AP - A candidate in this month's Afghan parliamentary elections has been wounded in a grenade attack amid growing political violence and insurgent attacks aimed at sabotaging the polls.

AP - Whether or not she emerges as winner following recent elections, Australia's first woman prime minister will have led the nation's oldest political party to one of the lowest points in its 119-year history.

AP - Prime Minister David Cameron took a few minutes out of his paternity leave to introduce his new daughter to Britain's media.

AP - During a summer of record-breaking heat through much of the U.S., the Campbell Soup Co. struggled to sell its cold weather-friendly soups, but got another boost from broth, a staple for home cooks.

AP - Hurricane Earl has weakened to a Category 1 storm as it heads for the Northeast and some watches and warnings have been reduced or dropped from Long Island to Maine.

Reuters - U.S. employment fell for a third straight month in August, but the drop was far less than expected and private hiring surprised on the upside, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to prop up economic growth.

AP - A $1.6 billion congressional bailout of sorts could help financially flailing groups that fight to keep young people out of trouble, yet lawmakers are reluctant to take up the expensive proposal amid a sour economy and other, more pressing issues.

AFP - US President Barack Obama said better-than-expected jobs data released Friday was positive, but said it was not good enough as the economy struggles out of the deepest slump in decades.

AP - A scientist has been detained at the Miami International Airport after screeners spotted a metal canister in his luggage that looked like a pipe bomb, prompting an evacuation, a government official said.

AP - Pakistani officials say suspected U.S. missiles have killed five people in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

AP - Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.

AP - President Barack Obama welcomed news Friday of better-than-expected private sector job growth. But with the unemployment rate ticking upward nevertheless, he said he'd roll out new plans next week to spur the economy.

Reuters - President Barack Obama on Friday said he would address a package of new measures next week to boost U.S. growth and hiring as he greeted the August job report as positive news.

Reuters - Wall Street advanced on Friday after a better-than-expected jobs report lifted investor optimism on the economy but gains were checked after data showed services sector activity slowed.

Reuters - Campbell Soup Co posted lower-than-expected quarterly sales and forecast sales growth for the new fiscal year below its long-term target as the world's largest soup company grapples with a weak economy.

Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?

AP - Unlike the blast that led to the massive BP spill, the latest oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico killed no one and sent no crude gushing into the water.

AFP - Brazil's Petrobras unveiled one of the world's biggest share offerings on Friday, a sale of up to 64 billion dollars in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into one of the world's top 21st century oil exporters.

AFP - Oil prices firmed on Friday as traders examined a better-than-expected payrolls report in the United States, the world's leading energy consumer.

AFP - The future of Germany's Karstadt, Europe's third-largest department store chain, appeared to be secured Friday as a court approved its acquisition by a billionaire investor, safeguarding 25,000 jobs.

AP - When Ruth Garcia's twins are born in two months, they'll have all the rights of U.S. citizens. They and their six brothers and sisters will be able to vote, apply for federal student loans and even run for president.

AP - Pro-government militiamen attacked the home of an Iranian opposition leader with homemade bombs and beat one of his bodyguards unconscious, an opposition website reported, in an apparent attempt to keep him from attending a key rally on Friday.

AP - U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site.

AP - Is the global economy out of the woods? Two years after near-meltdown, with the U.S. looking sluggish, equity markets groggy and Europeans fighting a debt crisis, experts gathered in Italy offered a generally gloomy outlook — especially for the United States and much of the industrialized world.

AP - Soldiers killed at least 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gunbattle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has become one of the most dangerous battlegrounds in the country's drug war.