AP - Prosecutors said Thursday that investigators found 100 signed checks worth $173 million in Bernard Madoffs office desk that he was ready to send out to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month.
Politico - Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes Caroline Kennedy is getting softer press treatment in her pursuit of the New York Senate seat than Palin did as the GOP vice presidential nominee because of Kennedy’s social class.
AP - President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress Thursday to work with him "day and night, on weekends if necessary" to approve the largest taxpayer-funded stimulus ever, warning in almost apocalyptic terms that a dire economic future was certain without it.
AP - President-elect Barack Obamas proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldnt do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obamas stimulus plan.
Reuters - Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.
AP - The leaders of France and Germany appeared to put disagreements over economic policy behind them Thursday, calling on the U.S. to join global efforts to address the financial crisis.
AP - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the European Union of moving too slowly to help negotiate an end to the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, as a deal to dispatch EU pipeline monitors appeared to unravel Thursday.
AP - The U.N. and the Red Cross curtailed aid shipments in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after accusing Israeli forces of firing on their drivers, killing one. The threat of a wider conflict arose when militants in Lebanon fired two rockets into northern Israel.
Reuters - Former Sen. Larry Craig has ended his effort to void the guilty plea he made following his 2007 arrest in a men's toilet sex-sting operation, his lawyer said on Thursday.
AP - Department-store operator Macys Inc. said Thursday it will close 11 underperforming stores in nine states — affecting 960 employees — and lowered its forecast for the fourth quarter after one of the weakest holiday seasons in years.
AP - Barack Obama is officially the next president of the United States, Congress declared Thursday in fulfilling its centuries-old constitutional duty to certify and tally the electoral college vote from each state.
AP - Retailers reported dismal sales figures for December on Thursday as even Wal-Mart Stores Inc., one of the bright spots in the industry, finally buckled under the pressures of the deteriorating economy.
AP - A federal judge has ordered the release of an Alabama sheriff he locked up after ruling that the sheriff purposely fed jail inmates skimpy meals so he could profit from state funds.
AP - A new international force to battle pirates off the Somali coast is being formed under American command in a bid to focus more military resources to protect one of the worlds key shipping lanes, the U.S. Navy said Thursday.
Reuters - U.S. scientists have found a way to levitate the very smallest objects using the strange forces of quantum mechanics, and said on Wednesday they might use it to help make tiny nanotechnology machines.
AP - A suicide bomber struck U.S. troops patrolling on foot in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least two soldiers and three civilians and wounding at least nine others, officials said.
AP - Residents of this northern Israeli town awoke Thursday to one of their countrys worst nightmares: Rockets from Lebanon, and the possibility of a second front in a battle that has raged for two weeks in Gaza.
