 AP - Facing big Democratic losses in November, President Barack Obama blamed Republicans and election-year politics Friday for thwarting his efforts to do more to spur a listless national economy. He challenged Congress to quit squabbling and quickly approve "what we all agree on" — a reprieve for expiring tax cuts for the middle class.
 AP - Fire crews sifted through dozens of burned-out houses and tried to account for the residents Friday after a gas line ruptured and a massive fireball exploded through a neighborhood near San Francisco, killing at least four people.
 AP - For almost a decade, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was marked by somber reflection and a call to unity, devoid of politics. Not this time.
 AP - An Iranian news agency says Tehran has canceled the planned release of a jailed American woman because the necessary legal procedures have not been completed.
 AP - Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, a special commission said Friday.
 AP - Far, far away from a Chilean mine where 33 trapped men struggle to cope as they await rescue, 50 Spanish miners are also deep in the earth's bowels — but by their own choice.
 AP - Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been arrested in Las Vegas on a felony theft charge stemming from a domestic violence complaint by his ex-girlfriend.
AP - A team that shoots pumpkins from a giant air cannon says it achieved the holy grail of the sport - chucking a pumpkin a distance of more than one mile.
 AP - Stocks edged higher Friday, extending a rally that began nearly two weeks ago, as investors hold on to their newfound optimism about the economy.
 AP - Vera Zvonareva has reached her second straight Grand Slam final, defeating top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 at the U.S. Open.
 Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Friday he hoped a Florida pastor would drop a plan to burn Korans on U.S. soil, saying such an act could deeply harm the United States abroad.
 Reuters - President Barack Obama accused Republicans on Friday of holding the middle class hostage and defended his efforts to stimulate the sluggish economy as he tries to reverse grim election prospects for his fellow Democrats in November.
Reuters - The Treasury Department has selected Patricia Geoghegan to replace Kenneth Feinberg as the "pay czar" overseeing compensation at companies bailed out by the government.
 Reuters - Twelve U.S. soldiers have been charged with gruesome crimes in Afghanistan ranging from murdering civilians to keeping body parts as war trophies -- revelations that the Pentagon said on Thursday damaged America's image around the world.
 Reuters - Iran has canceled the planned release of a detained American woman because the legal process has not been completed, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi was quoted as saying on Friday.
Reuters - The U.S. military rule banning openly gay people from serving in the armed forces violates constitutional rights to free speech and due process, a federal judge in southern California ruled Thursday.
 Reuters - Fidel Castro said on Friday his recent comment that communist-led Cuba's economic model does not work was badly understood and that what he really meant was that capitalism does not work.
Reuters - At least four people died after a gas line explosion and fire razed 38 homes in a San Francisco suburb, and officials expected the death toll to rise on Friday as firefighters search the wreckage.
 AFP - An impassioned President Barack Obama Friday warned Americans not to turn on one another over religion amid a spate of rows over Islam in US society, nine years after the September 11 attacks.
 AFP - A Florida pastor at the center of a global firestorm insisted Friday he would not proceed with a planned Koran burning ceremony, but failed to stem a tide of Muslim outrage.
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