This April 2007 photo shows Mikhail Kovalchuk (R), director of Kurchatov Institute Nuclear Research Center, talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin (2L) during a visit to the Cinchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology Center in Moscow.

WASHINGTON — While all eyes Thursday were on Wall Street's plunge, its effects are being felt across America as the snowballing financial crisis sends an already weak economy into an accelerating decline.

North Korea is giving its showcase capital city a facelift — resurrecting construction of a behemoth of a hotel that sat idle for years, remodeling some of Pyongyang's most famous sites and building new apartment complexes.

PITTSBURGH----Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation today announced it has been awarded an equipment contract with the Federal Aviation Administration projected to exceed $40 million over a 10-year period.

By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — Sixteen months after buying the former Specialty Filaments plant out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the Thomas Monahan Co. has resurrected the once-mighty bristle manufacturer and turned it into a productive business that cont