GENEVA - Switzerland's days as a safe haven for the world's tax evaders are numbered.

WASHINGTON - News that the Bush administration is considering taking ownership stakes in a number of U.S. banks helped restore a relative calm over global financial markets Thursday.

ASPEN, Colo. — An Aspen home owned by a woman accused of hiring a hit man to kill her ex-husband in Arizona has been sold for $4.4 million in a foreclosure auction.

NEW YORK - Wall Street began the second quarter with a big rally Tuesday as investors rushed back into stocks, optimistic that the worst of the credit crisis has passed and that the economy is faring better than expected. The Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 400 points, and all the major indexes were up more than 3 percent.

BANGKOK, Thailand - Asian stocks surged Wednesday as investors took heart from an overnight rally on Wall Street amid a growing belief that the worst of the credit crisis is over.

Mitt Romney would like the middle class to vote for him but, looking at his record, this would be a disaster for the middle class and all of America.

Pending home sales nationally rose 7.4 percent from July to August, an unexpected piece of positive news for the battered U.S. housing market.

PARIS - The idea is ambitious: World leaders joined by aides to the new U.S. president-elect would gather before the year's end in New York and attempt to forge a new vision for the global economy.

What's with Ann Romney addressing us as “You People?” On July 19, presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wife, Ann, while reinforcing her husband's refusal to make public several years of tax returns, told ABC News “we've given all YOU PEOPLE need to know” about the family's finances. She went on to further denigrate us people by stating that “You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he's been financially.” Duh ... That's why we are asking for full disclosure on his finances, Ann.

NEW YORK - The fear of the unknown that has rattled the stock market for months appears to be fading. The question now is whether upcoming corporate financial reports and readings on the housing market will further calm Wall Street's anxieties or rekindle them.

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BEIJING - Vice Premier Huang Ju, a key ally of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin who climbed the ranks of Shanghai politics to join the Communist Party's inner sanctum of power, died early Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. He was 68.

DAVOS, Switzerland - The Chinese and Russian prime ministers have obliquely criticized the United States for the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, citing the blinding drive for profit in the opening session of the World Economic Forum.

 "Man, a car blew up on my block last night. I got a best friend in jail. A grandmother who's sick. And the Suns lost last night. What have you people got to complain about?"

A five-star luxury hotel brand would be entering Arizona as part of the proposed $650 million Waterview project that would completely transform a downtown Scottsdale canal bank.

After playing a nearly flawless series and getting all the breaks to boot against the Cubs, Arizona was neither lucky nor good in the National League championship series opener.

NEW YORK - Code-makers could be on the verge of winning their ancient arms race with code-breakers.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rebels lobbed a grenade and fired on U.S. soldiers searching homes for insurgents in the northern city of Mosul on Monday, triggering a firefight that left three Iraqis dead and two U.S. soldiers wounded.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Rebels lobbed a grenade and fired on U.S. soldiers searching homes for insurgents in the northern city of Mosul on Monday, triggering a firefight that left three Iraqis dead and two U.S. soldiers wounded.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Barry Schoch’s cell phone comes to life with “When the Saints Go Marching In” — a reminder of the nine months he spent assessing damage from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.

In an era when reality television dominates the ratings and anyone can become a blog superstar, the line between celebrity and average Joe is nearly indistinguishable.

UNITED NATIONS - In a scathing final report documenting massive corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program, investigators Thursday accused more than 2,200 companies, and prominent politicians, of colluding with Saddam Hussein's regime to bilk the humanitarian operation of $1.8 billion.

NEW YORK - The physical and psychological damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is likely to reverberate across the global economy in ways that will curb growth well into 2006, economists say.