BJP eyes votes with Rs 500cr largesse to mutts in Karnataka

BANGALORE: In the past five years, the BJP has doled out several goodies to mutts — totalling over Rs 500 crore. The party may be expecting sweet returns in the forthcoming elections but the mutt heads are singing a different tune: that of being apolitical. The largesse has come under severe criticism from the opposition, but the beneficiaries defend the largesse and dispute the claim that government...

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Picture Archive: Dorothy Lamour and Jiggs, Circa 1938

Dorothy Lamour, most famous for her Road to ... series of movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, never won an Oscar. In her 50-plus-year career as an actress, she never even got nominated.Neither did Jiggs the chimpanzee, pictured here with Lamour on the set of Her Jungle Love in a photo published in the 1938 National Geographic story "Monkey Folk."No animal has ever been nominated for...

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Oscars 2013: Live Blog of the Academy Awards

Feb 24, 2013 1:13pm 7: 52 p.m. ET: “Les Mis” star and Best Actor nominee Hugh Jackman just picked up pre-show host Kristin Chenoweth on the red carpet and said she weighs less than an Oscar. Not really though…Each nearly 14-inch-high statue weighs 8.5 pounds and costs $500 to make. Get more Oscar trivia here.7:40 p.m. ET: If there’s one star you can count on to look fabulous,...

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Senators near a deal on background checks for most private gun sales

A bipartisan group of senators is on the verge of a deal that would expand background checks to all private firearms sales with limited exemptions, but significant disagreements remain on the issue of keeping records of private gun sales, according to aides familiar with the talks. An agreement would be a bold first step toward consideration of legislation to limit gun violence in the...

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Britain's top Catholic in 'inappropriate acts' row: report

LONDON: Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, who is due to vote on Pope Benedict XVI's successor, has been reported to the Vatican over claims of inappropriate behaviour, the Observer reported on Sunday.Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, contests allegations by three priests and a former priest which were sent to Rome a week before Pope Benedict's...

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Stuck to rubber, terrorists let go of gun

AGARTALA: Ranjit Debbarma still remembers the day 11 years ago when, as an area commander with banned terrorist group NLFT, he trekked for two months -- from the Jampui hills to Rangamurra and then to border areas of Bangladesh before finally reaching Burma -- to carry back Ak 47, 56, M 16 and SK guns for the insurgency back home in Tripura. Today, though, the 37-year-old can be seen going from...

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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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