ATMs to Dispense Gold

Automatic teller machines (ATMs) — 500 of them — dispensing pieces of gold will be available around Germany, Switzerland and Austria by the end of this year.

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Reuters

Geithner: AIG untanglement more difficult

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner foresees a lengthy involvement with American International Group and is not ruling out more aid to the insurance conglomerate...

...Senators criticized the government for letting AIG pay off its top creditors the full value of their debt.

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YAHOO!

Senator says KBR Inc. was paid $83 million in bonuses despite evidence company did shoddy work

WASHINGTON - Military contractor KBR Inc. was paid $83.4 million in bonuses for electrical work in Iraq — much of it after the military's contract management agency recognized the contractor was doing shoddy electrical work, a senator said Wednesday...

...At least three troops have been electrocuted while showering in Iraq, and others have been injured and killed in other electrical incidents.

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StarTribune.com

See the hearing here: Video

Washington Post 2007: Pelosi Briefed

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

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Washington Post

Arrest ordered for mom of boy, 13, resisting chemo

NEW ULM, Minn. – Authorities nationwide were on the lookout Wednesday for a mother and her 13-year-old cancer-stricken son who fled after refusing the chemotherapy that doctors say could save the boy's life.

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YAHOO!

Jeremy Scahill: “Little Known Military Thug Squad Still Brutalizing Prisoners at Gitmo Under Obama”

Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals.

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Democracy Now

Additional Sources: BBC, LA Times

Hedge Funds Making Big Bets on Gold

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Hedge fund firms Paulson & Co. and Lone Pine Capital made big bets on gold during the first quarter, becoming the No. 1 and No. 2 shareholders, respectively, in the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) exchange-traded fund, according to regulatory filings.

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SmartMoney

Local Banks Face Big Losses

Commercial real-estate loans could generate losses of $100 billion by the end of next year at more than 900 small and midsize U.S. banks if the economy's woes deepen, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

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The Wall Street Journal

GPS system 'close to breakdown'

It has become one of the staples of modern, hi-tech life: using satellite navigation tools built into your car or mobile phone to find your way from A to B. But experts have warned that the system may be close to breakdown.

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The Guardian