Since bankruptcy filings in the United States have grown by five times over the last 25 years, according to the Federal Reserve, ‘debt settlement’ has become the popular alternative. The question is: To negotiate one’s own settlement, or to seek professional debt settlement assistance?

This collection of digitized books and periodicals published in the U.S. during the 19th century includes 23 popular magazines and more than 1,500 books that illuminate themes central to American life from the 1840s to 1900. Topics include the Civil War, slavery and abolition, religion, education, self-help and self-improvement, travel and westward expansion, and poetry. (Library of Congress)

AP - It was a half-hour after practice and Willis McGahee was holding court with hundreds of fans packed against a rail a few feet above the sideline and yelling to get the running back's attention.

Since bankruptcy filings in the United States have grown by five times over the last 25 years, according to the Federal Reserve, ‘debt settlement’ has become the popular alternative. The question is: To negotiate one’s own settlement, or to seek professional debt settlement assistance?

AP - Political opponents of Hugo Chavez called off their primary election and joined forces Wednesday behind a popular state governor as their top choice to challenge the Venezuelan president in December.

Microsoft has released another round of software patches and updates, fixing critical flaws in both the Windows Operating System and its flagship Office Suite. Microsoft says the update addresses two flaws in the PowerPoint application, the presentation program popular among businesses and...

AP - Political opponents of Hugo Chavez called off their primary election and joined forces Wednesday behind a popular state governor as their top choice to challenge the Venezuelan president in December.

Macworld.com - Destineer’s MacSoft announced Wednesday that it will bring forth a Macintosh conversion of Age of Empires III, the popular real-time strategy game. The company expects to ship the Mac conversion by the end of September, 2006.

Popular Blackberry handheld turned into data thief by booby-trapped computer game.

AFP - Australian police have charged a 25-year-old man over the gang rape of a teenage girl in a public toilet at one of Sydney's most popular tourist sites.

AP - Matrix Partners is investing $13.2 million in Digium Inc., the creator and coordinator of Asterisk, a popular open-source software platform for business phone systems that's based on Linux and Internet Protocol.

AP - Segolene Royal is the darling of French polls: She's the left's most popular presidential candidate and the politician most people would like to invite along on vacation. A men's magazine even named her one of the sexiest women alive.

E! Online - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth movie based on J.K. Rowling's hugely popular fantasy series, will hit theaters just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 21, 2008, Warner Bros. has announced.

Arcade games that were popular during the 70' and 80's are going online as more gaming companies are now realizing there is profit in online gaming. The latest of these arcade games to go digital is "Pac-Man," the ghost chomping lovable creature....

The music industry has filed suit against popular peer-to-peer software company LimeWire. The coalition of record companies taking legal action includes Sony BMG, Virgin Records and Warner Bros. Records.

AFP - Google has announced deals to handle Internet search and advertising at the popular social networking website MySpace and to distribute ad-laced MTV videos.

AP - Google Inc. reached a deal Monday with the owner of MySpace.com to pay at least $900 million in shared advertising revenue and become the exclusive search provider for the popular online hangout.

AP - Google Inc. will be the exclusive search provider for News Corp.'s Web sites, including the popular social networking site MySpace.com, with the Web's leading search engine sharing at least $900 million in advertising revenue over three years.

EA is shutting down online servers for many old versions of its popular sports games such as Fifa.

AP - Four "Desperate Housewives" and their fellow cast members gathered on Wisteria Lane to celebrate something that fans, critics and Emmy voters had dubbed something of a disappointment: the second season of the popular ABC series.