WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. government announced on Sunday that it was taking control of troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac effectively wiping out shareholders' interest in the publicly traded companies. The regulator of the two companies, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) will manage the two companies on a temporary basis. The takeover is the second rescue bid engineered by the U.S. Treasury Department in little more than six weeks. It came as confidence in the firms' ability to keep operating amid a deepening housing crisis continued to erode. Treasury Secretary Henry ... (full story)