AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out plans Monday to raise an income tax rate for the first time in three decades, abandoning a pledge that had carried his Labour Party to power.

Reuters - The U.S. government agreed to prop up one of the world's biggest banks, Citigroup Inc , with more than $300 billion to avoid a collapse that could have wrought financial havoc around the globe.

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise - to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans - as part of his economic recovery strategy, two aides said on Sunday.

AP - American farmers have long worried about the declining population of honeybees, a key crop pollinator. But honeybees originally came from Europe, so can't U.S. farms get by without them — with a little help from good old American bugs whose ancestors were here before Columbus?

AP - American farmers have long worried about the declining population of honeybees, a key crop pollinator. But honeybees originally came from Europe, so can't U.S. farms get by without them — with a little help from good old American bugs whose ancestors were here before Columbus?

AFP - The two US mortgage finance giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said on Thursday they halt home foreclosures until early January as they modify loans to help keep owners in their homes.

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 - Stocks plunged to their lowest in five-and-a-half years on Wednesday as investors girded for a lengthy economic downturn and automotive executives predicted a far-reaching calamity without a government lifeline.