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AP Top News at 5:16 p.m. EDT(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Cuomo says AIG paid $1M-plus bonuses to 73 workersALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ Troubled insurance giant American International Group paid bonuses of $1 million or more to 73 employees, including 11 who no longer work for the company, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. Cuomo subpoenaed information from AIG on Monday to determine whether the payments made over the past weekend constitute fraud under state law. Contracts written last March guaranteed employees 100 percent of their 2007 bonus amounts for 2008, "despite obvious signs that 2008 performance would be disastrous in comparison to the year before," Cuomo said. Health care overhaul may cost about $1.5 trillionWASHINGTON (AP) _ Guaranteeing health insurance for all Americans may cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade, health experts say. That's more than double the $634 billion 'down payment' President Barack Obama set aside for health reform in his budget, raising the prospect of sticker shock at a time of record federal spending. Administration officials have pointedly avoided providing a ballpark estimate, saying it depends on details to be worked out with Congress. The White House had no immediate response to questions Tuesday. Still, the potential costs are raising concerns among Republicans and some Democrats as Congress prepares to draft next year's budget. "We shouldn't just be throwing more money on top of the present system, because the present system is so wasteful," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee. IRS giving relief to some Madoff investorsWASHINGTON (AP) _ The Internal Revenue Service issued guidelines Tuesday that will allow tax relief and refunds for some Bernard Madoff victims who were levied for investment earnings that turned out to be nonexistent. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress the new guidelines are for taxpayers who have suffered losses from Ponzi investment schemes such as the massive Madoff swindle. He said the guidelines will apply to victims of all Ponzi schemes _ financial scams in which early investors are paid returns from money put in by later investors. But given the scope of the Madoff scandal, the IRS wanted to establish an easy system for investors to recover taxes they paid on "fictitious income," Shulman said. Daughter confronts Austrian incest father in videoST. POELTEN, Austria (AP) _ The woman who bore seven children through incest and was allegedly locked in a squalid dungeon for 24 years confronted her father Tuesday in a videotape shown in court _ testimony that could send him to prison for life. Josef Fritzl, 73, has been charged with murder, enslavement, incest and rape in a case that has drawn media attention from around the world for its shocking allegations. On Tuesday, jurors, Fritzl and the rest of the court viewed videotaped testimony from his daughter Elisabeth, the key witness against Fritzl. Now 42, she was 18 when he allegedly imprisoned her in the cramped, windowless cell he built beneath the family's home in Amstetten. On Africa trip, pope says condoms won't solve AIDSYAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) _ Pope Benedict XVI said condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism Tuesday as he began a weeklong trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV. Benedict's first statement on an issue that has divided even Catholic clergy working with AIDS patients came hours before he arrived in Cameroon's capital _ greeted by thousands of flag-waving faithful who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in red dirt fields and jammed downtown streets for a glimpse of the pontiff's motorcade. New England pastor houses child killer, riles townCHICHESTER, N.H. (AP) _ A pastor in this quiet, picturesque New England town thought he was doing the Christian thing when he took in a convicted child killer who had served his time but had nowhere to go. But some neighbors of the Rev. David Pinckney vehemently disagree, one even threatening to burn his house down after officials could find no one else willing to take 60-year-old Raymond Guay. "Politicians think they can dump their trash in our small town," said one neighbor, Jon Morales, whose girlfriend and two children live across an unpaved road from Pinckney's home. Study: 'Smart drug' Provigil may be habit-formingCHICAGO (AP) _ A so-called "smart drug" popular with young people may carry more of an addiction risk than thought, a small government study suggests. Scans of 10 healthy men showed that the prescription drug Provigil caused changes in the brain's pleasure center, very much like potentially habit-forming classic stimulants. Modafinil, the drug's generic name, is sometimes used as an illegal study aid by college students. "It would be wonderful if one could take a drug and be smarter, faster or have more energy," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who led the study with a Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist. "But that is like fairy tales. We currently have nothing that has those benefits without side effects." Report: Injured Richardson on flight to USMONTREAL (AP) _ Actress Natasha Richardson, critically injured in a skiing accident, was on a flight to the United States, Britain's Press Association news agency said Tuesday, quoting Sacre-Coeur Hospital. The report didn't say where in the U.S. the flight was headed. Legally blind Mo. man saves woman from attackerFENTON, Mo. (AP) _ A legally blind man was credited with saving a woman after authorities said a 45-year-old man broke into her apartment on Saturday night. Authorities said the man, a convicted rapist, was waiting for the woman to return home from work. A neighbor who asked to be identified only as Jerry heard noises coming from the apartment. Jerry is blind in his left eye and has about 25 percent vision in his right eye. AP source: Peppers would like to be a PatriotCHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ Julius Peppers wants out of Carolina and wouldn't mind going to New England. The Panthers will let him go only for what they feel is fair compensation. The long-running offseason drama involving the four-time Pro Bowl defensive end is nowhere near a resolution, leaving the Panthers without salary-cap space and Peppers' future uncertain. A day after the Panthers dismissed an NFL.com report that Peppers was close to being dealt to New England for a second-round pick, a person close to Peppers said Tuesday the Patriots are one of the teams for which he'd like to play. Copyright ? 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |