AP - Ken Cockrel Jr. was sworn in as mayor Friday, vaulted into office by a sex scandal that destroyed the reign of Kwame Kilpatrick and threw the nation's 11th-largest city into chaos for months.

AP - Authorities laid out a plan Friday — a week after Hurricane Ike began lashing the Texas coast with 110-mph winds and relentless storm surge — to let about 45,000 anxious evacuees back onto Galveston Island for good.

AP - Testimony resumed Friday in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping trial after jurors made an unannounced field trip to the scene of the alleged crime at a casino hotel. Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass ordered the jury visit late Thursday after deciding that a plywood and pressboard mock-up of the 322-square foot hotel room built in the courthouse basement wasn't suitable, court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer said.

AP - Florida authorities closed their case Friday against former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, saying he won't face charges for allegedly sending salacious computer messages to underage male pages because prosecutors couldn't prove the authenticity of the chats. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also said in an investigative report that too much time had passed since the February 2003 messages to bring any charges.

AP - NASA is extending the Phoenix Mars mission again. The three-legged spacecraft has been digging trenches near the Martian north pole since landing on May 25 and its work was supposed to end this month. Phoenix is studying whether the site could have been favorable for microbial life to emerge.

AP - Yemeni-Americans in this upstate New York city have seen terrorism from two sides.

AP - Congress promised quick action on a plan to buy up toxic assets, such as bad mortgages, held by troubled banks and other institutions, hoping to lift the nation out of its worst financial crisis in decades.

AP - They stand within feet of speeding locomotives, climb signal poles to photograph passing trains and try to befriend conductors and engineers.

AP - After an exhaustive two-year investigation, former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley isn't expected to face charges for sending salacious messages to underage pages, two federal law enforcement officials have told The Associated Press.

AP - The new chief executive officer of Agriprocessors, the kosher meatpacker targeted in an immigration raid and accused of child-labor violations, said Thursday that his company will make fundamental changes.