While President-elect Barack Obama publicly sidelined himself during congressional debate over an auto industry bailout this week, he and his top aides quietly prodded congressional leaders to find a solution to rescue struggling automakers. Obama personally talked to congressional leaders, while his new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, and congressional liaison, Phil Schiliro, were routinely dialed into conference calls to discuss the status of negotiations.
The Golden State Warriors traded disgruntled forward Al Harrington to the Knicks for guard Jamal Crawford on Friday in a swap that addresses both the Warriors' injury problems and New York's salary cap concerns. "I drafted Al back in 1998, and I think his talents are a great fit for our style of play," Knicks president Donnie Walsh said in announcing the deal in a statement. "This trade also gives us more long-term flexibility while enabling us to remain competitive this season."
Germany is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity, security officials said Friday. Domestic intelligence services will continue to monitor the group, officials said. The German branch of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology has been under observation by domestic intelligence services for more than a decade. Top security officials asked state governments in December to begin gathering information on whether they had sufficient grounds to seek a ban.
Libya wants to open a new chapter in relations with the United States by investing some of its $100 billion sovereign wealth fund in U.S. companies and sending thousands of students to study in America, the son of Libya's leader said Friday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi also outlined plans for Libya to move from the one-man rule of his father, Moammar Gadhafi, to a constitutional democracy as part of the country's modernization process.
Wall Street staged a surprising comeback Friday, with the major indexes jumping more than 5 percent and the Dow Jones industrials surging nearly 500 points in a late afternoon rally, ending another volatile week that saw stocks reach six-year lows.
