Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

NAIROBI, Kenya - The Seychelles Coast Guard says it has arrested nine suspected pirates believed to be behind the attempted hijacking of a luxury cruise liner over the weekend.

WASHINGTON - A budget pact reached on Capitol Hill would give an endorsement to President Barack Obama's agenda by his 100th day in office while putting off a series of difficult decisions on health care, global warming and taxes.

LOS ANGELES - Jay Leno bounced back from an illness, returning to "Tonight" with jokes about swine flu, the 103-degree fever that sent him to the hospital and the armed guard he said kept him company.

LOS ANGELES - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers are moving on in the NBA playoffs. With Bryant making everything from 3-pointers to a fadeaway jumper while falling on his backside, the Lakers ran away from the Utah Jazz on Monday night, winning 107-96 to finish the opening-round series in five games.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - New Zealand and Israel confirmed cases of swine flu on Tuesday, the latest countries hit by a new strain that has killed up to 149 people in Mexico and which threatens to become a pandemic.

NEW YORK/BANGALORE (Reuters) - U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department will on Tuesday tap a $50 billion housing rescue fund to pay off mortgage investors and reduce monthly payments for millions of borrowers, said a senior administration official.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan warned the Taliban on Tuesday it would expand a military offensive to Buner, a district around 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Islamabad, if the guerrillas did not withdraw from the area.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernard Madoff's market-making business was sold at an auction on Monday to Castor Pollux Securities LLC for up to $25.5 million, a fraction of what it was worth previously, as part of an increasingly contentious global effort to recover money for the swindler's defrauded customers.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - The U.N.'s aid chief told Sri Lanka's president on Tuesday of the world body's concern over casualties and humanitarian needs among civilians trapped in the last pocket of Tamil Tiger resistance to government forces.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission secured an emergency court order on Monday freezing the assets of California financier Danny Pang and two of his firms, accusing the Newport Beach resident of defrauding Asia-based investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Kate Harding has spent most of her life on one diet or another, losing weight but always gaining it back. Determined to improve her quality of life, she joined a fast-growing group of anti-dieting activists promoting overweight people's civil rights.

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - The swine flu crisis deepened on Tuesday with the death toll mounting above 150 in Mexico and at least 16 countries reporting confirmed or suspected infections.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka on Tuesday barred Sweden's foreign minister from entering the island on a humanitarian mission, as diplomatic tensions mounted over the conduct of the war on the Tamil Tigers.

ONNA, Italy (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday visited Onna, the village worst hit by the earthquake three weeks ago in central Italy, calling for the devastated region to be "reborn".

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) - Around 30,000 people in northwest Pakistan have been displaced by a military offensive to flush out Taliban militants, a provincial minister said Tuesday.

REYKJAVIK (AFP) - Tourists bundled up in heavy parkas board a whale-watching boat docked in Reykjavik's port, excited at the thought of glimpsing the mighty animal. Across the harbour, whalers prepare their ships for the hunting season.

LONDON (AFP) - British oil major BP on Tuesday reported a 62-percent slide in first-quarter net profits to 2.387 billion dollars (1.834 billion euros), as the price of crude halved.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, posted surprisingly strong results Tuesday, becoming the latest global bank to offer hope for a reversal of the financial crisis.

Alasay, Afghanistan - Deep in a mountain valley north of Kabul, Gulab Shah and his fellow insurgents were under siege. It was mid-March, and a French-led military offensive had been pounding their village night after night. A few of his comrades managed to escape into the surrounding mountains, but most were killed.