Uncle: Pistorius Is 'Numb With Shock as Well as Grief'

Oscar Pistorius is "numb with shock as well as grief" his uncle told reporters Saturday as the Olympian amputee spent his second night behind bars in a South African jail for the allegedly killing his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp."All of us saw at firsthand how close [Steenkamp] had become to Oscar during that time and how happy they were," he said. "They had plans together...

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Pistorius, slain girlfriend had planned future: uncle

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, known as the "Blade Runner", was planning a future with the girlfriend he is accused of shooting dead this week, his uncle said on Saturday. Pistorius, 26, one of the world's most recognizable athletes, was charged on Friday with murdering swimsuit model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of the...

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Football: Beckham to make PSG bow against Marseille

  PARIS: David Beckham will make his Paris Saint Germain debut in next weekend's Ligue 1 headline clash against Marseille, coach Carlo Ancelotti said on Saturday.The 37-year-old Beckham, who signed a five-month contract with the French leaders last month, will skip Sunday's trip to Sochaux as he needs more time to get his fitness levels up to scratch, the Italian explained."No, he'll...

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Irish hospital's doctors failed to treat Savita Halappanavar, leaked death probe report says

LONDON: Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar died as a result of a litany of failures by hospital staff, a leaked draft of a probe report said, proving her family's claim that her death was avoidable. The report by Ireland's health ministry revealed that doctors caring for the 31-year-old dentist seriously failed to investigate, recognize and treat the infection which led to her death. Savita died...

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UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.Edwards...

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Cruise Ship Now Faces Expected Wave of Lawsuits

Despite having their feet back on solid ground and are making their way home, passengers from the Carnival Triumph cruise ship are still fuming over their five days of squalor on the stricken ship and the cruise ship company is likely to be hit with a wave of lawsuits."I think people are going to file suits and rightly so," maritime trial attorney John Hickey told ABCNews.com....

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Meteor explodes over central Russia, 500 people hurt

CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) - A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, sending fireballs crashing to earth which shattered windows and damaged buildings, injuring more than 500 people. People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the...

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EU agrees to test for horse DNA in food labelling row

BRUSSELS: The European Union agreed on Friday the immediate launch of tests for horse DNA in meat products to reassure nervous consumers that their food is safe and to halt the horsemeat scandal spreading across Europe.The test programme will also look for the presence of phenylbutazone, an anti-inflammatory treatment for horses which is harmful to humans and by law supposed to be kept...

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PM extols Sonia in Meghalaya rally

SHILLONG: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday urged the people of the poll-bound state to extend their support to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi even as he promised to empower tribal governing bodies and improve women's representation in decision-making administrative units in matrilineal Meghalaya."Under the guidance of Sonia Gandhi, the UPA has been working hard for inclusive development of not only...

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Cruise Passengers Celebrate as They Near Land

The 4,000 passengers and crew aboard the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship will disembark after dark tonight from the fetid cruiser dubbed "the poop deck" on social media, according to officials."It will come in. It will not stop," Alabama State Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons said at a news conference today. "We're going to do everything we can from our standpoint to...

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"Blade Runner" Pistorius charged with murdering girlfriend

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, was charged on Thursday with shooting dead his girlfriend at his upscale home in Pretoria. Police said they opened a murder case after a 30-year-old woman was found dead at the Paralympic and Olympic star's house in the Silverlakes gated complex...

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Mumbai attack movie hits cinemas on Mar 1

MUMBAI: Memories of the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 still evoke fear among residents of the city.And those old wounds are expected to reopen now that a Bollywood movie about the incident is set to hit the big screens.India's financial capital came to a virtual standstill on 26 November 2008.The attacks which lasted for four days drew widespread global condemnation.The Pakistan-based...

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Chopper scam: Ex-air chief SP Tyagi used to brief us on tender developments, claim middlemen

NEW DELHI: The alleged middlemen in the deal for VVIP helicopters have claimed that the then Air chief SP Tyagi used to brief them on the developments in the tender, according to Italian investigators.Haschke and Gerosa have reportedly claimed that Tyagi would keep them updated on the tender for the 12 helicopters during their meetings, which are believed to have taken place six to seven times.They...

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Charred Human Remains Found in Burned Cabin

Investigators have located charred human remains in the burned-out cabin where they believe suspected cop killer and ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner was holed up as the structure burned to the ground, police said.The human remains were found within the debris of the burned cabin and identification will be attempted through forensic means, the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner...

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Pope confident his resignation will not hurt Church

ROME (Reuters) - A visibly moved Pope Benedict tried to assure his worldwide flock on Wednesday over his stunning decision to become the first pontiff in centuries to resign, saying he was confident that it would not hurt the Church. The Vatican, meanwhile, announced that a conclave to elect his successor would start sometime between March 15 and March 20, in keeping with Church rules...

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Afzal Guru's family lawyers quit

NEW DELHI: Citing "unseemly controversies", ND Pancholi and Nandita Haksar Wednesday quit as the family lawyers of Afzal Guru, the parliament attack convict who was hanged here Feb 9. "There have arisen unseemly controversies and we do not wish to be part of these discussions," Pancholi and Haksar said in a statement. The duo were representing Guru's family members who have asked Tihar jail authorities...

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Report: Tracking system needed to fight fake drugs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting the problem of fake drugs will require putting medications through a chain of custody like U.S. courts require for evidence in a trial, the Institute of Medicine reported Wednesday.The call for a national drug tracking system comes a week after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors, for the third time in about a year, that it discovered a counterfeit batch of the...

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Fort Hood Hero Says Obama 'Betrayed' Victims

Three years after the White House arranged a hero's welcome at the State of the Union address for the Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the deadly shooting there, Kimberly Munley says President Obama broke the promise he made to her that the victims would be well taken care of."Betrayed is a good word," former Sgt. Munley told ABC News in a tearful interview...

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China joins U.S., Japan in condemning North Korea nuclear test

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in defiance of existing U.N. resolutions, drawing condemnation from around the world, including from its only major ally, China, which summoned the North Korean ambassador to protest. The reclusive North said the test was an act of self-defense against "U.S. hostility" and threatened further, stronger steps if necessary....

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Horsemeat disguised as beef confirmed in France: company

PARIS: A major French frozen food retailer said on Tuesday it had found horsemeat in two lots of frozen beef lasagne meals it removed from its shelves last week.Picard, which has hundreds of outlets across France that sell ready-to-eat meals, said the products were made by Comigel, the French firm which last week sparked the frozen food scandal now spreading across Europe.- AFP !--...

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No merger with anyone, Raj Thackeray responds to Uddhav's offer

MUMBAI: Ruling out merger with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray today said he had no intention of aligning with anybody. Speaking at a rally in Maharashtra's Kolhapur town, Raj said, "There is no thought now of any alliance. Do talks of alliance happen through newspapers?" He was making a veiled reference to Uddhav's "merger offer" made through...

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Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for...

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Benedict XVI First Pope to Resign in 600 Years

Pope Benedict XVI's unexpected announcement today that he will step down for health reasons makes him the first pontiff to resign in nearly 600 years, even catching the Vatican by surprise and setting off a chain reaction that will end with a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March."My first reaction was this is, it's very startling," Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop...

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