AP - Israel ordered a pause in its Gaza offensive for three hours Wednesday to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians, and the country's leaders debated whether to accept an international cease-fire plan or expand the assault against Hamas.

AP - To a public wary of government spending, President-elect Barack Obama is offering a salve with his massive economic stimulus package: the promise of long-term fiscal discipline.

AP - Senate Democrats are looking for ways to defuse the standoff that has denied Roland Burris the vacated Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama of Illinois, but maybe not much longer.

AP - "We have three foreigners, including women," the gunman said into the phone. The response was brutally simple: "Kill them." Gunshots then rang out inside the Mumbai hotel, followed by cheering that could be heard over the phone.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama's reported choice for surgeon general, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, could bring a dose of star power to a job that hasn't had that much clout in decades.

AP - Wall Street headed for a lower open Wednesday, sobered by aluminum producer Alcoa Inc.'s decision to slash jobs and production to navigate through the global downturn.

AP - The recession figures to tone down the flashiness of this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, but the lineup of innovative products likely will measure up to those of past years.

AP - Alyssa Milano is engaged to marry a Hollywood agent. Publicists for Milano said Tuesday that the actress accepted a marriage proposal on Dec. 18 from David Bugliari, an agent at Creative Artists Agency. The two have been dating for over a year. No wedding date has been set.

AP - The team that pushed around the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA finals now isn't even tough enough for the Charlotte Bobcats. And suddenly, the slumping Boston Celtics aren't scaring anyone.

Reuters - Israel and Hamas said they were temporarily holding their fire in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to ease the flow of humanitarian aid and both sides said they were studying an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.

Reuters - Investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud might begin recovering some of their funds as soon as next month, Securities Investor Protection Corp, President Stephen Harbeck told Bloomberg in an interview.

Reuters - The chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has said there will not be a war with India over November's militant attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, Der Spiegel reported. Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha told the German magazine in an interview terrorism, not India, was Pakistan's enemy, and he said he took orders from the civilian president.

Reuters - Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine shut down completely Wednesday, leaving growing numbers of European Union member states without Russian fuel in freezing mid-winter temperatures.

Reuters - Thousands of Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" marked 30 years Wednesday since the fall of Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist regime, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.

Reuters - Average rents for U.S. apartments fell in the fourth quarter, as a sharp economic downturn and rising unemployment left Americans unwilling to pay higher prices, according to data released on Wednesday.

Reuters - Germany posted its first rise in unemployment in almost three years on Wednesday, a day after the global economic downturn forced U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa to announce 15,000 job cuts and slash output.

Reuters - Alcoa Inc said on Tuesday it would slash more than 15,000 jobs, halve capital spending and sell four businesses as it reduces aluminum production in the face of the global economic downturn.

AFP - Israel, facing condemnation over the mounting death toll in its war on Hamas, ordered a temporary halt to bombing in part of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday so a humanitarian corridor can be created for the beleaguered population.

AFP - All deliveries of Russian gas through Ukraine were halted on Wednesday, officials from both sides said, amid growing prospects European consumers could suffer from the crisis amid freezing weather.