(Continued from page 32)

• And for the first time since 2009, banks' earnings growth is being driven by higher revenue -- a healthy trend. Banks had previously managed to boost earnings by putting aside less money for possible losses.
• Signs of the industry's gains:
• -- Banks are earning more. In the July-September quarter, the industry's earnings reached $37.6 billion, up from $35.3 billion a year earlier. It was the best showing since the July-September quarter of 2006, long before the financial meltdown. By contrast, at the depth of the Great Recession in the last quarter of 2008, the industry lost $32 billion.
• ___

• HAVANA (AP) -- Venezuela's vice president arrived in Havana to visit President Hugo Chavez as he recovers from cancer surgery, Cuban official media said early Saturday.
• Communist Party newspaper Granma published online a photo of Vice President Nicolas Maduro being greeted at the airport in the Cuban capital by the island's foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez.
• "From there, (Maduro) went directly to the hospital where President Hugo Chavez Frias is receiving treatment to greet his family members and Venezuelan Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza Monserrat, and to discuss with doctors the adequate moment to visit the President the same day," the paper said.
• Granma added that Maduro was accompanied by Venezuelan Attorney General Cilia Flores.
• The previous night in Caracas, Venezuela, Maduro did not specify how long he would be away but said Energy Minister Hector Navarro would be in charge of government affairs in the meantime.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The student's attack began with a shotgun blast through the windows of a California high school. Rich Agundez, the El Cajon policeman assigned to the school, felt his mind shift into overdrive.
• People yelled at him amid the chaos but he didn't hear. He experienced "a tunnel

(Continued on page 34)