Wells Fargo agrees to buy Wachovia, Citi objects

By SARA LEPRO NEW YORK – A battle broke out Friday for control of Wachovia, as Wells Fargo agreed to pay $14.8 billion for the struggling bank, while Citigroup and federal regulators insisted that Citi’s earlier and lower-priced takeover offer go forward. The surprise announcement that Wachovia Corp. agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo [...]

WTC owners rewrite expectations at ground zero

The owners of the World Trade Center site announced a delay in the completion of a multibillion-dollar transit hub Thursday but pledged to open a nearly finished Sept. 11 memorial by the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. They set no firm schedule for the completion of the entire site, which includes four office towers and [...]

From Auschwitz to Chicago, detailed Holocaust letters survive

CHICAGO (AP) — The faded papers hint at stark details in the lives of Nazi concentration camp inmates. Letters secretly carried by children through the sewers of Warsaw, Poland, during the 1944 uprising. A 1933 card from a Dachau camp commander outlining strict rules for prisoner mail. A 1943 letter from a young man, who spent [...]

U.S. lawmakers seem near deal on bailout

WASHINGTON: Lawmakers indicated Thursday that they were close to hashing out an agreement on a proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial system, hours before a high-stakes meeting at the White House to finalize the deal. Article Images Article After congressional staff members worked through the night to hammer out the details of the remarkable rescue effort, Senate and House [...]

Conn. Democrats to debate censuring Lieberman

By SUSAN HAIGH, AP Political Writer HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut Democrats are considering whether to ask Sen. Joe Lieberman to leave the party for speaking at the Republicans’ convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain. The party scheduled a debate Wednesday night on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask the veteran politician to [...]

Ga. officer’s family angered by execution delay

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer ATLANTA - After a Georgia inmate convicted of murdering a police officer was spared from execution a second time, the condemned man’s widely publicized supporters erupted in joy. But far from television cameras, the victim’s family seethed. “My son is dead. Theirs is still alive,” said Anneliese MacPhail, the officer’s [...]

Housing costs gobbling up paychecks

MIAMI, Florida (AP) — Al Ray is so strapped for cash, the only time he eats out is Wednesday or Sunday, when the local McDonald’s sells hamburgers for 49 cents. Ray lost his engineering job in November and has been working as high school tutor, scratching out about $1,000 a month — if he’s lucky. [...]

Makeshift services bring comfort to Texas coast

By ANGELA K. BROWN and CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writers ANAHUAC, Texas - Wearing jeans and rubber boots, clutching Bibles and weeping between hymns, residents of the storm-shattered Texas coast comforted each other Sunday at makeshift church services that provided more than a respite from Hurricane Ike cleanup. About 50 people came together on a basketball court [...]

Bush defends US debt rescue plan - BBC

US President George W Bush has defended a rescue package to tackle the worst financial markets crisis for decades. The cost to taxpayers from shoring up markets was better than the alternative of job losses and blighted retirement accounts, he said in a radio address. The US Treasury is proposing a fund worth up to $800bn (£440bn) [...]

Galveston lays out plan for residents’ return

By JUAN A. LOZANO and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN, Associated Press Writers GALVESTON, Texas - Authorities laid out a plan Friday — a week after Hurricane Ike began lashing the Texas coast with 110-mph winds and relentless storm surge — to let about 45,000 anxious evacuees back onto Galveston Island for good. It will be another week before that [...]

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