AP - Magic Johnson says he's outraged that a pair of Minneapolis talk radio hosts accused him of faking AIDS. KTLK's Chris Baker and Langdon Perry made the remarks during Baker's conservative talk show on Wednesday. The context for the remarks wasn't clear.

AP - If you're wondering what was going through Britney Spears' head during her erratic era, you are not alone — so does she.

AP - Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

AP - Matthew Shepard's mother still mourns lost opportunities to battle hate crimes and promote a greater tolerance of gays in the 10 years since her 21-year-old son was beaten, tied to a wooden fence and left for dead in a frigid Wyoming pasture.

AP - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell called Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens' word "sterling" at the senator's corruption trial. Federal prosecutors have accused Stevens of lying on Senate documents about more than $250,000 in renovations to his Alaska cabin and other gifts from Bill Allen, former head of the oil services company VECO Corp.

AP - Republican John McCain, trailing in polls and searching for a way to gain ground, assailed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Friday in a sharply worded TV ad that said: "When convenient, he worked with terrorist Bill Ayers. When discovered, he lied."

AP - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions through the courts. The ruling comes just weeks before Californians go to the polls on a historic gay-marriage ballot question, the first time the issue will be put before voters in a state where same-sex couples are legally wed.

AP - President Bush said Friday that the government's financial rescue plan was aggressive enough and big enough to work, but would take time to fully kick in. "We can solve this crisis and we will," he said in brief remarks from the White House Rose Garden.

AP - Wall Street extended its devastating decline Friday as investors, still seeing no resolution to the credit crisis, sold frantically and propelled the Dow Jones industrials to their eighth straight day of losses and worst week ever. Stocks gyrated in the opening minutes as a burst of buying in financial stocks spread to other sectors, but all the major indexes were down more than 5 percent by midafternoon.

AFP - Leaders of Thai anti-government protests were granted bail Friday after surrendering to police and immediately vowed new rallies, raising fears of mounting turmoil days after deadly street clashes.

AFP - Global stock markets went into freefall on Friday as pressure mounted for decisive action from world leaders to contain the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Reuters - Americans Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar and Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari are among late tips to win the Nobel Peace Prize, though there is no clear favorite, Norwegian NRK television reported on Thursday.

Reuters - Trailing in opinion polls, Republican presidential nominee John McCain pressed his effort to raise doubts about Barack Obama's character on Thursday with a fresh attack on his Democratic rival's contacts with a former radical who became a college professor.

Reuters - Warren Buffett has overtaken Bill Gates to become the richest American in the Forbes 400 list, Bloomberg said, citing a recalculated list to be published later this month.

Reuters - The United States and North Korea are near a compromise to save a crumbling nuclear deal, news reports said on Friday, while Japan said it could accept rewarding the North by taking it off a U.S. terrorism blacklist.