San Francisco - The economy is in the doldrums, and shoppers everywhere are cutting back on spending. Yet in stores and web outlets selling video games, times have rarely been better.

Thanks to the spread of video games to older demographics, to the mature product cycle of all three leading game consoles, and to the incredible popularity of the sector-changing Nintendo Wii, the video game industry is bucking the recession.

Washington/Los Angeles  - Rescuers on Tuesday found the body of a child in the charred remains of a San Diego home and the F/A-18 fighter jet that crashed into it, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department said.

Spokesman Maurice Luque said that the Medical Examiner's Office was confirming the identity as the baby missing since Monday's fiery disaster, which killed four people on the ground, all members of one family.

Washington  - US lawmakers were making progress Tuesday toward a 15-billion-dollar bail-out for the US car industry, but some conservative legislators were still balking at the idea of the federal government rescuing a failing industry.

The package being considered is less than half the money that General Motors Corp, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co have sought from Congress. It contains a series of tough conditions including the creation of a White House "car czar" to oversee their restructuring.

New York - US stocks slid on Tuesday as companies cut their earnings forecast as consumers cut spending to cope with the recession.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 242.85 points, or 2.7 per cent, to 8,691.33. The broader Standard and Poor's 500 Index lost 21.03 points, or 2.3 per cent, to 888.67, while the technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 24.40, or 1.6 per cent, to 1,547.34.

New York  - A public opinion poll conducted in 25 countries showed "remarkable" support for the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years after it entered into effect, WorldPublicOpinion. org said Tuesday.

A majority of residents in all the countries polled, including those ruled by authoritarian regimes, endorsed the human rights of their citizens to have freedom opinion, including the right to criticize governments, to demonstrate peacefully and to have a media free of government control.

Washington  - US president-elect B