Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

ATLANTA - The case against an alleged assisted suicide ring known as the Final Exit Network has revived a long-simmering debate over the right to die.

NEW YORK - Facebook is trying its hand at democracy. The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world's sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a "meaningful role" in deciding the site's policies and voting on changes.

LOS ANGELES - Nick Mitchell probably won't be having the last laugh on "American Idol." The outrageous 27-year-old sketch comedian, who performed as his over-the-top alter ego Norman Gentle, was one of nine semifinalists sent packing Thursday on the popular Fox singing competition.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Staff at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California say the trickster who flooded their offices with sea water was armed. Eight-armed, to be exact.

WASHINGTON - Moving swiftly in the first hours of free agency, the Washington Redskins opened their deep pockets and snagged perhaps the biggest name available: All-Pro defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government committed to holding up to 36 percent of Citigroup's common shares in a deal to bolster the fallen financial giant's capital base, and gave most of the bank's board their marching orders.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Six years after U.S.-led forces invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, President Barack Obama will announce on Friday the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces by August 2010, administration officials said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's top legal officer on Thursday demanded Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis provide names of Merrill Lynch executives who received 2008 bonuses, and how much they got, before the bank's takeover of the firm in January.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI made the first arrest in the $8 billion Stanford Financial Group fraud investigation on Thursday, detaining chief investment officer Laura Pendergest-Holt on federal obstruction charges.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Many Americans applauded the spending plans and tax breaks set out in President Barack Obama's record budget, while others questioned the yawning deficit it would entail.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Friday that an apology by a traditionalist bishop who denied the Holocaust fell short of meeting the Holy See's demand for a full and public recanting of his position.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers drawing jobless aid jumped to a record high in mid-February, while the recession undercut demand for manufactured goods last month and sent new homes sales to their lowest since 1963.

WASHINGTON/MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. criminal charges were filed on Thursday against Ali al-Marri, a suspected al Qaeda "sleeper" agent held for 5 1/2 years at a military prison in South Carolina, sources involved in the case said.

DHAKA (AFP) - Security forces in Bangladesh on Friday uncovered at least 38 bodies of murdered army officers in one grave as the death toll following a deadly mutiny in the capital rose.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - All US combat troops will leave Iraq by August next year and a full withdrawal will be completed by the end of 2011 under a strategy to be laid out Friday by President Barack Obama, top officials said.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's factory output has dived, car production has plunged and more workers are hitting the streets, data showed Friday, highlighting the global downturn's grim toll on the world's number two economy.

BEIJING (AFP) - China has called on the United States to ease military tensions between the global powers, as the two sides resumed defence talks here following a rift over planned US arms sales to Taiwan.

TEL AVIV (AFP) - Last-ditch efforts to form a broad-based Israeli coalition failed on Friday, paving the way for a rightist government and fuelling concerns about prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government will take a 25 billion dollar stake in troubled Citigroup, converting its preferential stock into ordinary shares, the Treasury Department said in a statement on Friday.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Lloyds Banking Group, 43-percent state owned after a bailout, said Friday its HBOS unit made a pre-tax loss of 10.8 billion pounds (12.1 billion euros, 15.4 billion dollars) in 2008.