AP - Soldiers and families who deal with enough stress during 12-month deployment to Iraq say they're now keeping a little closer eye on their finances.

AP - Long-delayed plans to build office towers, transportation links and cultural spaces at the World Trade Center site is again getting new deadlines and price tags.

AP - A 7-year-old Texas boy found dead hanging from a hook in a school bathroom in February may have been playing a game called 'run and jump', according to a police report.

AP - Their paths crossed at Sunday dinner, a police officer and a man in the early stages of Alzheimer's, when the story of a girl's disappearance 40 years ago unfolded.

AP - An American member of al-Qaida pointed to economic troubles in the United States as proof that 'the enemies of Islam' face defeat, in an English-language video released Saturday.

AP - Authorities say five people died and dozens were injured after a Greyhound bus overturned in north-central California.

AP - Quintin Watts had a lengthy criminal record, a history of substance abuse and a string of motor vehicle offenses. Even his mother says he wasn't a good driver.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve led a coordinated round of global official rate cuts on Wednesday, easing by a half-point, as did the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Swiss, Canadian and Swedish banks. In an attempt to stem unprecedented global market turmoil, the Fed cut its key federal funds lending rate by half a percentage point to 1.5 percent and also lowered its discount rate by the same amount to 1.75 percent.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States signaled it could consider buying into debt-laden banks to try to restore confidence in the inter-bank lending market that remained paralyzed after an unprecedented coordinated global rate cut.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The United States is considering guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt and temporarily insuring all U.S. bank deposits, two dramatic steps to repair ailing financial markets, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.

AP - A decade after a gay college student was beaten, tied to a fence and left for dead, many in this small college town are still struggling with the aftermath of a crime that triggered nationwide sympathy and brought a re-examination of attitudes toward gays.

AP - The attorney for a Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague says his client is fighting extradition to the United States.

AP - A school bus driver and his nephew died when a fire ravaged their apartment, a day after the city's deadliest blaze in nearly two years killed a couple and three children.

AP - An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.

SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) - Recession fears returned to center stage on Wednesday after trillions of dollars pledged for bank bailouts from Europe to Asia helped allay fears of an imminent financial meltdown.

AP - A medical helicopter crashed in a Chicago suburb, killing four people, including a 13-month-old girl suffering seizures, authorities said early Thursday.

AP - A man who burned a cross in front of his home says he was arrested in a misunderstanding over his Halloween decorations.

AP - Pennsylvania's gun laws got tougher Friday as Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill increasing the mandatory sentence for anyone convicted of shooting a firearm at a police officer and for crimes committed with illegally purchased guns.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Gen. Colin Powell, a former secretary of state in the Bush administration, on Sunday endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

KABUL (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen killed a foreign woman working for an aid agency in the Afghan capital early on Monday, officials said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Japan and France offered a helping hand to their banks on Tuesday and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prepared to intervene in financial trouble spots in several corners of the globe.

AP - An undercover investigation in which federal agents infiltrated the notorious Mongols motorcycle gang has ended with dozens of members arrested in six states and prosecutors say it could herald the end of what they call a criminal group.

AP - Just weeks after Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared he wanted four more years in City Hall, the City Council is poised to vote on his proposal to change city law so he can run for a third consecutive term.

AP - San Francisco voters have rejected ballot measures to support a takeover of the city's privately run electrical system nearly a dozen times over the past century.

AP - The Southern California Regional Rail Authority has filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to determine whether its contractor can be held responsible for the deadly collision of one of its Metrolink commuter trains and a freight train.

AP - A gas leak ignited an explosion that destroyed a northern Ohio home while its owner was out running errands.

AP - There's no phone and no television. Only a screen offers privacy. But heart patient Edward Gray understands why the hospital put him in a cardiac unit hallway.

AP - In a rural Tennessee county where you can't buy alcohol or even find a Wal-Mart, residents of tiny Bells stopped each other to ask if anyone knew the pale-skinned young local accused of plotting to kill dozens of black people, including Barack Obama.

AP - Busted for what police said was a rock of cocaine on the driver's seat of his car, William Balfour could have been spending the past few months behind bars for a parole violation.

AP - As lawmakers prepare to tweak Nebraska's much-criticized safe-haven law that allows parents to abandon kids as old as 18, they'll find no nationwide consensus on what age limit should be written into such legislation.

AP - The custody case that swept 439 children from a polygamist sect's western Texas ranch into foster care has largely evaporated, with state authorities dropping all but a few dozen cases against parents.