Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

NEW YORK - Wall Street appeared ready to extend its losses into a second day Tuesday as investors remained skittish ahead of Alcoa Inc.'s earnings report.

NEW YORK - A solution to the world's urban transportation problems could lie in two wheels not four, according to executives for General Motors Corp. and Segway Inc.

CHICAGO - A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age.

LOS ANGELES - Chris Brown pleaded not guilty Monday to threatening and assaulting his girlfriend, fellow music star Rihanna.

LOS ANGELES - Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson have split — for now. Lohan says that she and the 31-year-old Ronson, who announced they were a couple in September, are "taking a brief break so I can focus on myself."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans have grown more optimistic about the economy and the direction of the country since President Barack Obama took office in January, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll on Monday.

L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Italy rose to 207 on Tuesday and aftershocks hampered the race to dig possible survivors out of the debris.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States would trim missile-defense spending, cancel multibillion-dollar weapons programs but buy more arms for fighting insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, under a 2010 budget plan.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb killed nine people and wounded 20 in the Shi'ite Kadhimiya district of northwest Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, a day after seven car bombs killed 37 people across the Iraqi capital.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama met religious leaders in Istanbul on Tuesday as part of an effort to unite moderates of major faiths against extremism.

(Reuters) - About half a dozen investment managers have put forward bids, ranging between $400 million to $800 million, for troubled insurer American International Group's asset management business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan called for a strong response on Tuesday from the U.N. Security Council to North Korea's rocket launch, which analysts say was a test of a long-range ballistic missile, but Tokyo acknowledged that divisions remained.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Many Americans say they support the deepening U.S. commitment to the war in Afghanistan, as long as the focus is fighting terrorism, but they are wary of getting bogged down as in Iraq.

L'AQUILA, Italy (AFP) - Rescuers scrambled in the dark Tuesday to find survivors from a powerful earthquake in central Italy that killed at least 150 people as thousands of homeless sought shelter in hastily built tent cities.

ISTANBUL (AFP) - US President Barack Obama, seeking to boost ties with a key Muslim ally, touted Washington's strong ties with Turkey Monday and tread carefully on neighbouring Armenia's decades-old genocide claims.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A spate of bloody car bombings rocked mainly Shiite districts of Iraq's capital on Monday, killing at least 34 people in what the US military said appeared to be coordinated attacks by Al-Qaeda.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - South African prosecutors Monday dropped corruption charges against presidential frontrunner Jacob Zuma, ending an eight year legal battle with elections just weeks away.

PARIS (AFP) - In a world first, French surgeons replaced in a single operation the face and both hands of a man horribly disfigured by an accident, the hospital where the surgery took place announced Monday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve Monday announced a currency swap deal with the central banks of Britain, Japan and Switzerland as well as the European Central Bank aimed at helping US financial institutions.

NEW YORK (AFP) - US automaker Ford said Monday it had slashed 9.9 billion dollars from a debt pile of 25.8 billion dollars under what it called a "successful" debt restructuring exercise.