Blessed Barons

Staring out from their photographs, they are the archetypal tycoons: one a steely-eyed Scot with a spade-shaped white beard; another a craggy, Ichabod Crane look-alike; the third a fat cat in striped pants with a watch chain strung across an ample paunch. Today they have the look of fossilized reactionaries, but these turn-of-the-century titans were men who lived in booming, anarchic times and thrived on them.

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Inside David Letterman’s love life

Nearly two weeks after David Letterman first revealed that he was the victim of an alleged $2 million blackmail plot — and shocked fans with his on-air confession that he had had sex with women who work for him — the veil over the “Late Show” host’s previously super-private love life has lifted. And, as friends and other sources reveal, that love life has always been both idiosyncratic — and messy

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Clinton trip comes amid debate on Afghanistan

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarks Friday on a six-day trip to Europe and Russia that comes at a crucial time in the Obama administration’s decision-making on a strategy for Afghanistan. She will depart one day after the inaugural flight of the “lethal transit” agreement, signed in July by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which allows transport of military personnel and equipment across Russia to support the U.S.-NATO mission in Afghanistan

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Michael Jordan rapped for smoking on course

Basketball legend Michael Jordan has caused a furor at the President’s Cup golf tournament after the former Chicago Bulls player was snapped smoking a cigar at the Harding Park course in San Francisco. Jordan — who is acting as the honorary assistant captain for the U.S.

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