AFP - Rebel leader Laurent Nkunda slammed the planned deployment of extra UN troops in Democratic Republic of Congo saying they could not usher in peace as he held his first rally in an eastern town he seized last month.

Reuters - South Korea made clear on Sunday it will not back down in mounting tensions with North Korea, which has threatened to shut their heavily armed border next week over what it sees as Seoul's antagonistic approach to relations.

AP - Make way for a Sooners surge. Sam Bradford and Oklahoma are on their way up in the national championship race, and Texas Tech sure came down with a mighty fall.

AP - The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator.

AP - Leaders who oversee half the world's economy pledged Saturday to avoid protectionism but shied away from any new proposals on the financial crisis because of somebody who wasn't there: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has chosen seasoned policymakers Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers as his two top economic lieutenants to direct the fight to rescue the economy and stem the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years.

AP - Spacewalking astronauts completed almost all of the greasy repairs on a gummed-up joint at the international space station on Saturday, leaving just a few chores behind for another day.

AP - Since the Nov. 4 election, investors have been abandoning stocks in a kind of slow-motion crash that experts say underlines just how anxious they are about what is likely to be a long and deep recession.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama, who is set to announce his economic team, promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create or save 2.5 million jobs by spending billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama will announce the leaders of his economic team Monday, naming Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council, transition officials said.

Reuters - Two shuttle Endeavour astronauts finished the longest of their planned spacewalks outside the orbiting International Space Station on Saturday, a nearly seven-hour effort aimed at cleaning and repairing a contaminated joint on the station's solar power array.

AFP - US President George W. Bush, bidding farewell to the international stage, offered a sweeping defense of free markets as leaders from across the Pacific rim vowed to resist protectionism.

Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Saturday he was crafting a two-year plan to fight an economic crisis of "historic proportions" and Chinese leader Hu Jintao said his country was ready to play a big role in the global effort.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush preached a message of "free markets, free trade and free people" on Saturday at his last international summit, pledging to use his remaining time in office to work toward a successful conclusion of a global trade deal.

Reuters - Iraq's defense minister on Saturday warned of the dangers of withdrawing U.S. forces before the end of 2011, a date set with Washington in a security pact opposed by some lawmakers.

AP - Michael Vick put family pets in rings with pit bulls and thought it was funny watching the trained killers injure or kill the helpless dogs, a witness told federal investigators during the dogfighting investigation that brought Vick down.

AP - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he would like to add significant U.S. forces to the war in Afghanistan before national elections scheduled for next year, and that grim depictions of backsliding in the seven-year-old war are "far too pessimistic."

AP - Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said Friday.

AP - Democratic leaders ordered Detroit's Big Three automakers Friday to submit what amounts to a detailed loan application to Congress so lawmakers can decide whether to give the beleaguered industry an emergency $25 billion lifeline.

AP - Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law Friday a bill adding a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law that allowed 35 children — including teenagers as old as 17 — to be abandoned at state hospitals. The law, approved hours earlier by the Legislature in a 45-3 vote, goes into effect Saturday, and makes Nebraska the 14th state with a 30-day age cap. It had been the only state with a safe-haven law without an age limit.

Reuters - The board of directors of embattled U.S. automaker General Motors Corp is considering "all options" including bankruptcy, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's website late on Friday.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama intends to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as his treasury secretary to confront the nation's intense economic turmoil, senior Democratic officials said Friday.