Social Issues

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday held out the possibility of a temporary debt limit increase while budget talks continue.

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Bob Fredenburg, chief consultant for California Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, looks at a dump site during a tour in Thermal, Calif., on Friday. Community activists in Southern California's Coachella Valley have been toiling for years to spread the word about the abandoned waste dumps and shoddy migrant housing that are a fact of life in this poor region. (Associated Press)

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PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY SILVERDOCS "El Bulli: Cooking in Progress" shows how one of the world's most famous restaurants shuts down for six months to create an entirely new menu.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Natasha Alexenko, who was raped at gunpoint as a college student, was interviewed for the HBO documentary "Sex Crimes Unit."

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Refugee women look out from their tented home inside a Syrian refugee camp just at the border in Turkey near Turkish village of Boynuyogun in Hatay province, Turkey, on June 18, 2011, during a press tour organized by the Turkish authorities. (Associated Press)

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Refugee children look out from a fence, from inside a Syrian refugee camp just at the border in Turkey near Turkish village of Boynuyogun in Hatay province, Turkey, Friday, June 18, 2011, during a press tour organized by the Turkish authorities. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

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** FILE ** New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, speaks to reporters after meeting with senators during a closed door Republican conference on gay marriage, Thursday, June 16, 2011, in Albany, N.Y. Conflicting interests and political maneuvering threatened to stall a vote in New York on whether to legalize gay marriage, viewed by advocates and opponents alike as a pivotal moment in the years-long debate.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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** FILE ** Young people hold a banner that translates as "For equal rights without compromise" during an equality march in downtown Moscow on Sunday, May 22, 2011. The demonstrators protested against discrimination based on sex or gender orientation and called for equal rights for women and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

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** FILE ** In this Tuesday, May 24, 2011, file photo, Saudi women board a taxi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A campaign to defy Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving opened Friday, June 17, 2011, with female motorists getting behind the wheel. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Myanmarese refugee girls play in their shared room in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Under a deal still being negotiated, 4,000 refugees in Malaysia would be moved to Australia and 800 illegal asylum-seekers in Australia would be sent to Malaysia.

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In an image made from video broadcast by Cable TV, helmeted anti-riot police try to arrest protesters in Xintang, in southern China's Guangdong Province, on Sunday, June 12, 2011. Demonstrators in the manufacturing hub torched emergency vehicles in an outburst of anger against police abuse of migrant workers, eyewitnesses said Monday. Sunday night's rioting followed three days of steadily growing unrest in the town. (AP Photo/Cable TV via Associated Press TV)

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New York state Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell addresses colleagues prior to their vote on a gay-marriage bill on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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A protester throws stones at police on motorbikes during riots in central Athens on Wednesday. Police used tear gas to disperse groups of masked demonstrators hurling firebombs at a major rally outside parliament. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS SEEKING REFUGE: A man from Bangladesh who fled Libya sits at a refugee camp in Tunisia.

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Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman gets ready to take batting practice prior to a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Washington, Tuesday, June 14, 2011. Zimmerman was reinstated Tuesday from the disabled list after missing 58 games because of an injured abdominal muscle. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was reinstated from the disabled list Tuesday after missing 58 games because of an injured abdominal muscle.

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D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown's budget plan, passed Tuesday, restored funding to services for the homeless. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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New York state Sen. Thomas Libous is part of the critical bloc of Senate Republicans who helped defeat a gay marriage bill two years ago. Democrats' all-out lobbying effort hopes to turn the tide this year. (Associated Press)

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Rashika Joshi, originally from India but now living in McLean, Va., smiles after receiving her certificate of citizenship, held by her 2 1/2-year-old daughter Isha. Joshi was one of 20 people from 12 countries who became naturalized U.S. citizens on Flag Day, Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Because Isha was born here, she is already a U.S. citizen. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Syrian refugees are seen in a camp, in Boynuyogun, Turkey, on June 14, 2011. According to the Turkish Prime Minister's office, the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey stands at more than 8.500 people. (Associated Press)