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 - 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 insisted Friday that the U.S. economy is showing progress from the deepest recession in decades but conceded the "progress has been painfully slow." He said he understands that many voters in November's elections may blame the weak recovery on him.

AP - Minutes after a woman was suspended from her job at a Kraft Foods Inc. plant and 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 - 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 - Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, an independent Belgian commission said Friday.

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

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 - Stocks edged higher Friday as investors placed more bets that the economy will continue to grow.

AP - A day that started badly for Tom Brady turned out to be a pretty good one after all.

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

Reuters - The death toll rose to four on Friday in the fiery gas line explosion that tore through a neighborhood of a San Francisco suburb and razed 38 homes, officials 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.

Reuters - Prime Minister Naoto Kan has widened his lead over powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa ahead in a party leadership vote, Kyodo news agency said on Friday, days before the contest that could set Japan's fiscal priorities.

AFP - A Florida pastor at the center of a global firestorm insisted Friday he would not proceed with a planned Koran burning ceremony, but failed to stem a tide of Muslim outrage.

AFP - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday used his traditional message marking the Eid Muslim holiday to call on the leader of the Taliban to stop fighting and join peace talks to end Afghanistan's long war.