Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The Zimbabwean government on Saturday accused the West of deliberately starting the country's cholera epidemic, stepping up a war of words with the regime's critics as the humanitarian crisis deepened.

WOODBURN, Ore. - A bomb exploded inside a bank here late Friday afternoon, killing a police officer who arrived to check on a suspicious object and seriously injuring two others.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - A former employee recently let go from his job opened fire at an office Christmas party Friday, killing one person, police said.

LOS ANGELES - A publicist says Tara Reid has checked herself into rehab. Jack Ketsoyan said Friday that the "American Pie" star went to the Promises Treatment Center. He did not specify what she was being treated for or when she entered the facility.

NEW YORK - Forty-two players lost their jobs, many let go by teams looking to cut costs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Friday it could be willing to provide emergency aid to the teetering U.S. auto industry, keeping open the prospects for a bailout the day after Congress failed to approve a deal.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named the head of New York's urban housing agency to run the Washington department that attempts to make housing affordable for all Americans and end lingering racial discrimination.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors scrambled to assess potential losses from an alleged $50 billion fraud by Bernard Madoff, a day after the arrest of the prominent Wall Street trader.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois' top legal officer went to the state supreme court on Friday to try to get scandal-plagued Gov. Rod Blagojevich temporarily removed from office.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has documents to prove the United States and Britain, the Islamic Republic's two Western arch foes, back a group that killed 16 abducted Iranian police officers, state radio reported on Saturday.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Wearing white T-shirts and holding flowers, small groups of Greeks gathered in central Athens on Saturday to honor a teenager whose killing by police a week ago triggered Greece's worst rioting in decades.

BALAD, Iraq (Reuters) - The top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Saturday that some U.S. troops may remain in Iraqi cities after next June, even though a U.S.-Iraq security pact calls for their withdrawal from urban areas by then.

FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Saturday to slow down disablement of its main nuclear plant after Washington said energy aid to the reclusive state had been suspended due to failed talks on verifying the North's operations.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Struggling US carmakers weighed their options Saturday after the White House said it could tap a 700-billion-dollar rescue package to save them from immediate collapse.

MANAMA (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Saturday that US adversaries would be "sorely mistaken" to test Barack Obama in the Gulf and called for regional pressure to change Iran's behaviour.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's ruling party said Saturday that it could call new elections if the opposition fails to support a proposed constitutional amendment meant to pave the way for a unity government.

KABUL (AFP) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a surprise trip to Afghanistan on Saturday, visiting troops battling Taliban militants in the south before heading to Kabul, an AFP correspondent travelling with him said.

ATHENS (AFP) - Five banks were attacked overnight in Athens, police said Saturday as youths prepared to assemble at the scene of a teen's killing by police one week ago.

FUKUOKA, Japan (AFP) - The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea pledged on Saturday to drum up funding to spare Asia the worst of the global financial crisis, vowing the region would help revive the world economy.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese auto giant Toyota is likely to suffer a 1.1 billion dollar loss for the second half of the current fiscal year due to a stronger yen and a global industry slump, news reports said Saturday.