NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street and European stock markets soared Monday as investors cheered a massive bailout for US banking giant Citigroup and the prospect of more government money to ease the pain of recession.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two astronauts on the US space shuttle Endeavour Monday began a fourth and final spacewalk amid efforts to repair the International Space Station as NASA extended the mission by a day.

LONDON (AFP) - Britain unveiled a major economic stimulus package worth 20 billion pounds on Monday to reignite consumer spending and help the nation recover from a deep and painful recession expected next year.

CHICAGO (AFP) - President-elect Barack Obama Monday named some of "the best minds in America" headed by Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary to revive the stricken US economy through aggressive government intervention.

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korea reported Tuesday that its leader Kim Jong-Il has visited factories in the communist country, as rumours about his health persist.

The U.S. government has again bailed out Citigroup, unveiling a bold plan Sunday night to inject $20 billion in fresh capital into the troubled financial giant and shoulder most of the potential losses on $306 billion of high-risk assets.

Prospects for extending a federal rescue package to Detroit's Big Three automakers remain unclear after a congressional effort stalled until December. Paul Solman speaks with autoworkers about how the crisis is affecting them.

Three bombings struck Baghdad Monday morning in separate attacks that killed at least 20 people. The bombings came two days before a planned vote on a security pact that would allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three

President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his economic team Monday, nominating Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary and Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council. He also pressed the new Congress to pass another economic stimulus bill.

I will tell the Supreme Court to issue the death penalty to them," Mr. Karzai said. "I will hang them to death and the people of the world will watch."

Such a move, unprecedented for a president-elect, reflects the urgency of the crisis facing the United States, the global economy and the incoming administration. Since being elected, Mr. Obama has deferred to George W. Bush, saying there can only be

The economy is likely to get worse before it gets better," Mr. Obama said in a downbeat forecast, delivered 57 days before he takes the oath of office and with Americans heading into the year-end holiday season.

Delayed since recording began in 1994, Chinese Democracy hit stores in the U.S. on Sunday, although it is unlikely to be sold legally in China, where censors maintain tight control over films, music and publications.

A third attack on an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad killed two civilians, police said.

Mr. Bush said he approved the action, recommended by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, while flying back to Washington on Sunday evening from meetings in Peru with Pacific Rim leaders. He said he also spoke with President-elect Barack Obama on Monday

The U.S. is now a carceral state that imprisons eight to 12 times more people (2.5 million) per capita than the UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany or Japan," Lord Black, serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for defrauding millions from his

His lawyer, Ranatchai Chumthong, said Monday that Mr. Neil was sentenced Nov. 14 to five years for sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy. The verdict had been unreported because the court had told journalists an incorrect date for the hearing.

Shokoor Feroz and his brother Qaem Feroz were travelling with Ms. Fung on Oct. 12 when she was abducted. Afghan authorities imprisoned the two men during a wide-ranging sweep of potential suspects.

Osama bin Laden is no doubt feeling that his days of hiding may soon be coming to an abrubt end. Watching his al Qaeda leadership getting picked off by predator drones day after day, almost ...

MI6 has issued a global priority warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists are now closer to obtaining material to create a "dirty bomb" to launch against Western targets.Osama bin Laden has long made ...