News

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  Speedy Tropical Storm Hanna charges for Carolinas

  Tropical Storm Hanna cruised toward the Carolinas on Friday, forecast to hit land overnight and promising to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain during a dash up the Eastern Seaboard that could wash out the weekend for millions of people.

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  Obama, seeing hope in Ohio, shifts schedule there

  So much for the full-on 50-state strategy. Call Barack Obama's implementation of national Democrats' coast-to-coast plan "Fifty-State Lite." Barack Obama's strategists say they will pick and choose where to spend time and money.

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  McCain, Palin get a rousing welcome in Mich., Wis.

  John McCain and Sarah Palin got a rousing welcome Friday to the final two months of the presidential campaign, stressing themes of a strong America and concern about the sinking economy. "Tough times all over America," McCain said.

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  Rice meets Gadhafi on historic visit to Libya

  The United States and Libya sealed a historic turnaround after decades of terrorist killings, American retaliation, suspicions and insults with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's peacemaking visit Friday with Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's mercurial strongman.

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  White House: Bush wasn't detached from war review

  The White House on Friday disputed an assertion in a new book by Bob Woodward that President Bush was slow to react to escalating attacks in Iraq, forcefully arguing that Bush's military buildup was responsible for a sharp drop in the violence.

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  Wash. rampage suspect in court: 'I kill for God'

  "I kill for God. I listen to God," a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.

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  Government may soon back troubled mortgage giants

  The government is expected to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend in a monumental move designed to protect the mortgage market from the failure of the two companies, which together hold or guarantee half of the nation's mortgage debt, a person briefed on the matter said Friday night.

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  Stand Up to Cancer telethon takes over network TV

  Three TV networks, cancer research advocates and more than 60 celebrities from music, sports, TV and film made history Friday night with a live telethon that aired simultaneously on NBC, ABC and CBS.

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  2-time champ Serena Williams back in US Open final

  Serena Williams wound up and smacked a shot directly at Dinara Safina early in the second set of their U.S. Open semifinal.

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  AL home run leader Quentin breaks wrist

  American League home run leader Carlos Quentin has a broken right wrist stemming from his own temper, and the Chicago White Sox left fielder will have surgery Monday that could sideline him for the rest of the season.

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  U.S. to take control of mortgage giants: reports

  The U.S. government plans to put troubled mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under federal control, the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers reported on Friday.

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  McCain and Obama clash on economy

  Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama, back on the campaign trail after their party conventions, clashed over the ailing U.S. economy on Friday as unemployment hit its highest monthly rate in nearly five years.

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  Boeing machinists to strike as contract talks fail

  Boeing Co's 27,000-strong machinists' union declared it will strike at midnight Pacific time on Friday, as the plane maker failed to improve its contract offer after two days of emergency talks.

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  Hurricane Ike targets Gulf, Hanna's toll rises

  Fierce Hurricane Ike weakened as it charged across the Atlantic on Friday and took aim at south Florida and the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico, while Tropical Storm Hanna buffeted the Carolinas after killing at least 529 people in Haiti.

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  Rice meets Gaddafi on historic Libya visit

  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- once reviled as a "mad dog" by a U.S. president -- on Friday on a historic visit which she said proved that Washington had no permanent enemies.

• Iraq wants explanation on reported U.S. spying on PM

  Iraq will seek an explanation from U.S. officials about a report asserting the United States spied on Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government spokesman said on Friday.

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  Bhutto's widower set to become Pakistan's president

  Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was poised on Saturday to win an election to become president.

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  U.S. appeals to Ukraine to unite with West

  U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney appealed to Ukraine's divided leaders on Friday to unite and forge closer links with the West, pledging Washington's support for Kiev to join the NATO military alliance.

• Woman locked in cabin in Sweden for 9 years: report

  A 58-year-old man suspected of keeping a woman locked up in a tiny cabin in southern Sweden for nine years has been ordered by a court to be held in custody, local media reported.

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  Serena and Jankovic to meet in title clash

  Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams each had one eye on brewing thunderstorms as they booked their places in the U.S. Open women's final with efficient victories in blustery conditions on Friday.

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  Speedy Tropical Storm Hanna charges for Carolinas

  Tropical Storm Hanna cruised toward the Carolinas on Friday, forecast to hit land overnight and promising to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain during a dash up the Eastern Seaboard that could wash out the weekend for millions of people.

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  Wash. rampage suspect in court: 'I kill for God'

  "I kill for God. I listen to God," a man accused of a northwest Washington shooting rampage said Friday at a hearing where six charges of first-degree murder and four of first-degree assault were filed against him.

• Police: Suspect in Illinois bank standoff dead

  A gunman who took a dozen hostages in a suburban Chicago bank after wresting a gun from a police officer Friday died after shooting himself in the head, police said.

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  Murder trial opens in Tenn. love triangle case

  A prosecutor described a schoolteacher's husband as a jealous, calculating killer as trial opened Friday on charges he murdered his wife's teenage lover. But a defense lawyer told the jury that the defendant was a victim himself of a spouse who flaunted her infidelity.

• Bomb scare spurs search of freight train in NJ

  Authorities in New Jersey are searching a freight-train car after a woman reported that a Federal Express package containing a bomb might be aboard.

• Charges dismissed against cyclist in YouTube shove

  A judge dismissed charges Friday against the bicyclist who was body-checked and knocked to the pavement by a police officer in a widely viewed YouTube video.

• UC Berkeley begins felling disputed trees

  The University of California, Berkeley has begun cutting down trees at the center of a dispute over its plans to clear the area to make way for a new sports center.

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  Oldest gorilla in captivity dies in Dallas at 55

  The oldest gorilla in captivity, a 55-year-old female named Jenny, has died at the Dallas Zoo — her home for more than half a century, a spokesman said Friday.

• Review panel criticizes Great Lakes health study

  Substandard science has hurt a federal agency's seven-year effort to document possible links between industrial pollution and health problems in the Great Lakes region, an independent review panel said Friday.

• Suspect in deaths of 3 Wis. teens pleads insanity

  A Michigan man accused in a shooting rampage that killed three teenage swimmers at a river on the Wisconsin-Michigan border pleaded insanity to 10 felonies Friday, including new counts that he tried to kill six other teens.

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  First aid ship arrives in flooded Haitian city

  U.N. peacekeeping troops began handing out food and water to famished Haitians on Friday after the first shipload of aid sailed into a crumbling port on the outskirts of this flooded city, where tens of thousands are stranded in the wake of Tropical Storm Hanna.

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  AP IMPACT: Afghans fed up with government, US

  The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country.

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  Rice meets Gadhafi on historic visit to Libya

  The United States and Libya sealed a historic turnaround after decades of terrorist killings, American retaliation, suspicions and insults with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's peacemaking visit Friday with Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's mercurial strongman.

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  Pakistan's Zardari marked by corruption, tragedy

  The likely next president of unstable, nuclear-armed Pakistan following Saturday's election is a horse-loving aristocrat who has spent more years in prison than in politics — a novice leader lifted to prominence by his marriage to Benazir Bhutto and propelled into power by her murder.

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  Lingering tensions slow Iraqi withdrawal plans

  Concern over upcoming elections and widening tensions among Iraq's religious and ethnic groups appear behind the U.S. military's recommendation to put the brakes on withdrawing more American troops from Iraq despite improvements in security.

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  Angolan extends election after opposition protests

  Angola's first election for 16 years goes into an unscheduled second day on Saturday after opposition parties condemned the vote as chaotic and demanded a re-run.

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  Rice meets Gaddafi on historic Libya visit

  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi -- once reviled as a "mad dog" by a U.S. president -- on Friday on a historic visit which she said proved that Washington had no permanent enemies.

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  Bhutto's widower set to become Pakistan's president

  Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was poised on Saturday to win an election to become president.

• Iraq wants explanation on reported U.S. spying on PM

  Iraq will seek an explanation from U.S. officials about a report asserting the United States spied on Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government spokesman said on Friday.

• Woman locked in cabin in Sweden for 9 years: report

  A 58-year-old man suspected of keeping a woman locked up in a tiny cabin in southern Sweden for nine years has been ordered by a court to be held in custody, local media reported.

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  Most Clinton backers say Palin's too far a stretch

  Sandy Goodman was deeply disappointed when Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't get the Democratic nomination, then again when she was bypassed for the VP spot. So Goodman, a longtime Florida Democrat, flirted with thoughts of shunning Barack Obama, and perhaps even voting Republican.

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  McCain, Palin get a rousing welcome in Mich., Wis.

  John McCain and Sarah Palin got a rousing welcome Friday to the final two months of the presidential campaign, stressing themes of a strong America and concern about the sinking economy. "Tough times all over America," McCain said.

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  Obama: McCain focused on biography over economy

  Democrat Barack Obama called Republican rival John McCain's acceptance speech the final piece of an out-of-touch convention that focused on its nominee's biography instead of the struggles of the middle class.

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  Subpoenas to be issued for Palin-trooper probe

  The Alaska Legislature is hastening its ethics investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner, making it far more likely it will be completed before November's election.

• McCain, Obama tied in TV audiences

  As a television draw, John McCain was every bit the equal of Barack Obama.

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  McCain and Obama clash on economy

  Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama, back on the campaign trail after their party conventions, clashed over the ailing U.S. economy on Friday as unemployment hit its highest monthly rate in nearly five years.

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  John McCain speech draws record TV ratings

  Republican presidential candidate John McCain beat Democratic rival Barack Obama in the crucial battle to attract U.S. television viewers during their race to the White House, according to figures released on Friday.

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  Voters say economy overshadows political hoopla

  Trudy Tucker doesn't know if the back-to-back U.S. political conventions addressed the financial worries she has raising four children -- she was too busy to watch.

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  250 protesters arrested before McCain speech

  Police arrested 250 anti-war protesters on Thursday shortly before John McCain accepted the Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention a short distance away.

• Consumer gloom suggests Obama victory: survey

  Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, should benefit from consumers' dissatisfaction with the weak national economy, according to Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

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• FDA posts list of potential problem drugs

  The government on Friday began posting a list of prescription drugs under investigation for potential safety problems in an effort to better inform doctors and patients.

• Review panel criticizes Great Lakes health study

  Substandard science has hurt a federal agency's seven-year effort to document possible links between industrial pollution and health problems in the Great Lakes region, an independent review panel said Friday.

• Gene domino effect behind brain, pancreatic tumors

  Scientists have mapped the cascade of genetic changes that turn normal cells in the brain and pancreas into two of the most lethal cancers. The result points to a new approach for fighting tumors and maybe even catching them sooner. Genes blamed for one person's brain tumor were different from the culprits for the next patient, making the puzzle of cancer genetics even more complicated.

• FDA orders stronger warnings for 4 arthritis drugs

  The Food and Drug Administration ordered stronger warnings Thursday on four medications widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses, saying they can raise the risk of possibly fatal fungal infections.

• Study: Workers to pay more for health care

  Get ready for another hike in copays and deductibles. A survey being released Thursday by the Mercer consulting firm found 59 percent of companies intend to keep down rising health care costs in 2009 by raising workers' deductibles, copays or out-of-pocket spending limits.

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  Study: New way to spot breast cancer shows promise

  A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms, doctors reported Wednesday.

• Report: US drug use shows little change in 2007

  Cocaine and methamphetamine use among young adults declined significantly last year as supplies dried up, leading to higher prices and reduced purity, the government reports. Overall use of illicit drugs showed little change.

• Study: No link between measles vaccine and autism

  New research further debunks any link between measles vaccine and autism, work that comes as the nation is experiencing a surge in measles cases fueled by children left unvaccinated.

• Heart defibrillator shock can signal more trouble

  A lifesaving shock from an implanted heart defibrillator provides relief that a crisis was avoided, but new research suggests it can also be a sign that more trouble is ahead.

• Smoking riskier to women's hearts than men's

  Women typically get heart disease much later than men, but not if they smoke, researchers said Tuesday.

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  ESA spacecraft completes flyby of Steins asteroid

  The Rosetta deep space probe successfully passed close to an asteroid 250 million miles from Earth, the European Space Agency said Friday night.

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  Oldest gorilla in captivity dies in Dallas at 55

  The oldest gorilla in captivity, a 55-year-old female named Jenny, has died at the Dallas Zoo — her home for more than half a century, a spokesman said Friday.

• Feds warn climate change could harm giant sequoias

  Federal researchers are warning that warming temperatures could soon cause California's giant sequoia trees to die off more quickly unless forest managers plan with an eye toward climate change and the impact of a longer, harsher wildfire season.

• Asian soot, smog may boost global warming in US

  Smog, soot and other particles like the kind often seen hanging over Beijing add to global warming and may raise summer temperatures in the American heartland by three degrees in about 50 years, says a new federal science report released Thursday.

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  NASA moves space shuttle Atlantis to launch pad

  NASA moved shuttle Atlantis to the launch pad on Thursday for a flight next month to the Hubble Space Telescope after being waylaid by a pair of tropical storms.

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  New fingerprint method could unlock cold cases

  It's a discovery that would make even Sherlock Holmes proud. British scientists have developed a new crime-fighting technique that allows police to lift fingerprints from bullets even if a criminal has wiped down a shell casing.

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  Storms delay space shuttle launch to Hubble

  Space shuttle Atlantis' launch on a final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope has been delayed because of tropical storms, NASA said on Friday.

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  Raising vegetables under Canada's midnight sun

  Amanda Joynt reached down and picked a fresh tomato from the vine. That's no small feat when you are living 200 km (120 miles) above the Arctic Circle in Canada's Far North.

• Gene trawl shows curing cancer harder than thought

  Cancer experts who probed every gene in tumors from two of the hardest-to-treat cancers found that cancer is much more complicated than anyone thought -- and say they found why a cure is so unlikely after a tumor has spread.

• Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast

  Worldwide sea levels may rise by about 2.6 to 6.6 feet by 2100 thanks to global warming, but dire predictions of larger increases seem unrealistic, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.

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  NJ cops kick in door over bird's cries for help

  Cries for help inside a Trenton, N.J., home turned out to be for the birds. Neighbors called police Wednesday morning after hearing a woman's persistent cry of "Help me! Help me!" coming from a house. Officers arrived and when no one answered the door, they kicked it in to make a rescue.

• Wheelchair robber rolls in and rips off condoms

  A wheelchair getaway at a 7-Eleven has police looking for an unusual robbery suspect. Authorities said Friday that a man in a wheelchair entered a Dallas convenience store this week, rolled straight toward the cash register and began hitting it with a baseball bat.

• Team dumps logo near buttocks after 70-0 loss

  The Idaho Vandals football team is dumping the letter "I" from the buttocks region of players' new pants following a season-opening 70-0 loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

• W.Va. man accused of drunk driving on a tractor

  A Charleston man faces drunken driving charges after police spotted him riding a farm tractor on a highway without lights or proper warning signs. Kanawha County sheriff's deputies arrested 22-year-old Joshua David Postalwait early Friday morning.

• Hey! You have a snake hanging from your car!

  Think rush hour is bad enough? What if a three-foot python were part of the drive home? The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Friday that biochemical engineer Marika Suominen-Yeh got the surprise of her life last week when a motorist flagged her down after seeing a snake drop from beneath her minivan.

• Doctor fired for allegedly drinking on the job

  A Massachusetts doctor has been fired and lost the right to renew his medical license for allegedly trying to give a pregnant woman an epidural while drunk.

• Ohio preacher, 71, avoids jail in road rage case

  A 71-year-old Cincinnati preacher convicted of waving a gun and threatening another driver won't be going to jail. A Hamilton County judge on Thursday sentenced Thomas Howell to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service on his conviction for aggravated menacing.

• Black bear busts secret Utah pot farm

  One Utah community is cheering a special bear — but don't call him Smokey. Investigators say a large black bear raided a clandestine marijuana growing operation so often that it chased the grower away.

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  Texas UPS driver goes 1 million miles, no crashes

  A routine package delivery turned into a milestone for a UPS driver in East Texas.

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  Cats rescued after apparently starting house fire

  Chattanooga firefighters rescued several cats during a house fire that investigators say was probably caused by the cats themselves.

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  Google reigns as world's most powerful 10-year-old

  When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google Inc. on Sept. 7, 1998, they had little more than their ingenuity, four computers and an investor's $100,000 bet on their belief that an Internet search engine could change the world.

• Microsoft deploying in-store customer-service reps

  NEW YORK — As part of its new $300 million marketing campaign and image makeover, Microsoft Corp. plans to deploy its own customer-service representatives at retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City to help people with their PC purchases.

• Tech firms fare better than most in jobs slump

  Technology appears to be one of the least hard-hit sectors in an economy beset by unemployment at a five-year high.

• Nokia warns 3Q market share will fall; shares dive

  Shares in Nokia Corp. tumbled Friday after the leading cell phone maker said its third-quarter global market share will decline from second-quarter levels because of aggressive price cuts by its rivals.

• Russia's MTS to sell Apple iPhone

  Russia's number one cell operator MTS said Friday it has signed a deal with Apple Inc. to sell the iPhone in Russia.

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  New music site gives fans a cut of tune sales

  Being a trendsetter can be pricey. As any fashionista or gadget hound knows, the latest frocks and tech toys don't pay for themselves. But a new Web site is trying to make it profitable for music lovers to stay ahead of the curve — by paying them when other people purchase MP3s they've bought.

• New eBay site has social, environmental aim

  Most consumers probably associate eBay Inc. more with vintage lunch boxes and low-priced electronics than with laptop bags made from recycled plastic by women in New Delhi.

• Internet traffic grows 53 percent from mid-2007

  International Internet traffic kept growing in the last year, but at a slower rate than before, and carriers more than kept pace by adding more capacity, a research firm said Wednesday.

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  Review: Google Chrome lacks polish under the hood

  Google Inc.'s new Web browser, called Chrome, does much of what a browser needs to do these days: It presents a sleek appearance, groups pages into easy-to-manage "tabs" and offers several ways for people to control their Internet privacy settings.

• CEO of embattled Web-tracking firm NebuAd leaves

  The chief executive of NebuAd Inc., whose Web tracking technology raised a privacy backlash, has left the company to be chief financial officer at Verifone Holdings Inc., a maker of payment processing equipment.

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