AP - Merck & Co.'s victory in the nation's second Vioxx trial may lighten the company's litigation load as plaintiff lawyers shun weaker cases, but the legal saga over the withdrawn painkiller is far from over.

AP - Colombian rocker Juanes won three awards and Spanish crooner Alejandro Sanz won two at Thursday's revamped Latin Grammys, which were broadcast in Spanish for the first time and showcased an expanding range of genres.

Reuters - For the first time in his presidency, a majority of Americans questioned President George W. Bush's personal integrity as his approval ratings on key issues fell to new lows in an ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Thursday.

AP - President Bush wanted a new Supreme Court justice for Christmas, but the Senate says: Wait 'til next year.

Reuters - Rioters set fire to at least 150 vehicles in an eighth night of unrest in the impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris as exasperated local officials criticized politicking by national leaders.

Reuters - Gunmen killed at least six Iraqi policemen and wounded 10 when they attacked their checkpoint north of Baghdad on Friday, a police official said.

AP - Sunni-led insurgents killed six Iraqi police officers at a checkpoint and fired a mortar round that struck a home outside the capital, killing a child inside, officials said, as Shiites began celebrating a major Muslim holiday.

AP - President Bush will make his call for liberalized trade and increased entrepreneurship in Argentina, a country that adopted such reforms in the 1990s and saw its economy collapse.

AP - A wave of arson attacks in Paris' restive suburbs punctured what authorities said Friday was otherwise a first relative night of calm after a week of clashes between angry youths and riot police.

AP - President Bush's public support has eroded to its lowest level yet, with the Iraq war dragging on, a top White House aide facing felony charges and the White House rushing to replace a failed Supreme Court nominee.

AP - States have their own ideas for dealing with an outbreak of bird flu or other super-flu strain — readying possible quarantine sites and talking about closing schools and businesses.

Reuters - Police shot in the air to disperse protesters in the Ethiopian capital on Friday, witnesses said, in a fourth day of clashes between police and anti-government protesters that have killed at least 42 people.

Los Angeles Times - The Air Force has scrapped plans to order additional C-17 cargo planes, a decision that could bring Boeing Co. a step closer to shuttering California's last major airplane manufacturing plant in 2008, Pentagon and defense industry sources said Thursday.

Los Angeles Times - ACAPULCO — Death surprised Julio Carlos Lopez Soto near the beach as he stepped out of the swanky La Mansion steakhouse, where the meat is grilled on tabletops overlooking the Pacific.

Los Angeles Times - WASHINGTON — Six days after being indicted, former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he repeatedly lied to investigators and to a federal grand jury in the CIA leak case.

Los Angeles Times - U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) used his influence to open doors in Washington for a Hollywood producer pitching a television show after the producer paid him a $23,000 option on a screenplay, records and interviews show.

Los Angeles Times - PARIS — Rioters fired at police, stoned commuter trains and torched a school, shops and hundreds of vehicles in tough immigrant suburbs Thursday, spurring French authorities to deploy 1,000 riot police on an eighth night of street violence.

AP - President Bush, greeted Friday by thousands of anti-American protesters, is making his call for liberalized trade and increased entrepreneurship in Argentina, a country that adopted such reforms in the 1990s and saw its economy collapse.

AP - Economists are forecasting a rise of 102,000 non-farm jobs when the Labor Department releases its unemployment data for October this morning. The jobless rate is expected to hold steady at 5.1 percent.

AP - The Senate moved the digital TV transition one step closer to reality on Thursday, setting a firm date for television broadcasters to switch to all-digital transmissions.

AP - An attorney for Bonny Lee Bakley's family says Robert Blake was bent on getting rid of his wife at any cost. Defense lawyers say the actor wanted to stay married to Bakley and raise his daughter in a stable environment.

AP - Say what you want about police officers, but they are no dummies. The California Highway Patrol gave Kevin Morgan, 28, of Petaluma, a $351 citation for driving in a high occupancy vehicle or 'HOV' lane with a kickboxing dummy propped in the passenger seat.

AP - The Miami Heat entered this season believing they have the NBA's best frontcourt depth. That theory is about to be tested.

Reuters - Rioters set fire to hundreds of vehicles in an eighth night of unrest in the impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris as exasperated local officials criticized the response of national leaders.

Reuters - Two men were charged on Friday under anti-terrorism laws with planning to carry out an attack in Britain, possibly on a hospital, police said.

AP - President Bush on Friday worked to smooth the United States' troubled image in Latin America, saying Argentina has made commendable efforts to improve its damaged economy.

AP - America's payrolls grew by a rather tepid 56,000 in October, a sign that the nation's job market is slowly regaining its footing after the beating administered to the Gulf Coast area by Hurricane Katrina. The unemployment rate dipped to 5 percent of the labor force.

USATODAY.com - Legal experts say the fact that columnist Robert Novak is not critical to CIA leak case says a lot about what Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has decided about the alleged original crime - the leak. It also signals that I. Lewis Libby was not one of Novak's sources on the story, they say.

AP - China reported its fourth bird flu outbreak in three weeks, saying Friday that 8,940 chickens died in a northeastern village despite a nationwide effort to contain the virus. The discovery prompted authorities to destroy about 370,000 birds.

Reuters - Thousands of marchers on the streets of a heavily policed Argentine resort protested on Friday against U.S. President George W. Bush and his free-trade push as leaders from the Americas convened for a contentious debate on improving Latin America's economy.

Reuters - China and Vietnam reported major bird flu outbreaks in poultry on Friday, days before global health experts meet to refine plans to control the virus that has killed more than 60 people in Asia and spread to Europe.

Reuters - Japan and North Korea ended two days of talks on Friday with no visible progress in long-standing disputes that have blocked the Asian neighbors from forging diplomatic ties.

Los Angeles Times - For 60 years it percolated in Sam Goetz's mind, rising to the level of obsession — this need to find the American soldier who had loomed so large in the most critical moment of Goetz's life.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Friday he would not comment on the status at the White House of deputy chief of staff Karl Rove until an investigation into his role in the leak of a CIA agent's name was completed.

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (Reuters) - Rioters set fire to hundreds of vehicles in impoverished suburbs of northeastern Paris in an eighth night of unrest that spread for the first time to other parts of the capital and towns in France.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Political unrest erupted beyond Ethiopia's capital for the first time on Friday in a development likely to deepen concern for the African giant's stability after days of bloody disturbances in Addis Ababa.

AP - President Bush on Friday worked to smooth the United States' troubled image in Latin America, commending Argentina's efforts to improve its damaged economy.

AP - Prince Charles and his wife Camilla will bid farewell to Washington with a solemn tribute to American war dead and a meeting with young students of Shakespeare, before flying to New Orleans to view the devastated city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

AP - A fire in a movie complex in Malaysia's iconic Petronas Twin Towers late Friday night triggered widespread panic among patrons who fled screaming and coughing from the thick, acrid smoke, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injury.

AP - Yoko Ono has apologized to Paul McCartney for insinuating that his songs are trite.

AP - North Korea's communist government is urging women in the country to wear traditional Korean clothes instead of pants, according to a North Korean monthly magazine.

AP - A crowd of 10,000 protesters chanting "Get out Bush!" swarmed the streets of this Argentine resort Friday, hours before the hemisphere's leaders sat down to debate free trade, immigration and job creation.

AP - America's payrolls grew by a rather tepid 56,000 in October, a sign that the nation's job market is slowly regaining its footing after the beating administered to the Gulf Coast area by Hurricane Katrina. The unemployment rate dipped to 5 percent of the labor force.

AP - Prince Charles and his wife Camilla paid solemn tribute to America's World War II dead on Friday before leaving for New Orleans to view the devastated city's recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

AP - China and Vietnam reported new bird flu outbreaks in poultry Friday despite massive prevention efforts, while Japan prepared to destroy 180,000 birds to stop a suspected outbreak and Thailand announced plans to distribute its own generic anti-viral drug.

AP - Heat center Shaquille O'Neal flew with his team to Milwaukee on Friday, but it's unknown if the 12-time All-Star will miss any games because of his sprained right ankle.

Reuters - Tens of thousands of marchers protested on Friday against U.S. President George W. Bush and his free-trade push, as leaders from the Americas gathered in an Argentine resort for a contentious debate on improving Latin America's economy.

Reuters - Sophisticated technology and explosives to make improvised bombs killing U.S. and other troops in Iraq are apparently entering the country virtually unhindered from Iran, a senior British general said on Friday.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives cleared a final $20.9 billion foreign aid bill with more money than President George W. Bush sought to fight AIDS abroad but significantly less than he wanted for Iraq and his program to reward reform-minded countries.

Reuters - The United States should consult internationally on its plans for Iraq given the potentially devastating consequences of a failure in its policies there, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said on Friday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan canceled his forthcoming trip to Tehran after the Iranian president's call to 'wipe Israel off the map,' the United Nations said on Friday.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Police searched in downtown Houston and surrounding areas on Friday for a prisoner who escaped from Harris County Jail a week after he was sentenced to die for two 1998 murders.

AP - The Summit of the Americas opened Friday as a battleground over free trade, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and thousands of protesters vowing to bury a U.S.-led plan to create one of the world's largest free trade zones.

AP - The job market is struggling to regain its balance after getting knocked over by Hurricane Katrina. Employers, coping with high energy prices and shaken by two other hurricanes, showed caution in hiring in October.

AP - Small youth gangs roaming Paris' restive suburbs set fire to more than 500 vehicles and hurled stones at police as unrest outside the capital entered its second week Friday and spread for the first time to other parts of France.

AP - Heat center Shaquille O'Neal will miss two to four weeks with a sprained right ankle, adding to the team's early-season injury woes.

AP - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended a major purchase of U.S. fighter planes, saying Friday during a tour of this devastated city that funds are needed first and foremost for earthquake recovery.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A poll showing rising doubts among Americans about President George W. Bush's integrity has raised a new hurdle to the fresh start he is seeking after the indictment of a senior White House aide and other political woes.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled his forthcoming trip to Tehran after the Iranian president's call to 'wipe Israel off the map,' the United Nations said on Friday.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - President George W. Bush refused to comment on Friday on whether top White House aide Karl Rove will keep his job, saying he wanted to wait until an investigation is completed into his role in the leak of a CIA officer's name.

AP - Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of this seaside resort Friday chanting "Get out Bush" as the U.S. president sought to promote free trade at a divided Summit of the Americas. Protests turned violent with about 1,000 people shattering shopfronts with clubs and pelting riot police with stones.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

AP - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled a trip to Iran in response to increasing tension over the Iranian president's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

AP - A late rally gave Wall Street a modest advance Friday after a lackluster employment report left investors wondering about the pace of economic growth and inflation. The major indexes each gained more than 1 percent this week.

AP - Authorities searched for a death row inmate Friday who slipped off his handcuffs, changed into street clothes and bluffed his way out of jail by flashing a fake ID badge with a photo of himself.

AP - Bands of youths roaming Parisian suburbs burned more than 500 vehicles and hurled stones at police Friday, as the worst rioting in a decade entered its second week and spread elsewhere in France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport via strife-torn areas.

Reuters - Violence erupted again in poor suburbs of Paris where youths torched buildings and dozens of cars and sporadic unrest spread in the early hours of Saturday to at least three other French cities.

AP - Tim Duncan had 21 points and 10 rebounds and the San Antonio Spurs shut down LeBron James over the final three quarters of a 102-76 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has canceled his forthcoming trip to Tehran in response to the Iranian president's call to "wipe Israel off the map," the United Nations said on Friday.