Reuters - More storms dumped crop-drowning rains on parts of the U.S. Midwest on Thursday, threatening strained levees and slowing recovery from a multibillion-dollar flood disaster in the heart of the world's biggest grain and food exporter.

Reuters - Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan publicly slit the throats of two Afghans on Friday after they were accused of spying for U.S. forces suspected of launching a missile strike in May.

Reuters - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved $161.8 billion in new funds to continue fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next year, without timetables for withdrawing combat troops.

Reuters - Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton take the first step toward healing the wounds of their bruising presidential nominating fight with a joint appearance on Friday in the symbolically named New Hampshire town of Unity.

Reuters - Zimbabweans began voting slowly in a one-sided presidential run-off on Friday after President Robert Mugabe defied mounting world condemnation and calls to postpone an election which the opposition says is a farce.

Reuters - North Korea toppled the cooling tower at its nuclear plant on Friday, a South Korean broadcaster said, a move showing the North's commitment to a nuclear deal a day after submitting a list of its atomic plans.

AP - Minutes after the NBA draft started, Derrick Rose learned he was headed home. Long after it ended, O.J. Mayo and Kevin Love were on the move.

AP - Paris Hilton is making good on her promise to become a better person.

AP - U.S. Army Spc. Kendell Frederick lost his life while trying to become a citizen of the country he was fighting for. Now, his mother hopes a bill President Bush signed into law Thursday will make sure no other soldier dies the way her son did.

AP - Police officers took aim this week at vehicles zipping down a runway in tests meant to convince judges that laser speed guns — increasingly popular among law enforcement — are as accurate as their radar cousins.

AP - Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, a prominent attorney who took on tobacco, asbestos and insurance companies, was scheduled to be sentenced Friday for his role in a high-profile judicial bribery case.

AP - Groups of people led by apparent ruling-party marshals lined up at polling stations Friday to vote in Zimbabwe's one-candidate presidential runoff, an election condemned by world leaders and expected to deepen the southern African nation's political crisis.

AP - When Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton step onstage in their first joint campaign appearance in New Hampshire, it will be the first public display of a rapprochement between former rivals hoping to set aside differences and unify the party while helping each other.

AP - Oil prices climbed to a record above $141 a barrel in Asian trading Friday as the dollar's protracted slump prompted investors to flock to oil as a hedge against inflation.