AP - Rats, raw sewage and a no-excuses curfew await exiled residents who try to return to storm-wrecked Galveston Island when it reopens next week, officials warned Saturday, a week after Hurricane Ike came thundering ashore.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain together spent $94 million in August, a record spree mostly aimed at about a dozen states that will probably decide their historic presidential contest.

AP - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks — many calling them "lazy," "violent" or responsible for their own troubles.

AP - Pakistan's prime minister says the death toll from the huge truck bombing of a luxury hotel in Pakistan's capital has reached about 53.

AP - The Bush administration asked Congress on Saturday for the power to buy $700 billion in toxic assets clogging the financial system and threatening the economy as negotiations began on the largest bailout since the Great Depression.

AFP - Thabo Mbeki will resign as South Africa's president, his spokesman said Saturday, after the governing African National Congress told him to stand down in the interests of ANC unity.

AFP - At least 40 people were killed in a suicide truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistan capital on Saturday, and many others were believed trapped inside the burning building, police said.

Reuters - President George W. Bush urged Democrats on Saturday to set politics aside and approve a free trade deal with Colombia that he said would boost U.S. national security.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama accused Republican presidential rival John McCain on Saturday of wanting to gamble with the retirement savings and health care of Americans by subjecting them to the uncertainty of open markets.

Reuters - South African President Thabo Mbeki on Saturday accepted a demand from his own party to resign, effectively ending a nine-year rule marked by economic prosperity but marred by allegations of abuse of power.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley's board was expected to meet over the weekend to discuss a merger with Wachovia Corp , the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Reuters - A suicide truck bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 40 people, wounding nearly 200 and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.

Reuters - The Bush administration on Saturday sent a $700 billion financial markets rescue plan to Congress where Democrats immediately questioned its impact not only on Wall Street, but on homeowners and taxpayers as well.

AP - Which Barack Obama will show up for the first presidential debate?

AP - Even with Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood reduced to the role of spectators, the Europeans cut into a commanding U.S. lead at the Ryder Cup on Saturday.