AP - The European Central Bank's president says it may take a while yet to phase out special efforts to keep banks supplied with credit in the wake of the financial crisis.

AFP - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Friday called on Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to stop fighting and join peace talks aimed at ending the long war in Afghanistan.

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.

Reuters - Asian stocks rose to a four-month high on Friday, some investors inspired by positive U.S. economic data to pick out bargains, with the cautious shift toward risk reining in yen strength.

Reuters - BP Plc said it would delay the release of its third quarter results by a week because of added complexities in its accounts due to costs associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

AP - China summoned Japan's ambassador for a third time Friday to protest the detention of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with Japanese patrol vessels near disputed islands, demanding he and his ship be released unconditionally.

AP - Flags are at half-staff in the Russian Caucasus city of Vladikavkaz and stunned residents are laying flowers in a rubble-strewn square where a suicide car bombing killed 17 people and wounded more than 140.

Reuters - U.S. crude for October jumped to near $75 on Friday after a leak forced Enbridge to shut down the biggest pipeline supplying Canadian oil to refineries in the Midwest and to a key storage hub in Oklahoma.

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.

AP - The Mexican police officers who arrested infamous drug suspect Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias "La Barbie," did not initially know who they had caught, according to a booking report obtained Thursday.

AFP - Australia's corporate watchdog Friday said it would likely reject a proposed alliance between Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue because it could disadvantage more than a million passengers a year.

AFP - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday announced it would sell 10 metric tons of gold to Bangladesh, worth around 403 million dollars.

AFP - US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will face a key US House committee's questions on possible new steps to press China over its currency policy, the panel's chairman said Thursday.

Reuters - Democrats in Congress are distancing themselves from President Barack Obama's push to let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans, fearing it will further harm them in November's mid-term elections.

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.