AP - Consumer prices plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline pump prices dropped by a record amount.

AP - Democrats familiar with President Barack Obama's vetting process for a new administration say former President Bill Clinton has offered several concessions to help Hillary Rodham Clinton become secretary of state.

AP - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri is criticizing Barack Obama in a new message, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

AP - Sen. Ted Stevens' election defeat marks the end of an era in which he held a commanding place in Alaska politics while wielding power on some of the most influential committees in Congress.

AP - The first black man elected U.S. president is poised to name Washington lawyer Eric Holder as the nation's first black attorney general — a historic appointment but one with some potential political problems over a 2001 pardon.

AP - Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.

AP - Cody Linley won't be graduating "Dancing with the Stars." The 18-year-old "Hannah Montana" actor and his professional partner, Julianne Hough, were eliminated Tuesday from ABC's popular dancing competition.

AP - Brian Scalabrine, in the starting lineup while Kevin Garnett served a one-game suspension, hit a 3-pointer with 1:14 left to help Boston recover after its 15-point, fourth-quarter lead was trimmed to four and the Celtics beat New York 110-101 on Tuesday night.

Reuters - China has told police to ensure stability as its economy slows, Japan's No.3 bank sought to beef up its depleted capital on Wednesday and markets fretted about the stricken U.S. car industry.

Reuters - World stocks and oil fell on Wednesday while government bonds and the yen gained as U.S. car makers begged for a bailout from Washington, adding to evidence that the credit crisis is hitting the real economy.

Reuters - An Indian warship destroyed a pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden and gunmen from Somalia seized two more vessels despite a large international naval presence off their lawless country.

Reuters - A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles at a house in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing five suspected militants, possibly including an Arab al Qaeda operative, intelligence officials said.

Reuters - The election of Barack Obama as U.S. president has given crucial impetus toward implementing the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty more than a decade after it was negotiated, pact officials said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Hundreds of Congolese rebel fighters pulled back on Wednesday from frontline positions in a move U.N. peacekeepers hoped would open the way for talks on ending weeks of conflict in east Congo.

Reuters - A proposal to extend the Russian president's term by two years moved closer to becoming law on Wednesday when the lower house of parliament approved it on its penultimate reading.

Reuters - Former Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian returned to jail on Wednesday from almost three days of hospital care following a hunger strike, as supporters prepared to protest his arrest, which they call a political plot.

AFP - An Indian warship destroyed a pirate "mother vessel" in the Gulf of Aden, the navy said Wednesday, as bandits demanded a ransom for a Saudi super-tanker seized in the most daring sea raid yet.

AFP - Germany was to extradite to France on Wednesday an old comrade-in-arms of Rwanda's president over an assassination that triggered 1994's genocide, sparking mass anti-European protests in Kigali.