Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama intends to name a big-city schools chief, Chicago's Arne Duncan, to help fix the country's ailing schools as education secretary, people familiar with the decision said.

LONDON - Treating advanced prostate cancer with radiation and hormone-blocking drugs cut the death rate in half in a study of Scandinavian men, researchers report. In the United States, the combination has been standard care since the 1990s. But in Europe, many doctors have avoided the combo treatment and used hormone drugs alone, thinking the pair would be too harsh for most patients.

SAN FRANCISCO - Users of all current versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser might be vulnerable to having their computers hijacked because of a serious security hole in the software that had yet to be fixed Monday.

LOS ANGELES - Documents show Dennis Quaid and his wife have agreed to a a $750,000 settlement with a hospital that gave his newborn twins an overdose of blood thinner. A petition filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday shows the Quaids and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have agreed on the parents' damages, but can still pursue claims for their children.

PHILADELPHIA - Written off last month, the resurgent Philadelphia Eagles are making a strong playoff push. Donovan McNabb threw for 290 yards and two touchdowns, Asante Samuel scored on an interception return and the Eagles beat the struggling Cleveland Browns 30-10 on Monday night for their third straight victory.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois lawmakers approved an inquiry on Monday into whether Gov. Rod Blagojevich should be impeached in the wake of charges he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates closer to zero on Tuesday and point toward emergency tools it could deploy to end a year-long recession, with room to cut borrowing costs running out.

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Shock waves from Bernard Madoff's alleged fraud spread globally on Monday, as charities, wealthy individuals and banks disclosed losses from the prominent Wall Street trader's investment management business.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration could act as early as Wednesday to approve an automaker bailout from its bank rescue fund, with conditions likely to reflect at least those approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week, key lawmakers and other sources said on Monday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Insisting on the need to develop new forms of energy, U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday chose as his energy secretary a Nobel physics laureate who is a major promoter of alternative fuels.

PARIS (Reuters) - Explosives were found in a central Paris department store on Tuesday following a tip-off from a group demanding the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan, a spokesman at the Paris prosecutors' office said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, have cost $904 billion since 2001 and could top $1.7 trillion by 2018, even with big cuts in overseas troop deployments, a report said on Monday.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria has drafted a document defining the boundaries of the occupied Golan Heights and was waiting for an Israeli reply through Turkish mediators, sources familiar with the talks said this week.

LONDON (AFP) - Financial commentators let loose on the US financial system Tuesday as more firms announced losses in the suspected multi-billion-dollar swindle run by ex-Wall Street heavyweight Bernard Madoff.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AFP) - South Africa's former defence minister Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota was on Tuesday named president of a new political party that is largely made up of dissidents from the ruling ANC.

PARIS (AFP) - French police discovered five sticks of dynamite Tuesday in a Paris department store, forcing the evacuation of hordes of tourists and shoppers at the height of the Christmas shopping season.

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's new prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva began working on his cabinet line-up on Tuesday as hundreds of police stood guard against protests by angry supporters of the old government.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's embattled government claimed on Tuesday to be victim of a terror campaign after an assassination bid against the air force chief, as Western powers turned up the diplomatic heat on Robert Mugabe.

LONDON (AFP) - World stocks markets were mixed on Tuesday as investors awaited the outcome of a US Federal Reserve meeting that some analysts forecast would see interest rates cut close to zero.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Six southeast Asian nations signed trade agreements on Tuesday paving the way for a single market in the region, pressing on with the pacts despite the postponement of a key summit.