Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

KABUL - No one knows who brought the book to the mosque, or at least no one dares say. The pocket-size translation of the Quran has already landed six men in prison in Afghanistan and left two of them begging judges to spare their lives. They're accused of modifying the Quran and their fate could be decided Sunday in court.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.

NEW YORK - Television viewers who use antennas and were expecting a few more months to prepare for digital TV may not have much time left before their sets go dark: Many stations still plan to drop analog broadcasts in less than two weeks.

SANTA FE, N.M. - Fresh from the inauguration, actor Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor of New Mexico in 2010, when Democrat Bill Richardson's second term ends.

Michael Phelps' return to competition for the first time since the Beijing Olympics is on hold. The swimming superstar has been suspended for three months and had his training stipend revoked by USA Swimming.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. employers slashed 598,000 jobs in January, the deepest cut in payrolls in 34 years as the national unemployment rate shot up to 7.6 percent, according to a Labor Department report on Friday that underlined a deepening recession.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Democratic-led U.S. Senate will again try on Friday to pass a $937 billion economic stimulus package even as moderate lawmakers sought to broker a deal to trim proposed spending some criticized as too much.

TOKYO/PARIS (Reuters) - Toyota, the world's top carmaker, said its losses were ballooning as world car sales slid while truckmaker Volvo swung to a fourth quarter loss and Italy readied aid for the ailing industry.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department bank bailout program received the least value from its investments in the most troubled surviving institutions -- American International Group and Citigroup, a new report from a watchdog panel showed on Friday.

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan said on Friday its decision to shut a U.S. air base was final, dealing a blow to Washington's efforts to retain what has been an important staging post for U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Record-setting Olympic champion Michael Phelps has been banned for three months by USA Swimming amid controversy over a photograph published in a British newspaper purportedly showing him smoking marijuana.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu will go into Tuesday's Israeli election with centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni breathing down his neck and a far-right party siphoning votes from him, according to final opinion polls on Friday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has strongly urged the United States to withdraw its opposition to the release of evidence on the alleged torture of a former British Guantanamo Bay detainee.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Baghdad Friday that the United Nations is considering scrapping sanctions imposed on Iraq during Saddam Hussein's regime before the 2003 US-led invasion.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Barack Obama has fired a biting campaign-style attack on Republicans and the former Bush administration, seeking to drive his 900 billion dollar stimulus plan through Congress.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A Pakistani court on Friday declared nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan a free man, five years after he was effectively put under house arrest for allegedly operating a proliferation network.

BISHKEK (AFP) - Kyrgyz authorities are not engaged in negotiations with the United States over the future of an air base which Bishkek has ordered closed, the national security chief said on Friday.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lankan troops on Friday captured more Tamil Tiger bases, including a camp of the rebel leader's security unit, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon raised fresh concerns for civilians trapped in the war zone.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US unemployment surged in January to 7.6 percent, the highest since 1992, as 598,000 jobes were cut, the Labor Department reported Friday.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German industrial output fell much more than expected in December, economy ministry figures showed on Friday, while orders data a day earlier indicated the decline will persist well into 2009.