Elderly Abandoned at World's Largest Religious Festival

Every 12 years, the northern Indian city of Allahabad plays host to a vast gathering of Hindu pilgrims called the Maha Kumbh Mela. This year, Allahabad is expected to host an estimated 80 million pilgrims between January and March. (See Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival)People come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges. For many it's the realization...

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Fiery Last-Lap Daytona Crash Injures 28 Fans

A fiery last-lap crash at the Daytona International Speedway injured a number of spectators today, who were seen being carried away from the stands on stretchers.A total of 28 fans were injured, with 14 transported to hospitals and 14 treated at the speedway, Dayton president Joie Chitwood III. All NASCAR drivers involved in the crash have been treated and released, Chitwood said.ESPN...

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US budget cuts can be avoided: Obama

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama insisted Friday that mandatory government budget cuts set to kick in on March 1 -- known as the sequester -- were not "inevitable."The cuts to defence and domestic spending were mandated in an agreement between Obama and his Republican foes to end a previous budget battle."I never think that anything is inevitable, we always have the opportunity to make...

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Hyderabad, hotbed of home-grown terror, under lens

NEW DELHI: For the veterans of security establishment the bomb blasts have revived concerns about the critical nature of Hyderabad and surroundings in the growth of home-grown terrorism in India.Officials point out that Hyderabad has been intricately linked to the growth of the present phase of domestic terrorism. When the first definite information about Muslim youth going to Pakistan for terror...

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Space Pictures This Week: Space Rose, Ghostly Horses

Space RoseImage courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSFPlanetary nebula Sh2-174 "blooms" like a rose in a picture released this week by the National Optical Astronomy...

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Jodi Arias' Friends Believe in Her Innocence

Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial....

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Group releases list of 90 medical ‘don’ts’

Don’t use feeding tubes in patients with advanced dementia. Don’t use drugs to aggressively treat diabetes in those older than 65. Don’t automati­cally use imaging technology for minor head injuries in children and headaches in adults. And don’t give antacids to babies with reflux. Those are among the 90 medical “don’ts” on a list being released Thursday by a coalition of doctor and consumer...

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Non-American or European Pope is good, poll finds

WASHINGTON: More than half of Catholics in the United States think it would be a good thing for the next pope to come from South America, Asia or Africa, a Pew Research Center poll said Thursday.Another 20 per cent said it would not matter if Pope Benedict XVI's successor hails from a developing region of the world, while just 14 per cent thought it was a bad idea.Pew's Forum on Religion...

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Haryana: Budget session begins today, expected to be stormy

CHANDIGARH: Even though Haryana's opposition leader Om Prakash Chautala is in jail following his conviction in the JBT recruitment scam, the budget session of the state assembly, scheduled to commence on Friday, is likely to be stormy as the House is set to discuss issues ranging from corruption to rape cases.At present, four MLAs of the 90-member House are lodged in jails. Chautala, his MLA son...

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Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at 62

Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, has yet another feather in her cap—a new chick.The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)—62 years old at least—recently hatched a healthy baby in the U.S. Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, her sixth in a row and possibly the 35th of her lifetime, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) North American Bird Banding Program. (Related:...

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