Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - Sen. Ted Stevens gambled by asking for a speedy trial, betting a high-powered defense team, some sterling character witnesses and his unblemished record as Alaska's political patriarch would get him a pre-election acquittal on corruption charges. He lost, with a jury on Monday finding him guilty on seven counts of trying to hide more than $250,000 in free home renovations and other gifts from a wealthy oil contractor.

WASHINGTON - Two white supremacists allegedly plotted to go on a national killing spree, shooting and decapitating black people and ultimately targeting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, federal authorities said Monday.

CHICAGO - With two crime scenes, a suspect in custody and an outraged community, Chicago's top cop said he is confident investigators will find clues to solve the deaths of Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew.

NEW YORK - Leading Internet companies, long criticized by human rights groups for their business dealings in China, are agreeing to new guidelines that seek to limit what data they should share with authorities worldwide and when they should do so.

CHICAGO - Americans with diabetes nearly doubled their spending on drugs for the disease in just six years, with the bill last year climbing to an eye-popping $12.5 billion.

LONDON (Reuters) - Iceland raised interest rates by 6 percentage points to 18 percent on Tuesday, taking the opposite tack to most countries fighting a global financial crisis which the Bank of England said could cost $2.8 trillion.

NEW YORK/DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for roughly $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, two sources with direct knowledge of the talks said on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a 4-point national lead over Republican John McCain as they head into the final week of the presidential campaign, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday.

LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC ministers will take further steps to prop up the oil market and could call another meeting before the group's next scheduled talks in December, officials said on Tuesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's military threatened on Tuesday to use everything in its arsenal to reduce South Korea to rubble unless Seoul stops civic groups from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the communist state.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co and its biggest union have agreed a tentative deal to end the longest strike at the planemaker's plants for 13 years and halt revenue losses estimated at $100 million a day.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two white supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee over plans to go on a killing spree and eventually shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, court documents showed on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted of corruption on Monday, a verdict that could endanger the Republican's political future and help Democrats expand control of the Senate in the November 4 election.

ST DAVID'S, Pennsylvania (AFP) - The one week countdown to the most hardfought presidential election in history gets underway Tuesday with Barack Obama and John McCain vowing to fight to the finish for every last vote.

LONDON (AFP) - Global stock markets rallied on Tuesday as investors hunted for bargains after days of losses amid hopes of an end to the ongoing financial crisis, analysts said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US markets plunged just ahead of the close Monday as investors shrugged off the start of government capital injections into banks and the possibilities of more interest rate cuts in both the United States and Europe.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US forces in Iraq staged a "successful" raid into Syria against foreign fighters, an American official said on Monday, as a furious Damascus accused Washington of "terrorist aggression."

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan said Darfur rebels on Monday shot and killed five kidnapped Chinese oil workers and that two others escaped with gunshot wounds in the first deadly foreign hostage ordeal since the war began.

CHICAGO (AFP) - Desperate pleas for the safe return of starlet Jennifer Hudson's seven-year-old nephew ended in despair Monday when police found the boy's bullet-riddled body in an abandoned vehicle on Chicago's west side.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - Volkswagen shares soared Monday, helping German stocks into positive territory despite major losses on global markets, as investors cheered luxury automaker Porsche's increased holding in Europe's biggest car company.