Feds respond to Houston judge questioning Obama on health care

In responding to the request of a federal appeals judge in Houston, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday affirmed his department's belief in the time-honored concept of judicial review and said nothing in President Barack Obama's recent comments on a pending Supreme Court decision should be interpreted otherwise.

"Where a plaintiff properly invokes the jurisdiction of a court and presents a justiciable challenge, there is no dispute that courts properly review the constitutionality of Acts of Congress," Holder wrote in a letter to a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals that is reviewing a case from East Texas involving an obscure element of the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care law being challenged as unconstitutional. "The (Justice) Department has not in this litigation, nor in any other litigation of which I am aware, ever asked this or any other court to reconsider or limit long-established precedent concerning judicial review of the constitutionality of federal legislation."

Justice Jerry Smith, a member of the panel, told a government lawyer earlier this week that he was concerned about the president's comments on the upcoming Supreme Court decision and demanded that the Justice Department submit a three-page letter clarifying its position on the role of courts in reviewing federal laws. Smith claimed the president "has troubled many people" with his comment Monday in support of the health care law. "I just remind conservative commentators that for years, what we've heard is, the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law," Obama said.

Coast Guard cannon fire sinks Japanese ghost ship

OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA (AP) — The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over.

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter unleashed cannon fire on the abandoned 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru on Thursday, ending a journey that began when last year's tsunami dislodged it and set it adrift across the Pacific Ocean.

It sank into waters more than 1,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Alaska, more than 150 miles from land.

The crew pummeled the ghost ship with high explosive ammunition, and the Ryou-Un Maru soon burst into flames, and began to take on water and list, officials said.

A huge column of smoke could be seen over the gulf as a Coast Guard C-130 cargo plane, sent to observe the sinking, dropped a buoy to monitor for any possible pollution from the sunken ship.

The Coast Guard warned mariners to stay away, and aviation authorities did the same for pilots.

In about four hours, the ship vanished into the water, said Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow in Juneau.

Officials decided to sink the ship rather than risk the chance of it running aground or endangering other vessels in the busy shipping lanes between North America and Asia.

The ship had no lights or communications system, and its tank was able to carry more than 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Officials, however, didn't know how much fuel, if any, was aboard.

"It's less risky than it would be running into shore or running into (maritime) traffic," Coast Guard spokesman Paul Webb said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship and let the fuel evaporate in the open water.

The ship was at Hokkaido, Japan, and destined for scrapping when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck the country in March 2011 triggered a tsunami.

The waves dislodged the vessel and set it adrift. In total, about 5 million tons of debris was swept out to sea.

The boat did not have any cargo aboard, Webb said. He said he didn't know who owned the Ryou-Un Maru, which had been traveling about 1 mph in recent days.

As the Coast Guard was readying to fire on the vessel, a Canadian fishing vessel, the 62-foot Bernice C, claimed salvage rights over the ghost ship in international waters.

Plans to sink it were halted so the Canadian crew could have a chance to take the stricken ship. A Canadian official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press that the Bernice C was unable to tow it.

That delay, in part, prompted the cargo plane to return to Kodiak, Alaska, before the ship sank because the plane burned up fuel while circling the area monitoring the situation.

The Canadian boat left, and once it was about 6 miles from the Japanese vessel, the Coast Guard began to fire, first with 25 mm shells, then a few hours later with ammunition twice that size.

In the year since the tsunami, the debris from Japan has washed up on shores across the Pacific.

In January, a half dozen large buoys suspected to be from Japanese oyster farms appeared at the top of Alaska's panhandle and may be among the first debris from the tsunami.

State health and environmental officials have said there's little need to be worried that debris landing on Alaska shores will be contaminated by radiation.

The earthquake triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl accident in 1986.

State officials have been working with federal counterparts to gauge the danger of debris including material affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild game could be affected.

Virender Sehwag biggest threat to his ODI record: Coach

NEW DELHI: Virender Sehwag's world record score in one-day internationals will remain under constant threat from the swashbuckling opener himself, according to the Indian batsman's coach. 

Stats: Sehwag's highest innings in ODIs | Pics:Sehwag slams highest ODI score | Scorecard 

Sehwag hit a breath-taking 219 off 149 balls against West Indies in Indore on Thursday to surpass Sachin Tendulkar, the player he was compared to early in his career, as the owner of the highest individual score in 50-over cricket. 

AN Sharma, credited for not ruining Sehwag's natural free-flowing batting when he took the school student under his wing, was not surprised by the achievement. 

"It was long overdue," Sharma, who runs a cricket academy in the capital said on Friday. 

"Honestly speaking, I expected him to score 200 in one-dayers ahead of Sachin Tendulkar. 

"I lost count how many times I told him that he just needs to bat 40-odd overs. He does not require more overs to get there. He has such a game. 

"I think he can better even this knock. All he needs is a match on a good wicket where the ball comes nicely onto the bat and the outfield is fast. It's not a difficult task for him." 

According to Sharma, Sehwag has it in him to surpass the record test score of 400 not out set by West Indies great Brian Lara. 

"Of course it's not easy but Sehwag has already hit two triple centuries and can score so quickly that you don't want to rule him out. 

"Of course test matches are a different ball game altogether. To score 400, he would have to return the next day, get his eyes in all over again and resume the good work. 

"What works for him is that he is never bogged down by any milestone. If he's batting on 94, he would like to reach the 100 with a six. That's how he plays his game and I never tinkered with that." 

WHAT A PLAYER 

One thing that Sharma did tinker with though was Sehwag's foot-work. 

"He had this habit of dragging his back foot out of the crease while playing his shot. To stop that, I tied one end of a rope to his leg and another to a post. He'd practise like this for one month to cure himself," Sharma quipped. 

Since those days, Sehwag has established himself as possibly the most devastating batsman in international cricket. His uncomplicated batting philosophy has made him a spectators' delight and led to comparisons with former West Indies great Viv Richards. 

"I say it again! I never saw Sir Viv bat but I've seen Sehwag bat! What a player, 219 in a one-day game is next to impossible," his team mate Yuvraj Singh tweeted. 

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja echoed a similar view on the same platform. 

"When Viv Richards retired I thought it was end of entertainment. But then came Sehwag, the King of entertainment! Long live the King!" 

Tendulkar too was happy that the record he possessed now belonged to a man, who early in his career, was dubbed a "Tendulkar-clone." 

"I saw his batting towards the end. I'm very happy for him and also the fact that someone who has broken my record is my team mate and an Indian," Tendulkar, now in Australia, was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper.

Gold Sukh scam: Ponzi schemes under the scanner

Jaipur: The city police have requested the registrar of companies and income tax department for information over multi-level marketing companies operational in the city. The development had followed unveiling of the multi-crore Gold Sukh scam in the city.

"The frauds being held in pretext of multi-level marketing are financial in nature, thus we have sought information from the related departments. Action will be taken if any irregularities are discovered in functioning of these firms," said Anil Paliwal, additional commissioner of police.

Fraud firms assuring unrealistic returns through investments in tree plantations, real estate, share market have previously vanished after collecting deposits of lakhs of investors. The integration of multi-level marketing concept helped such firms to reach large population in short duration of time.

Investors and police only come to realise of the fraud once the company gets exposed and by the time the promoters have escaped with the swindled money. In the recent "Gold Sukh" case the firm had adopted similar process and had assured return from investment in Gold.

In attempt to take a lead over such instances the police have now approached the tax department, "We have been asking for any irregularities noticed in the companies records during routine inspections by income tax and other departments, the information will come useful in identification of fraud firms" said ACP (crime) Raghuveer Saini.

Inquiries against few such companies have reportedly been initiated at the Shyam Nagar and Mahesh Nagar police stations, however police officials have been maintain silence as investigations are under process.