Biden rebukes Cheney, guarantees we’re ‘safer today’

Vice President Joe Biden brushed aside recent criticism by predecessor Dick Cheney that moves by the Obama administration had put the United States at risk, telling CNN on Tuesday that the former vice president was "dead wrong." “I don’t think [Cheney] is out of line, but he is dead wrong,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “This administration — the last administration left us in a weaker posture than we’ve been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world. “..

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Tibet reopens to foreign tourists, China says

Tibet reopened to foreign tourists Sunday after a month-long suspension, the state-run Chinese Xinhua news agency reported. Twenty-five tourist groups were to arrive Sunday in Lhasa, the capital of the autonomous region in China, the agency said. More than 500 foreigners are expected in Tibet in the next two weeks, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Tourism Bureau, Xinhua said

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Grief grips Binghamton after mass shooting

People who knew the suspected gunman in Friday’s shooting at an immigration services center in Binghamton, New York, were not surprised by his actions, the police chief said. “From the people close to him, the actions that he took were not a surprise to them,” Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said Saturday. Wearing body armor and carrying two weapons, Jiverly Wong, 41, used his car to barricade the back door of the American Civic Association, which provides services to immigrants and English classes, authorities said

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Media: Optimism, caution following economic summit

Early international media reaction to the Group of 20 summit in London — and the performance of world leaders there — ranged from wary to upbeat. Here is a sampling of opinions from global media outlets: United Kingdom The Guardian newspaper acknowledged the accomplishments of the summit, but said more work needs to be done to fix the world economy.

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Recordings: Kennedy saw nuclear test ban as Cold War thaw

Former President John F. Kennedy saw a proposed ban on aboveground nuclear tests as a way to thaw U.S.-Soviet relations after the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to recordings released Thursday. “If it does represent a possibility of avoiding the kind of collision that we had last fall in Cuba, which was quite close, and Berlin in 1961, we should seize the chance,” Kennedy said in a July 1963 meeting with top government scientists.

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