AP - Fire crews sprayed water on smoldering homes Friday morning after a massive explosion apparently triggered by a broken gas line sent flames roaring through a neighborhood near San Francisco, killing six people and injuring dozens, officials said.

Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Friday that progress has been slow in pulling the U.S. economy out of recession.

AP - Iran's president intervened to secure the release of Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, in part because of her gender, a news agency reported Friday.

AP - Authorities in Austin scaled back the search for a missing motorist Friday, a day after a central Texas official said hope was fading that another person swept away by floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine would be found alive.

AP - In the past, the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was marked by somber reflection and a call to unity, devoid of politics. No more.

AP - Hundreds of residents evacuated by a wildfire burning near Boulder will get another chance to check on their homes.

Reuters - Wholesale inventories surged by the largest amount in two years in July, a government report said on Friday, in a sign firms were anticipating enough demand to boost stock this summer.

AP - Inventories held by wholesalers surged in July by the largest amount in two years while sales rebounded after two straight declines.

AP - A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.

AP - Minutes after a woman was suspended from her job at a Kraft Foods Inc. plant and was escorted out, she returned with a handgun and opened fire, killing two people and critically injuring a third before being taken into custody, police said.

AP - Striving to gain the upper hand on a crucial political issue, President Barack Obama is faulting Republicans for refusing to help him turn around the sluggish economy or support some proposed new tax breaks for businesses that the GOP has backed in the past.

AP - As thousands of Afghans protested a tiny Florida church's plan to burn the Muslim holy book, the church's pastor said he won't follow through with the burning if he's able to meet Saturday with the organizers behind a mosque planned near ground zero in New York.

AP - A new mosque recently opened in this well-to-do suburb of Philadelphia, but not many people noticed.

AP - Convicted killer Cal Coburn Brown was executed early Friday by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of a Seattle-area woman, after delivering a statement complaining he was treated unfairly by the legal system.

AP - President Barack Obama has chosen one of his longtime economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee, to be the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said.

AP - After three nights of violent protests, calm mainly prevailed over a gritty neighborhood where police fatally shot an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was menacing officers with a knife.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will Friday step up his mid-term election campaign and appeal to voters dismayed by the stuttering economy with his first White House press conference since May.

AP - Japan's economy isn't quite as weak as first thought, but it still needs help, the government said Friday as it unveiled details of a new $11 billion stimulus package.

AP - A Metrolink commuter train struck and killed two people who may have been sleeping on the tracks and injured a third in Orange County on Thursday, authorities said.

Reuters - President Barack Obama has chosen Austan Goolsbee as the new head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. administration officials said on Thursday, promoting a longtime adviser from his inner policy circle.

AP - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was unhurt in a two-vehicle accident near his home Thursday morning before practicing as usual with his team ahead of the season opener and agreeing to a four-year contract extension that, according to two people familiar with it, would make him the NFL's highest-paid player.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has chosen Austan Goolsbee, an economics professor currently working in his administration, to chair the Council of Economic Advisors, an official said.

AP - If Rahm Emanuel decides to run for Chicago mayor, the White House chief of staff would easily be the best-known figure in the race, with national name recognition that few others could match and invaluable experience from helping engineer the Democrats' takeover of the House in 2006.

AP - Donald Trump offered Thursday to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque.

AP - "Advocate tolerance, and disregard the ignorant," one book counsels. Advises the other, "Be gentle towards all, ... forbearing."

Reuters - A set of U.N. goals aimed at drastically reducing poverty and hunger worldwide by 2015 are achievable, despite setbacks caused by the global financial and economic crises, a draft document said.