Mayan Calendar

• Mexico's Maya heartland greets dawn of new era

  Ceremonial fires burned and conches sounded off as dawn broke over the steps of the main pyramid at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza Friday, making what many believe is the conclusion of a vast, 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar.

• Global doomsday hot spots draw believers, revelers

  Though the Mayans never really predicted that the world would end on Friday, some New Agers are convinced that humanity's demise is indeed imminent. Or at least that it's a good excuse for a party.

• 'Apocalypse Noah': Dutch Christian readies escape Ark

  A Dutch Christian has painstakingly prepared a lifeboat in his garden capable of saving 50 people ahead of biblical floods he expects to accompany Friday's Mayan-foretold 'doomsday.'

• China detains 1,000 in doomsday cult crackdown

  Chinese authorities have detained around 1,000 people as they step up a crackdown against a doomsday cult called "Almighty God" which has been predicting the world will end on Friday, state media reported.

• In Mexico, New Agers hope December 21 brings new era

  The celebration of the cosmic dawn began with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honor Friday's end of the Mayan long count calendar.

• Mysticism, Internet fuel Mexico's Maya 'Armageddon' fears

  A few words by an American scholar, a crumbling Mexican monument and the love of a good yarn were all it took to spawn the belief that the world could end this week.

• December 21: Mysticism, Internet fuel doomsday fears

  A few words by an American scholar, a crumbling Mexican monument and the love of a good yarn were all it took to spawn the belief that the world could end this week.

• NASA releases video on apocalypse ten days early

  US space agency NASA is so confident that the apocalypse will not happen on December 21 as predicted by the Mayan calendar that it has released a video 10 days ahead of schedule titled "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday".

• Turkish village becomes shelter for doomsday believers

  Believers of the Mayan calendar prediction that the world will end on December 21 have flooded into a small village in western Turkey, near the ancient Greek city of Ephesus.

• Earliest Mayan calendar shows no hint of 'world end'

  The earliest known Mayan calendar has been found in an ancient house in Guatemala and it offers no hint that the world's end is imminent, researchers said on Thursday.