Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

BAGHDAD - Iraq's ruling Shiite and Kurdish blocs made a key concession Wednesday to Sunni Arab legislators in hopes of securing a big majority in a crucial parliamentary vote later in the day on a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, officials said.

Traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been detected in samples of top-selling U.S. infant formula, but federal regulators insist the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration said last month it was unable to identify any melamine exposure level as safe for infants, but a top official said it would be a "dangerous overreaction" for parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it.

LOS ANGELES - Brooke Burke waltzed away with the mirror ball trophy on the "Dancing with the Stars" finale.

TOKYO - Puzzled Japanese zookeepers have cleared up a mystery over a lack of chemistry between a couple of polar bears as both turn out to be female, a Japanese zoo said Wednesday.

CLEVELAND - Browns quarterback Brady Quinn will miss the remainder of Cleveland's season with a broken right index finger he made worse by playing on Sunday, according to several reports.

LONDON (Reuters) - Massive stimulus plans to drive the world out of recession took center stage on Wednesday with the European Union considering a 200 billion euro boost and China announcing its biggest interest rate cut in 11 years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker will chair a new economic advisory panel created by President-elect Barack Obama and designed to stabilize financial markets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC ministers will debate a deep cut in oil supply when they meet this weekend in Cairo for urgent talks aimed at arresting a downward price spiral that sucked oil below $50 a barrel.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament was likely to approve on Wednesday a pact that sets a date for U.S. military forces to withdraw, but could make the agreement dependent on a public referendum next year, lawmakers said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's army chief told the government on Wednesday to step down and call a snap election as a way out of a deepening political crisis, but the government and protesters rejected the call.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have found trace amounts of the chemical melamine in one sample of infant formula sold in the United States, a Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 25 militants in a series of raids against Taliban commanders in Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean officials will clear out of an industrial enclave in North Korea on Friday, a few days before the communist state said it would clamp down on border crossings between the rivals, an official said on Wednesday.

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand's army chief stepped in Wednesday to end a spiralling political crisis, telling the prime minister to call new elections and ordering protesters to end their siege of Bangkok's main airport.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The EU was to call on members to spend their way out of recession on Wednesday as China cut its interest rates and the United States injected another 800 billion dollars into the economy.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi MPs are expected on Wednesday to endorse an historic military pact that will see all US troops withdraw by 2011, ending the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and plunged the country into chaos.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - China has postponed a summit with the European Union next week over a visit to Europe by the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A maritime watchdog said Wednesday that the vessel sunk by the Indian navy in the Gulf of Aden was a Thai fishing trawler and not a Somali pirate vessel as was first announced.

MOSCOW, (AFP) - Russia's upper house of parliament on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment extending presidential mandates from four to six years, Russian news agencies reported.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission proposed on Wednesday a sweeping stimulus package worth 200 billion euros (259 billion dollars) to jolt Europe's economy out of recession, EU sources said.