AP - Lawmakers from California to Kentucky are trying to save money with a drastic and potentially dangerous budget-cutting proposal: releasing tens of thousands of convicts from prison, including drug addicts, thieves and even violent criminals.

AP - Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.

AP - A new classified intelligence assessment on Iraq says there has been significant progress in security since the last assessment was delivered in August, a senior military official said.

AFP - Russian President Vladimir Putin holds an unprecedented meeting with NATO leaders Friday amid deep divisions over the alliance's expansion but possible common ground in Afghanistan.

AP - An executive producer for "How I Met Your Mother" says he's open to having Britney Spears return for another cameo. "We always said, 'You know, if her character pops, we'll bring her back,'" Carter Bays told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I thought she was great. I was very proud of that episode."

AP - About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group. Nearly a third of the victims were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.

Reuters - Zimbabweans hoping elections will bring relief from an economic catastrophe anxiously awaited a leadership meeting expected to discuss the biggest challenge to President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.

Reuters - The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic proposal that would have rewritten bankruptcy law to help struggling mortgage borrowers, while moving ahead with debate on a housing market rescue bill that includes a $6 billion tax break for home builders.

Reuters - A top official in the U.S. private security firm Blackwater said on Thursday it was too soon to pass judgment on the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by its employees last September and urged critics to await an FBI report.

Reuters - About one of every 43 U.S. infants is physically abused or neglected annually, and those babies are especially at risk in the first week of their lives, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

Reuters - Bear Stearns could not be allowed to collapse because it could have shattered confidence in financial markets and caused lasting damage to the economy, top regulators said on Thursday in defending the rescue of what was once the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank.

Reuters - NATO leaders promised Ukraine and Georgia on Thursday they would one day join the Western defense alliance after rebuffing U.S. demands to put the former Soviet republics on an immediate path to membership.

Reuters - Hillary Clinton may be the Democrat who Republicans love to hate, but some Republican strategists say they have no fear of a match-up with her rival Barack Obama in November's presidential election.

Reuters - The U.N. war crimes tribunal cleared Kosovo's former prime minister on Thursday of persecuting Serbs in a 1998-99 separatist war, a move expected to fan tensions simmering over Kosovo's secession.

AP - Think you're being gouged by Big Oil? U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves.

AP - President Bush suffered a painful diplomatic setback Wednesday when NATO allies rebuffed his passionate pleas to put former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia on the path toward membership in the Western military alliance.

AP - Former President Clinton is still smarting over New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama. During a private meeting with California Democrats this past weekend, Clinton grew red-faced as he talked about how he expected Richardson, who was a member of Clinton's Cabinet, to back Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidential nomination or at least stay neutral, according to several people who attended.

AFP - NATO leaders begin negotiations in earnest over Afghanistan Thursday, after the opening day of their summit in Bucharest saw a successful French offer of more troops, but a public disagreement over the alliance's enlargement.

AP - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, rejecting criticism of attacks by the terror network's followers that have killed thousands, maintained Wednesday that it does not kill innocent people.

AP - Tim Redding took a one-hitter into the eighth inning and Ryan Zimmerman hit a solo homer to help the Washington Nationals stay unbeaten with a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.

Reuters - China should drop the barriers it maintains against foreign-made anti-pollution equipment as a means of quickly cleaning up its dirty air and water, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Thursday.

Reuters - President Robert Mugabe is fighting to survive the biggest crisis of his 28-year rule after losing control of Zimbabwe's parliament for the first time since taking power after independence.

Reuters - United Airlines, a unit of UAL Corp , on Wednesday became the latest major U.S. carrier to ground planes and cancel flights due to questions over aircraft safety checks and maintenance.

Reuters - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday conceded for the first time the U.S. economy may slip into recession, but said growth should pick up later this year as the impact of interest rate cuts and other emergency steps take root.

Reuters - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was well and reports speculating about his sickness were false, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri said in a recording on Wednesday.

AP - Scientists have pinpointed genetic variations that make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more prone to develop lung cancer — a finding that could someday lead to screening tests and customized treatments for smokers trying to kick the habit.

AP - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism said Wednesday that synagogues in the movement shouldn't work with the Rev. John Hagee, a Christian Zionist, calling him an "extremist" on Israeli policy who disparages other faiths.

AP - Allegations that third-graders hatched an elaborate plot to knock out, handcuff and stab their teacher were met with shock by neighbors and with doubt by psychiatry experts who said it is unlikely that children that young seriously intended to hurt anyone.