Congressional staffers often travel on tabs of foreign governments

About a dozen congressional staffers flew business class on a trip to China last summer and stayed at luxury hotels while touring the Great Wall and the Forbidden City and receiving a “briefing on ancient artifacts and dynasties” at the Shanghai Museum. The all-expenses-paid visit came courtesy of China. The Chinese government hosted a day of meetings with officials in Beijing followed...

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India's first monorail in Mumbai to open by August

MUMBAI: India's first monorail will be opened to the public in the next six months in Mumbai. Built at a cost of half a billion US dollars, it will be the world's second longest monorail which aims to improve the city's rapid transport systems.India is undergoing an infrastructure building boom.The government recently approved a budget of one trillion US dollars on infrastructure development...

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British PM David Cameron seeks 'special' relationship with India

MUMBAI: British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday began his India visit seeking a "special relationship" between the two countries, saying it is "about the future and not the past" for which sky is the limit. "I want Britain and India to have a special relationship...this is a relationship about the future, not the past," Cameron said in his first public engagement here-- an interaction with...

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Meet the Meteorite Hunter

Michael Farmer is one of the world's only full-time meteorite hunters. Since the 1990s, the 40-year-old Tucson, Arizona, resident has been scouring the world for pieces of interstellar rock, racing to be the first one on the scene and selling his finds to museums and private collectors. On Friday, as Russians reportedly scrambled to collect fragments from a passing meteorite that injured...

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Country Star Mindy McCready Shot Herself, Cops Say

Mindy McCready, the country singer who soared to the top of the charts with her debut album, "Ten Thousand Angels," but struggled with substance abuse, served time in jail and fought a lengthy battle with her mother over custody of her son has died of what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. She was 37.Deputies from the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office were...

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Dominican Republic port contract scrutinized, along with senator, eye doctor’s relationship

SANTO DOMINGO — When the U.S. Embassy set out to press the Dominican government over a long-stalled contract to provide port security, American officials took on some tough opponents. The deal had languished for more than a decade amid stiff resistance from the American Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of American and local businessmen in the Dominican Republic, and the country’s...

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Three dead in Thai south bombings: officials

PATTANI, Thailand: A series of blasts shook a town in the restive Thai south leaving three dead and 17 wounded, officials said Sunday, days after a major attack on a military base in the unrest-hit region.Three bombs have exploded in the provincial town of Pattani since late Saturday, while police said four more devices had been defused, in the latest attacks to rock the Thai south, where...

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Markandey Katju is biased must quit resign from Press Council of India, Arun Jaitley says

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday asked Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Markandey Katju to quit, saying a person holding the post much be impartial. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader made the demand after accusing Katju of attacking non-Congress governments in Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal on the basis of "his political preferences". In an article on the BJP web site, Jaitley...

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Picture Archive: Making Mount Rushmore, 1935-1941

Photograph from Rapid City Chamber of Commerce/National GeographicThere's no such thing as Presidents' Day.According to United States federal government code, the holiday is named Washington's Birthday, and has been since it went nationwide in 1885.But common practice is more inclusive. The holiday expanded to add in other U.S. presidents in the 1960s, and the moniker Presidents' Day became popular...

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Meteor Blast Creates Rush to Cash In

The shattered glass and broken walls caused by the massive explosion of a monstrous meteor over this remote, industrial Russian city is not even cleaned up, and people are already trying to cash in.Some residents want to turn this city known mostly for its tank factory into a tourist destination, while others from all around the world are determined to find fragments of the meteorite.Meteor...

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