Thousands commemorate Kurds slain in France

VILLIERS-LE-BEL: Thousands of mourners gathered in the French capital on Tuesday to pay an emotional final tribute to three female Kurdish activists who were shot dead there last week.Coffins containing the bodies of the three women and draped in the Kurdish flag were carried by female pall-bearers into a community centre in the Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel.They were then placed on...

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Asaram says media twisted his words

ALLAHABAD: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, in the eye of a storm over his remarks on the Delhi gang-rape victim, on Tuesday said he was quoted out of context and announced a reward of 50 lakh to anyone who could prove that he blamed the victim for the horrific crime. "I have been quoted out of context. The poor girl was young enough to be my own granddaughter," he said. "How can I ever be so insensitive...

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Risk to all ages: 100 kids die of flu each year

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty flu-related deaths have been reported in children so far this winter — one of the worst tolls this early in the year since health officials began keeping track.Still, experts say that doesn't mean this year will turn out to be unusually deadly. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, and it's not clear that will happen this year.The deaths have included a 6-year-old...

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Secret Revealed: Facebook Announces New Tool

How you search Facebook is about to change. In fact, just the act of searching Facebook is probably about to start.Facebook is trying to give Google a run for its money, with a new product called "Graph Search." It turns some of the personal information people have shared on Facebook into a powerful searchable database.For the social network's 170 million users in the U.S., it's...

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Mali Islamists counter attack, promise France long war

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked Islamist rebels launched a counteroffensive in Mali on Monday after four days of French air strikes on their northern strongholds, seizing the central town of Diabaly and promising to drag France into a brutal Afghanistan-style war. France, which has poured hundreds of troops into the capital Bamako in recent days, carried out more air strikes...

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Lance Armstrong apologises in person to Livestrong staff

AUSTIN: Fallen cycling hero Lance Armstrong personally apologised Monday to staff members of the Livestrong cancer charity ahead of his much anticipated interview with talk show diva Oprah Winfrey."Lance came to the Livestrong Foundation's headquarters today for a private conversation with our staff and offered a sincere and heartfelt apology for the stress they've endured because of him,"...

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Sangam of 82 lakh devotees for holy dip

SANGAM (Allahabad): Mist envelopes a stretch of sand-bed cordoned off to create an expanse the size of five football fields. Down below, the waters of Sangam appear black under a 4.30am sky. Drenched under sodium vapour lights, the vast area is fenced off for tens of thousands of people with barricades of horizontal wooden beams. The faithful wait breathlessly for the day's royalty, an army of sadhus...

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Hospitals crack down on workers refusing flu shots

CHICAGO (AP) — Patients can refuse a flu shot. Should doctors and nurses have that right, too? That is the thorny question surfacing as U.S. hospitals increasingly crack down on employees who won't get flu shots, with some workers losing their jobs over their refusal."Where does it say that I am no longer a patient if I'm a nurse," wondered Carrie Calhoun, a longtime critical care nurse in suburban...

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Lance Armstrong Apologizes to Livestrong Staff

Lance Armstrong apologized today to the Livestrong staff ahead of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, a foundation official said.The disgraced cyclist gathered with about 100 Livestrong Foundation staffers at their Austin, Texas, headquarters for a meeting that included social workers who deal directly with patients as part of the group's mission to support cancer victims.Armstrong's...

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France bombs Islamist stronghold in north Mali

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French fighter jets pounded an Islamist rebel stronghold deep in northern Mali on Sunday as Paris poured more troops into the capital Bamako, awaiting a West African force to dislodge al Qaeda-linked insurgents from the country's north. The attack on Gao, the largest city in the desert region controlled by the Islamist alliance, marked a decisive intensification...

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