Reuters - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama welcomed a global cut in lending rates on Wednesday, keeping the focus of their bruising White House race on remedies for the ailing economy.

Reuters - Stocks rose on Wednesday as investors scoured for bargains after five straight sessions of losses, but trading was extremely volatile on fears the coordinated interest rate cuts by central banks around the world would not be enough to contain the credit crisis.

Reuters - Central banks around the world cut interest rates in unison on Wednesday, responding to a worldwide clamor for concerted action to contain the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

AP - Daisuke Matsuzaka has been picked by the Boston Red Sox to open the AL championship series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

AP - An attorney for Britney Spears has rejected a plea offer that would have placed her on a year's probation and forced her to pay a $150 fine in her misdemeanor driver's license case.

AP - Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, is taking on Apple Inc. with a touch-screen phone that puts a new twist on the technology.

AP - A German farmer who received the world's first complete double arm transplant is recovering well and able to perform some basic tasks, though doctors said Wednesday it still could take up to two years before he relearns how to use his hands.

AP - Two Americans and a U.S.-based Japanese scientist won the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for research on a glowing jellyfish protein that revolutionized the ability to study disease and normal development in living organisms.

AP - John McCain's proposal to buy up bad home mortgages would use nearly half the $700 billion from the recent Wall Street bailout package to assist Americans directly, instead of indirectly by rescuing the nation's financial markets.

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a second economic stimulus plan is needed now because of the faltering economy and she puts the price at $150 billion.

AP - The world economy will slow sharply this year and next, with the United States likely sliding into recession reflecting mounting damage from the most dangerous financial jolt in more than a half-century.

AP - Wall Street zigzagged Wednesday as an emergency interest rate cut failed to alleviate investors' fears that the paralysis in the credit markets will set off a global recession. The major indexes moved in and out of positive territory, with the Dow Jones industrials at times falling more than 200 points or rising more than 100.

AP - In a rare coordinated move, the Federal Reserve and other major central banks from around the world slashed interest rates Wednesday to prevent a mushrooming financial crisis from becoming a global economic meltdown.

AFP - Republican John McCain faced fierce pressure in Tuesday's second presidential debate to grab a lifeline for his sliding campaign in the increasingly nasty White House duel with Barack Obama.

AFP - The United States opened up a major new front in the battle against financial turmoil Tuesday, sucking up huge amounts of corporate debt as European governments staged new rescues and nationalisations.