Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - The nation is on track to build fewer homes this year than at any time since the end of World War II, adding to the woes of an economy that analysts said Friday has almost certainly entered a recession.

CHICAGO - The Nation of Islam, a secretive movement generally closed to outsiders, has planned a rare open-to-the public event at its Chicago-based headquarters in what the Minister Louis Farrakhan deemed a "new beginning" for the group.

DALLAS - Comedian and animal rights advocate Lily Tomlin says Jenny the elephant has worked 22 years for the Dallas Zoo and it's time for the aging pachyderm to retire.

NEW YORK - Barack Obama and John McCain will attend a New York cat show this weekend — Obama the Bombay cat and McCain the American Shorthair, that is.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The young, resilient Tampa Bay Rays are confident they have what it takes to close out Boston in the AL championship series.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President George W. Bush holds talks on Saturday with European leaders hoping to pave the way for an overhaul of the global financial regulatory system, amid growing evidence the world is sliding toward recession.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama holds a 4-point lead over Republican John McCain, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of followers of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr took to the streets on Saturday in a demonstration against a pact that would allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq for three more years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prosecutors have stepped up the investigation into the collapse of Lehman Brothers, with at least a dozen subpoenas being issued including one to the investment bank's chief executive, Richard Fuld, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for South Asia began a series of meetings with Pakistan's leaders on Saturday, with the U.S. ally facing a looming balance of payments crisis as well as rising Islamist militancy.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former U.S. first lady Nancy Reagan has been released from the hospital where she was treated after fracturing her pelvis in a fall and was expected to make a "full recovery," her spokeswoman said on Friday.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Omar lost hurricane strength on Friday, weakening to a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean and posing no threat to land after causing little damage this week in the northern Caribbean.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress has approved $5 million for an independent study of possible space-based missile defenses, a potential step toward a system once mocked as "Star Wars."

WASHINGTON (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for change in the global financial system before crisis talks with US counterpart George W. Bush outside Washington on Saturday amid more gloomy economic news.

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi lawmakers on Saturday to reject a planned US-Iraqi security deal as tens of thousands of his followers poured on to the streets of Baghdad in a massive anti-American protest.

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks hinge on control of the home affairs ministry, state media said on Saturday, as President Robert Mugabe and his rival asked neighbouring nations to help break their impasse.

KLAGENFURT, Austria (AFP) - Thousands of people were on Saturday gathering in the southern Austrian city of Klagenfurt for the funeral of far-right leader Joerg Haider, who died in a drunken road crash.

TOKYO (AFP) - The Tokyo International Film Festival opened Saturday with an environmental theme as filmmakers from around the world greeted Japanese movie fans on a ceremonial "green carpet."

MANILA (AFP) - Developed countries are obligated to help poorer nations cope with disasters that may be exacerbated by climate change, a UN-sponsored gathering of legislators in the Philippines said Saturday.

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea plans to provide an extra 30 billion dollars to help banks, businesses and the currency market caught up in the ongoing global credit crisis, according to a report released on Saturday.