Mistress's Tragic History Revealed

Mistress's Tragic History Revealed AP Rielle Hunter may be best known for carrying John Edwards' love child, but her dark past includes a long line of tragedy and scandal. Famous author based a character off herMore NewsRomney Avoids Hot Issues in SpeechDead Man Wakes at His Own FuneralForeclosure Flub Costs Woman Thousands

Rielle Hunter's life had a lurid, supermarket-tabloid quality to it – full of deception, betrayal, reckless behavior and broken dreams – well before she became a party to one of the biggest lies in recent American political history.

Her father had her beloved show horse killed for insurance money. An ex-boyfriend used her as his muse for the "cocaine-addled, sexually voracious" narrator of one of his novels. She went to Hollywood to become a star and left about a decade later with only a few bit parts.

Bangladesh hopeful of river deal with India

Bangladesh said Sunday that a much-delayed deal over sharing water with India was making progress as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited from New Delhi to shore up damaged cross-border ties.

India announced that it will write off $200 million of the $1 billion line of credit offered to Bangladesh, and promised to implement all bilateral agreements, including those that have witnessed delays. 

The deal to share Teesta river water was meant to be a highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka.

India had announced a $1 billion Line of Credit to Bangladesh, the largest it has offered to any country in 2010.

The deal to share Teesta river water was meant to be a highlight of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka last September, but it fell through after opposition from the chief minister of India’s West Bengal state. 

A genera Teesta River Projects view and bridge of India.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today that New Delhi had decided to consider $200 million of that amount as a grant rather than credit, and Bangladesh can utilise the fund for its priority projects.

"India will treat the amount as grant, not credit," Mukherjee told a group of senior editors as he wound up a 20-hour trip to Dhaka.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni.

The failure soured relations between India and Bangladesh, where Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has staked much political capital in resolving an issue crucial for farmers in the country’s drought-hit north.

"This $200 million will be utilised for projects that Bangladesh prioritises," he said.

“The Indian government is working on the Teesta deal. They are very sincere about it. So we are hopeful that it will be struck,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters after talks with Mukherjee.

 

Indian villagers catch fish with handmade fishing nets in the River Teesta in Jalpaiguri. Bangladesh says a much-delayed deal over sharing water with India is making progress as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits from New Delhi to shore up damaged cross-border ties.

Mukherjee also cited "ground realities" of coalition politics as the reason for India's failure to seal the Teesta water sharing deal during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh last year.

"In a democracy such as ours... this process often becomes time consuming," he said.

"There are certain issues that need to be resolved," he said while referring to the Teesta issue as a "sensitive" one.

Mukherjee on Sunday concluded a two-day visit to Bangladesh, where he met with Hasina to review agreements signed during Singh’s visit, including one to end complex border territory disputes.

Earlier, during his meeting with Premier Sheikh Hasina, Mukherjee vowed to implement all agreements signed with the country during Manmohan Singh's visit last year.

"Although it was late, (all) these agreements (signed with Bangladesh) will be materialised soon," he was quoted as telling Hasina by a Prime Minister's office spokesman.

Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence in 1971 with Indian military help, but relations have been patchy ever since due to decades of mutual mistrust.

Mitt Romney’s Nevada caucus win: Finish Strong Surprisingly

Ron Paul looked to have re-energized his presidential political race and the jumping propelling it Saturday with a solid performance in the Nevada caucuses. Early results and preliminary exit polls had Paul, a Texas House Republican with libertarian leanings, and running neck-and-neck with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for second place.

We president election four presidential candidates are looking to score a win in Nevada's 2012 Republican caucus on Saturday.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is favored to win the contest; polling has been scarce in the Silver State leading up to the contest.

Romney finished first in Florida's primary election by a wide road; a wide necktie. Double-digit margin last Tuesday. The outcome came as a blow to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has signaled he has no intention of dropping out of the race and plans to take his campaign to the convention.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's energized organization could propel the Texas libertarian to finish ahead of Gingrich and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum in Nevada.

Check out the live blog below for the latest developments out of the Silver State.

Imagine if the Super Bowl was played three weeks after the Pro Bowl. That is essentially the situation in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, which is about to see an unusual break between contests before the most significant cache of delegates will be up for grabs.

As preliminary vote totals come in from Nevada caucus sites, the candidates have already turned their attention to elections in a trio of states – 

Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Maine is also holding municipal caucuses throughout the week that will conclude one week from Saturday.

The next elections won't be until Feb. 28 – 

Primaries in Arizona and Michigan, with a combined 59 delegates at stake -- followed in a week by Super Tuesday, when 10 states vote in primaries and caucuses.

Why the gap? Republicans adopted rules at the 2008 national convention meant to avoid "frontloading" the nominating contest -- having too many delegates at stake in the early weeks.

Those rules said no state could hold its primary or caucuses before March 6, with four exceptions: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. 

Mitt Romney confirmed his status as the prohibitive front-runner in the GOP presidential race Saturday with a win in the Nevada caucuses.

But Romney’s apparently large margin of victory may say more about his opponents than his own candidacy.

While Romney’s first-place finish was never really in doubt, the lack of traction from the two men vying to be the top non-Romney candidate in the race was perhaps the biggest development.

Newt Gingrich, whose campaign was riding high after its win in the South Carolina primary just two weeks ago, has fallen quickly since then.

Almost instantly after the South Carolina contest Jan. 21, Romney’s campaign regained its position atop the polls and delivered a double-digit win in Florida.

Nevada Caucus 2012 Results MAP

Afghans mourn peace broker Rabbani

 Afghans mourn peace broker Rabbani

Hundreds of Afghans marched in Kabul Wednesday to mourn Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairman of the government's peace council, whose assassination threatens to plunge the country into fresh turmoil.
Rabbani, president during Afghanistan's 1992-96 civil war and a warlord with a chequered human rights record, was killed at home Tuesday by a bomber thought to be a trusted emissary bringing a special message from the Taliban.
Although there has been no official word from the Taliban, his killing deals a heavy blow to already remote hopes of an imminent end to 10 years of fighting between Islamist insurgents and the Afghan government backed by Western troops.
President Hamid Karzai rushed back to Kabul from a visit to the United States and chaired an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss plans to give Rabbani an official funeral in the coming days, officials said.
"It will be tomorrow (Thursday) or likely the day after," Sataar Murad, a spokesman for Rabbani's Jamiat-i-Islami party, told AFP. "He will be buried in Kabul but an exact location has not been chosen yet."
Rabbani's killing was the most high-profile political assassination since the 2001 US-led invasion dislodged the Taliban.
That it happened in Kabul's supposedly secure diplomatic zone, close to last week's 19-hour siege which targeted the US embassy, again highlights a sharp rise in spectacular Taliban attacks in Afghanistan.
Under heightened security on Wednesday, several hundred mourners marched to Rabbani's home carrying giant pictures of him and wearing black headbands.
Karzai, whose relations with the West have soured drastically since his fraud-tained re-election in 2009, insisted Rabbani's assassination "will not deter us from continuing down the path we have started".
US President Barack Obama, who has said American combat troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, said Afghans must be allowed to live "in freedom, safety, security and prosperity".
NATO's Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who heads up the alliance leading the foreign military effort to reverse Taliban momentum, said those behind the killing "will not prevail".
Members of Rabbani's entourage said the attacker and an accomplice were invited to his high-security villa as emissaries bringing "special messages" from the Taliban.
One source close to Rabbani, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the pair were not searched as a sign of trust.
The bomber detonated his explosives as he hugged Rabbani in greeting.
Although there were conflicting reports of who brought in the bombers, the source said they arrived with Mohammad Massom Stanikzai, one of Rabbani's deputies, who was one of four people wounded in the attack.
He added that Rabbani had just returned from Iran especially to meet the two, believing they were important Taliban figures.
Peace Council member Fazel Karim Aymaq said the two visitors claimed to have "special messages" from the Taliban and were thought to be "very trusted".
The High Peace Council put out a message Wednesday eulogising Rabbani as a "great leader of jihad" as well as its chairman.
"His martyrdom is an expression of his ultimate sacrifice to restore harmony in this country," the statement said.