AP - A man was executed Thursday for the slaying of a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and raped in 1997 after attending a neighborhood barbecue.

AP - Californians will decide whether to make it harder for girls to terminate pregnancies without their parents' knowledge, but recent polls suggest they will reaffirm voters' long-standing support for unfettered abortion access.

AP - Smokers might have to walk down the block to light up if Washington voters approve one of the most restrictive statewide bans on indoor public smoking in the country.

AP - Just as she was trying to rebuild her own life after Hurricane Katrina, Elaine Oneto was told by military officials that her soldier son lost his in Iraq.

AP - A hospital is ending its liver transplant program after officials acknowledged in September that doctors violated national standards by giving an organ to a man who was not among the neediest patients.

AP - Californians will decide whether to make it harder for girls to terminate pregnancies without their parents' knowledge, but recent polls suggest they will reaffirm voters' long-standing support for unfettered abortion access.

AP - A death row inmate escaped from a county jail after he obtained civilian clothing and a fake ID badge, authorities said.

AP - A hospital is ending its liver transplant program after officials acknowledged in September that doctors violated national standards by giving an organ to a man who was not among the neediest patients.

USATODAY.com - New Jersey's next governor will be a self-made millionaire who says he will implement property tax relief and bolster working families. On Tuesday, New Jersey voters will decide who it is: Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine or Republican businessman Doug Forrester.

AP - A divided federal appeals court for a second time has rejected four journalists' appeal of a judge's order directing them to testify about their confidential sources as part of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee's lawsuit against the government.

AP - Newly-released e-mails show former FEMA director Michael Brown discussing his wardrobe during the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Incumbent Kwame Kilpatrick gained ground on front-runner Freman Hendrix as the Detroit mayoral election neared, according to a poll published Friday.

AP - A man who had sex with women and teenage girls without warning them he had the AIDS virus was sent to prison Thursday by a judge who labeled him a 'violent, self-absorbed outlaw.'

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.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States is trying harder than ever to isolate Cuba and is leaning on countries to back its economic embargo on the communist-run island at the United Nations, Cuba's ambassador to Britain said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators approved a generic liquid version of GlaxoSmithKline's AIDS drug Epivir for use under the nation's program to help fight the disease in other countries, officials said on Friday.

HAMILTON, Montana (Reuters) - When Dick Neville proposed building log homes for a living in Montana in the mid-1960s, his banker advised him against it.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. grand jury in San Francisco on Thursday indicted an Illinois chemist suspected of supplying a previously undetectable steroid to the BALCO lab in a global scandal that tarnished some top names in sport.

AP - A judge on Friday upheld a gay marriage ban adopted last year by Oregon voters, sweeping aside arguments by gay rights supporters that the measure was flawed.

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 - A biology professor who supports classroom discussion of "intelligent design" testified Friday that major peer-reviewed scientific journals shun articles on the concept because it is a minority view.

AP - A woman was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for having repeated sexual contact with her daughter's 8-year-old playmate, once sending him a love letter that said 'I want you!'

AP - Ford Motor Co., the nation's second biggest automaker, said Friday it is teaming up with an energy company to increase the number of ethanol fuel stations next year and said it plans a consumer awareness campaign about the benefits of ethanol.

AP - Howard Dean's decision to seal some of his gubernatorial papers for a decade was legal, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

AP - A new judge has been appointed to preside over Rep. Tom DeLay's campaign finance trial after two judges stepped away from their involvement in the case because of their own political contributions.

AP - Hurricane victims in Florida and along the Gulf Coast have to be asking themselves something survivors of tornadoes, blizzards and earthquakes also wonder: Is there any place you can go that is safe from natural disasters?

AP - A young man was arrested on charges of spreading viruses to almost 400,000 military and other computers, letting him put 'armies' of electronics under his control.

AP - One of the hottest-selling T-shirts around the country shows a simply drawn snowman with a menacing expression.

AP - A bomb squad blew up a metal pipe that had a battery, wires, rope and an electrical switch, only to realize it was an eighth-grade science project.

AP - The sobbing mother of two young boys killed in a hit-and-run accident last year urged the judge Friday to sentence the driver, an elementary school dance teacher, to the maximum three years in prison.

AP - Early support for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is considerably weaker among such key groups as evangelicals, Republicans and the wealthy than it was for John Roberts, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

AP - A military jury cleared an Army sergeant Friday of charges he abused a mentally retarded detainee at a U.S. detention facility in Afghanistan.

AP - That most sacred of tax breaks, the mortgage interest deduction that has helped millions buy homes, could vanish if President Bush and Congress follow the recommendations of his tax advisory board.

AP - Police broke up a poker game at a private club, arrested 95 people and seized $25,000 in what they called the city's biggest gambling raid since Prohibition.

AP - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, flew into New Orleans on Friday for a brief glimpse of the ravaged city and a chance to meet a few of the hundreds of thousands of residents whose lives were turned upside-down by Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Texas' chief justice said Friday his decision to appoint a Democrat to preside over Republican Rep. Tom DeLay's campaign-finance case stands, despite prosecutors' objections to the justice's political connections.

AP - Ford Motor Co. said Friday it is teaming up with an energy company to increase the number of ethanol fuel stations next year.

AP - The FBI has determined that financial gain, not an effort to influence U.S. policy, was behind the forged documents that the Bush administration used to bolster its prewar claim that Iraq sought uranium ore in Niger.

AP - Carolyn and Keith Maupin walked into the Pentagon Friday hoping for any new bits of information about their son, who was captured by insurgents near Baghdad more than 18 months ago.

AP - More than 200 soldiers, family and friends attended funeral services Friday to pay tribute to Army Col. William Wesley Wood, the highest ranking member of the U.S. military to be killed in Iraq.

AP - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, flew into New Orleans on Friday for a brief glimpse of the ravaged city and a chance to meet a few of the hundreds of thousands of residents whose lives were turned upside-down by Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Early support for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is considerably weaker among such key groups as evangelicals, Republicans and the wealthy than it was for John Roberts, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

AP - An engineer and Chinese television director are among four people indicted on charges of stealing secret documents on Navy warships and trying to smuggle them to China, prosecutors said Friday.