Associated Press

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ 2010-09-10T09:38:16Z GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Will he or won't he? Negotiations between a local Muslim cleric and the leader of a tiny Florida church who had threatened to publicly burn copies of Islam's holy text left the heated debate in a state of confusion with the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks a day away....

By TREVOR HUNNICUTT 2010-09-10T09:21:35Z SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) -- Firefighters poured water on flaming and smoldering wreckage early Friday after a massive explosion sent blazes roaring through a neighborhood in the hills south of San Francisco, killing at least one person, destroying more than 50 homes and damaging dozens of others....

By SHANNON DININNY and NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS 2010-09-10T09:13:13Z WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) -- Convicted killer Cal Coburn Brown was executed early Friday by lethal injection for the rape, torture and murder of a Seattle-area woman, in Washington state's first use of capital punishment in nine years....

By JEFF BAENEN and PATRICK CONDON 2010-09-10T08:52:25Z PINE CITY, Minn. (AP) -- Three U.S. mothers who have pleaded with Iranian authorities for more than a year to free their sons and daughter from a Tehran prison finally received a piece of the news they've been longing for....

By LOLITA C. BALDOR 2010-09-10T08:51:57Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. was slow to take seriously the threat posed by homegrown radicals and the government has failed to put systems in place to deal with the growing phenomenon, according to a new report compiled by the former heads of the Sept. 11 Commission....

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 2010-09-10T08:51:47Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has chosen one of his longtime economic advisers, Austan Goolsbee, to be the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, a White House official said....

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 2010-09-10T08:51:42Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- Striving to gain the upper hand on a crucial political issue, President Barack Obama is faulting Republicans for refusing to help him turn around the sluggish economy or support some proposed new tax breaks for businesses that the GOP has backed in the past....

By PATRICK WALTERS 2010-09-10T08:40:03Z PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Minutes after a woman was suspended from her job at a Kraft Foods Inc. plant and was escorted out, she returned with a handgun and opened fire, killing two people and critically injuring a third before being taken into custody, police said....

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON 2010-09-10T08:38:39Z LOS ANGELES (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....

By DAN ELLIOTT and P. SOLOMON BANDA 2010-09-10T08:36:17Z BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Weary firefighters hoped the worst was over from a wildfire that destroyed nearly 170 homes in the Rocky Mountains foothills, but crews monitored were monitoring hot spots early Friday amid concerns that erratic winds could fan the flames and send them into Boulder....

By BRETT MARTEL 2010-09-10T08:32:37Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The New Orleans Saints opened their title defense by winning with defense....

By AYI JUFRIDAR 2010-09-10T07:41:02Z LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (AP) -- Religious and political leaders across the Muslim world welcomed a decision by a small American church to suspend its plans to torch copies of their holy book - but some said Friday the damage has already been done....

By PETE YOST and LAURAN NEERGAARD 2010-09-10T05:42:40Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government may resume funding of embryonic stem cell research for now, an appeals court said Thursday, but the short-term approval may be of little help to research scientists caught in a legal battle that has just begun....

By NIGEL DUARA 2010-09-10T05:42:23Z EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted the co-founder of an Islamic charity chapter who was accused of helping smuggle $150,000 to Muslim fighters in Chechnya....

By HOWARD FENDRICH 2010-09-10T03:08:31Z NEW YORK (AP) -- After one early miss, Rafael Nadal slapped himself in the right thigh. After another, he put his hands on his hips and stared at the spot where his shot went awry....

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR 2010-09-10T03:07:42Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's top health official on Thursday warned the insurance industry that the administration won't tolerate blaming premium hikes on the new health overhaul law....

By DAVID B. CARUSO 2010-09-10T02:35:03Z NEW YORK (AP) -- Donald Trump offered Thursday to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque....

By JEAN H. LEE 2010-09-10T00:43:03Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean children are already singing the praises of the young man in line to become the reclusive nation's next leader, analysts say, but the rest of the world doesn't even know the age, or, until recently, how to spell the name of Kim Jong Il's youngest son....

By BRIAN MURPHY 2010-09-10T00:35:50Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said....

By CHARLES J. HANLEY 2010-09-09T23:14:24Z NEW YORK (AP) -- "Advocate tolerance, and disregard the ignorant," one book counsels. Advises the other, "Be gentle towards all, ... forbearing."...