Reuters - Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said on Saturday.

AP - If there is such a thing as a profile of a mass murderer, Steven Kazmierczak didn't fit it: outstanding student, engaging, polite and industrious, with what looked like a bright future in the criminal justice field.

AP - Gathering strength, Sen. Barack Obama collected a key labor endorsement and coaxed away one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's delegates on Friday, at the same time he criticized his rival for supporting legislation harmful to workers.

AP - Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

AP - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton smothered Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain with kindness on Friday, then declared her rivals wrong on the issues and vowed to beat both in her quest for the presidency.

AP - A U.S. official met secretly with Iranian banking officials and senior government aides who oppose punishing the Islamic nation for not doing enough to stop money laundering and terrorism funding, The Associated Press has learned.

AP - Zoo Atlanta is hoping to hear the pitter-patter of little panda paws again. Now that giant panda cub Mei Lan is old enough to be weaned, zookeepers hope her mother, Lun Lun, is ready to mate again. If all goes as planned, Lun Lun will become pregnant this spring and deliver Zoo Atlanta's second giant panda cub at the end of the summer.

AP - The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission.

AP - Phil Mickelson seems determined to add Los Angeles to his collection of West Coast trophies. A year after losing at Riviera in a playoff, Mickelson played golf as spectacular as the weather Friday in the Northern Trust Open, finishing with a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 7-under 64 and a four-shot lead.

AFP - Kosovo has inched closer to a widely expected declaration of independence on Sunday, amid rising political tension and Serbia's determination to resist what it considers an illegal breakaway.

Reuters - Missing millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett was declared legally dead on Friday by a Chicago court five months after the airplane he was flying disappeared over Nevada, media reported.

AP - Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane.

Reuters - In a departure from usual policy, a senior U.S. Treasury official met Iranian representatives in Paris last month as part of a multinational gathering to discuss "terror financing," said U.S. officials on Friday.

Reuters - The United States will probably have more troops in Iraq this summer than it did before pouring in forces last year -- even after a planned drawdown, a U.S. general said on Friday.

AFP - The gunman who shot dead five people at a university here was identified Friday as an "outstanding" graduate student with no history of trouble but signs of erratic behavior in the last two weeks.

Reuters - Sen. Hillary Clinton sharpened her attack on Friday against rival Barack Obama before new contests for the Democratic presidential nomination, casting herself as a champion of the U.S. middle class and saying voters faced a choice between "speeches and solutions."

Reuters - The United States will have the chance to shoot down a disabled U.S. spy satellite from next Wednesday, after the space shuttle Atlantis ends its current mission, a U.S. general said on Friday.

Reuters - A man who killed five students and himself during a shooting spree at an Illinois college had stopped taking medication and become erratic in the last two weeks, buying two guns used in the bloodbath just six days ago, officials said on Friday.

Reuters - Serbia swore in President Boris Tadic on Friday, two days before Kosovo proclaims independence, the country's most traumatic moment since it was bombed by NATO in 1999 to end ethnic cleansing in the province.

AP - In a day of political brinkmanship, President Bush pressured the House on Thursday to finish a bill giving the government more leeway to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mails of suspected terrorists. House Democrats didn't budge and angry Republicans staged a walkout down the Capitol steps.

Reuters - A black-clad man fired into a lecture hall packed with students at an Illinois university on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 18 before shooting himself dead, police and college officials said.

AP - A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, killing five students and injuring 16 others before committing suicide, authorities said.

Reuters - Baseball home run king Barry Bonds tested positive for steroids in November 2000, months before his record breaking 73-home run season, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

AP - Beyonce's father says Aretha Franklin's criticism of his daughter for referring to Tina Turner as "the Queen" at the Grammys is "ridiculous."

AP - Bai Ling's good looks and eccentric outfits have frequently put her picture in celebrity magazines, but that doesn't mean she can take the magazines for free. The Chinese actress was arrested Wednesday after allegedly shoplifting two celebrity magazines and two packets of batteries at Los Angeles International Airport.

AP - In a fresh sign of trouble for Hillary Rodham Clinton, one of the former first lady's congressional black supporters intends to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, and a second, more prominent lawmaker is openly discussing a possible switch.