Legislative branch prepares for spending cuts

Lawmakers will return to work Monday after a week-long break, with $85 billion in automatic spending cuts set to take effect in four days. Congressional offices and agencies have remained largely quiet on the issue compared with the executive branch, where top officials — from President Obama to Cabinet members such as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Defense Secretary Leon...

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Castro picks 'young' new heir to take regime into future

HAVANA: Cuban President Raul Castro on Sunday won re-election to what he pledged will be his last term, and finally unveiled a 52-year-old political heir he wants to bring the regime into the future. "This will be my last term," Castro, 81, told lawmakers after the National Assembly reelected him and named a new regime number two -- Council of State Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, 52....

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Copter deal fixer specializes in India

NEW DELHI: Security services in Algeria, commercial promotions in India, supply of specialized personnel in the Middle East and more. Guido Haschke, the Swiss resident who was allegedly one of the key middlemen in the VVIP helicopter deal with India, almost sounds like a global consortium with several specializations across the globe in the internal documents of Finmeccanica group. Or was he a...

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Picture Archive: Dorothy Lamour and Jiggs, Circa 1938

Dorothy Lamour, most famous for her Road to ... series of movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, never won an Oscar. In her 50-plus-year career as an actress, she never even got nominated.Neither did Jiggs the chimpanzee, pictured here with Lamour on the set of Her Jungle Love in a photo published in the 1938 National Geographic story "Monkey Folk."No animal has ever been nominated for...

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Oscars 2013: Live Blog of the Academy Awards

Feb 24, 2013 1:13pm 10: 49 p.m.: “Lincoln” wins Best Production Design.READ MORE: Full Wrap of the Oscars10: 47 p.m.: Dubbed “boy wizard” and “girl vampire” by MacFarlane, Daniel Radcliffe and Kirsten Stewart present the award for Achievement in Production Design. Stewart is sans the crutches she was sporting on the red carpet earlier. Here’s the picture in case you missed it.Watch...

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Supreme Court considers South’s legacy and progress on voting rights

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — At the top of the steps of Alabama’s elegant old Capitol, there’s a six-pointed bronze star marking the spot where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy. At the foot of the steps is a historical marker dedicated to black citizens who in the 1960s dared to register to vote — “a constitutional right impeded by Gov. George Wallace” — and who were...

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Michelle Obama's dance moves go viral on YouTube

WASHINGTON - A video clip of First Lady Michelle Obama grooving with a dressed-in-drag Jimmy Fallon on his late-night comedy talk show on Saturday has gone viral on YouTube.In the video, the pair, each clad in conservative slacks and cardigans, and Fallon with a long brown-haired wig, perform a routine dubbed "Evolution of Mom Dancing," to promote Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" youth fitness...

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Ramdev trust, govt keep options open over Feb 27 function

SHIMLA: Having taken possession of 28 acres land leased out to Patanjali Yogapeeth at Sadhupul area of Solan district, the Himachal Pradesh government does not want yoga guru Swami Ramdev to hold his function there on February 27. Fearing stiff resistance from supporters of Swami Ramdev, government had planned to impose section 144 in Sadhupul and surrounding areas and had made heavy deployment...

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Elderly Abandoned at World's Largest Religious Festival

Every 12 years, the northern Indian city of Allahabad plays host to a vast gathering of Hindu pilgrims called the Maha Kumbh Mela. This year, Allahabad is expected to host an estimated 80 million pilgrims between January and March. (See Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival)People come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges. For many it's the realization...

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Fiery Last-Lap Daytona Crash Injures Dozens

A fiery last-lap crash at the Daytona International Speedway today sent chunks of debris flying into the stands, injuring more than 30 spectators, who were seen being carried away from the stands on stretchers.At least 14 of the injured were transported to hospitals and more than a dozen others were treated at the speedway, Dayton president Joie Chitwood III. All the drivers involved...

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