Reuters - The bleak outlook for the U.S. economy and the worst credit crunch in decades are pushing many stressed-out consumers to learn some new skills -- budgeting and saving.

The Christian Science Monitor - The dramatic changes in the US financial system – the debt write-downs and consolidation of corporate balance sheets – are now mirrored at kitchen tables around the United States.

Reuters - The credit crisis has shattered U.S. consumers' faith in financial institutions, including a stunning loss of confidence in the Federal Reserve, and that is likely to trigger the biggest drop in consumer spending in more than three decades and a deep recession, according to a survey released on Friday.

Reuters - U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus said on Wednesday that negotiations with some members of the Taliban could provide a way to reduce violence in sections of Afghanistan gripped by an intensifying insurgency.

Reuters - The toll of Chinese children ill from toxic milk formula may have nearly doubled since the Health Ministry's last public count, local media reports show, but an official said on Wednesday the number of new cases was falling.

Reuters - Violence in Afghanistan will escalate in 2009 unless the United States and other countries move quickly to counter an intensifying Taliban insurgency with troops and assistance, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama praised his rival John McCain for trying to tone down the vitriol of the U.S. presidential race but pressed ahead on Saturday with an effort to cast the Republican as out of touch on the economy.

Reuters - The criminal underworld in the sun-baked Arizona capital of Phoenix has long enjoyed the hot money profits from illicit smuggling of drugs and people over the border from Mexico.

Reuters - Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for a decades-long career of peacemaking around the world from Namibia to Kosovo.

Reuters - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday abandoned the search for a coalition to take over from the current "orange" government, dissolved parliament and called an early election to the assembly.

Reuters - International investors counted the cost of their involvement with Iceland Friday after a meltdown in its banking system turned the country from a popular financial player to a pauper in just a few days.

Reuters - Americans may like to make fun of girls who are good at math, but this attitude is robbing the country of some of its best talent, researchers reported on Friday.

Reuters - Young Americans could turn out in record numbers in the November presidential election and all signs are that Democrat Barack Obama stands to benefit.

Reuters - The death of Austria's charismatic rightist politician Joerg Haider makes a reunification of the two far-right parties more likely, but they may struggle to keep rural and middle-class voters.