AP - A construction crane collapsed Friday on New York's Upper East Side, smashing into a 23-story apartment building as it fell to the ground, killing two construction workers and seriously injuring another.

AFP - The Texas Supreme Court ruled that 468 children seized from a polygamist sect must be returned to their parents, saying state child welfare officials had overstepped their authority.

AFP - Authorities on Friday ordered 1.3 million people near a "quake lake" in southwest China to evacuate amid fears it could burst and send massive torrents of water downstream, official media said.

Reuters - Traffic was so bad in 10 major U.S. cities that 27 percent of the drivers surveyed gave up and went home in the past three years, a study said on Friday.

Reuters - Al Qaeda is essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the world, CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a Washington Post interview published on Friday.

Reuters - Ford Motor Co is preparing to fire U.S. salaried employees over the next two months due to the sudden downturn in auto sales, a drastic step it has so far avoided during its 2-1/2-year restructuring.

Reuters - Luxury goods makers are hoping to weather a consumption slowdown in the United States and Japan, their two biggest markets, with the help of shoppers in emerging economies and super-rich clients who do not feel the economic pinch.

Reuters - Leaders of Israel's governing Kadima party plan to meet in as little as a week to decide on an internal ballot that could replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, senior Kadima members said on Friday.

Reuters - Texas overstepped its authority when it removed some 460 children from a polygamist ranch last month, the state's Supreme Court said on Thursday.

Reuters - A White House race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama could shake up the political map in November, putting new states in play and shifting the odds in some traditional battlegrounds like Florida and Ohio.

Reuters - United Airlines and US Airways have suspended merger talks due to concerns about labor opposition and integration costs, while United draws closer to an alliance with Continental Airlines, a source close to the talks said late on Thursday.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that he was "deeply disappointed" by a supporter's sermon at his church that mocked Hillary Rodham Clinton.

AP - Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles," died Thursday. He was 81.

AP - Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers dispatched the defending champions, and now they're headed to the NBA finals for the first time in four years.

AP - When Tina Meier's 13-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet, her grief was so encompassing she felt at times she couldn't breathe. She had trouble being around loved ones who reminded her of her child. Even today, recollections of those first holidays after Megan's death are foggy at best.