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AP - The Senate cleared the last hurdle Friday to passing a housing rescue aimed at sparing hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure and bolstering troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama expected to spend just enough time in Paris on Friday for talks with the French president and a joint news conference, not a rousing speech like the one he delivered in Berlin.

AP - A hole the size of a small car in the underside of a Qantas jumbo jet carrying 346 passengers over the South China Sea forced the pilot to make an emergency landing Friday after a rapid descent.

AP - Business at reopened restaurants was humming, grocery store parking lots were packed and residents of south Texas were venturing out on the newly dry roads again as the remnants of Hurricane Dolly moved well away from the Rio Grande Valley.

AP - Sales of new homes fell in June for the seventh time in the past eight months, more proof that the worst housing slump in decades is getting deeper.

AP - Upbeat economic data lifted stocks Friday, placating a market pummeled a day earlier by concerns about housing and the financial sector.

AP - Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose "last lecture" about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

AP - China's booming Internet population has surpassed the United States to become the world's biggest, with 253 million people online despite government controls on Web use, according to government data reported Friday.

AP - It sounds like a scene from "Fight Club." French police say camouflaged paparazzi who got on to the grounds of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's chateau in southern France fought with the Hollywood couple's guards.

AP - Thousands of eager fans who had waited for up to two days swarmed sales windows Friday for the final batch of tickets to next month's Olympic Games, knocking people to the ground and bending metal barricades in the chaotic crush.

Reuters - Consumer sentiment rebounded in July from a 28-year low and business investment rose unexpectedly last month, according to data on Friday that showed rare signs of resilience for the U.S. economy.

Reuters - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama hopes his visit to Europe and the Middle East will show U.S. voters that he is a safe pair of hands, the Democrat said in an interview on Friday.

Reuters - Troubled global trade talks showed signs of progress on Friday after crunch negotiations among seven key countries, ministers and officials said.

Reuters - U.S. legislation to rein in excessive energy speculation failed a key procedural vote on Friday to move forward in the Senate, and now lawmakers will set aside the bill to consider other legislation.

Reuters - A Qantas Airways plane made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after part of its undercarriage blew off, triggering a loss in cabin pressure during a flight from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

Reuters - Eight small bombs exploded in quick succession across the south Indian IT city of Bangalore on Friday, killing a woman and wounding at least 15 people, police said.

Reuters - Britain's ruling Labour Party lost one of its safest parliamentary seats on Friday, deepening doubts within the party about Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ability to win the next election.

Reuters - New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani can expect U.S. demands for action against militants in tribal lands on the Afghan border, along with usual statements of support, when he visits Washington next week.

AFP - Barack Obama met in Paris Friday with the pro-US President Nicolas Sarkozy on a world tour aimed at burnishing the White House hopeful's foreign policy credentials ahead of November elections.

AFP - A deadline loomed Friday for Radovan Karadzic to appeal his transfer to the UN war crimes tribunal, as more details emerged about his life on the run and his assets came under threat of confiscation.