Pope leaves Vatican on historic final day

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican on Thursday for the last time as pontiff before he steps down as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, becoming the first pope to resign in 700 years.Benedict boarded a white helicopter emblazoned with the Vatican flag for the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome, flying over the Vatican for the last time as pope.As...

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Manik Sarkar, son of tailor, to be Tripura chief minister again

AGARTALA: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, set to assume office for a fourth time after leading the Left to a huge electoral win, is the son of a tailor who still washes his own clothes.An unassuming man, the 64-year-old got down to work no soon than he was declared the winner from Dhanpur constituency. He met CPM leaders and activists at Sonamura, 60km from here. On Thursday, the Communist...

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Mars Missions: A Time Line of Success and Failure

Humans have been thinking about visiting Mars—or being visited by Martians—for more than a century. On Wednesday, a group funded by businessman Dennis Tito announced its intention to launch a manned flyby mission to Mars in 2018.Our awareness of Mars dates back millennia, while our modern picture of the red planet emerged in the 1870s, when Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed...

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Benedict Departs Vatican for the Last Time as Pope

Pope Benedict XVI bade his final farewell to the faithful today, lifting off from the Vatican in a white helicopter as the first pope to resign in six centuries.Just before 5 p.m. local time, Benedict, 85, walked out of the Vatican for the last time as pope, waving to a cheering crowd in the Courtyard of San Damaso as he entered a black Mercedes for the short drive to a nearby...

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New Singapore ambassadors to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland

SINGAPORE: The government has appointed Mr Wong Kwok Pun as Singapore's first resident Ambassador to the State of Qatar, Mr Lawrence Anderson as Singapore's next Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Mr Tee Tua Ba as Singapore's Ambassador to Switzerland (resident in Singapore). Mr Wong and Mr Anderson will assume their post on 17 March 2013 and 30 March 2013 respectively.Mr...

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House panel against considering mercy plea of rape-murder convicts

NEW DELHI: Two months after questioning the rationale behind commuting death sentences of five rape-murder convicts to life imprisonment during then President Pratibha Patil's tenure, a Parliamentary committee has now suggested that the mercy petitions should not be by and large considered for such criminals. Though the Committee is not in favour of completely knocking out the provision of mercy...

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A History of Balloon Crashes

A hot-air balloon exploded in Egypt yesterday as it carried 19 people over ancient ruins near Luxor. The cause is believed to be a torn gas hose. In Egypt as in many other countries, balloon rides are a popular way to sightsee. (Read about unmanned flight in National Geographic magazine.)The sport of hot-air ballooning dates to 1783, when a French balloon took to the skies with a sheep,...

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Bring on the Cuts: Some Want the Sequester

Mark Lucas wouldn't mind seeing America's defense budget cut by billions."There's quite a bit of waste within the military," Lucas, who serves as Iowa state director for the conservative group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), told ABC News. "Being in there for 10 years, I've seen quite a bit of it."With the budget sequester set to kick in on Friday, the former Army ranger is among...

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JPMorgan to slash 19,000 jobs by end-2014

NEW YORK: US banking giant JPMorgan Chase plans to axe up to 19,000 jobs by the end of 2014 as it seeks to rein in costs, the company said Tuesday in an investor presentation.JPMorgan Chase intends the majority of the cuts -- between 13,000 to 15,000 -- in the mortgage banking division, where the company spent $9.1 billion in 2012.Another 3,000 to 4,000 jobs will be eliminated in the non-mortgage...

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Jaish-e-Mohammad 'threat' to blow up Doon, Haridwar stations

DEHRADUN: Terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad today allegedly threatened to blow up major railway stations and places of religious and tourist interest in Uttarakhand in retaliation to the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afjal Guru, a senior police official said. The letter written purportedly by the Karachi based area commander of terror outrfit Jaish-e-Mohammad contains a threat to blow up Dehradun,...

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