AP - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a $5 billion plan to provide 20,000 affordable homes in the city over the next five years, but acknowledged he’ll have to reach far and wide to raise the funds amid the financial meltdown.

AP - The glittering, steel and glass domed rail hub had seemed for years to be the only thing that was going right at ground zero.

AP - Voters in this crucial swing state began casting absentee ballots Tuesday, a day after state and federal courts upheld a disputed early voting law.

AP - A former teacher who fled to Mexico with a 13-year-old student so she could have sex with him was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison. Kelsey Peterson, 26, had pleaded guilty in July to a charge of transporting a minor across state lines to have sex and avoided a similar charge that would have carried a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence.

AP - The man who told a jury that O.J. Simpson asked him to bring guns and “look menacing” during a hotel room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers acknowledged Monday he didn’t tell police that last October.

AP - A judge ruled in favor of a woman who sought parental rights to a boy and girl adopted by her former same-sex partner, a decision described as a first for Montana.

AP - Prosecutors filed six murder charges Monday against a 28-year-old man accused of a shooting rampage north of Seattle.

AP - The night five people were abducted from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant 25 years ago, a van sped out its parking lot, being driven by a white man and carrying three people wearing KFC uniforms, a witness testified Monday.

AP - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday that the government is ready to compromise to reach a security accord with the United States because Iraq still needs American troops despite the drop in violence.

AP - U.S. helicopters on Monday buzzed a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons that officials fear could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia if the pirates are allowed to escape.

AP - Suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in Pakistan since July 2007, most of them civilians, according to military statistics Monday that underscored the ferocity of the threat facing the U.S. ally in the war on extremist groups.

AP - British candy maker Cadbury announced a recall Monday of chocolate made in its Beijing factory after it was found to contain melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened tens of thousands of Chinese children.

AP - Egyptian and Sudanese troops, backed by European commandos, swooped down in helicopters Monday to rescue a tour group that had been kidnapped in Egypt and taken on a 10-day dash across the Sahara to the frontier of Chad.

AP - Shares in troubled bank Fortis NV plummeted Monday despite a 1.2 billion euro ($16.4 billion) government bailout, amid growing signs European banks have been hit harder by the U.S. financial crisis than they have been willing to admit.

AP - A six-year probe has not ruled out the possibility that Iran may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N nuclear inspector said Monday, urging Iran to reassure the world by ending its secretive ways.

AP - Ecuador’s leftist President Rafael Correa urged his opponents Monday to join his efforts to build a more just society, saying the overwhelming victory of his constitutional referendum gives him a broad mandate.

Reuters - Eleven European tourists and eight Egyptians abducted in the Egyptian desert have been freed unharmed in an operation in which some of their kidnappers were killed, Egyptian officials said on Monday.

AFP - Pakistani troops and tribesmen killed 12 militants in fighting on Monday on the troubled Afghan border, as the two sides teamed up to fight extremists in the Taliban and Al-Qaeda hub.

AP - A 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck near New Zealand’s remote and largely uninhabited Kermadec Islands early Tuesday, New Zealand’s GNS Science geological agency said.

AP - With the House slated to vote Monday on a deeply unpopular $700 billion rescue plan for beleaguered financial companies, President Bush and congressional leaders were scrambling to corral support.

AP - A car bomb exploded Monday near a military bus carrying troops going to work in northern Lebanon, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others, Lebanese security officials said.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain on gingerly embraced a newly negotiated congressional deal for a $700 billion bailout of the hobbled financial industry.

AP - It threatened to be the first hurricane in 17 years to make landfall in Maine. Instead, Kyle delivered little more than a glancing blow equivalent to that of a classic nor’easter.

AP - VIENNA, Austria Islamic anger over Israel’s nuclear program and bids by Iran and Syria to gain more influence threaten to turn this week’s 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency meeting into an unprecedented showdown between the West and the developing world.

AP - World stock markets tumbled Monday as investors reacted coolly to Washington’s $700 billion bank bailout deal, recognizing that cleaning up the bad debt mess will take a long time and likely drag on global economic growth for the foreseeable future.

AP - Federal prosecutors changed their plans and said they would not put their star witness on the stand Monday in the corruption case against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

AP - Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds did a little rushing into it after all. The couple married this weekend, according to publicist Meredith O’Sullivan. She did not provide details.

AP - CC Sabathia and Ryan Braun helped the Brewers end 26 years of frustration, while Mets fans watched a frustrating finale rerun of their wretched September collapse from a year ago.

AP - Somewhere, Joe Namath had to be smiling. While Brett Favre isn’t exactly a reincarnation of Broadway Joe, he sure looked like Broadway Brett on Sunday. The longtime star quarterback did something for the Jets he never accomplished during his storied stint in Green Bay, throwing for six touchdowns in a 56-35 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

Reuters - The biggest bank failure in U.S. history and nose diving banking stocks added pressure on the U.S. Congress to agree to a $700 billion financial rescue plan to breathe life back into credit markets.

Reuters - Wachovia Corp is in talks with rivals to be taken over, sources familiar with the situation said on Sunday, after the U.S. bank’s shares fell 27 percent on Friday due to concerns about its portfolio of illiquid mortgage assets.

AP - Chinese astronauts have returned to Earth after successfully completing the country’s first-ever spacewalk mission.

AP - Israeli officials say the U.S. has provided Israel with an advanced radar system that will give early warning in case of an Iranian missile attack.

AP - Austrians began voting in parliamentary elections Sunday that analysts said could bolster the standing of the country’s two right-wing parties.

AP - A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.

AP - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a new resolution Saturday reaffirming previous sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment program and offering Tehran incentives to do so.

AP - Chinese celebrated their nation’s first spacewalk Saturday, gathering at outdoor TV screens to cheer live video of the milestone for a program that has ambitions of building a space station and challenging the U.S. and Russia in offworld exploration.

AP - A brazen car bombing near Syrian security offices killed 17 people Saturday, the deadliest attack in decades that raised questions about the regime’s usually strong grip as the country tries to boost its international profile.

AP - The abduction of a European tour group in a distant corner of Egypt’s desert underlines the potential dangers of adventure tourism pushing deeper into remote destinations and getting closer to conflict zones.

AP - Congress made significant progress on a financial bailout of Wall Street and the Senate’s Democratic leader said Saturday he hoped to announce a deal by the end of the weekend.

AP - Paul Newman, the Oscar-winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as “Hud,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “The Color of Money” followed by a second act as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario has died. He was 83.

AP - In a faceoff that returned again and again to judgment, John McCain portrayed himself as a battle-tested elder running against a naive rookie, while Barack Obama suggested the Republican is a hothead who made the wrong choices on the Iraq war, corporate taxes and more.

AP - A Chinese astronaut on Saturday performed the nation’s first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious program that is increasingly rivaling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion.

AP - Premier Wen Jiabao promised Saturday to improve Chinese food safety, seeking to tamp down public anxiety in the widening scandal over tainted milk that has sickened more than 50,000 children.

AP - Senators removed a key obstacle Saturday to passage of a spending bill that combines help for Gulf Coast disaster victims and loans for automakers with record spending for the Pentagon.

AP - Iraq’s foreign minister says “there is a new world now” because of the global financial crisis and he hopes it won’t lead to an immediate withdrawal of the 146,000 American troops in his country.

AP - In a faceoff that returned again and again to judgment, John McCain portrayed himself as a battle-tested elder running against a naive rookie, while Barack Obama suggested the Republican is a hothead who made the wrong choices on the Iraq war, corporate taxes and more.

AP - Lawmakers say they’re making progress and hope to reach an agreement over the weekend on a $700 billion government bailout to rescue Wall Street bankers from the bad loans that threaten to derail the economy and send it into a deep and long depression.

AP - A Chinese astronaut on Saturday performed the nation’s first-ever spacewalk, the latest milestone in an ambitious program that is increasingly rivaling the United States and Russia in its rapid expansion.

AP - A car packed with explosives detonated on a crowded residential street Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen others, state-run television reported.

AP - A Russian warship on Friday rushed to intercept a Ukrainian vessel carrying 33 battle tanks and a hoard of ammunition that was seized by pirates off the Horn of Africa a bold hijacking that again heightened fears about surging piracy and high-seas terrorism.

AP - They were Premier Zhou Enlai’s favorite late-night snack. He loved White Rabbit candy so much he gave a bag to President Nixon during his historic visit to China. But the iconic brand, beloved by generations of Chinese, took a hit after it was linked to the tainted milk scandal.

AP - The list of products caught in China’s tainted milk scandal grew Friday to include baby cereal in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan, while Taiwan reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island’s first cases possibly linked to the crisis.

AP - Pakistan sought to reassure Washington on Friday that it remained an ally in fighting terrorism, but it also warned the U.S. to stay out of Pakistani territory while hunting down militants along the volatile border with Afghanistan.

AP - A Republican rebellion stalled government efforts Thursday to avoid economic meltdown, a chaotic turnaround that disrupted the choreography of an extraordinary White House meeting meant to show joint resolve from the president, the political parties and the presidential candidates. Instead, the summit broke up so bitterly that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got on one knee before Democratic leaders in a theatrical attempt to salvage talks.

AP - JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to the rescue of Washington Mutual Inc. Thursday, buying the thrift’s banking assets after WaMu was seized by federal regulators in the largest failure ever of a U.S. bank. This is the second time in six months that JPMorgan Chase has taken over a major financial institution crippled by bad bets in the mortgage market.

AP - Sen. John McCain’s self-portrait as a bold leader willing to set politics aside to save an endangered financial bailout plan took a pounding Thursday from top Democrats and even some fellow Republicans.

AP - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her comment that the proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview aired Thursday that “we have trade missions back and forth.”

AP - Pakistani soldiers fired at American reconnaissance helicopters that were escorting Afghan and U.S. ground troops along the volatile border Thursday, sparking a five-minute ground battle between the countries which have been allies in the war on terrorism, officials said.

AP - Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.

AP - The largest alternative medicine study the government has ever launched has stopped enrolling people while officials investigate whether participants were fully informed of the risks and are being adequately protected, The Associated Press has learned.

AP - President Bush and the two men fighting to succeed him joined forces Thursday at a historic White House meeting on a multibillion-dollar Wall Street bailout plan, aiming to stave off a national economic disaster. Key members of Congress said they had struck a deal earlier in the day, but its future was unclear.

AP - Sen. John McCain’s self-portrait as a bold leader willing to set politics aside to save an endangered financial bailout plan took a pounding Thursday from top Democrats and even some fellow Republicans.

AP - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview airing Thursday that “we have trade missions back and forth.”

AP - Angered by U.S. raids into Pakistan in search of terrorists, Pakistan’s new president warned Thursday that his country cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.”

AP - The judge in the O.J. Simpson kidnapping and robbery trial struggled Thursday to keep jurors from being reminded of his infamous Los Angeles murder case, ruling that a witness could not mention the former football star’s troubled past.

AP - Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs.

AP - Earthquake scientists want to borrow your laptop or maybe a little space in your basement or garage. Researchers don’t have enough high-tech monitoring stations to track every instance of ground shaking, so they are enlisting help from ordinary people to document quakes and pinpoint areas of possible damage.