Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

BAGHDAD - Three American soldiers were killed and nine others wounded Thursday in a bombing attack in Baghdad, the U.S. military said, in a burst of violence only weeks before American combat troops are due to leave Iraqi cities.

SURABAYA, Indonesia - Muslim clerics are seeking ways to regulate online behavior in Indonesia, saying the exploding popularity of social networking sites like Facebook could encourage illicit sex.

LOS ANGELES - Kris Allen beamed with disbelief, shook his head as if to reject that this was really happening and doubled over in shock. The fact that he'd just beaten rollicking vocal powerhouse Adam Lambert for the "American Idol" title wasn't going to sink in quickly for the unassuming underdog from Arkansas. The only downside to this stunning victory: He was going to have to sing "No Boundaries" one more time.

SALT LAKE CITY - Never mind the ick factor, a Utah boy is trying to get into the record books by covering his face with live snails. Eleven-year-old Fin Keheler, from Sandy, allowed 43 of the slimy mollusks to be put on his face Saturday. He wants the Guinness World Records to verify his effort.

HAMPTON, Va. - Suspended NFL player Michael Vick has arrived at his Virginia home a day after being released from a federal prison 1,200 miles away in Kansas.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Four men were arrested on Wednesday in a suspected plot to bomb a synagogue and Jewish community center in New York City and to shoot at military planes with stinger missiles, law enforcement officials said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday will outline his strategy for closing the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, hoping to defuse a revolt by lawmakers over the fate of an internationally reviled symbol of Bush-era detainee policy.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's allies promised $224 million in aid for about 1.5 million people displaced by an offensive against the Taliban after the government warned that the militants could exploit a failure to help.

LONDON (Reuters) - Ratings agency Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook on Britain to negative on Thursday, citing government debt that would be hard to rein in and political uncertainty about the policy response with an election looming.

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A bill that would have made New Hampshire the sixth state in the United States to authorize gay marriage stalled unexpectedly Wednesday over concessions to religious groups opposed to such unions.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hard-hit California faces new, deep cuts in education and thousands of state layoffs after voters soundly defeated ballot measures to bolster the state's finances, leaving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers with a budget gap of more than $21 billion.

YANGON (Reuters) - The American man at the center of the trial against Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said he swam to her house after having a vision that her life was in danger, Suu Kyi's lawyers said on Thursday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in Iraq on Thursday in separate attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk, security officials said, underscoring the fragility of Iraq's security gains.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Four men are expected to appear in a federal court Thursday to face charges linked with planning attacks against a Jewish synagogue and US warplanes based at a New York military base, prosecutors said.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq was engulfed on Thursday by a wave of violence, with suicide and bomb attacks killing 23 people a day after a massive blast devastated a Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood slaughtering 40 civilians.

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's military junta put the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi behind closed doors again Thursday, after allowing diplomats and journalists to attend the hearing for just one day.

CAIRO (AFP) - A Cairo court sentenced to death on Thursday an Egyptian tycoon and an ex-cop hitman for the murder last year of the businessman's former lover, Lebanese pop star Suzanne Tamim.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Higher levels of vitamin D, synthesized in the skin after being exposed to the sun and found in oily fish, are associated with increased brain power among middle-aged men, according to a new British study.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's Sony Corp., facing a second year of losses, said Thursday that it would cut its number of suppliers by more than half to reduce procurement cost by 5.3 billion dollars a year.

LONDON (AFP) - International ratings agency Standard and Poor's on Thursday downgraded its outlook on Britain's economy to "negative" from "stable" owing to the country's "deteriorating public finances."