AP - Has the Brangelina brood increased by two? There were conflicting reports Friday about the impending birth of Angelina Jolie's twins.

AP - The Vatican insisted Friday that it is properly following Christian tradition by excluding females from the priesthood as it issued a new warning that women taking part in ordinations will be excommunicated.

AP - Most of the 8,000 children found alone after China's devastating earthquake have been reunited with their parents, Chinese officials said Friday.

AP - A Grupo TACA airplane overshot a runway and slammed to a stop on a city street Friday in the Honduran capital, leaving a pilot and a passenger dead and injuring several others.

AP - The first round of economic stimulus checks gave a boost to personal incomes in April but a huge question remains: Will people spend the checks quickly enough to keep the economy afloat?

AP - Democratic leaders are pushing for a quick end to their party's grueling presidential nomination battle, days ahead of the final primaries and a key party meeting. Supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton planned a weekend rally in hopes of saving her faltering candidacy.

AP - Now, the waiting begins. A Texas Supreme Court ruling paves the way for members of a polygamist sect to get their children out of foster care, but it remains unclear when that might happen or what kind of restrictions might be imposed.

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.