Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

BANGKOK, Thailand - Opponents and supporters of Thailand's government clashed with guns, knives and slingshots late Tuesday, in the latest sign that the country's long-running political crisis may be veering toward open violence in the streets.

SAN FRANCISCO - Blockbuster Inc. will start renting movies and television shows through a new gadget that may give consumers another reason to bypass the struggling video chain's 7,500 stores.

NEW YORK - Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity is losing his liberal half. Alan Colmes of the network's "Hannity & Colmes" said Monday that he'll be leaving the prime-time show after 12 years. He'll continue as a commentator on Fox programs, keep doing his radio show and is developing a weekend show at Fox.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - A British couple convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach had their prison sentences suspended by an appeals court on Tuesday in a case that exposed a cultural divide in this glitzy Gulf boomtown.

NEW ORLEANS - Drew Brees and Deuce McAllister gave Saints fans what they longed to see after 43 days away from the Louisiana Superdome. Brees threw for four scores, McAllister set a Saints record with his 54th career touchdown and New Orleans rolled to a 51-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has probably slipped into a recession that will last through the middle of 2009, and recovery will be slow as consumers cut spending to rebuild lost wealth, the OECD said on Tuesday.

SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) - Global miner BHP Billiton abandoned its hostile takeover bid for rival Rio Tinto, blaming sliding metals prices and the threat of global recession for scuppering the mega-merger.

(Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to announce on Tuesday the formation of a program to increase the availability of auto loans, student loans and credit cards, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

LONDON (Reuters) - Recession in Germany and a slowdown in China painted a bleak economic picture on Tuesday, a backdrop which top miner BHP Billiton cited in abandoning a $66 billion bid for Rio Tinto.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama promised on Monday to jolt the faltering U.S. economy with a costly stimulus package next year and introduced the team that will help him navigate the global financial crisis.

KABUL (Reuters) - British, Canadian and Dutch troops are doing their best to fight the Taliban in southern Afghanistan with limited resources, but with progress slow, the United States is considering a surge of its own firepower to tip the balance.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When pirates armed with little more than AK-47s and rope ladders seized a supertanker last week, they showed how simple it is to storm a ship -- a vulnerability that al Qaeda could exploit to attack the global economy.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's air force is fully capable of stopping missile strikes by pilotless U.S. drones but it is up to the government to decide whether to do that, the air force chief said on Tuesday.

PARIS (AFP) - The rich world is plunging into the worst economic downturn in decades, the OECD forecast on Tuesday, as governments scrambled to prepare their nations for soaring unemployment and recession.

BANGKOK (AFP) - Anti-government protesters blockading the Thai premier's temporary offices and Bangkok's main airport opened fire on rival activists Tuesday, wounding at least five people, police said.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel reacted on Tuesday to militant rocket fire by again sealing off the Gaza Strip, where officials said the territory's sole power plant was forced to shut down because of the crippling blockade.

DALLAS, Texas, (AFP) - The leaders of what was once the largest Muslim charity in the United States were found guilty of acting as a front for Palestinian militants in the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history.

SAINT PETERSBURG, (AFP) - Three people were killed on Tuesday, including a child, when a car blew up in a suspected grenade blast near a metro station in Saint Petersburg, local officials said.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton dropped its controversial hostile takeover bid for rival Rio Tinto on Tuesday because of the global economic crisis.

PARIS (AFP) - The world's biggest steelmaker ArcelorMittal said on Tuesday it would slash about 2,400 jobs at its factory in the US state of Indiana by mid-January because of a drop in orders.