Economy...Big 3 back on Hill...Al-Qaida messge



UNDATED (AP) Stock prices have been fluctuating so far today.

Investors are digesting the latest economic news, including a 1 percent drop in the Consumer Price Index last month. Construction of new homes and apartments, meanwhile, fell to the slowest pace since 1959.

Washington (AP) Top executives of the Big 3 automakers are back on Capitol Hill today to appeal for a $25 billion loan to avert layoffs and plant closings. Despite their pleadings to the Senate yesterday, a car-company bailout appears to be stalling.

They'll make their case on the House side today.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Qaida has released a video that insults Barack Obama along both racial and political lines. Among other things, the terror group's second-ranking leader says Obama is the "opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X. He also uses a demeaning racial term to describe the president-elect.

NEW DELHI (AP) The Indian Navy says it's scored a victory against pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Officials say a warship sank a suspected pirate ship after the vessel opened fire. Meanwhile, the owners of a seized Saudi oil supertanker are negotiating for the release of the ship, anchored off Somalia.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Minnesota is launching its recount effort to learn the winner of the Senate race between incumbent Norm Coleman and challenger Al Franken. City and county workers at 107 sites will be checking about 2.9 million votes. In unofficial results Coleman led Franken by only 215 votes, which triggered an automatic recount. The workers have until Dec. 5.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 11-19-08 0943CST | save this article / add to your favorites list