AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.

AP - A scientist has been detained at the Miami International Airport after screeners spotted a metal canister in his luggage that looked like a pipe bomb, prompting an evacuation, a government official said.

AP - A weakened Hurricane Earl howled past North Carolina's Outer Banks before daybreak Friday on its way up the East Coast, flooding parts of the narrow vacation islands and knocking out power but staying farther offshore than feared. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

AP - Hurricane Earl had lost some of its strength and was at category 2 strength with winds up to 105 mph early Friday off North Carolina's coast.

Reuters - U.S. employment likely fell for a third straight month in August as more temporary census jobs ended and cautious businesses scaled back hiring, an outcome that could pressure the Federal Reserve to prop up growth.

AP - A judge started reading a Portuguese court's verdicts Friday on more than 800 alleged crimes in a major child sex abuse trial that has lasted nearly six years.

AP - BP says it has so far spent $8 billion responding to the disastrous oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

AP - A suspected Russian arms dealer's extradition to the United States will be delayed at least until Oct. 4 to allow a Thai court to review new charges filed as a precaution by Washington, a judge said Friday.

AP - Explosions killed at least 10 members of Pakistan's minority religious communities on Friday, driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.

AP - Pro-government militiamen attacked the home of an Iranian opposition leader with homemade bombs and beat one of his bodyguards unconscious, an opposition website reported, in an apparent attempt to keep him from attending a key rally on Friday.

AP - Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gunbattle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has become one of the most dangerous battlegrounds in the country's drug war.

AP - U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site.

AP - Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Most notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don't end there.

AP - Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Most notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don't end there.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.

AP - Lebanese security officials say several explosions have caused a large fire in a southern village.

AFP - Retail sales across the 16 nations sharing the euro rose by a modest 0.1 percent in July, after a 0.2 percent increase in June, with drops in Germany and Spain, European Union data showed on Friday.

AP - Actor Paul Hogan, star of the "Crocodile Dundee" movie trilogy, has been cleared to return home to the United States after he was barred last month from leaving Australia because of a disputed tax bill, his lawyer said Friday.

AP - When Ruth Garcia's twins are born in two months, they'll have all the rights of U.S. citizens. They and their six brothers and sisters will be able to vote, apply for federal student loans and even run for president.

AP - Former Dodger CEO Jamie McCourt was more concerned with protecting the couple's luxurious homes than dealing with baseball matters and didn't want to take the risk associated with buying one of baseball's most storied franchises six years ago, her estranged husband said.

Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?

AP - Like many other vets, Don Fosburg marked the anniversary of World War II's end reflecting on a victory dearly earned and on men who helped make that happen but never came home.

AP - The bearded young cleric yells at a young woman for lifting her traditional veil from her face while speaking to him on the street, and rants against Egyptians who adopt Western lifestyles and values. His followers beat up an opponent.

Reuters - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.21 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.17 percent and Nasdaq100 futures flat at 0725 GMT (3:25 a.m. ET).

AP - With less than two weeks before Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn awards a lucrative, first-of-its-kind contract for the private management of the state's $2 billion-a-year lottery, some are criticizing the selection process as too secretive and questioning whether it favors one powerful bidder.

AP - A 9-year-old boy ran to get cash from his mother's purse to appease an armed intruder, but when he returned the man was stabbing his parents with a kitchen knife in the bedroom, according to recently released search warrants in the triple murder case.

AFP - An Australian man was attacked by a shark which mauled his face and neck during a holiday in the South Pacific Solomon Islands, officials said on Friday.

AP - A small plane that crashed into a shallow lagoon off San Francisco Bay on Thursday, killing three people, belonged to the founder of a local steel company who was believed to be among the dead.

AP - A two-story Comfort Inn has become a makeshift hurricane hostel on North Carolina's Outer Banks for those who want to stay close to their homes but know they need better shelter from the onslaught of Earl.

AP - Investigators have identified the owner of a trunk in which the mummified remains of two babies were found, bringing them a step closer to solving the intriguing international mystery.