With a near-flawless docking on Friday, start-up rocket company SpaceX achieved what only big governments have to date: It launched a mission to the international space station . The moment marked a pivot point in U.S. space ambitions, away from total NASA control and toward creative private enterprise. While NASA furnished seed money and technical advice, SpaceX engineers designed, built, launched and drove the white gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule until the final moments. Read full article > >

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SpaceX’s Dragon capsule docks with international space station

Success of the SpaceX rocket would mark a key step in efforts to turn over some missions to the private sector.

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SpaceX’s Private Cargo Rocket Heads to Space Station

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Democrats organized the protests that gripped the state. They turned Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to strip public unions of their collective bargaining rights into a national Democratic cause. They got the signatures they needed to force a recall election, and then some. Read full article > >

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Wisconsin Democrats divided over who to best oust Walker in recall election

As the salacious details of the U.S. Secret Service sex scandal have cast an intensely private organization into the spotlight, the man at the helm of the 7,000-member federal agency has so far avoided issuing a public defense for the breakdown in personal conduct of a dozen of his men. Read full article > >

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Scandal tests Secret Service director for a second time

Asteroids have made people nervous for several decades now, ever since scientists declared that a large object from space smashed into Earth 65 million years ago and put the kibosh on the Age of Dinosaurs. But now some entrepreneurs and tech tycoons are declaring that there’s money in those space rocks. Read full article > >

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New venture aims to mine near-Earth asteroids

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ mental-health care system suffers from a culture where managers give more importance to meeting meaningless performance goals than helping veterans, according to testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday. Read full article > >

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VA mental health system sharply denounced at hearing

The senior government executive at the center of the General Services Administration spending scandal told investigators that he believed it was all right not to get competitive bids because he was paying for quality. Read full article > >

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Competitive bidding drives GSA inquiry

Congressional hearings on the defense budget can be a bore, and there are so many of them — 11 so far this week. But seeing them or reading transcripts provides both information and a feel for how the destinies of senior civilian officials and top-ranking Defense Department officials are controlled by legislators, be they knowledgeable or not. Read full article > >

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Defense budget hearings: Lots to learn for those who pay attention

Peers are urged to support a move to let hospitals do more private sector work as plans to overhaul the NHS in England return to the Lords.

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NHS directors seek Lords backing

Talks stall between Greece and its private sector lenders over a 50% debt write-off, which is needed to stop Athens going bust.

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Greece debt write-off talks stall

There has been a ‘seismic collapse’ in private sector pensions, with nine out of 10 defined benefit schemes closed to new entrants, a report warns.

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Private sector pension ‘collapse’

The government is to publish proposals to curb “unjustified and irresponsible” pay rewards in the private sector, Nick Clegg has said.

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VIDEO: Clegg signals boardroom pay curbs

The government is to publish new proposals to limit “unjustified and irresponsible” pay rewards in the private sector, Nick Clegg says.

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Clegg signals boardroom pay curbs

India’s new private sector is increasingly powering the economy, but it chafes at what many companies say are labor laws that blunt hiring and stifle growth.

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India’s Way: For India, Outsourcing Does the Job at Home, Too

A new government rule allows Cubans to buy and sell used vehicles freely for the first time in half a century, part of President Raúl Castro’s effort to remodel a hobbled economy and spur the private sector.

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Relenting on Car Sales, Cuba Turns Notorious Clunkers Into Gold