Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

BAGHDAD - Iraq is willing to have the U.S. withdraw all its troops and assume security for the country before the end of 2011, the departure date agreed to by former President George W. Bush, the spokesman of the Iraqi prime minister said.

SAN FRANCISCO - In what promises to be a dismal year for tech spending, IBM Corp. packed a wallop of a surprise with its 2009 profit guidance: the numbers were so far ahead of Wall Street's forecast they were initially met with disbelief.

NEW YORK - In an inauguration defined by a sense of change, the experience of watching Barack Obama take office was fittingly revolutionary.

LOS ANGELES - Voters for 2008's worst movies love Mike Myers. They really love him. Myers' comedy flop "The Love Guru" led the field Wednesday for the Razzies with seven nominations, among them worst picture and worst-acting slots for Myers, Jessica Alba, Verne Troyer and Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Roger Federer and Marat Safin rolled to easy victories Wednesday against first-time opponents to reach the Australian Open's third round, where the familiarity factor will be much higher: They'll be playing each other.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama, fresh from the pageantry of his historic inauguration, will turn on Wednesday toward his goals of rescuing the economy, charting a new course for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and shaping his approach to the Middle East conflict.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel completed a troop pullout from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, starting its relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama by quitting Palestinian land devastated by its 22-day offensive.

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Hours after taking office on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered military prosecutors in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals to ask for a 120-day halt in all pending cases.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, though tarnished by disclosures of his failure to pay taxes, is likely too uniquely qualified for Congress to reject amid hopes to contain the worst economic downturn in decades.

(Reuters) - Frank DiPascali Jr, a key lieutenant of Bernard Madoff, is a potential point man in the investigation of the alleged fraud Madoff ran for decades, the Wall Street Journal said, citing a criminal complaint and people familiar with the matter.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said the automaker expected to receive a delayed U.S. government loan payment in the next several days that it needs to avoid running out of cash.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. General David Petraeus met Afghan President Hamid Karzai overnight, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, after the regional military chief said deals had been made on new transport routes into Afghanistan from Central Asia.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Many U.S. troops in Iraq were overjoyed to see President Barack Obama take his oath, but some were unhappy about one thing the Democrat has promised to do: permit gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Barack Obama Wednesday began the job of hauling his crisis-weary nation out of its "winter of hardship" by taking action to halt Guantanamo trials and convening top economic and foreign policy aides.

JERUSALEM (AFP) - The last Israeli soldier withdrew from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the fourth day of a ceasefire that ended a 22-day blitz on the Islamist Hamas movement in which 1,300 Palestinians were killed.

GUANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AFP) - Barack Obama ordered prosecutors to seek a suspension Wednesday of military trials at the Guantanamo "war on terror" prison camp in one of his first acts as new US president.

SHANGHAI (AFP) - US President Barack Obama's inauguration speech left China's state-run media scrambling on Wednesday, with many attempting to censor his references to communism and dissent.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A nasty worm has wriggled into millions of computers and continues to spread, leaving security experts wondering whether the attack is a harbinger of evil deeds to come.

LONDON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama faced plunging global stock markets on Wednesday, with the music barely faded from euphoric star-studded celebrations to greet his arrival in the White House.

MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Manchester United have begun looking for a new shirt sponsor and are confident they can improve on the current deal with troubled American insurer AIG, the club said on Wednesday.