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India chipped away at America's diplomatic perks Wednesday, ordering the envoys to obey local traffic laws and warning that a popular U.S. Embassy club violates diplomatic law because it is open to outsiders. The moves were the latest in a campaign to exert pressure on the U.S. following the arrest and strip search last month of Devyani Khobragade, an Indian diplomat based in New York City.

India took retaliatory measures against the United States on Wednesday in a row over an Indian diplomat who complained of being stripped and forced to undergo “cavity searches” while in U.S. detention. The measures included a revision of work conditions of Indians employed at U.S. consulates and a freeze on the import of duty-free alcohol.

The United States and India are in the middle of a diplomatic spat. It began when India's deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, was arrested last week for allegedly submitting a fraudulent visa application for her housekeeper.

The Catskills, in upstate New York, are known for their natural beauty and quaint lifestyle. But they could become a lot flashier, thanks to one businesswoman's proposal for the area: a multibillion-dollar "China City of America," complete with an amusement park, mansions, a casino, retail centers, a college, and more. Creator Sherry Li says the plan would attract domestic and foreign tourists, residents, and investors. Back in May, she introduced her concept to Thompson, a town of 15,000 people 90 miles north of New York City.

In 1999, a white South African, Dennis Dupree, opened a restaurant in Fort Greene, Brooklyn along with his brother and sister-in-law. They named it Madiba, the clan name used by many South Africans to refer affectionately to Nelson Mandela. When people in Brooklyn heard the news of Mandela's death, many quickly gathered at Madiba.

Before I moved to Paris three years ago, although I’d already been to the city and was lucky enough to call French my second language, I still held more than a few romantic preconceived notions. Every metropolis has a set of stereotypes linked to it, and Paris exists in many people's minds as a charming, luxurious, timeless hub of style and sophistication—in fact, so many people expect the City of Light to be what they want it to be that the reality has rendered some tourists physically sick with disappointment.

Standing in the shadows of the towering skyscrapers in the lower west side of modern day Manhattan, you would never know the heart of Arab America once beat from here. Just two short blocks south of Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial on Washington Street stands the tiny island of what remains of the historic ‘Little Syria’ neighborhood. “In my view it’s miraculous that these three buildings have been preserved,” said Todd Fine as he gazed up at them, squinting under the bright, hot summer sun.

On one side, an eagle reaches its claws out toward a big red apple. On the other side, a creature wearing multiple masks moves toward the apple. These are images in a mural meant to depict the struggles of people of different backgrounds to make it to New York City. The mural is coming to life on a wall in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that runs much of the length of a road that hardly counts as a road. Area street artists know the wall, stretching about 200 feet on Vandervoort Place, as a prized space to show off their talents.

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