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1. Stocks close sharply lower as investors¹ worry that the economy is poised² to weaken even as frozen credit markets slowly start to show signs of recovery. The Dow Jones Industrials ended down 515 points after being down nearly 700 points in the final half hour of trading.

2. A new poll suggests that Barack Obama and John McCain are in a tighter race. The Associated Press-GFK poll shows the two almost even among likely voters, with Obama at 44% and McCain at 43% among voters surveyed. Three weeks ago, the poll gave Obama a seven-point lead.

3. Officials at Western Kentucky University say they've sent text messages warning students to seek shelter after reports of shots fired on campus. A building on the university's south campus was evacuated³ after someone reported seeing people with weapons. But police haven't found any.

4. British billionaire Richard Branson is hoping to set a new trans-Atlantic record for a single-hulled sailboat. He and his children have left New York on a 99-foot ultra-modern racing⁵ yacht. He hopes to be in southwest England within six days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. hull⁴: n.

the main part of a ship that goes in the water.

2. ultra-: prefix⁶.

Ultra- is added to adjectives to form other adjectives that emphasize that something or someone has a quality to an extreme degree.