Summers defends White House response to AIG bonuses

With outrage mounting over AIG’s $165 million in bonuses to executives, the president’s chief economic adviser offered a new line of defense for the White House in an exclusive interview with CNN. Larry Summers suggested that if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had pushed the insurance giant too hard on the bonuses, AIG could have collapsed just like Lehman Brothers and sparked an even bigger crisis

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A Gay Marriage Solution: End Marriage?

When a Jewish boy turns 13, he heads to a temple for a deeply meaningful rite of passage, his bar mitzvah. When a Catholic girl reaches about the same age, she stands in front of the local bishop, who touches her forehead with holy oil as she is confirmed into a 2,000-year-old faith tradition.

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Officials: Two Israeli police officers killed

Police searched Sunday for gunmen who opened fire on an Israeli police vehicle in the West Bank, killing two officers, according to Israeli police. AIG, a recipient of at least $170 billion in federal bailout money , got an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve. The list released Sunday of “counterparties” that benefited from the bailout is topped by European banks Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, which received $4.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

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AIG names recipients of its bailout money

Troubled insurance giant AIG, already under fire for intending to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation, succumbed Sunday to congressional pressure, identifying banks that received chunks of the company’s billions in federal bailout funds last year. AIG, a recipient of at least $170 billion in federal bailout money , got an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve. The list released Sunday of “counterparties” that benefited from the bailout is topped by European banks Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank, which received $4.1 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively.

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Coleman and Franken Still Battle, as Minnesota Awaits a Senator

When Minnesota’s Senate recount trial began in January, the state’s lone U.S. Senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, made a prediction: either Republican incumbent Norm Coleman or Democratic challenger Al Franken would be seated as Minnesota’s next senator by April 11, the day the ice is expected to melt on Lake Minnetonka, a large lake outside of the Twin Cities. But after 30 painstaking days in court, Klobuchar is starting to have her doubts.

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CIA Veterans Blast Senate Probe of Operations Under Bush

For a handful of CIA operatives who were on the frontlines of the war on terror in the early months and years after 9/11, it’s the stuff of nightmares. After all, they did their job as their political masters defined it, using tools and techniques approved by their lawyers

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British PM attacks ‘indefensible’ banking practices

Britain’s prime minister Gordon Brown repeated his call Saturday for former bank chiefs to give up massive pension packages and demanded a clean-up of the banking system to eradicate "Indefensible" practices. In a speech to the ruling Labour Party’s National Policy Forum in Bristol, south-west England, Britain’s Press Association quoted him as saying: “Some of the practices now being discovered in our banks are not only unacceptable, they are indefensible and they have got to be cleaned up now.

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GOP rising star Jindal’s speech a ‘coming-out party’

Thrust into the spotlight as a Republican rising star, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has been depicted as an up-and-comer capable of helping reshape the party and jockeying for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. And now, Jindal’s party is putting him on a national platform, awarding the once little-known congressman the political plum of delivering the Republican’s televised response to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress on February 24.

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As Crime Mounts, Mexicans Turn to Vigilante Justice

Graphic photos of the alleged thief’s corpse were splashed over the front pages of Mexican tabloids beneath headlines such as “Dead Rat” and “Military Justice.” The confessed shooter, retired general Alejandro Flores, was widely hailed as a hero for firing at the 30-year-old man who had tried to force his way into the military man’s Mexico City home. “Of course he did the right thing,” wrote Felipe Alcocer in one on-line forum on the incident. “I wish everyone would act in the same way and get rid of this anti-social scum.” Given Mexico’s widespread breakdown in security, the praise for Flores’ Feb

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