AP - John McCain assailed Barack Obama's character and campaign positions on taxes, abortion and more Wednesday night, hoping to transform their final presidential debate into a launching pad for a political comeback. "You didn't tell the American people the truth," he charged.

AP - The economy lurched deeper into the doldrums Wednesday and took the stock market down with it, sending the Dow Jones industrials to a staggering 733-point loss and erasing any hopes that the convulsions that have shaken Wall Street for a month were over.

Reuters - Gloomy economic data and warnings from the U.S. Federal Reserve that hard times were still to come wiped out two days of relative optimism about the credit crisis and sent markets into free-fall on Wednesday.

Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday gave a dour assessment of the U.S. economy, citing a "significant threat" from shuttered credit markets in remarks that indicated he was open to cutting interest rates further.