AP - Austrian politician Joerg Haider, whose far-right rhetoric at times sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and contemptuous of Jews — and at one point led to months of international isolation for the Alpine republic — died early Saturday in a car accident. He was 58.

Reuters - The U.S. government pushed on Saturday to finalize a plan to buy direct stakes in American banks as the International Monetary Fund warned markets could drop another 20 percent in a worst-case scenario.

AP - Jailed political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the Chicago real estate developer who helped launch Barack Obama on his political career, is whispering secrets to federal prosecutors about corruption in Illinois and the political fallout could be explosive.

AP - When Indonesia's health minister stopped sending bird flu viruses to a research laboratory in the U.S. for fear Washington could use them to make biological weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard.

AP - General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have held preliminary talks about a merger or an acquisition of Chrysler by GM, according to published reports.