Obama promises diversity in White House, Cabinet

(Alex Wong - GETTY IMAGES) It seemed President Obama might have been a bit defensive, at his press conference Monday, when he was asked about diversity in his Cabinet picks.His first term had “as diverse... a White House and a Cabinet than any in history,” he said, adding that he “would just suggest that everybody kind of wait until they’ve seen all my appointments... before...

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US student could "doodle" way to college money

SAN FRANCISCO: Google on Monday launched a competition that will let a US student "doodle" his or her way to cash for college along with landing grant money to fund technology education at their grade school.The California-based Internet titan announced its sixth annual "Doodle 4 Google" contest in which students from kindergarten to 12th grade vie to create a winning "doodle," a creative...

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Cold wave persists in Himachal

SHIMLA: Cold wave persisted in most parts of Himachal Pradesh even as mercury rose marginally across the state and stayed close to normal level.The high-altitude tribal areas and other higher hills had mild snowfall while some places in mid and lower hills had light rains with Nadaun in Hamirpur district recording 3 mm of rainfall.While tourist spot Manali recorded minimum temperature of minus 0.4...

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Space Pictures: 7 Ways You Could Blast Off by 2023

Space AvailablePhotograph courtesy Mark Greenberg, Virgin GalacticWhile humans may be running out of unexplored regions on Earth, space remains a deep and intriguing frontier, especially...

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Lance Armstrong Apologizes to Livestrong Staff

Lance Armstrong apologized today to the Livestrong staff ahead of his interview with Oprah Winfrey, a foundation official said.The disgraced cyclist gathered with about 100 Livestrong Foundation staffers at their Austin, Texas, headquarters for a meeting that included social workers who deal directly with patients as part of the group's mission to support cancer victims.Armstrong's...

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Senate is losing its lions

The Senate is losing its lions. Jay Rockefeller’s retirement from the Senate, which the West Virginia Democrat announced Friday morning, is the latest in a series of departures — by death, defeat or choice — that has rapidly sapped the world’s greatest deliberative body of many of the personalities that dominated the institution, and American politics, for the better part of the three...

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Tennis: Australian Open to start in Melbourne

MELBOURNE: Novak Djokovic will seek an unprecedented third straight title and Serena Williams is hot favourite for the women's trophy when the Australian Open gets under way in Melbourne on Monday.Play starts at 11:00 am local time at Melbourne Park tennis complex for the year's first Grand Slam, with Djokovic in action on day one.The Serb takes to centre court, the Rod Laver Arena, where...

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President rejects mercy plea of man who killed wife, daughter

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected the mercy petition of murder convict Saibanna Ningappa Natikar, making it the second mercy petition that he was rejected so far. Natikar was convicted of killing his wife and daughter. Mukherjee took the decision on January 4. The rejection comes at a time when there is growing concern over crimes against women after the December 16 gang-rape...

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse CancelmoA fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew...

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Sweeping new gun laws proposed by influential liberal think tank

With President Obama readying an overhaul of the nation’s gun laws, a liberal think tank with singular influence throughout his administration is pushing for a sweeping agenda of strict new restrictions on and federal oversight of gun and ammunition sales. The Center for American Progress is recommending 13 new gun policies to the White House — some of them executive actions that would...

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