 |
« Home page »
AFP - Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi oil super-tanker demanded a 25 million dollar ransom Thursday amid calls for tougher action to end threats to one of the world's key maritime routes.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value as new support from its largest individual investor failed to ease worries over whether it will have enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential losses.
Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, one of the biggest moves to date by the government to stem the tide of evictions and home losses.
Reuters - Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors' deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index to its lowest level since 1997 -- completing the erasure of more than a decade of stock market gains.
Reuters - Democratic congressional leaders seeking to salvage a bailout of the Big Three automakers demanded car executives provide a business survival plan on Thursday in exchange for their support for up to $25 billion in loans.
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 - Making John A. "Junior" Gotti stand trial on racketeering charges in Tampa instead of New York would be like "cutting off the supplies he needs to fight the fight," his attorney told a federal judge Thursday. Charles Carnesi, attorney for the New York Mafia scion, argued that a Tampa trial would be a "crushing burden" for Gotti and his family and make it difficult to get already reluctant defense witnesses to testify.
AP - What Robert Gates once called "inconceivable to me"
AP - Stocks have plunged again to levels not seen in more than five years as hopes fade that lawmakers will soon put together an aid package for U.S. automakers.
AP - Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress hurriedly approved 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 were running out.
AFP - Companies worldwide slashed jobs Thursday as the global financial crisis deepened, leaving authorities scrambling to cushion the blow and prompting the launch of a French state investment fund.
Reuters - Conservatives who have abandoned the U.S. Episcopal Church by the thousands in recent years are trying to form a separate-but-equal church, a move that could leave two branches of Anglicanism on American soil.
AP - Friction keeps obstructing "The View." While she never mentioned Rosie O'Donnell by name, it was clear who Barbara Walters was referring to when she opened Thursday's show by complaining about "some people who have done this show" who criticize the daytime gabfest after leaving.
Reuters - Senate and House Democratic leaders at a news conference:
AP - Jennifer Garner has won a restraining order from a man she says has been stalking her for years.
AP - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release of five Algerians held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the continued detention of a sixth in a major blow to the Bush administration's strategy to keep terror suspects locked up without charges.
AP - Democratic leaders in Congress sidetracked legislation to bail out the auto industry Thursday and demanded the Big Three develop a plan assuring the money would make them economically viable.
Reuters - The number of American workers on the unemployment rolls surged to the highest in a quarter century and a regional manufacturing gauge slumped as U.S. economic misery intensified.
Reuters - Four senators have reached a bipartisan agreement on a bill to assist the struggling automotive industry, the lawmakers announced in a joint statement on Thursday.
AP - A judge will likely grant Madonna and Guy Ritchie an initial divorce decree on Friday, according to the schedule for London's High Court.
AP - Astronauts ventured back outside the international space station to perform more repair work on a jammed joint Thursday and promised to keep a tight grip on all their tools so nothing would get away this time.
AP - Hopes that lawmakers could extend relief to the troubled auto industry eased some of investors' worries about the economy Thursday. Stocks pulled off of steep losses but remained volatile after aides to a bipartisan group of senators said they have reached a compromise to funnel emergency loans to Detroit's car makers.
AP - A bipartisan group of auto-state senators reached a last-ditch compromise Thursday to throw Detroit's Big Three a government lifeline worth billions, but the plan faces an uphill battle in a reluctant Senate.
AFP - Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi oil super-tanker demanded a 25 million dollar ransom Thursday amid calls for tougher action to end threats to one of the world's key maritime routes.
Reuters - California's Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear a legal challenge against the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage and let the ban stand in the meantime.
AP - Aides to a bipartisan group of auto-state senators say they have reached a compromise to speed emergency loans to Detroit's Big Three car makers.
AFP - Somali pirates who hijacked a Saudi oil super-tanker demanded a 25 million dollar ransom Thursday amid calls for tougher action to end threats to one of the world's key maritime routes.
Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama is considering Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be U.S. Homeland Security secretary, heading a sprawling agency formed to bolster civil defense in the wake of the September 11 attacks, a senior Democrat said.
Reuters - Fears of a deep, long global recession intensified on Thursday as markets hit new lows in alarm at reports of record U.S. job losses, oil prices plunging below $50 a barrel and worry that U.S. automakers would not get a bailout from Washington.
AP - Fresh worries about widening unemployment added to investors' list of concerns about the economy Thursday and extended Wall Street's sell-off to a second day. The major indexes each fell more than 1.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost 110 points.
AP - Rapper 50 Cent is facing a challenge to his street cred
AP - Fresh worries about widening unemployment added to investors' list of concerns about the economy Thursday. The major indexes each fell more than 1.5 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost 135 points.
AP - With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said Thursday that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits.
AP - Investors list of worries is growing following a government report that weekly unemployment claims have unexpectedly increased.
AP - Democratic officials say that Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is a leading contender for the job of secretary of homeland security in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
AP - New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a 16-year high, the Labor Department said Thursday, providing more evidence of a rapidly weakening job market expected to get even worse next year.
Reuters - World stocks hit 5-1/2 year lows and oil hit 22-month troughs on Thursday on worries over bank giant Citigroup and U.S. automakers, though they trimmed losses on an increased Saudi stake in Citi and a Swiss rate cut.
Reuters - World economic misery spread on Thursday with forecasts of a global recession running well into 2009, Japan's exports to Asia falling for the first time in six years and job losses mounting.
Reuters - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged last week to their highest level in 16 years, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, as a harsh economic environment forces employers to cut back on hiring.
AP - Ben Affleck is visiting refugee camps in war-torn eastern Congo, where at least 250,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting, and says more aid money is needed.
AP - The NFL is giving Adam "Pacman" Jones another chance. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday the suspended cornerback has been reinstated by league commissioner Roger Goodell, but he must miss two more games
AP - Michael Jackson's lawyer says the pop star has agreed to come to London to respond to a Bahraini sheik's $7 million lawsuit.
Reuters - Pakistan summoned U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson on Thursday to protest over missile strikes launched by pilotless drone aircraft against militant targets in Pakistan.
Reuters - Global economic misery spread on Thursday with the Federal Reserve predicting U.S. recession well into 2009, Japan's exports to Asia falling for the first time in six years and job losses mounting.
AP - The NFL is giving Adam "Pacman" Jones another chance. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Wednesday the suspended cornerback has been reinstated by league commissioner Roger Goodell, but he must miss two more games
AP - European and Asian stock markets tumbled Thursday after recession fears sent Wall Street plunging the day before.
AP - The economy hung like a cloud over the 59th annual National Book Awards. Barack Obama was the silver lining.
AP - China announced a complete overhaul of its dairy industry Thursday to improve safety at every step
AP - With the Bush administration on the verge of relaxing regulations protecting endangered species, Democratic leaders are looking at ways to overturn any last-minute rule changes.
AP - World stock markets tumbled Thursday, with benchmarks in Tokyo and Seoul losing almost 7 percent each, after recession fears sent Wall Street plunging and Japan suffered its biggest drop in exports in seven years.
AP - A plan to give troubled U.S. automakers billions of dollars in government-backed loans is on life support, leaving the fate of hundreds of thousands of workers and Detroit's once-venerable car companies hanging in the balance.
AFP - Governments scrambled to cushion the impact of the finance crisis Thursday with France launching a sovereign wealth fund and China unveiling a jobs protection plan as the car industry made huge new cuts.
Reuters - A Missouri woman established a fake identity online to torment a vulnerable teenage girl who later committed suicide, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday in a trial that is being closely watched by the burgeoning social networking industry.
Reuters - World stocks dropped to 5-1/2 year lows and oil hit 22-month troughs as investors reacted to dire Federal Reserve warnings on the economy and fears about the viability of major U.S. auto makers and bank giant Citigroup.
AP - As far as Miguel Garcia is concerned, Chicago already has a gay high school. Jones College Prep, where the 16-year-old is a junior, has the city's largest Gay Straight Alliance, an organization of more than 100 students that he and other members say wields considerable influence at their downtown campus.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts.
AFP - Global markets suffered fresh turmoil Thursday, with Asian stocks plunging as a sharp drop in Japanese exports added to gloom about the outlook for the faltering global economy.
Reuters - Oil fell for a fifth straight session to approach $50 a barrel on Thursday as the fallout from the credit crisis hits the global economy, hitting demand for fuel.
Reuters - Chances dimmed that a last-minute plan being crafted by Republican senators, with White House support, to provide $25 billion to bail out U.S. automakers would receive enough backing from Democrats to pass before the end of this week.
Reuters - Global economic misery spread on Thursday with the Federal Reserve predicting U.S. recession well into 2009, Japan's exports to Asia falling for the first time in six years and another sharp sell-off on global equity markets.
AP - Astronauts vowed to double-check, even triple-check, to make sure a bag of tools is properly tied down during a spacewalk Thursday so it doesn't float away like one did earlier this week.
AFP - Russia announced Thursday it would send more warships to combat piracy in the waters around Somalia, as the Saudi owners of the Sirius Star negotiated with the pirates holding their oil tanker.
Reuters - A 6 percent fall in Asia pushed world stocks to their lowest in 5- years on Thursday, while oil fell below $53 and safe havens such as the yen gained on fears the global recession and a financial crisis will get uglier.
AFP - Asian stocks tumbled Thursday as global economic gloom deepened following a plunge in Japanese exports and a warning from the Federal Reserve that the United States could be in recession next year.
Reuters - Wall Street's pain is rippling through U.S. small businesses, as bankers who once pulled in million-dollar bonuses lose their jobs and cut back spending on everything from parties to home improvements.
Reuters - The U.S. financial system still needs at least $1 trillion to $1.2 trillion of tangible common equity to restore confidence and improve liquidity in the credit markets, Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Paul Miller said.