AP - An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for the mayor of Mississippi's largest city on charges that he violated terms of his probation, which had been set because of misdemeanor weapons charges, officials said.

AP - National interests make strange bedfellows. There could be no better example than the warming relationship between the United States and China, two old antagonists.

AP - Mitt Romney suggested last week that he and his fellow Republican presidential contenders would avoid the 'rancor' that flared between Democrats after one of Barack Obama's fundraisers questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton's honesty.

AP - President Bush on Saturday will visit areas hit by a violent storm system that spawned tornadoes in several states and struck an Alabama high school, killing eight students.

The Christian Science Monitor - Sen. Barack Obama's dramatic rise in support among African-Americans signals a shift in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination that is larger than just the black vote. Overall, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is still on top, but her lead is shrinking. And polls show Senator Obama of Illinois has more room for growth than she does, because of her high negatives.

AP - The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to reduce diesel exhaust from trains and ships, a move supported by some environmentalists.

AP - Republican Mike Huckabee cast himself Friday as a lifelong conservative the GOP can count on as he fought for the support of restless right-wing activists still searching for a presidential candidate.

AP - Jurors in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby returned to work Friday with no verdict immediately in sight.

AP - The main Sudanese opposition leader says the government is refusing to allow U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur because it knows the U.N. troops would help hunt down war crimes suspects for the International Criminal Court.

AP - Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush Administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.

AP - Two months after Democrats took control of Congress, there isn't much to show for the switch in power — despite feverish efforts to weigh in on meaty matters, such as the war in Iraq.

AP - Jurors completed a shortened, eighth day of deliberations Friday without a verdict in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

AP - Federal bank regulators, worried about a surge in defaults on high-risk home mortgages, on Friday called on lenders to exercise caution in making subprime loans and closely evaluate borrowers' ability to repay them.

AP - Defense Secretary Robert Gates downsized a planned compound for war-crimes trials, telling Congress he thought the initial Pentagon plan for a $100 million facility was 'ridiculous.'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against former CIA Director George Tenet and 10 CIA employees by a German who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the U.S. spy agency about three years ago.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani acknowledged his differences with the party's conservative base on Friday but said bigger principles should be at stake in the race for the White House.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is more than $400 million short in its plan to send emergency food aid to developing countries, leaving 9 million people at risk of going hungry, a coalition of aid groups said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's fiscal 2008 budget proposal would bring federal books roughly into balance by 2012, falling short of the administration's boast that it would create a $61 billion surplus in five years, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday.

NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - The United States proposed new regulations on Friday that would slash diesel particulate emissions, linked to lung cancer, from trains and ships by 90 percent over the next several years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Friday said he agreed with the Legislature that the state has an extra $575 million of tax revenue, which he wants mainly spent on improving health care, such as preventive screening.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday said the secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey, resigned after reports troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were receiving substandard medical treatment at the Army's top hospital.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday blamed Bush administration failings in Iraq for strengthening the strategic position of Iran, which he says must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons.

AP - Senators left town Friday with little to show for a week of debate on a massive anti-terrorism bill and squabbling over whether to let federal airport screeners join unions and risk a veto of a Homeland Security bill by President Bush.

AP - President Bush's proposed federal budget would probably not produce its advertised surplus of $61 billion in five years, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

AP - Two months after Democrats took control of Congress, there isn't much to show for the switch in power — despite feverish efforts to weigh in on meaty matters, such as the war in Iraq.

AP - Republican presidential contenders Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney frequently invoked Ronald Reagan and boasted about their allegiance to the GOP's core principles as they sought to win over skeptical conservatives Friday.

AP - President Bush, who wants his legacy engraved with his education policy, lobbied Congress on Friday to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind law — and do it this year.

CQPolitics.com - It still is far from certain that Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich — who masterminded the Republicans’ takeover of the House in 1994 and then served as Speaker for four years — will enter the 2008 presidential race after nearly a decade out of political office.

AP - The Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan Friday that would do away with most of the smog and soot caused by diesel-burning trains and boats.

AP - Senators left town Friday with little to show for a week of debate on a massive anti-terrorism bill and squabbling over whether to let federal airport screeners join unions and risk a veto of a Homeland Security bill by President Bush.

AP - President Bush offered condolences to victims of violent storms and tornadoes that roared through several Southern states and said he would visit stricken areas on Saturday 'with a heavy heart.'

AP - Jurors asked for a definition of 'reasonable doubt' as they completed a shortened, eighth day of deliberations Friday in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby.

AFP - The United States will begin landmark talks Monday on normalizing relations with North Korea, a regime once branded as part of an "axis of evil" by US President George W. Bush.