AP - After two weeks of anguishing debate, Congress has passed and President Bush signed a massive plan to save the financial industry and the economy at large from an unthinkable free fall. Now, the world holds its breath, seeing if it will work.

AP - O.J. Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after he was acquitted of murder in 1995, was found guilty Friday of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.

AFP - Despite a gutsy debate performance by Republican VP pick Sarah Palin, she failed to turn the tide in the race for the White House, leaving John McCain struggling to revitalize his slipping bid, analysts said Friday.

AFP - The US House of Representatives on Friday approved a revised 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout, bowing to intense pressure to help avert a global economic meltdown.

Reuters - Savvy Internet users in China began avoiding the version of Skype offered by its Chinese partner two years ago, but news it filtered and recorded text messages has sparked new worries about the global firm's commitment to privacy.

Reuters - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revamped his cabinet on Friday, recalling old hand and one-time political opponent Peter Mandelson in an effort to shore up his premiership at a time of economic crisis.

Reuters - A senior U.S. envoy ended a trip to North Korea Friday aimed at saving a crumbling disarmament deal, calling the talks substantive but declining to say if he swayed the secretive state to give up plans to restart its nuclear plant.

Reuters - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has told U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the most populous U.S. state may need the federal government to buy $7 billion of debt the state is unable to sell due to weak credit markets- and that California may not be alone.

Reuters - Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden clashed on the economy and Iraq during a lively but polite debate on Thursday, and aimed the most criticism at their rivals at the top of the ticket.

Reuters - Wells Fargo & Co said on Friday it would buy Wachovia Corp for about $16 billion, apparently besting a government-backed Citigroup Inc bid for some of the bank's assets, in a deal that would catapult Wells Fargo into the ranks of the leading national consumer banks.

Reuters - Stocks fell, shedding earlier gains on Friday, as concerns about the economy overshadowed the U.S. House of Representatives' approval of the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue package.

Reuters - The House of Representatives approved a $700 billion bailout package for U.S. banks, under pressure from all sides as the effort to head off a spreading financial crisis hung in the balance.

AP - Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks is the unanimous choice as WNBA rookie of the year.

AP - A 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday.

AP - Thirteen months after millionaire thrill-seeker Steve Fossett mysteriously disappeared, authorities finally know what happened to his small single-engine airplane: It slammed straight into a mountain on a cloudy day.