With a view to bolster domestic demand and help avert recession, China unveiled a 'massive' economic stimulus program worth over half a trillion dollars. The package, to be spent over two years, is valued at about 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion).

The announced sum represents about 16% of China's economic output last year, and is roughly equal to the total of all central and local government spending in 2006.

In his address to more than 1,000 followers, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Americans can expect a "new beginning" when Barack Obama officially takes over the White House.

The 90-minute address - called "America's New Beginning: President-elect Barack Obama" - was delivered on Sunday at Mosque Maryam, on Chicago city's South Side.

According to John Podesta, a leading member of Barack Obama's transition team, the incoming President would use special powers on stem cell and oil drilling policies, to force through rapid changes.

In an attempt to wipe away some hallmarks of the Bush years, including a ban on embryonic stem cell research and moves to open new lands to oil drilling, Obama will reverse executive orders pertaining to such issues.

A 38-year-old infertile woman from London is about to set a record by becoming the first woman to give birth following a full ovary transplant to result in a successful pregnancy.

The woman was declared sterile when her ovaries stopped producing hormones when she was 15 and went through menopause while still in her teens. In a revolutionary new procedure she became pregnant just over a year after receiving a donor ovary from her identical twin sister.

The Health Department has issued a statement regarding prevention from the highly contagious stomach flu that has spread in the New York City. Due to the flu, emergency room visits have increased nearly 20 % over the last two weeks, to about 400 people a day, with people complaining of vomiting and diarrhea.