WASHINGTON – The Energy Department on Friday approved four more solar energy loan guarantees worth nearly $ 5 billion, hours before a controversial loan program was set to expire.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department moved to take away control of a failed solar panel maker from its management and transfer it to a court-appointed trustee.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department completed deals on four projects, including two that were sold late this week by Arizona-based First Solar Inc., a major solar manufacturer that had been seeking three federal loan guarantees for projects in California. The sales were announced Friday along with the loan guarantees.

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MANILA, Philippines – The second typhoon in a week battered the rain-soaked northern Philippines on Saturday, adding misery to thousands of people, some of whom still perched on rooftops while several other Asian nations also reeled from flooding.

Typhoon Nalgae slammed ashore midmorning Saturday south of northeastern Palanan Bay in Isabela province with winds of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour and dangerous gusts of 121 mph (195 kph).

It was making a similar path across the saturated Luzon Island as Typhoon Nesat, which earlier in the week killed at least 50 people, left 31 missing and thousands stranded and sent huge waves that breached a seawall in Manila Bay. Nesat also pummeled southern China and was downgraded to a tropical storm just before churning into northern Vietnam on Friday afternoon, where flood warnings were issued and 20,000 people evacuated.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Protesters who have camped out near Wall Street for two weeks marched on Friday on police headquarters in Manhattan over what they viewed as a heavy-handed police response to a previous demonstration.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, whose members have vowed to stay through the winter, are protesting issues including the 2008 bank bailouts, foreclosures and high unemployment.

More than 1,000 people marched past City Hall and arrived at a plaza outside police headquarters in the late afternoon. Some held banners criticizing police, while others chanted: "We are the 99 percent" and "The banks got bailed out, we got sold out."

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GHADAMES, Libya (Reuters) – Tuareg tribesmen and local Arabs who have fought skirmishes near this Saharan oasis exchanged hostages and signed an agreement on Friday to try to stabilize an area where some security officials believe Muammar Gaddafi has taken refuge.

At a ceremony attended by Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi, the military chief of the country's new rulers, elders from the local Arab population and Tuareg nomads agreed to keep the peace and treat each other as equals in this ancient trading settlement 600 km (370 miles) southwest of Tripoli on the Algerian border.

Officials of the interim National Transitional Council (NTC), the coalition that led the effort to overthrow Gaddafi, said at the weekend that the town, which is under the control of their forces, had been attacked this month by pro-Gaddafi forces, possibly tied to one of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis.

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