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Europe
3:12 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

'Vultures' Swoop In For Deals In Debt-Ridden Spain

Credit Andrea Comas / Reuters/Landov
A "For Sale" sign hangs outside mostly empty apartment blocks in the Madrid satellite town of Sesena in February. Banks are trying to sell billions of euros worth of property left by bankrupt developers. This is attracting bargain-hunting investors from abroad.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:34 pm

Back in the day, Madrid's Palace Hotel was Ernest Hemingway's old haunt, or at least the bar was. Now, rooms at the posh hotel just down from the famed Prado Museum go for up to $6,000 a night. And gathering in its lobby these days? An altogether different type of foreigner: the kind in expensive suits.

"Probably they are institutional investors, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds," says Federico Steinberg, an economist at Madrid's Elcano Institute.

There's a lot of cash around the world, he says, and a lot of people looking for bargains.

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The Salt
2:58 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Cranberry Juice For Urinary Tract Infections? It Really Can Help

Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Cranberry Antioxidant Punch

Native Americans and Pilgrims were onto something when they turned to cranberries as an infection fighter. American settlers believed the bitter food could stave off scurvy. But there's more than just Vitamin C in this indigenous berry.

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Middle East
2:57 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Syrian Rebels Carve Buffer Zone Near Turkish Border

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:34 pm

At this isolated part of the Turkish border, there's just one Turkish guard, a fence and, beyond an olive grove, Syria.

The Syrian side is just a short walk, perhaps 10 minutes. The area looks completely calm and there is no sign of the Syrian military.

Abu Amar, a rebel who has fought in Syria for five weeks, walked across this field from the Syrian village of Atma, which is now serving as a rebel headquarters. He says much of the northwestern province of Idlib is now controlled by the rebels, and it has become easy to move back and forth between Syria and Turkey here.

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Poverty In America
2:52 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Poverty In The U.S. By The Numbers

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 1:54 pm


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Law
2:43 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Justice Delayed: After Three Decades, An Apology

Credit Carrie Johnson / NPR
Kirk Odom and his wife, Harriet, outside the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the Justice Department said there was "clear and convincing evidence" that Odom is innocent of a 1981 rape and robbery, for which he spent more than two decades behind bars.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:34 pm

Nearly 31 years after he was convicted of rape and armed robbery, Kirk Odom on Tuesday all but won his fight to be declared an innocent man.

The Justice Department filed court papers saying, "There is clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Odom is innocent of the charges for which he was convicted," and apologized for the "terrible injustice."

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