Reuters - President Barack Obama accused Republicans on Friday of holding the middle class hostage as he defended his efforts to stimulate the sluggish economy and try to reverse Democrats' grim election prospects.

AP - Clashes between police and alleged militants left 10 more people dead Friday in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, even as stunned residents laid flowers in a square where a suicide car bombing killed 17 people and wounded more than 140 only a day ago.

AP - Fidel Castro says his comments about Cuba's communist economic model were misinterpreted by a visiting American journalist.

AFP - In far northeastern Badakhshan province, thousands of people gathered outside a small NATO base in the capital Fayzabad, where they threw rocks at the gate and burned an American flag, police said.

AP - In the past, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was marked by somber reflection and a call to unity, devoid of politics. No more.

AP - Fire crews tried to douse the remnants of an enormous blaze and account for the residents of dozens of homes Friday after a gas line ruptured and an explosion ripped through in a neighborhood near San Francisco, killing at least four people and likely more.

AFP - Two people were killed and 16 others injured by an explosion at a gas pipeline near Iran's northeastern city of Mashhad on Friday, local media reported.

AP - A two-stone ring with a stunning 10.95-carat triangular-shaped blue diamond purchased by a European businessman nearly 40 years ago as a gift to his wife is headed to the auction block.

AP - A federal judge said she will issue an order to halt the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, after she declared the ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.

Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 gained modestly on Friday, led higher as energy shares were boosted by a jump in oil prices, but weak tech stocks and light volume capped gains.

AP - Iran's president intervened to secure the release of Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, in part because of her gender, a news agency reported Friday.

AP - Iran's president intervened to secure the release of Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, in part because of her gender, a news agency reported Friday.

Reuters - Wholesale inventories surged the most in two years in July, adding to signs that economic growth in the third quarter of the year may prove a bit stronger than many forecasters had expected.

Reuters - Deutsche Bank is set to lead rivals raising billions of euros as new global capital rules to be unveiled this weekend bite, and showed it may be good to get the jump on the pack.

AP - Fire crews held a wildfire outside of Boulder at bay Friday, allowing some 2,000 evacuees to return home with a warning to be prepared to flee again.

AP - Hundreds of sex abuse victims have come forward in Belgium with harrowing accounts of molestation by Catholic clergy that reportedly led to at least 13 suicides and affected children as young as two, a special commission said Friday.

AP - The Greek government pledged Friday to radically overhaul loss-making state rail company OSE, as official data showed efforts to cut the country's bloated budget deficit remained on track, if slightly asthmatic.

AFP - Teams from the Central African Republic's electoral commission have begun deploying throughout the country to prepare for a census that will begin on September 22, the organisation announced Friday.

AP - Patients jammed rudimentary clinics and health workers in surgical masks sprayed anti-bacterial solution on muddy paths as the government struggled to contain a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 800 Nigerians in two months.

AP - Authorities in Austin scaled back the search for a missing motorist Friday, a day after a central Texas official said hope was fading that another person swept away by floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine would be found alive.