AP - Posters supporting Egypt's intelligence chief as a candidate in next year's presidential election were removed from Cairo's streets hours after they appeared, while an independent newspaper was ordered to pull reports of the campaign from its pages, officials said Friday.

Reuters - Wall Street closed a stellar week on Friday after recent economic data, including a stronger-than-expected labor market report, bolstered optimism that the economy would not fall back into recession.

AFP - A powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked New Zealand's second largest city Christchurch just before dawn Saturday, causing widespread damage and panic among residents, but no serious injuries.

Reuters - President Barack Obama will outline new measures next week to boost the U.S. economy after August data on Friday showed again that jobs -- the central issue in November elections -- were being created too slowly.

AP - Dodgers owner Frank McCourt described himself Friday as a devoted husband who tried to comply with his wife's exorbitant wishes but stopped when she sought $250 million for her personal use.

AP - A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday. No tsunami alert was issued and there were no reports of serious injuries, but looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said.

AP - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Friday she was wrong when she claimed that headless bodies were turning up in the Arizona desert as part of border-related violence.

AFP - President Barack Obama promised a fresh slew of measures to boost the ailing US economy Friday after fresh data showed unemployment was again on the rise.

AFP - Police on Friday questioned the three Pakistani cricketers embroiled in fixing claims, as the sport's governing body insisted the case was not the tip of a corruption iceberg in the game.

AP - Officials decided to shut down much of Miami International Airport after a database showed a scientist with a suspicious item in his luggage had once been charged with illegally transporting bubonic plague, a senior law enforcement official said Friday.

AP - BP PLC said the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico was removed from the company's well on Friday afternoon.

AP - Pro-government crowds swarmed outside the battered home of a key Iranian opposition leader Friday after militiamen attacked with firebombs and beat a bodyguard unconscious in a brazen message of intimidation and pinpoint pressure on dissent.

AFP - China beat South Africa 4-1 to get off the mark at the third attempt, England drew with South Korea, and Argentina dished out a 4-0 rout to Spain at the women's field hockey World Cup on Friday.

AP - Mozambique's economy has lost more than $3 million because of deadly riots over the rising prices of food and other goods, the government said Friday, as state media reported new protests in two other towns.

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 - Seniors amble the nursing home's halls, while children from around the world visit for biofeedback treatments. One floor down from the hospice, middle-aged workers fill its pain management clinic. A rehabilitation center attracts people of all ages.

AP - A weakening Hurricane Earl swiped past North Carolina on Friday on its way to New England, where officials warned residents that it still packed dangerous winds that could topple trees or damage the area's picturesque gray-shingled cottages.

AP - Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.

AP - Summer is rarely a hot sales season for Campbell Soup Co., and this year's sweltering June and July made that even more true, but the company said Friday that cost-cutting and strong drink sales helped its net income climb.

AP - A suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 43 Shiite Muslims at a procession in southwest Pakistan on Friday. The assault sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding.

AP - A thumbnail-sized clam blamed for clouding the azure bays of Lake Tahoe high in the Sierra Nevada has now turned up in a mountain-ringed Adirondack lake renowned for its limpid, spring-fed waters.

AFP - The IMF and the UN labour agency are urging advanced economies not to cut government spending before 2011, warning that a move to tighten fiscal policies could hurt the global recovery.

Reuters - U.S. employment fell for a third straight month in August, but the drop was far less than expected and private hiring surprised on the upside, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to prop up economic growth.

AP - Is the global economy out of the woods? Two years after near-meltdown, with the U.S. looking sluggish, equity markets groggy and Europeans fighting a debt crisis, experts gathered in Italy offered a generally gloomy outlook — especially for the United States and much of the industrialized world.

AP - North Korea is preparing its largest political meeting in 30 years, and leader Kim Jong Il is expected to appoint a son to a key Workers Party position in what would be the strongest sign yet of a succession movement in the secretive communist country.