AP - Los Angeles fire officials say at least 12 people have been killed in the collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a freight train in the San Fernando Valley.

AP - A massive Hurricane Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts as residents who decided too late they should have heeded calls to evacuate made futile calls for rescue.

AFP - President Robert Mugabe and the opposition will wield equal power in a unity government aimed at ending Zimbabwe's protracted political crisis and economic meltdown, sources said Friday.

AFP - A strengthening Hurricane Ike Friday bore down on Houston Friday, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee and sparking a dire warning that those remaining in low-lying areas "face certain death."

Reuters - Afghan police have arrested three men on suspicion of giving false information which led to the death of civilians in a U.S. air strike in western Afghanistan last month, the interior ministry said on Friday.

Reuters - The U.S. government should not back $25 billion or more in loans to help General Motors Corp and the other domestic auto companies, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee said on Friday.

Reuters - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday NATO's promise to extend membership to Georgia was unjust, humiliating and intolerable to Moscow.

Reuters - Missiles fired by a U.S. drone aircraft killed 14 people in northwest Pakistan on Friday, security officials said, in a strike against suspected militants that drew condemnation from Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Reuters - The United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials on Friday, escalating a diplomatic crisis between leftist Latin American leaders and Washington that raises the specter of an oil supply cutoff.

Reuters - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama endorsed on Friday a Pentagon decision to let the next administration resolve a thorny dispute among aerospace manufacturers for a $35 billion Air Force tanker program.

Reuters - Concern that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc may fail to find a buyer because the U.S. government is reluctant to provide financial backing sent the firm's shares down to a 14-year low on Friday.

Reuters - Hurricane Ike closed in on the Texas coast on Friday, pushing a wall of water that weather officials warned could bring certain death to those who did not heed mandatory evacuation orders.

AP - Russian tennis star Nikolay Davydenko was cleared by the ATP on Friday after a yearlong investigation into suspicious betting patterns on a match he lost to a low-ranked opponent.

AP - Cameras flashing and films rolling, a crowd of paparazzi surrounded a police escort, trying to get the perfect shot of Britney Spears' little sister as she left the Los Angeles International Airport.