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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama made a last-minute personal appeal to Democrats to pass landmark health care legislation Saturday as the House voted to advance debate on a bill to expand coverage to millions of the uninsured.

BEIJING - China is offering to abolish import duties on some commodities from Africa and make sure Chinese exports to the continent are safe as part of a package to boost already thriving economic ties, China's commerce minister said in an article published Saturday.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to pass a proposed health care overhaul during a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Saturday and later told them: "Now is the time to finish the job."

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama still expects to have a health care overhaul bill to sign by year's end and plans to personally lobby for it in a visit to Capitol Hill on Saturday, the White House said.

NEW YORK - Oil prices tumbled Friday after the government said the U.S. unemployment rate topped 10 percent for the first time since 1983.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac , the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a "prolonged deterioration" in housing.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) on Friday said quarterly earnings tripled, as rising stock markets boosted its investment holdings and a quiet hurricane season contributed to higher insurance profit.

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. - Texas billionaire and two-time presidential candidate Ross Perot has pledged $6.1 million to a private foundation to pay for programs at the Army's Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

NEW YORK - Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers charged with lying to investors always were honest about the risks of investing in securities linked to the volatile subprime mortgage market, a defense lawyer told a jury on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As unemployment in the United States edges above 10 percent, anxious investors will look to earnings reports from major retailers for signs of life in the beaten-up consumer.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A top U.S. securities regulator said some funds may now view insider trading as a central tenet of their business models, rather than as a one-time opportunity for big rewards as sometimes happened in the 1980s.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said high unemployment rates show that economic recovery is still perilous and governments need to maintain stimulus as long as necessary to ensure sustained growth.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - Britain urged world governments on Saturday to consider a levy on banks to fund future bailouts, departing from long-held opposition, though there was little sign of the consensus needed to make it fly.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank regulators closed Gateway Bank of St. Louis, in St. Louis, Missouri, and Prosperan Bank, of Oakdale, Minnesota, on Friday, the 118th and 119th U.S. bank to fail this year.

WASHINGTON - Freddie Mac's losses narrowed to $6.3 billion in the third quarter, but the government-controlled mortgage finance company didn't need a federal cash infusion.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is expected to talk about the Fort Hood shootings and the double-digit unemployment figures at the White House later this morning.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama signed a $24 billion economic stimulus bill into law Friday, giving tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and additional jobless benefits to those idled by the business slump.

WASHINGTON - Just when it was beginning to look a little better, the economy relapsed Friday with a return to double-digit unemployment for only the second time since World War II and warnings that next year will be even worse than previously thought.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to 10.2 percent last month, a 26-1/2-year high, adding to pressure on the Obama administration to do more to tackle unemployment even as signs of recovery mount.

WASHINGTON - Missed out on Cash for Clunkers? Congress has another deal for you: Buy a home before May 1 and collect up to $6,500 from the government. If you're a first-time homebuyer, get up to $8,000.

BEIJING - China criticized Washington for imposing anti-dumping duties on Chinese-made steel pipes and launched a probe Friday of imported U.S. autos, adding to trade tensions two weeks before President Barack Obama visits Beijing.

SEBASTOPOL, Calif. - A surge in medical marijuana in California has left communities trying to regulate or ban the drug. This wine country town has welcomed a dispensary as a strong source of tax revenue during the recession.

WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae is asking for an additional $15 billion in government aid after posting another big loss in the third quarter as the taxpayer bill from the housing market bust keeps rising.

NEW YORK - Investors undaunted by a surprisingly weak jobs report found enough positive news to nudge stocks higher Friday.

LONDON - European stocks fell and Wall Street was expected to drop on the open Friday after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October, more than expected, as 190,000 jobs were cut.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fourteen people were charged with fraud and conspiracy in a dramatic widening of an insider trading scandal that has ensnared hedge fund managers, top Silicon Valley executives and a bevy of white-shoe advisers.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - General Motors Co said on Friday the head of its European operations, Carl-Peter Forster, is leaving, three days after the automaker's decision to scrap a planned sale of its Opel unit.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A Motorola Droid smart phone goes on sale Friday, joining the growing ranks of smart phones on the open-source operating system backed by Google.

WASHINGTON - A former top NASA official was sentenced Friday to three years probation, six months of electronic monitoring and a $2,500 fine for steering contract money to a private client.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AIG, the giant insurer bailed out by the U.S. government, posted its second straight quarterly profit, helped by recovery in the value of its investments, but its underlying business remained weak and its shares fell.