Washington, Mar. 21: Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, a mother to a child with Down''s Syndrome, has expressed her shock over President Obama’s comment about the Special Olympics on "The Tonight Show."

Obama joked his last bowling score was so low "it was like the Special Olympics, or something."

"I was shocked to learn of the comment made by President Obama about Special Olympics," Governor Palin said in statement released Friday.

Washington  - US stocks seesawed through most of Friday, with markets closing at their lowest in two weeks after analysts slashed earnings estimates for General Electric Co.

While GE dropped 5.8 per cent, financial shares tumbled Friday, with Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase among the losers.

Troubled insurer American International Group Inc dropped 22 per cent as several states began probing its bonuses.

Washington - With an eye to the nation's expanding waistlines and dwindling incomes, Michelle Obama is organizing a vegetable garden at the White House.

The spade was to be turned later Friday for the first such garden at the White House since the victory garden planted by Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II, media reports said.

Fifth graders from a local elementary school in Washington are to help plant, harvest and cook the vegetables, berries and herbs.

Washington - Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke Friday was optimistic about the market's responses to a series of crisis measures undertaken by the central bank to stem the financial crisis.

"So far, we have generally been encouraged by the market responses, including the decline in mortgage interest rates," Bernanke said in speech to community bankers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Washington - US auto suppliers could get up to 5 billion dollars in US government aid as they struggle to survive the recession.

The announcement on Thursday by the Treasury Department indicated that suppliers would get a guarantee that money owed them by the major car companies for products would be paid, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

Washington  - The final solar panel at the space station began unfurling, as planned, on Friday, the final event in the years- long expansion of the energy capacity of the orbiter.

The panel, installed Thursday during a spacewalk by astronauts from the Discovery shuttle, started unfolding at 1506 GMT.

"Everything looking good so far," said a NASA official in Houston in the live webcast on NASA TV. She said the process would take some time, and be halted midway to allow the device to "warm in the sun" - necessary to avoid sticking.