Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

CHICAGO - The convicted felon suspected in the slayings of actress-singer Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew told police he is innocent but balked at taking a lie-detector test, a police official said.

SAN FRANCISCO - Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago.

CHICAGO - During the same weekend that county pathologists conducted autopsies on the bodies of actress-singer Jennifer Hudson's mother and brother, they also examined the bodies of six other people who'd been gunned down or beaten to death.

GOMA, Congo - The rebel general besieging Congo's eastern provincial capital said Thursday that he wants direct talks with the government about security and his objections to a $5 billion deal that gives China access to the region's mineral resources.

DETROIT - The city that used to burn on the night before Halloween as mischief-makers torched abandoned buildings has largely doused its Devil's Night by mobilizing tens of thousands of citizens and law-enforcement personnel each year to patrol city neighborhoods.

LONDON (Reuters) - Japan and Germany said on Thursday they would plow billions of dollars into their economies, hoping to provide a cushion against a deep recession and complement a series of expected interest rates cuts.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, its sharpest contraction in seven years as consumers cut spending and businesses reduced investment in the face of rising fears that recession was setting in.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has opened a 7-point lead over Republican rival John McCain with five days left in the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks and the euro rallied on Thursday, boosted by sweeping gains in emerging markets after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates and opened swap lines to four developing economies.

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Eleven bomb blasts in quick succession ripped through the main city of India's troubled northeastern Assam state and three other towns on Thursday, killing at least 56 people and wounding 342, police said.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Thousands of Syrians held a government-backed demonstration in Damascus on Thursday to protest against a U.S. military raid in the east of the country that has put a further strain on U.S.-Syrian ties.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the U.S. presidential election less than a week away, Democrat Barack Obama holds a steady lead over rival Republican John McCain in opinion polls, leading many pundits to say McCain is effectively finished.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Thursday for the first time that the Islamist group was holding political prisoners in the Gaza Strip and promised to release them as a goodwill gesture before Palestinian unity talks.

KABUL (AFP) - A suicide bomb exploded during a meeting in the information and culture ministry in the Afghan capital Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding several more, police said.

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama hit White House rival John McCain with a prime-time TV onslaught as he vied to clinch victories in battleground states in the climactic run-up to next Tuesday's vote.

LUSAKA, (AFP) - Zambians went to the polls on Thursday to elect a new president, with police and soldiers on alert for fear of violence after the opposition accused the government of planning to rig the outcome.

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - At least 30 people were killed and 100 injured Thursday in a dozen blasts that ripped through towns and markets in the insurgency-hit northeastern Indian state of Assam, police said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US space probe MESSENGER made its second successful fly-by of the year of the planet Mercury, revealing like never before 30 percent of the solar system's smallest planet, scientists announced on Thursday.

LONDON (AFP) - World stock markets raced upwards on Thursday, with Asian indices soaring by about 10 percent, as interest rate cuts sparked bargain hunting after months of misery over the global financial crisis.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German auto giant Volkswagen has resisted the current economic slump better than rival in the first nine months of 2008, and stood by its outlook for the full year, a statement said Thursday.