Reuters - U.S. regulators sent a letter to American International Group Inc in March warning of its lack of transparency and ability to oversee its financial products, a top Democratic lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Reuters - The Bush administration will respond soon to a letter from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that said his state could need the federal government to buy $7 billion in notes because of a frozen municipal debt market, a White House official said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed legislation on Tuesday that would change the city's term-limits law and allow him to seek four more years in office to help New York cope with the sweeping economic crisis.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama has a narrow 3-point lead in the U.S. presidential race on Republican John McCain less than a month before the election, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.

Reuters - Britain's government is poised to announce a "comprehensive" rescue package for the banking system, the BBC reported on Tuesday, including the possibility of injecting capital into banks.

Reuters - Stocks slid on Tuesday as a sell-off in financial shares accelerated and fears mounted that the rapidly spreading credit crisis would drag the economy into recession.

Reuters - The Federal Reserve stepped forward as a commercial lender of last resort and signaled a readiness to cut interest rates as governments around the world scrambled to stem the global financial crisis and calls arose for concerted action.

Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday signaled a readiness to lower U.S. interest rates in a dramatic shift to support an economy battered by a financial crisis of "historic dimension."

AP - Alongside a photo spread that shows her in little more than a T-shirt, Halle Berry talks about being the sexiest woman alive, a title Esquire magazine gives her in its November issue.

AP - Hindu and Buddhist priests chanted sacred hymns and cascaded flowers and grains of rice over a 3-year-old girl who was appointed a living goddess in Nepal on Tuesday.

AP - Children under 4 should not be given over-the-counter cough and cold remedies, drug companies said Tuesday in a concession to pediatricians who doubt the drugs do much good and worry about risks.

AP - Former top executives of insurance giant American International Group Inc. were on the receiving end of a verbal smackdown Tuesday as a congressional panel probed the chain of events that forced the government to bail out the conglomerate.