We’ve been hiking a narrow canyon for nearly half an hour, hemmed in by huge sunset-colored cliffs, and the suspense is killing me. Where’s Petra?  “It’s becoming clear why it was lost for so long,” quips one of my fellow travelers to the ancient Middle Eastern city. Read full article > >

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Petra, Jordan’s famous city of stone, faces a preservation struggle

Like his fellow candidates have.

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Gingrich Fears Making Gaffes

Tracie Hunter is a Democrat whose still-unsettled 2010 election contest with her Republican opponent will be decided by a legal battle over a batch of disputed and uncounted votes. Irony alert: One of her legal lifelines is the decision that still enrages some of her fellow party members — the Supreme Court’s 2000 ruling in Bush v. Gore . Read full article > >

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Will Bush v. Gore make an election-year return?

About 11 years ago, James K. “Jamie” Galbraith recalls, hundreds of his fellow economists laughed at him. To his face. In the White House. It was April 2000, and Galbraith had been invited by President Bill Clinton to speak on a panel about the budget surplus. Galbraith was a logical choice. A public policy professor at the University of Texas and former head economist for the Joint Economic Committee, he wrote frequently for the press and testified before Congress. Read full article > >

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Modern Monetary Theory, an unconventional take on economic strategy

Tuesday night, CNN hosts GOP debate number 11 , and the focus will be national security. Here are five key questions for the debate, which runs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.: 1. Will anyone attack Newt? Newt has been a steadfast adherent to the Reagan rule of not directly criticizing his fellow Republicans on the debate stage (though he has criticized them more obliquely in interviews and statements away from the debate stage) and his rivals have rarely criticized him. But now, Gingrich is a front-runner, and time is running short for the other not-Romneys to make up ground in Iowa and elsewhere. Gingrich is a master debater, but he also tends to be defensive and can be backed into making misleading statements when pressed. (He said that he was hired as a “historian” for Fannie and Freddie at the last debate.) There’s no time like now to hit Gingrich, and slow his momentum. Anyone, anyone, anyone? Read full article > >

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Republican debate: Five questions

Finally, some “Dancing With the Stars” controversy. It’s been a relatively quiet season, but the blogosphere lit up Tuesday after Maks and Len exchanged harsh words Monday night. Len said Maks and Hope’s dance was the worst of the season; Maks said Len should get out of the dance industry. Oh, and Maks added that “this is my show,” which surely went over great with his fellow pro dancers. Read full article > >

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Chaz Bono eliminated from ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Barring the unforeseen, Adrienne Arsht — one of Washington’s most eclectically connected philanthropists — will ascend to the Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the eighth floor of the U.S. Department of State on Thursday evening. In Georgian and Federal splendor, she and her fellow “Patrons of Diplomacy” will be wined, dined and applauded by Hillary Rodham Clinton for raising $20 million to preserve and promote the finest early art and furnishings of American statecraft. Read full article > >

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Adrienne Arsht has returned to Washington and is giving away millions

The Rev. William Norvel was considering retirement after nearly 50 years of ministering to and advocating for African American inclusion in the Catholic Church. But his fellow priests had a different idea. Several of them sat him down and made him an offer: Become the primary voice for the nation’s 3 million black Catholics. Read full article > >

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Rev. William Norvel tapped as first African American to lead Josephite order

About two weeks before my wife and I were scheduled to fly to Istanbul for six days on our honeymoon, an American military operation in Pakistan resulted in Osama bin Laden being killed. That night, I watched as many of my fellow Americans took to the streets around the country cheering like their team had just won the Super Bowl. But while they celebrated, all I could think is “I’m an English-speaking American and I’m traveling to an almost entirely Muslim country in two weeks. I wish my countrymen would stop dancing on bin Laden’s grave” (In my mind, this was a time for somber reflection about the more than 900,000 lives lost in the wars we initiated in response to 9/11, not chest-beating).

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Turkey: Where Truth Shatters Stereotypes

The soldier from the 5th Stryker Brigade pleaded guilty, saying “the plan was to kill people” in a conspiracy with four fellow soldiers.

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U.S. soldier gets 24 years for murders of 3 Afghans

Two University of Florida students died while spelunking in a Georgia cave on Saturday, reportedly trying to save a bag that one of their fellow explorers had dropped. Michael Pirie, 18, and Grant Lockenbach, 20, were part of a fellowship group of…

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Two Students Die Exploring GA Cave

Washington – U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, co-chairman of the Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats, voted “no” last year when President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposal came before the House. So did U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell. But when the Republicans vote today on repealing the health care law, both Shuler and Kissell, Democrats from North Carolina, will side with their fellow Democrats to keep the law. read more

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Two Blue Dogs Explain Why They Oppose Repeal

After 23 years of one-man rule, it took only 23 days to topple Tunisia’s Zine El Abedine Ben Ali. A dictator who ruled with an iron fist and a surplus of crony-based corruption that even his fellow autocrats in the region found excessive, on January 14, 2010, Ben Ali fled his country like a thief in the night.

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Why Tunisia revolt could be huge

A lawyer for one of three men accused of the murder of Michaela McAreavey says his client has made a statement implicating his fellow suspects.

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Michaela suspect speaks to police

One of Belgium’s best-known actors urges his fellow citizens not to shave until the country finally forms a government.

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‘Grow a beard for Belgium’ appeal