Fed board member announces retirement

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Governor Edward W. Kelley Jr. said Wednesday he will step down from the Fed's seven-member board at the end of this month.

Kelley, who has served on the Fed's board of governors for 14 1/2 years, longer than any other current member, said in a letter to President Bush that his resignation would be effective on Dec. 31.

Cuban spy sentenced to life for deaths

MIAMI -- The leader of a Cuban spy ring was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for trying to infiltrate U.S. military bases and conspiring in the deaths of four Cuban-Americans whose private planes were shot down by Fidel Castro's government in 1996.

Gerardo Hernandez, 36, received the maximum sentence after a 20-minute speech in which he denounced his federal trial as a "propaganda show" and blamed his prosecution on political clout of Miami's Cuban exiles.

American Express plans to eliminate more jobs

NEW YORK -- Financial giant American Express, hit hard by the drop in travel following Sept. 11 attacks, will eliminate 5,500 to 6,500 jobs.

The company also warned Wednesday that its earnings in the October-December period were likely to be in a range of 34 cents to 36 cents per share, below the 40 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial-First Call. A year earlier, earnings were at 50 cents.

It said the job cuts would cost $240 million to $280 million in severance fees and other restructuring charges in the fourth quarter.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey to retire

WASHINGTON -- House Majority Leader Dick Armey announced his retirement in a floor speech Wednesday, saying the conservative causes he has championed have changed the world for the better.

"To my Republican colleagues, we should be proud of what we have done in our young majority," said Armey, R-Texas, citing "peace through strength and supply-side economics."

Armey's retirement plans, effective at the conclusion of his current two-year term, had been an open secret. Already, the GOP whip, Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, was at work lining up commitments to succeed Armey in 2003.

Spanish court slackens drunken rapist's sentence

MADRID, Spain -- Women's groups condemned Spain's justice system Wednesday after the Supreme Court reduced the sentence of a rapist because he was drunk, the latest in a string of rulings in which the aggressor's drinking and the victim's past were seen as mitigating factors.

On Monday, the high court quashed the sentence in the conviction of 18-year-old Marcos Gonzalez Rodriguez for raping a mentally retarded girl while two friends pinned her down.

--From wire reports