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.

AP - President Barack Obama says that while the U.S. economy is showing progress from the deepest recession in decades, the progress has been painfully slow.

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

Reuters - Stocks rose on Friday as energy shares were boosted by a jump in crude oil prices and wholesale inventory data pointed to rising consumer demand.

Reuters - Deutsche Bank is set to lead rivals raising billions of euros as new global capital rules to be unveiled this weekend bite, and showed it may be good to get the jump on the pack.

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 - 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.

Reuters - U.S. crude rose more than $1 a barrel to over $75 on Friday due to the shutdown of a major pipeline, but a leading forecaster said demand would stay tepid.

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

Reuters - Nokia has hired Stephen Elop, a Canadian Microsoft executive with Silicon Valley credentials, to replace its embattled chief executive and renew its drive to compete with Apple.

Reuters - Imagine driving across America using a fuel so new you have to carry your own supply wherever you go.

AP - The Greek government pledged Friday to radically overhaul loss-making state rail company OSE, as official data showed efforts to cut the country's bloated budget deficit remained on track, if slightly asthmatic.

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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - German stocks underperformed their European and U.S. counterparts Friday following reports that Deutsche Bank AG is planning to raise as much as euro9 billion ($11.4 billion) to lift its stake in Deutsche Postbank AG and shore up its capital base.

AP - Clashes between police and alleged militants left six more people dead Friday in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, even as stunned residents laid flowers in a square where a suicide car bombing killed 17 people and wounded more than 140 only a day ago.

AP - Nokia Corp. is replacing CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with top Microsoft executive Stephen Elop as the world's top handset maker aims to regain lost ground in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.

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.