End of the world hype fizzles as Mayan calendar ends

The end of the Mayan calendar may have unleashed a slew of predictions that the world is about to end - but this morning true believers were few and far between in towns designated safe zones from the impending apocalypse.

Indigenous people in Mexico and central America are celebrating the winter solstice and the end of the Mayan calendar's 13th bak'tun - or the end of the world, for doomsday enthusiasts.

But in the French town of Bugarach and the Turkish village of Sirince, which doomsayers say will offer refuge from the impending catastrophe, the streets were teeming not with new age mystics but with hordes of disappointed journalists.

"To me it sounds like a hoax invented by the media. People have been stocking on wine, just in case, so I guess it will be one huge party tomorrow to finish it up," one Turkish villager said. Read more

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