Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - Amid heavy anticipation of Barack Obama's swearing-in as president, crowds are forming on streets and near the National Mall to watch network and local television anchors talk up the story of the young new year.

NEW YORK - The "black box" recorders recovered from the US Airways jetliner that splashed down in the Hudson River captured thumping sounds, the sudden loss of engine power and the pilot's calm "Mayday" call, evidence that seems to back up the crew's account of hitting a flock of birds shortly after takeoff.

KIEV, Ukraine - The Ukrainian prime minister headed to Moscow on Monday as Russia and Ukraine prepared to sign a deal ending a contentious dispute that cut off Russian natural gas shipments to Europe for nearly two weeks.

LOS ANGELES - Bob May, who donned The Robot's suit in the hit 1960s television show "Lost in Space," has died. He was 69.

FLINT, Mich. - The state of Michigan is giving a father a choice: pay the medical cost of his daughter's birth or marry the girl's mother.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama approached his inauguration as the 44th U.S. president with a mix of solemnity and celebration on Sunday, laying a wreath at a military grave and then swaying along at a concert featuring Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce.

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - Britain launched a second bank rescue plan and Royal Bank of Scotland recorded the biggest loss in UK corporate history Monday while a cut in Spain's credit rating caused fresh market wobbles.

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinians took stock Monday of the devastation from a three-week war in the Gaza Strip as a ceasefire took hold and Israeli forces pressed on with their gradual withdrawal from the Hamas-ruled territory.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Nariman Mostafavi says many Iranian students no longer hold the fierce anti-American views that drove their predecessors to seize the U.S. embassy in 1979.

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine aim to sign an agreement on Monday to restart gas flows after finally agreeing a price for 2009, potentially ending a dispute that has severed supplies to a freezing Europe for nearly two weeks.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Editorial writers around the world have been taking their final printed whacks at George W. Bush, accusing the president of tarnishing America's standing with what many saw as arrogant and incompetent leadership.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The new board of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd is looking to appoint up to three investment banks to explore the possibility of finding a buyer for the Indian outsourcer, the Economic Times reported on Monday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - North Korea says it has "weaponized" enough plutonium for four to five nuclear weapons, a U.S. expert said on Saturday after talks in Pyongyang.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - A tenuous ceasefire held Monday in Gaza, where Palestinians dug out from the rubble and Hamas put on a show of defiance vowing to fight on after the Jewish state's deadliest war on the strip.

HARARE (AFP) - A regional bid to resolve Zimbabwe's unity government deadlock was underway Monday as rivals President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai entered crunch talks with southern African mediators.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain on Monday unveiled an insurance scheme to protect banks from so-called toxic assets, in a second multi-billion pound rescue package seeking to boost lending by banks crippled by the credit crisis.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Tomlinson's Chargers future in doubt Barack Obama will pay homage to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King on Monday as he vows to revive the spirit of sacrifice to overcome war and economic crisis during his upcoming presidency.

LONDON (AFP) - British scientists will soon begin trialling a cutting-edge treatment using adult stem cells that could help cure certain types of blindness, they announced Monday.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU economy will shrink nearly 2.0 percent this year as a severe recession drives unemployment and government deficits to levels not seen for years, the European Commission forecast Monday.

LONDON, Jan 19, 2009 (AFP) - The world is at risk of a "damaging spiral" of de-globalisation if countries do not co-ordinate their responses to the worldwide economic downturn, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday.