Actor Brad Pitt spoke to CNN’s Larry King on Wednesday about his latest movie, his wife and family and his efforts to help with the continuing Hurricane Katrina recovery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Here is a transcript:

If you are an urban woman of a certain age, chances are you’ve spent at least one afternoon in line at a sample sale. They are the end-of-season fashionista free-for-alls where designers try to clear their inventories with deep discounts. Sample sales are the way you get a Marc Jacobs handbag cheap, or perhaps a pair of Sergio Rossi pumps.

One in three toys tested was found to contain toxic chemicals such as lead, flame retardants and arsenic, according to a report issued Wednesday by an environmental group.

When stores report their November sales Thursday, analysts expect the scorecard will look pretty bleak once again.

The man’s remains lie on a table. Next to him are the bones of his 22-year-old son and the remains of another son. But no one yet knows which of the man’s two missing boys the third set of remains could be.

Doctors worry about the woman sitting on a bed inside the large tent, an IV in her arm. Chipo Matewe, 23, is eight months pregnant and stricken with cholera.

Oil prices fell to another 3-1/2 year low Wednesday, even after a government report showed a surprise decline in oil stockpiles last week.

Archaeologists in Russia have discovered an “extraordinary” group of Stone Age artworks which appear to have been carefully buried in pits and covered with mammoth bones, the researchers announced this week in a newly published paper.

A national poll finds that Americans think President-elect Barack Obama’s getting it right when it comes to his Cabinet picks, especially Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates. Seventy-five percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research survey approve of Obama’s choices. That’s 16 points higher than those in favor of President Bush’s picks eight years ago.

Stocks rallied Wednesday, finding momentum at the end of a volatile session in which investors considered a rash of weak economic reports but opted to scoop up select stocks anyway.