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A dismal economy coupled with mounting federal debt and expected cuts to science and technology spending threaten to unseat the United States as the reigning superpower of the world.

LONDON - Oil prices tumbled to a one-year low below US$83 a barrel Friday in European trading as fears mounted that governments around the world would be unable to keep the ongoing financial crisis from causing a severe global economic downturn.

GENEVA - The U.N. health agency says it is investigating a mystery disease that killed three people in the South African city of Johannesburg.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Sammy, a Shetland sheepdog, wouldn't touch his food, retreating to a corner of the yard and devouring mouthfuls of dirt — behavioral oddities his owner later learned came from a lifetime of abuse as a "stud" in a large puppy mill.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks dove head first to five-year lows on Friday at the end of a brutal week as even the traditional safe-havens of gold and government bonds suffered as fear-stricken investors sought refuge in cash.

NEW YORK - Oil prices briefly plunged below $79 a barrel Friday, dropping to the lowest level in nearly 13 months as investors grow more pessimistic about the prospects for resolving a mushrooming global economic crisis.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - A man whose dog rescued him from a house fire in Trinidad said the animal died after running back into the burning building. Trinidad & Tobago Express newspaper quoted Anderson Marcano as saying that he woke up because the dog kept barking and tugging at his pants. Marcano said he smelled the smoke and was shocked to find his house on fire.

Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis III headed the Republicans' successful national House campaign efforts in the 2000 and 2002 election cycles as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). So it is a sign of the difficult straits that his party is in these days that Davis -- at a luncheon event Friday at which he paired off with the Democrats' current chief House campaign strategist -- said the Republicans appear certain to lose a sizable number of seats for the second consecutive election.

JERUSALEM - The head of an Israeli hospital where an Iranian boy is being treated for a brain tumor said Friday he hoped the gesture will help improve understanding between the bitterly divided countries.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many women don't know that obesity increases their risk of several types of cancer, a new survey published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology shows.

LOS ANGELES - A homeless man died after being doused with gasoline and set on fire on a street where he had lived for many years and was a familiar face to residents of Koreatown, police and local merchants said Friday.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An Alaska ethics inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper involved in a feud with her family, a report released on Friday said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Hundreds of mourners attended funerals Saturday for more than 30 anti-Taliban tribesmen killed in a brazen suicide attack in northwestern Pakistan.

NEW YORK (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.

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

LONDON (AFP) - Oil prices slumped Friday to one-year lows under 80 dollars per barrel, striking 75 dollars in London, amid a global equities meltdown that sparked fears over demand for energy, traders said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Retired US senator George Mitchell, who steered the tough negotiations that led to lasting peace in Northern Ireland, threw his support Thursday behind fellow Democrat Barack Obama in the US presidential race.

Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat  was "an Arab."

Sarah Palin violated the trust Alaskans placed in her as their governor in how she handled the events surrounding the firing of a state official who had refused to dismiss her ex-brother-in-law from his job as a state trooper, according to a legislative report released Friday night.

TOKYO - Japan is set to propose to the world's leading industrialized nations that a joint fund be set up to give emergency loans to nations hit by the growing financial crisis, the finance minister said Friday.