last year, “there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth,” NASA officials said in a statement issued by the government agency.
HEALTH ―Turbocharged parents still running their college-aged children’s schedules, laundry and vacations could be doing more harm than good, according to a study showing these students were more likely to be depressed and dissatisfied with life. Researcher Holly Schiffrin from the University of Mary Washington in Virginia found so-called helicopter parenting negatively affected college students by underming their need to feel autonomous and competent. Her study found students with over-controlling parents were more likely to be depressed and less satisfied with their lives while the number of hyper parents was increasing with economic fears fuelling concerns over young people’s chances of success. This study comes as the debate rises over how much parents should run their children’s lives to make them succeed throughout their lives.
