AP - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.
AP - Thousands of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security deal Friday, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein statue five years ago.
AP - Attorney General Michael Mukasey has left a hospital and is heading back to work at the Justice Department with "clean bill of health" following his collapse at a Washington dinner.
AP - A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.
AP - Nebraska lawmakers have approved adding a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law that resulted in 35 children including teenagers as old as 17 being abandoned at state hospitals.
AP - Wall Street moved in and out of positive territory Friday, with investors taking a breather from the heavy selling of recent days. Energy, utility and technology stocks showed some advances, but bank stocks declined sharply.
AP - Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, unexpectedly announced Friday that its chief executive will retire in February and be replaced by the head of its international division.
AP - The show-business marriage that began in a Scottish castle came to an end in a drab London courtroom Friday as Madonna and Guy Ritchie were granted a preliminary decree of divorce.
AP - Annika Sorenstam has enjoyed plenty of great rounds at Trump International, a course where she won three times in a four-year span earlier this decade.
Reuters - Citigroup Inc shares tumbled for a fifth straight day, as Chief Executive Vikram Pandit tried to downplay speculation the banking giant might sell major businesses to restore its health and investor confidence.
Reuters - Amid growing concern that a power vacuum in Washington was contributing to the global financial crisis, shares of U.S. banking giant Citigroup skidded on Friday while legislators and corporate chieftains weighed the fate of the U.S. auto industry.
Reuters - U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey was expected to return to work on Friday after a "fainting spell" during a speech sent him to hospital the night before, a spokeswoman said.
Reuters - Retired Marine Gen. James Jones emerged as a leading contender for White House national security adviser as President-elect Barack Obama worked on Thursday to assemble his foreign policy team.
Reuters - President George W. Bush on Friday signed into law an extension of unemployment benefits, the White House said.
Reuters - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched on Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.
Reuters - Verizon Wireless said on Thursday that some employees had gained unauthorized access and viewed a personal cell phone account held by President-elect Barack Obama that is now inactive.
AFP - The use of nuclear weapons will grow increasingly likely by 2025, according to a bleak US intelligence report that warns that US global dominance is likely to weaken over the next two decades.
AFP - Thousands of Shiite followers of firebrand anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad on Friday to protest a security accord that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until 2011.
Powering cars with green electricity instead of natural gas -- a finite, nonrenewable resource -- will have a positive effect on U.S. national security, climate change, and the economy, writes environmental expert Jonathan Dorn.
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WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (OneWorld) - Women are being disproportionately affected by the U.S. mortgage crisis and economic plunge, said a panel of women leaders Wednesday, urging a strong woman-focused response from the federal government.
The Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is weakening the already-fragile health care system as hospitals run out of essential medicines and supplies and power cuts disable equipment, says a medical aid worker in the territory.
Some 160 countries are meeting to define the tobacco industry's role in public health. Industry lobbying is considered the primary obstacle to enforcing anti-smoking public health measures worldwide, reports a corporate abuse watchdog group.
HARARE, Nov 19 (OneWorld) - Why has the Home Affairs Ministry become the bone of contention in the Zimbabwe party talks? It's a question of police brutality versus law enforcement, Registrar General versus Rig-star General.
WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (OneWorld) - Green Festival attendees in Washington, D.C. tell OneWorld what global issues matter most to them. Interests range from global warming and human rights to bee colony collapse, but the message that we are one world shines through in each shot.
Nearly 20,000 ethnic Georgians are unable to return to their homes in South Ossetia due to widespread destruction and ongoing security concerns following the conflict with Russia, states a report released yesterday by an international human rights monitor.
Nigeria's oil rich Niger Delta region needs jobs, schools, electricity, and roads -- not troops -- to overcome the violence and corruption associated with crude oil smuggling, say analysts.
Development programs founded on a comprehensive understanding of local culture are exceptionally effective in promoting human rights and women's equality, says a report released last week by a United Nations agency.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 18 (OneWorld) - At least one out of every four U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffers from Gulf War Illness, according to an extensive federal report released Monday that confirmed the existence of the long-debated medical condition.
