Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

MELBOURNE, Australia - Serena Williams routed Dinara Safina 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to win the Australian Open for her 10th Grand Slam title and a return to the No. 1 ranking.

JUNEAU, Alaska - Driving home at night from her Capitol office, the leader of Alaska's House Democrats often passes the governor's white-columned mansion and wonders why more lights aren't on.

WASHINGTON - Responding to reports of shoddy sanitation practices and inspections, federal health officials have opened a criminal investigation into the Georgia peanut-processing plant at the center of the national salmonella outbreak.

MARION, Ky. - A crippling winter storm has plunged about a million customers into the dark from the Midwest to the East Coast, and thousands of people in ice-caked Kentucky have sought refuge in motels and shelters.

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears has obtained a restraining order against former pal Osama "Sam" Lutfi and one-time boyfriend Adnan Ghalib, court records show. Attorneys for Spears and her father, who is her legal conservator, received the order Friday. The documents state that Lutfi, Ghalib and attorney Jon Eardley have been trying to gain control of Spears' affairs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama promised on Saturday to help lower Americans' mortgage costs with a new plan, coming soon, that would revive the financial system and "get credit flowing again."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Protected by barbed wire and rings of police, Iraqis voted enthusiastically on Saturday in a provincial poll they hope will solidify the war-battered country's fragile security gains.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration is not likely to impose tougher restrictions on executive pay on most firms receiving aid under the government's $700 billion financial rescue program, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Wall Street suffers through its worst slump in memory, New York City risks tarnishing its image as the city that drives America.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party picked its first black chairman on Friday as it elected former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to rebuild the party after a string of devastating defeats.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Serena Williams stole the show on Saturday, sweeping her fourth Australian Open title and snatching the world number one ranking with a lopsided thrashing of Dinara Safina.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Allegations that the CIA station chief in Algiers drugged and raped Muslim women may hurt efforts by President Barack Obama to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world, Algerian dailies said Saturday.

KABUL (Reuters) - The United States must change its strategy in Afghanistan if it is to avoid a humanitarian crisis, with millions of Afghans struggling to survive and violence at its worst levels since 2001, an aid group said on Saturday.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqis are voting in provincial elections on Saturday that are seen as a crucial test for a nation struggling to emerge from years of sectarian strife and to strengthen its fledgling democracy.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged 1.5 trillion yen (17 billion dollars) in development aid to other Asian countries on Saturday for infrastructure projects that will help boost growth.

TEHRAN (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and top Iranian leaders on Saturday paid tribute to the man who led the ouster of the US-backed shah 30 years ago, saying the Islamic revolution was not limited to Iran.

COLOMBO (AFP) - Red Cross officials were on Saturday negotiating to evacuate more wounded from the conflict zone in Sri Lanka's embattled north as the island's military kept up its push to crush Tamil separatist rebels.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top pick for US President Barack Obama's cabinet failed to pay back taxes, which the White House on Friday downplayed as an oversight which since has been "fixed."

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Australia's second-largest city Melbourne was struggling to cope Saturday with a once-in-a-century heatwave that has claimed dozens of lives and sparked wildfires that have razed up to 20 homes.

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Hundreds of millions of mosquito nets and anti-malaria kits are to be distributed by 2010, officials behind a campaign to halt about one million malaria deaths a year said Saturday.