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A municipal worker sweeps along a pathway near the Mekong river, in the capital Vientiane, Laos. Manish Swarup/AP hide caption

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Manish Swarup/AP

Parallels

Tiny Laos Readies For A Visit From Obama — And A Turn Under The Global Spotlight

In a historic step toward rebuilding relations with the poor, heavily-bombed nation, the president will join other world leaders there, after wrapping another big global meeting in Hangzhou, China.

A municipal worker sweeps along a pathway near the Mekong river, in the capital Vientiane, Laos. Manish Swarup/AP hide caption

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Manish Swarup/AP

Tiny Laos Readies For A Visit From Obama — And A Turn Under The Global Spotlight

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Alex Longo makes a pitch at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas, in October 2015. The Institute sponsored the conference to pick a landing site for the first human landing on Mars. Long has proposed a site for a different mission — a rover landing. Bill Ingalls/NASA hide caption

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Bill Ingalls/NASA

A Teen Might Pick The Landing Site For NASA's Next Mars Rover

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A writer by profession, Robert Hoge was the first member of his family to go to college. Matthew Warrell/Courtesy of Penguin Young Readers hide caption

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Matthew Warrell/Courtesy of Penguin Young Readers

'Ugly': A Memoir Of Childhood, Deformity And Learning To Love A Distinctive Face

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Karrie Keyes stands at her soundboard at a show at Boston's Fenway Park in August 2016. From here, she communicates with the members of Pearl Jam to get the monitor mix just right. Caroline Losneck hide caption

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Caroline Losneck

Meet The Woman Who's Been Pearl Jam's Sound Engineer For 24 Years

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