The Dead Polo Ponies and Their Mysterious Millionaire Owner

Polo fans say few things are as inspiring as watching eight majestic thoroughbred horses maneuver over a 300-yard-long field. But as anyone who was at the U.S. Open polo tournament in Wellington, Fla., last Sunday has attested, few things are as shocking as seeing those same horses stagger and drop dead.

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All in the Facebook family: older generations join social networks

Penny Ireland’s family is so scattered around the world that Facebook, the popular social networking site, has become the family’s No. 1 way to communicate. “We call it our living room,” the 56-year-old mother said by phone from her home in Houston, Texas.

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Madonna says adopted kids would return to help their people

Madonna said she hopes the Malawian girl she wants to adopt and the boy she already adopted "will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country." A Malawian judge this month rejected the American pop star’s petition to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo “Mercy” James, but her lawyer has filed an appeal.

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Out-of-wedlock births hit record high

Had she been born a generation earlier, Kim Hoffman might have had a shotgun wedding. As it turned out, she and Steve Miller took the time to plan their dream nuptials — outdoors, on an organic farm, and with their 10-month-old daughter in tow. A pre-marriage birth certainly wasn’t what her father wanted for his only daughter, said Hoffman, of Oakland, California.

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‘You’re going to die the way you live’

When George Dello of San Diego was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he had at best five months to live, he didn’t immediately begin the chemotherapy treatments his doctor recommended. Instead, he and his wife, Pam, drove up the California coast and spent a week among the redwoods north of San Francisco. “These trees are 5 feet wide and 150 feet tall,” said Dello, 43.

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Obama in Europe: His Four Biggest Challenges

A European vacation it is not. Over the next week, President Barack Obama will board his plane anew nearly every day so that he can attend individual meetings with at least 17 political leaders from 11 nations, and appear at summits and forums in five countries to discuss international economic recovery, national security, cyber threats and global warming. He will have tea with a Queen , a private chat with a King , and convene a round table with students

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Clinton doesn’t rule out Iran talks at Afghanistan conference

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was coy Monday about whether she would meet Iranian delegates at an international conference on Afghanistan, and she urged Tehran to play a positive role in helping stabilize its neighbor. “I believe that there will be an opening by this conference that will enable all the countries, including Iran, to come forward,” Clinton told reporters aboard her plane en route to The Hague for Tuesday’s conference.

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