Reuters - Merrill Lynch & Co said on Friday that the majority of its best-performing financial advisors will join Bank of America Corp when that bank buys Merrill at the end of the year.

AP - The young prosecutor tapped to monitor the $700 billion financial rescue plan has brought down Colombian drug traffickers, gone after swindling corporate executives and now heads the mortgage fraud unit for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.

Reuters - President George W. Bush intends to nominate Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Barofsky to be the special inspector general for the Troubled Assets Relief Program at the Treasury Department, the White House said on Friday.

AP - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says a new plan could help 1.5 million American households avoid foreclosure.

AFP - Freddie Mac, one of the mortgage finance giants taken over by the government earlier this year, reported Friday a quarterly loss of 25.3 billion dollars as it asked for a fresh capital infusion.

AP - Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac is asking the government for $13.8 billion in aid after posting a $25.3 billion third-quarter loss and expects to receive the funding by the end of the month.