AP - The Bush administration plans to remove North Korea from a terrorism blacklist on Saturday after getting assurances the Stalinist nation has agreed to a plan to inspect its nuclear facilities, The Associated Press has learned.

Reuters - General Motors is in preliminary talks about a possible merger with fellow U.S. automaker Chrysler, The New York Times reported late on Friday.

Reuters - An Alaska ethics inquiry found on Friday that U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin abused her power as the state's governor, casting a cloud over John McCain's controversial choice of running mate for the November 4 election.

AFP - Investigators found vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her powers as Alaska governor, dealing another blow to Republican John McCain's struggling White House bid.

Reuters - North Korea's state TV broadcast pictures of Kim Jong-il Saturday as the reclusive country stepped up its campaign to show its leader was healthy after reports surfaced last month he may have suffered a stroke.

Reuters - Connecticut's highest court on Friday unexpectedly struck down a ban on gay and lesbian marriage, making the New England state the third in the nation to allow full-fledged marriage for same-sex couples.

AFP - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her position as Alaska's governor by pressuring officials to sack her former brother-in-law from the state police force, a long-awaited report said.

Reuters - Finance chiefs of the world's rich nations pledged on Friday to prevent big banks from collapse and to work together to stem the financial crisis after another day of gut-wrenching drops on world markets.

AP - A hot air balloon crashed into power lines and burst into flames Friday during Albuquerque's annual balloon fiesta, throwing both men on board to the ground and killing one of them. Witnesses said that many of the balloons were flying low right before the Wings of Wind balloon crashed in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque.

Reuters - An Alaska ethics inquiry found that Gov. Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate, abused the power of her office by dismissing the state's public safety commissioner, a report released on Friday said.

AP - O.J. Simpson's lawyers cited judicial errors and insufficient evidence Friday in seeking a new trial for the former football star, who was convicted of kidnapping and robbing two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a casino hotel room.

AP - Angelina Jolie, an advocate of adoption, credits partner Brad Pitt with her decision to have biological children. In an interview with W magazine, Jolie says: "One of the life-changing things that he did, one of many, is that I was absolutely never going to get pregnant. I never felt that it was the right thing to do."

Reuters - The United States is developing plans to buy equity stakes in financial institutions, providing another weapon in its war against financial market turmoil, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday.

AFP - The finance chiefs of the Group of Seven major advanced economies announced have a broad five-point action plan to tackle a global crisis that has markets and the banking system reeling.

AP - Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper, the chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel concluded Friday. The politically charged inquiry imperiled her reputation as a reformer on John McCain's Republican ticket.

AP - Who is running for president? In an upstate New York county, hundreds of voters have been sent absentee ballots in which they could vote for "Barack Osama."

AP - A sharply divided Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to get married, saying legislators did not go far enough when they approved same-sex civil unions that were identical to marriages in virtually every respect except the name.

AP - The government will buy an ownership stake in a broad array of American banks for the first time since the Great Depression, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said late Friday, announcing the historic step after stock markets jolted still lower around the world despite all efforts to slow the selling stampede.

AP - The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

AP - John McCain and Barack Obama outlined steps to counter the faltering economy and plummeting stock market on Friday, fresh evidence of the dominant role of pocketbook issues in their race for the White House.