Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - Demand for big-ticket manufactured goods fell less than expected in March, raising hopes that the long slide in manufacturing is nearing an end.

SAN FRANCISCO - Hollywood calls it "rent, rip and return" and contends it's one of the biggest technological threats to the movie industry's annual $20 billion DVD market — software that allows you to copy a film without paying for it.

LONDON - Scientists have grown blood vessels for kidney patients from their own cells, making it easier and safer for them to use dialysis machines, a new study says.

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - Jay Leno checked into a hospital with an undisclosed illness Thursday and canceled the taping of the "Tonight" show, but was doing well and planned to return next week, his publicist and NBC said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Johan Franzen scored on a power play with 46.6 seconds left, giving the defending Stanley Cup champions Detroit Red Wings a 6-5 victory and a series sweep over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co posted a smaller-than-expected first-quarter loss and said it was on track to at least break even in 2011 and did not expect to seek U.S. government loans, sending its shares up more than 22 percent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Finance leaders meeting on Friday see some signs that recession-fighting efforts are finally starting to work, but patience is wearing thin over the slow progress in cleansing bank balance sheets.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea will put two U.S. journalists arrested last month on its border with China on trial to face criminal charges, its media said on Friday, ratcheting up tensions already raised by a defiant rocket launch.

BUNER, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani Taliban commander withdrew his fighters from a key northwestern valley on Friday, amid growing alarm in the United States that the Taliban were creeping closer to the capital of nuclear-armed Pakistan.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - In a second day of major bloodshed, two suicide bombers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up at the gates of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Baghdad on Friday, killing 60 people, Iraqi police said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An influential Iranian cleric urged the United States Friday to stop threatening Iran with more sanctions if it wanted to hold talks with the Islamic state over its disputed nuclear work.

ROME (Reuters) - U.S. and Russian negotiators held a "productive" initial round of talks in Rome aimed at securing a new treaty to curb nuclear weapons, they said on Friday, as part of a broader effort to improve relations.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) voiced concern on Friday at a confirmed outbreak of swine flu in the United States and what it called more than 800 human "influenza-like" cases in Mexico, including about 60 deaths.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two suicide attackers blew themselves up killing 55 people, including several Iranians, outside a shrine in Baghdad on Friday, the second deadly attack on religious pilgrims in two days.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Taliban fighters on Friday said they would withdraw from a Pakistan district where the government has deployed extra forces to stop hardliners advancing towards the capital, officials said.

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (AFP) - The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers is trapped in a small strip of jungle and intends to make a final stand with his surviving forces, an army commander said on Friday.

ROME (AFP) - Russian and US diplomats began talks Friday in Rome aimed at replacing a landmark Cold War-era nuclear arms control treaty, a US embassy spokeswoman said.

GENEVA (AFP) - A rare outbreak of human swine flu has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and spread to the United States where authorities are on alert, the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The finance chiefs of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries meet here Friday to try to fine-tune their responses to the global economic crisis after their crunch summit in London.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's recession-battered economy shrank at its fastest pace in almost 30 years in the first quarter of 2009, official data showed Friday, heaping fresh doubt on government hopes of a fast recovery.