AP - A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 140 mph winds has killed at least 425 people, United News of Bangladesh reported Friday.
AP - Under pressure in a feisty debate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused her closest rivals Thursday night of slinging mud "right out of the Republican playbook" and leveled her sharpest criticism of the campaign at their records.
AP - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday swore in a caretaker administration and declared he had "introduced the essence of democracy in Pakistan," the day a senior U.S. envoy arrived in capital to urge the end of emergency rule.
AP - Congress likely will hold off on sending President Bush money for Iraq until early next year, pushing the Pentagon to the brink of an accounting nightmare and deepening Democrats' conflict with the White House on the war.
AP - Barry Bonds has more to worry about than an asterisk now. Just three months ago, the former San Francisco Giants star angrily defended himself against steroid allegations on the night he surpassed Hank Aaron to become baseball's home run king.
AP - North and South Korea agreed Friday to launch rail service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than half a century, a move symbolizing the growing reconciliation between the two sides.
AP - Three young black men break into a white man's home in rural Northern California. The homeowner shoots two of them to death ? but it's the surviving black man who is charged with murder.
AP - A 23-year-old college student who was told by a Southwest Airlines employee that her outfit was too revealing to fly is wearing even less on Playboy's Web site.
AP - CBS asked a judge Thursday to dismiss a $70 million defamation lawsuit that veteran television newsman Dan Rather filed against the network and its parent company, arguing that he waited too long to take legal action.
AP - The curse of No. 2 claimed another victim. Second-ranked Oregon lost Heisman Trophy candidate Dennis Dixon to a knee injury and never recovered in a 34-24 upset by Arizona on Thursday night.
Reuters - A severe cyclone has killed more than 500 people in Bangladesh and left thousands injured or missing, triggering an international relief effort on Friday to help the army-backed interim government cope with the disaster.
Reuters - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton fired back at her rivals and accused John Edwards of "throwing mud" on Thursday in a contentious debate marked by sharp clashes with Barack Obama and Edwards.
Reuters - Pakistan freed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto from house arrest shortly before a top U.S. diplomat began a visit on Friday aimed at persuading President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.
Reuters - About 600 U.S. troops launched a pre-dawn assault south of Baghdad on Friday against al Qaeda fighters linked to the kidnapping of two soldiers six months ago, the U.S. military said.
Reuters - North and South Korea on Friday agreed more massive projects to help rebuild the North's broken economy, including freight train services over their heavily armed border that had been severed since the 1950-53 Korea War.
Reuters - Profits from opium cultivation are fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Friday, in a new call on NATO to crack down on the country's burgeoning drugs trade.
AFP - The European Commission voiced regret Friday at the cancellation of an OSCE mission to observe Russian elections and urged President Vladimir Putin to ensure that the polls would be "democratic."
AFP - President Pervez Musharraf swore in a new caretaker government Friday to lead crisis-hit Pakistan toward elections, as a senior US official was flying in to press him for an end to emergency rule.
AP - A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh's coast with 140 mph winds has killed at least 425 people, United News of Bangladesh reported Friday.
AP - U.S. helicopters dropped 600 troops into two villages south of Baghdad before sunrise Friday, launching an assault on militants believed to be involved in the May kidnapping of three American soldiers, the military said.
AP - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Friday swore in a caretaker administration and declared he had "introduced the essence of democracy in Pakistan," the day a senior U.S. envoy arrived in capital to urge the end of emergency rule.
AP - North and South Korea agreed Friday to launch rail service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than half a century, a move symbolizing the growing reconciliation between the two sides.
AP - A international security organization said Friday that its election observers would not be able to monitor next month's Russian parliamentary balloting because Moscow had refused to issue them visas.
AP - A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes ? more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.
AFP - A UN rights investigator said Friday that Myanmar's military government told him 14 people had been killed in Yangon during the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in September.
Reuters - A coroner urged the Australian government on Friday to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
Reuters - Fannie Mae said it will hold a conference call on Friday to answer accounting questions, after Fortune magazine reported that the U.S. mortgage lender may be "camouflaging" credit losses.
Reuters - The impact of the U.S. mortgage market crisis on the underlying economy could be "dramatic" as leveraged investors may need to scale back lending by up to $2 trillion, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs .
Reuters - Chinese capital spending in October rose at the briskest pace in over a year, rounding out a strong batch of monthly economic data and cementing expectations of a fresh rise in interest rates, possibly as early as Friday.
Reuters - S&P 500 stock index futures were little changed on Friday as concern about consumer spending following Starbucks Corp's results and fresh credit market woes were offset by expectations for a rebound after recent losses.
Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday Washington was following a strong dollar policy and indicated he expected it to rebound, emphasizing the U.S. economy's long-term strength should help the currency.
Reuters - The impact of the U.S. mortgage market crisis on the underlying economy could be "dramatic" as leveraged investors may need to scale back lending by up to $2 trillion, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs .
AP - Retailers J.C. Penney Co. and Kohl's Corp., whose middle income customers are struggling amid a souring economy, offered a bleak outlook for the holiday quarter as they reported a drop in third-quarter profits.
AP - Barry Bonds has more to worry about than an asterisk now. Just three months ago, the former San Francisco Giants star angrily defended himself against steroid allegations on the night he surpassed Hank Aaron to become baseball's home run king.
AP - Turns out Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees had the outline of a record $275 million, 10-year contract in place last weekend, well before their shake-hands-and-make-up meeting.
AP - The curse of No. 2 claimed another victim. Second-ranked Oregon lost Heisman Trophy candidate Dennis Dixon to a knee injury and never recovered in a 34-24 upset by Arizona on Thursday night.
AP - Josh Howard sparked first-half spurts of 17-1 and 11-0, letting the Dallas Mavericks build a huge lead that they turned into an easy 105-92 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night.
AP - New York tax officials say Derek Jeter should have been taxed as a state resident from 2001-03, which potentially could cost the Yankees captain millions of dollars.
AP - Ever pensive, Ricky Williams wrestled with the first question from reporters, as if he was still seeking a reason to return from his 1 1/2-year suspension. "My motivation for coming back to the NFL? Could we start with an easier question?" Williams said with a chuckle.
AP - Leandro Barbosa scored 25 points and the Phoenix Suns pulled away for their fourth straight win, 112-102 over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
AP - Padres general manager Kevin Towers had a good feeling about Jake Peavy before he'd even seen the right-hander throw a pitch. Towers sat next to Peavy in the stands at Class A Fort Wayne back in 2000 as the 19-year-old charted pitches during a game. The GM was beyond impressed with the youngster's observations.
AP - Brendan Shanahan scored the only goal in a shootout to lead the New York Rangers to a 4-3 win over Philadelphia on Thursday night, the Flyers' first home loss of the season.
AP - Candace Parker had 28 points, Shannon Bobbitt scored 22 of her career-high 27 points in the second half and No. 1 Tennessee beat No. 9 Oklahoma 70-67 on Thursday night.
AP - Fourth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko beat No. 7 Fernando Gonzalez 6-4, 6-3 Friday, handing defending champion Roger Federer a place in the Masters Cup semifinals.
AP - The United States and China are working on a pact to promote use of ethanol and other biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and could announce an agreement as early as next month, an American official said Friday.
AP - A dinosaur with a strange jaw designed to hoover-up food grazed in what is now the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago. Remains of the creature that "flabbergasted" paleontologist Paul Sereno went on display Thursday at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society, where they will remain until March.
AP - A federal appeals court sharply rejected the Bush administration's new pollution standards 'for most sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans and ordered regulators Thursday to draft a new plan that's tougher on auto emissions.
AP - Automakers racing to find affordable ways to make cars environmentally sustainable are zeroing in on polluted, fuel-scarce China to help them take clean car concepts from the laboratory to the market.
AP - Working until dawn, negotiators on Friday concluded a policy guide for governments on global warming that declares climate change is here and is getting worse, one of its authors said.
AP - Rain, snow and cold temperatures were forecast Friday for the Northeast. The most intense precipitation was expected along the Canadian border, where some high elevation areas could end up with more than a foot of snow. Heavy snow was also anticipated along the southern shores of the Great Lakes as lake-effect snow develops.
AFP - Japan said Friday it will press ahead with an expanded whaling expedition as activists charged that Tokyo had delayed the hunt to avoid international friction.
Reuters - A strange-looking dinosaur with rows of tiny teeth crammed into the very front of its jaws and fragile air-filled bones may have been the "cow of the Mesozoic," and far more common than better-known dinosaurs, scientists said on Thursday.
AP - Gleaning stem cells from cloned monkey embryos, as a team of Oregon researchers has done, is an impressive step. But it probably won't lead to medical treatments any time soon.