Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

TOKYO - Japanese electronics company Pioneer Corp. will cut 10,000 jobs globally to cope with sinking sales of car audio equipment and flat-screen TVs. It will also withdraw from its money-losing plasma display business.

LOS ANGELES - ABC says Nicollette Sheridan is leaving "Desperate Housewives."

LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II is offering Internet-savvy subjects the option of applying for a job at her palace through her newly revamped Web site, royal officials said Thursday.

CHEBOYGAN, Mi. - Cheboygan County plans to fire its drain commissioner — at his request.

NEW ORLEANS - Paul Pierce more than made up for a thumb injury that sidelined Ray Allen and the foul trouble that limited Kevin Garnett. Pierce scored 30 points and the Boston Celtics spoiled Chris Paul's return from injury with an 89-77 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is poised to pass as early as Thursday a $789 billion package of tax cuts and spending programs aimed at reviving the staggering economy, a big, yet bittersweet victory for President Barack Obama.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Space officials in Russia and the United States were on Thursday tracking hundreds of pieces of debris that were spewed into space when a U.S. satellite collided with a defunct Russian military satellite.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan was holding in custody the ringleader and five other suspects in the conspiracy behind a militant attack that killed 179 people in Mumbai, the top Pakistani interior ministry official said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. home foreclosure filings in January decreased from December, an indication that an array of efforts to curb the process may be making an impact, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel planned to announce on Thursday the final results of its gridlocked election, after tallying soldiers' votes that could tip the balance in the battle to lead the country.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Hermit North Korea would upset regional security and face greater isolation if it launched a missile, South Korea's foreign minister said on Thursday amid reports the communist state was planning a rocket launch.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's parliament rejected the government's A$42 billion ($28 billion) stimulus plan on Thursday, dealing a major blow to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and delaying cash payments to millions of workers and families.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street bank executives squirmed under a public scolding in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday over how they used $176 billion in bailout money without noticeably improving the battered economy.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Islamabad on Thursday admitted for the first time that the Mumbai attacks, which killed 165 people, were planned partly in Pakistan and filed a case against eight suspects, six of them in custody.

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI said on Thursday that it was "intolerable" to deny the Holocaust as he confronts controversy over a bishop who claimed Jews were not killed in the Nazi gas chambers.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US and Russian satellites crashed in space, the first known major accident of its kind, creating two clouds of debris that were being tracked by experts on Thursday.

ALEXANDRA, Australia (AFP) - Arsonists lit a wildfire that killed 21 people in Australia and are suspected of starting another that razed a whole town and may have left up to 100 dead, police said on Thursday.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu is running ahead of centrist Tzipi Livni in the battle for the Israeli helm after an election whose shift to the right raised concerns over the future of peace talks, observers said on Thursday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian lawmakers battled over a massive government stimulus package Thursday amid US calls for industrialised nations to take bold and immediate steps to revive the global economy.

SYDNEY (AFP) - China's state-owned aluminium firm Chinalco on Thursday unveiled Beijing's biggest investment ever in a foreign company, putting 19.5 billion dollars into troubled mining giant Rio Tinto.