AP - The Pittsburgh Steelers finally won the kind of close game they've been losing at home all season.

AP - About 1,500 Boeing machinists went out on strike at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday after last minute talks broke down between their union and the company unit that operates the Delta rocket program.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian government warning about a possible 'terrorist threat' was prompted by fears that home-grown extremists were moving closer to attacks in Sydney and Melbourne, local media reported on Thursday.

AP - Merck & Co.'s victory in the nation's second Vioxx trial may lighten the company's litigation load as plaintiff lawyers shun weaker cases, but the legal saga over the withdrawn painkiller is far from over.

AP - The American military launched a major offensive near the Syrian border on Saturday aimed at destroying al-Qaida in Iraq's ability to smuggle in foreign fighters, money and equipment. The feared insurgent group warned foreign diplomats to flee Iraq after announcing it would kill two kidnapped Moroccans.

AP - The search for a death row inmate who walked unnoticed out of a Texas county jail become a nationwide manhunt Saturday as authorities investigated whether he had help making the brazen escape.

Reuters - Peru's disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori, wanted there on human rights abuse and corruption charges, was arrested during a surprise visit to Chile, Peru's foreign minister said late on Sunday.

AP - Australian authorities arrested 17 terror suspects on Tuesday — including a prominent radical Muslim cleric sympathetic to Osama bin Laden — and said they had foiled a major terror attack on the country by men committed to "violent jihad."

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was re-elected to a second term by a large margin on Tuesday after what is believed to be the most costly race in the city's history.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Elder statesman Shimon Peres lost the leadership of Israel's Labour Party on Thursday in an upset election victory for a trade union chief who vowed to end an alliance keeping Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in power.

AP - Most Americans say they aren't impressed by the ethics and honesty of the Bush administration, already under scrutiny for its justifications for an unpopular war in Iraq and its role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

AP - Adonal Foyle scored the go-ahead basket with 48.9 seconds left, then grabbed a crucial rebound on the other end, and the Golden State Warriors survived a frantic final minute to beat Brown's winless Knicks 86-84 on Friday night.

AP - Japan's space agency suffered another glitch in its mission to collect surface samples from an asteroid and return to Earth when a can-sized robot lander apparently became lost in space while attempting a practice touch down.

AP - Ben Roethlisberger missed a second straight game with an injured knee, though it hardly mattered to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Their other three quarterbacks were just fine. Charlie Batch improvised a 1-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter, and his passing led to another score before he left with a broken right hand. The Steelers withstood their second QB injury in three weeks to beat the rival Cleveland Browns 34-21 Sunday night.

AP - A powerful car bomb exploded outside the front entrance to a KFC restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi early Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, police said.

AP - An ambitious new Google Inc. service lets anyone upload most anything to a publicly searchable database, potentially laying the groundwork for a foray by the Internet juggernaut into classified advertising.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the sharpest White House attack yet on critics of the Iraq war, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that accusations the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the war were a 'dishonest and reprehensible' political ploy.

AP - The Senate passed a $60 billion bill early Friday that would extend expiring tax cuts and prevent roughly 14 million families from paying higher taxes through the alternative minimum tax.

BusinessWeek Online - Who will be the next President of Russia? Will he be pro-market or pro-state? A democrat or an authoritarian? And will his election be smooth or scandalous? Although the next presidential election isn't until March, 2008, when Vladimir V. Putin has promised to retire, there's only one major topic of political discussion in Russia these days. And there's one question above all others that interests Russians: Who will be picked as Putin's chosen successor?

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush pressed President Hu Jintao on Sunday to rein in China's swelling trade surplus and push forward currency reform after calling for greater religious freedom.

AP - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took back the initiative from the rejuvenated Labor Party, quitting the Likud Party he himself founded in 1973 and striking out on his own — a daring pre-emptive strike before elections set for days after his 78th birthday.

AP - Minnesota's offense isn't dead. With the steady hand of Brad Johnson, neither is the Vikings' season.

AP - A suicide car bomber killed 21 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday after insurgents lured police to the scene by shooting an officer, officials said. A mortar shell fired at a U.S. ceremony sent the U.S. ambassador and the top American commander scurrying for cover.

AP - For those who don't want to sit around all day on Thanksgiving devouring stuffing and turkey, there are plenty of alternatives for shoppers to get a heads up on their Christmas shopping.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An American expert on terrorism and Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia has been kicked out of Indonesia for the second year in a row, the analyst and a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

AP - Nine maximum security inmates escaped from a county jail Friday by climbing down a rope made of bed sheets, authorities said.

AP - Notre Dame needed every last yard and every defensive stop to become eligible for its first Bowl Championship Series berth in five years.

AP - Tornadoes and thunderstorms ripped through eastern Kansas and Arkansas on Sunday, killing a motorist and damaging homes and businesses in several counties.

DHAKA (Reuters) - Six people were killed and 65 wounded by suspected suicide bombings in two Bangladesh cities on Tuesday, apparently the latest in a wave of attacks by militants fighting to turn the country into a sharia-based Islamic state.

Reuters - President George W. Bush plans on Wednesday to try and counter criticism that he lacks a clear strategy on Iraq by focusing on the training of Iraqi forces to take over security so U.S. troops can eventually withdraw.