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Obama snaps up crocodile insurance Down Under... (and Michelle gets £30,000 if he's eaten) By Emily Allen U.S. President Barack Obama snapped up an unusual gift on a visit to Australia this week - £30,000 worth of crocodile insurance. The official gift, worth about A$10 or just over £6, was given to mark his stopover in Australia's tropical north, home to some of the world's biggest and deadliest crocodiles. If he had been attacked and eaten during the visit his wife Michelle would have received a £30,000 pay-out. Mr Obama told about 2,000 U.S. Marines and Australian troops at the...

US First Lady Michelle Obama and her nine-year-old daughter Sasha on Thursday visited Granada, the former seat of Moorish rule in Spain, during the second day of her holiday in the country. The two had ice cream in the centre of the southern city as dozens of cameramen and local residents looked on before they began their tour of Granada amid temperatures that soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). Michelle Obama smiled and waved to the crowd before entering the city's imposing cathedral, which contains the tombs of Spain's king Ferdinand of Aragon and queen Isabella of Castile,...

Madison, WI - Seated cross-legged onstage in a large upholstered chair, one of the world's best-known religious leaders delivered his trademark messages of compassion, peace and unity with typical humor, verve and humility Saturday afternoon. In response to a written question from the audience about Tibetan culture being strong enough to still mount widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule this year, he also ventured into the political arena. “I want to make clear. We always respect the Chinese people, not the Chinese government,” he said, to loud applause, adding that the uprisings were pro-freedom, not anti-Chinese. For the more than 7,000...

Remember when all then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich wanted was to use the front steps of Air Force One? That didn't work out, thanks to Bill Clinton's aides - but in retrospect it seems that the taxpayers never had it so good. Now the new speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, is demanding her own personal Pentagon-provided jet. Who's to get the tab? That's right: You. The speaker has decided that she needs a personal shuttle between Washington, D.C., and her home out on the Left Coast. Historically, House speakers flew commercial. Then, after 9/11, Speaker Dennis Hastert cited security...

HOURS after boarding the luxury cruise that would result in her death, Dianne Brimble's friend warned her of a group of men who had been ogling female passengers, a Sydney inquest was told today. The next morning, Ms Brimble, 42, was found dead in a cabin belonging to some of those same men. Police allege she had been given a lethal dose of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate before being sexually assaulted. The inquest was told Ms Brimble had been ecstatic, setting out on the "holiday of a lifetime" with family and friends on the P&O liner Pacific Sky on...