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Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama moved closer to assembling his Cabinet on Thursday with Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano emerging as the top contender to head the Homeland Security Department, created to protect Americans after the September 11 attacks.
Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, as the government moves to stem the tide of home losses plaguing the economy.
Reuters - The global economy saw more signs of distress on Thursday with U.S. stocks plunging for a second consecutive day, oil prices falling, a surprise rate cut in Switzerland, export woes in Japan and rescue loans to Turkey and Iceland.
AP - Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.
AP - What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me"
AP - Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress raced to approve legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the December holidays and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out.
AP - The $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry, desperately sought by Detroit's beleaguered Big Three, collapsed Thursday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they wouldn't even consider it until the companies produced a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry.
AFP - News of fresh job cuts worldwide and a strong jump in US unemployment Thursday darkened the global economic outlook and sent financial markets into convulsions.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses and despite new support from its largest individual investor.