WASHINGTON (AFP) - Wells Fargo announced a 15.1-billion-dollar bid for troubled banking rival Wachovia on Friday in an attempt to outflank Citigroup and its government-backed rescue plan.

THE HAGUE (AFP) - The Netherlands government nationalised the Dutch activities of embattled Belgian-Dutch banking group Fortis Friday in a 16.8 billion euro deal to ease pressures from the global financial crisis.

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday reaffirmed the Catholic Church's condemnation of artificial birth control, a position that has driven millions of people away from the faith.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Seven Russian soldiers were killed on Friday in an apparent car bomb attack in the Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia condemned by Moscow as an attempt to undermine the EU-Russia peace accord.

DENVER, Colorado (AFP) - Despite a gutsy debate performance by Republican VP pick Sarah Palin, she failed to turn the tide in the race for the White House, leaving John McCain struggling to revitalize his slipping bid, analysts said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush Friday signed an economic rescue bill just hours after the US House of Representatives reversed course and approved the historic 700-billion-dollar Wall Street bailout.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission unveiled Friday plans to extend minimum maternity leave in Europe by around a month, putting pressure on several EU nations to offer more support to working mothers.

Wachovia Corp. changed course on a buyout deal Friday, agreeing to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. in a $15.1 billion all-stock deal, reversing an earlier agreement to be acquired by Citigroup.

Lawmakers gave final approval to a $700 billion bailout plan Friday. The final vote, 263-171 in the House, capped weeks of tumult in Congress and on Wall Street.

Lt. Michael Pigott responded by ordering an officer to fire a stun gun at the man, who froze and plunged headfirst to his death in a scene that was captured on amateur video and replayed frequently on the Internet.

Diplomats said the government was exaggerating the envoys' role even though they agreed the election boss needed to go for mishandling the vote last December.

Twice a minister under Mr. Brown's predecessor Tony Blair, Mr. Mandelson will return to a strengthened government to help the prime minister deal with the fallout from the global credit crunch, the BBC reported.

The diary belonged to Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut and one of seven crew members killed when Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering the atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. Part of the restored diary will be displayed at the Israel Museum beginning

The doctors say there are signs and symptoms of rape," said police inspector K.N. Rao. He said he had not read the entire medical report and did not provide further details about it.

But Syrian officials said Friday that military sites would remain off limits to inspectors, something that could possibly hamper such an investigation.

Russia's Defence Ministry described the blast as a "terrorist act" aimed at undermining international efforts to restore peace in the region, scene of a five-day war between Tbilisi and Moscow in August.

The move will allow preparations to go ahead for the first such elections in four years.

The Food and Drug Administration said its safety experts have concluded that eating a minuscule amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food every day that was tainted

Fourteen other people were injured when the bomb went off near the busy Sayyida Zainab district. There is a mosque in the area that is visited by Shia pilgrims, many of whom travel to Syria from Iran.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opened fire on security forces Tuesday (September 30th) in the Hani district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakir. On its website Wednesday, the Turkish General Staff said the fighting