Michele Norris

The government said Friday the economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.2 percent. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department announced it is converting some preferred shares it owns in Citigroup to common stock, a move that helps stabilize the bank, but increases risks for taxpayers.

Rumors that some of the nation's biggest banks might have to be nationalized pushed the Dow Jones industrial average down. The market bounced back a bit after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration strongly believed in a privately held bank system.

Israel held elections Tuesday and preliminary results show both Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima's Tzipi Livni claiming victory. The results are a sign of the difficult coalition government talks to come.

Pat Quinn has been sworn in as Illinois' new governor, replacing Rod Blagojevich who was ousted on charges of abuse of power. Quinn is considered a reformer and a political maverick, an outsider even in his own party.

Hillary Clinton has taken charge at the U.S. State Department. The secretary of State named George Mitchell to be a special envoy to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke to be a representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US Airways CEO Douglas Parker offered few new details on flight 1549, which crashed into the Hudson River. All the passengers were declared safe, and many were able to walk away once they were rescued.

US Airways Flight 1549 went down in a relatively shallow portion of the Hudson River. The crash site was right next to the ferry boat terminal, and the vessels could be used in the rescue efforts. A witness said everyone got off the plane alive.

Last year, the popular, albeit unauthorized online version of Scrabble disappeared in a puff of lawsuits — leaving hundreds of thousands of word enthusiasts in the lurch. Now, the creators of Scrabulous have quietly relaunched a new version of the game — but Scrabble guru Stefan Fatsis says it won't cut it for the purists.

President-elect Obama named former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to head the CIA and retired Adm. Dennis Blair to be national intelligence director.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce his picks for his energy and environment team at a Chicago news conference. Nobel laureate Steven Chu is expected to be Obama's energy secretary; Lisa Jackson is likely to be named the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.