AP - Urgently shifting course, the Bush administration is abandoning the centerpiece of its massive $700 billion economic rescue plan and exploring new ways to shore up not only banks but credit-card, auto-loan and other huge nonbank businesses. Democrats are pressing hard to include a multibillion-dollar bailout for faltering automakers, too — over administration objections. Unimpressed by any of the talk on Wednesday, Wall Street dove ever lower.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday said she would consider serving in the Senate if God gave her the opportunity and Alaskans wanted her to take the job. Republican Sen. Ted Stevens holds a narrow lead in a race for his seat that is still undecided. About 90,000 votes were outstanding and a little more than half are being counted Wednesday, according to election officials.

AP - The Air Force general who runs the Pentagon's missile defense projects said Wednesday that American interests would be "severely hurt" if President-elect Obama decided to halt plans developed by the Bush administration to install missile interceptors in Eastern Europe.

AP - Same-sex couples exchanged vows Wednesday for the first time in Connecticut amid cheers and tears of joy, while gay activists planned protests across the country over the vote that took away their right to marry in California.

AP - Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 — an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast Web operation and database of supporters into a modern new tool to accomplish his goals in the White House. If it works, the new president could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favor his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.

AP - Lindsay Lohan referred to President-elect Barack Obama as the country's "first colored president" in an interview on "Access Hollywood." Describing her experience on Election Day, Lohan said: "It was really exciting. It's an amazing feeling. It's our first colored president."

AP - Joe Maddon had a good reason for interrupting his honeymoon. About an hour after he landed in Rome, the newly married Maddon easily won the American League Manager of the Year award Wednesday for guiding Tampa Bay from baseball's basement to the World Series in one astonishing season.

AP - An American man who suffered from AIDS appears to have been cured of the disease 20 months after receiving a targeted bone marrow transplant normally used to fight leukemia, his doctors said Wednesday.

Reuters - Gay and lesbian couples exchanged vows in Connecticut on Wednesday to cheers from smiling friends and proud relatives as the state became the nation's second to allow same-sex marriage.

AP - Despite Brett Favre and a three-game winning streak, the New York Jets don't have what it takes to finally get over the hump and pass the New England Patriots atop the AFC East. That's according to a pigskin-picking camel named Princess who is a perfect 10-0 so far this year in handicapping NFL games.

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system would cost the federal government $75 billion the first year but would provide health insurance for 95 percent of Americans, consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers said on Wednesday.

Reuters - The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday named an Islamic charity as a group aiding Hamas militants in the Middle East and prohibited Americans from dealing with the Union of Good organization.

Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday named a bipartisan duo of Washington veterans to meet foreign delegations at this weekend's global financial summit, opening communication between the next U.S. administration and its global counterparts.

AFP - Four Palestinian militants were killed and an Israeli soldier was wounded along the Gaza border on Wednesday in the latest flare-up to rattle a nearly five-month lull and imperil aid deliveries.

AFP - Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir on Wednesday called an immediate ceasefire in Darfur and a campaign to disarm feared militias in a speech dismissed by rebels as a propaganda stunt for the West.

Reuters - The White House on Wednesday said it would listen to ideas from Congress to help the ailing U.S. auto industry.

Reuters - House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought legislation on Tuesday to bail out failing automakers, saying she was confident an emergency measure would be approved next week.

Reuters - Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says she is not interested in running for the U.S. Senate and prefers her current position as governor of Alaska.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has put the "brutal" 2008 campaign behind her and has the next presidential race in her sights, with a flurry of national television interviews and a high-profile appearance at the Republican Governors Association meeting this week.

AP - President-elect Obama has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid he's not interested in seeing Democrats oust Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman from their ranks over his endorsement of Republican John McCain.

Reuters - The regulator for the two largest U.S. mortgage finance companies on Tuesday unveiled a plan that could cut payments for hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners to help reverse a wave of defaults threatening to swamp the economy.

Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama urged the Bush administration to back a second economic stimulus package and aid the ailing auto industry on Thursday, after fresh reports of economic weakness in China, Japan and Britain reinforced fears of a prolonged recession.

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for "emergency and limited financial assistance" for the battered auto industry on Tuesday and urged the outgoing Bush administration to join lawmakers in reaching a quick compromise.

AP - President Bush wistfully saluted the nation's veterans Tuesday as he prepares to hand two ongoing wars over to his successor, saying he'll "miss being the commander in chief of such a fabulous group."

AP - Tim Lincecum won the National League Cy Young Award by a comfortable margin Tuesday, taking home pitching's highest honor in his second major league season. The slender kid with the whirling windup joined Mike McCormick (1967) as the only San Francisco Giants pitchers to win a Cy Young.

AP - Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

AP - Jennifer Aniston says Angelina Jolie was out of line when she spilled details about her relationship with Brad Pitt while they were filming "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." In an interview in the December issue of Vogue, Aniston talks about the magazine's 2007 profile of Jolie, who talked about growing chummy with Pitt — then married to Aniston — while shooting the action film in 2004.

AP - The government and the mortgage industry are launching the most sweeping effort yet to help troubled homeowners by speeding up the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

AP - Police in said they arrested a Connecticut man after he tried to steal communion wafers during a church service. The Martin County Sheriff's Office said 33-year-old John Samuel Ricci, of Canton, was cornered by fellow churchgoers when he grabbed a handful of wafers from the priest during communion services Saturday.

Reuters - General Motors Corp shares plummeted to a 65-year low on Tuesday, extending recent steep declines on concerns the automaker might run desperately short of cash by early next year.

AFP - Government forces went on a rampage of looting and rape against civilians on Tuesday, the UN said, amid warnings of "humanitarian black holes" opening up in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Reuters - Oil prices fell 5 percent to $59 a barrel on Tuesday as the deepening global economic crisis dragged down markets and raised expectations of further slowdowns in energy demand.

AFP - Europe on Tuesday marked the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, with the handful of surviving veterans at the vanguard of commemorations for the fallen of "The War to End All Wars."

Reuters - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's stated readiness for dialogue with Iran without preconditions could make Tehran more forthcoming with his agency, the IAEA.

Reuters - Sunnis and Shi'ites made an emotional reach across the sectarian divide on Tuesday, reopening a Baghdad bridge between the two communities closed since a 2005 stampede, the deadliest incident of the war.

AP - All smiles and compliments, President-elect Obama and his wife, Michelle, called on President Bush and first lady Laura Bush Monday in a White House visit that was part political ritual, part practical introduction and a striking symbol of the historic transfer of power to come.

AP - President-elect Obama's advisers are crafting plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and prosecute terrorism suspects in the U.S., a plan that the Bush administration said Monday was easier said than done.