AP - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.

AP - Thousands of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security deal Friday, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein statue five years ago.

AP - Attorney General Michael Mukasey was given a "clean bill of health" and went back to work Friday after his harrowing collapse at a late-night dinner speech.

AP - A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil.

AP - Nebraska lawmakers have approved adding a 30-day age limit to a safe-haven law that resulted in 35 children — including teenagers as old as 17 — being abandoned at state hospitals.

AP - Wall Street moved cautiously higher Friday, with investors taking a breather from the heavy selling of recent days. Energy, utility and technology stocks showed some advances, but bank stocks declined sharply.

AP - Space shuttle Endeavour provided an orbital lift to the attached international space station on Friday as the astronauts encountered more problems with a new water recycling system.