AP - With economic damage expanding, the United States and global financial officials took steps Friday aimed at preventing a repeat of the financial meltdown that has imperiled the global economy.

Reuters - Global central banks are ready to take further steps to ease market tensions and bolster faltering economic growth, top policymakers said on Friday, as world leaders gathered for talks on the economic crisis.

AP - Consumers, taking a beating from the worst financial crisis in seven decades, cut back sharply on their spending in October, pushing retail sales down by a record amount.

AFP - Leaders from the world's biggest economic powers gathered in Washington on Friday for a crisis summit to recast the global financial order as recession spreads to a growing number of countries.

Reuters - Europe officially fell into recession on Friday and the U.S. economy suffered further blows as world leaders headed to Washington to address the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

AP - Wall Street retreated sharply from the previous session's big gains as investors absorbed another wave of downbeat economic news and took little comfort from hints from that another interest rate cut might be possible. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 270 points.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama will meet Monday with John McCain in talks that Obama's transition office said would focus on ways they can cooperate on an array of troublesome issues facing the country.

AP - The career of Ann E. Dunwoody ascended Friday from humble beginnings 33 years ago at Fort Sill, Okla., to a peak never before reached by a woman in the U.S. military: four-star general.

AP - A missile strike apparently by a U.S. drone hit a house in Pakistan's tribal region close to the Afghan border Friday, killing at least 12 people including several foreign militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

AP - Firefighters and a squadron of aircraft launched a desperate daylight attack Friday to push back a wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed at least 100 homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

Reuters - The federal agency that insures most U.S. bank deposits unveiled a plan to prevent about 1.5 million home mortgage foreclosures by promising to share any losses with mortgage companies that agree to refinance certain home loans.

AP - Thousands of hungry and homeless lined up for food Friday deep in rebel-held territory in eastern Congo as the U.N. began its first large-scale delivery in the area since fighting broke out in late October.