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President Bush said he will soon agree on a "general time horizon" for when U.S. troops will leave Iraq, a significant shift in White House policy that it said would nonetheless remain conditional based on events on the ground.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm stepped down as a co-chairman of Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, saying he had become a distraction after drawing criticism for calling America a "nation of whiners" last week.

IN MISSOURI: A 20-year-old woman pleaded guilty Friday to snatching a pregnant teenager she met online in a foiled plot to steal her unborn child.

CHICAGO | A federal investigation of the nation's largest single-site county jail has uncovered serious sanitation and medical care problems, as well as violence against prisoners who clashed with guards or failed to follow commands, officials said.

Luis Ramirez came to the United States from Mexico to look for work, landing in Shenandoah, in Pennsylvania's coal region. Here, he found steady employment, fathered two children and, his fiancee said, occasionally endured harassment by white residents.

CONCORD, N.H. | Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.

Two Marine Corps reservists have been charged in connection with an alleged information theft ring that involved the compromise of classified files.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Citigroup posted another loss and laid off 6,000 employees in the second quarter as it struggled with surging loan defaults, but the $2.5 billion shortfall was smaller than Wall Street anticipated.

President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have agreed to include a "general time horizon" for a U.S. troop withdrawal in a broad contract currently under negotiation between the two governments, the White House announced Friday.

NEW YORK | Three major auto manufacturers are promising to reserve 300 new hybrid vehicles each month exclusively for the city as it replaces its entire fleet of yellow cabs.

ST. LOUIS (AP) | Debbie Halcomb unpacked boxes as she moved back into her flood-damaged home, but worried that her damp carpet harbors mold.

Tony Snow's death was "hard to make sense of," President Bush told more than a thousand mourners at his former press secretary's funeral Thursday, calling him a "cherished friend" who was a man of "uncommon decency and compassion."

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday disavowed the now-defunct legal reasoning used to justify harsh questioning of terrorism suspects, but dug in his heels to defend White House officials who pressured him while he was hospitalized four years ago to approve terror surveillance programs.

KENTUCKY: In Louisville, Landon Wilburn, 11, has a future as a cop - a traffic cop. The youngster, who used to shout at speeders to slow down as they drove through the Stone Lakes subdivision, now has taken matters into his own hands. ]]>

TRENTON, N.J. | Merck & Co. will start cutting checks for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx next month after announcing Thursday it will fund a $4.85 billion settlement expected to resolve roughly 50,000 lawsuits.

The first military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay is set to begin Monday after a last-minute plea Thursday by attorneys for a detainee failed to persuade a federal judge to stop the process.

CLEVELAND | Brad Kaster donated a kidney to his father this week, and he barely has a scar to show for it.

REDDING, Calif. | President Bush offered federal help and encouragement Thursday to some of the 25,000 firefighters working under a blazing sun to contain wildfires that make up the single largest fire event ever recorded in California.

NEW YORK | A man forces his way into an apartment to rape the woman who lives there. A guy on a bicycle handcuffs and robs pedestrians, and another gropes random women on the side of the road.

Al Gore picked a bad day to tout his global-warming scam.

A U.S. decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks fizzled Saturday, with Iran stonewalling Washington and five other world powers on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.

For years, Mohammed Ali has been hearing relatives and friends tell how government-backed militiamen torched villages in his native Darfur, raped women and shot fleeing civilians.

A U.S. decision to bend policy and sit down with Iran at nuclear talks fizzled Saturday, with Iran stonewalling Washington and five other world powers on their call to freeze uranium enrichment.

Pope Benedict XVI apologized Saturday for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, keeping up efforts begun in the United States to publicly atone for what he called evil acts by priests.

That one time, hanging out the open door of the crowded train was lucky for Mahendra Pitale. Had he been sitting inside the train car, the 34-year-old sculptor almost certainly would have been killed when the bomb exploded.

Rushing across a temple parking lot, British angler Rick Humphreys yells, "We've got a fish."

The United States is calling on Iran to negotiate over its nuclear program, after diplomats agreed to resume talks in two weeks on suspending uranium enrichment.

In the depths of despair, Suzan doused herself and her 14-year-old daughter with gasoline and prepared to set them both on fire.

After intense U.S. assaults, al-Qaida may be considering shifting focus to its original home base in Afghanistan, where American casualties are running higher than in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday.

Comments by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, in an Associated Press interview Saturday in Baghdad:

Zimbabwe's beaten down opposition may end up being forced to accept what it swears is unacceptable _ a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe.

Iran and the European Union's chief negotiators agreed Saturday to resume talks on suspending uranium enrichment in two weeks, after Tehran ruled out freezing its program in talks that included the United States for the first time.

A helicopter carrying the Rev. Sun Myung Moon crashed into a mountainside Saturday as it attempted an emergency landing, injuring the founder of the Unification Church and 15 others, officials said.

Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents attacking a supply convoy for NATO troops, killing nine militants, officials said Saturday, while roadside bombs killed a NATO soldier in a separate convoy and four policemen.

Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc ended a nearly yearlong boycott of the Shiite-led government Saturday in another step toward healing the sectarian rifts that once brought almost daily bloodshed.

Some came in exquisitely beaded traditional skins, others wore T-shirts emblazoned with his name, and Nelson Mandela welcomed all to the festive tent outside his home Saturday for the formal celebration of the anti-apartheid icon's 90th birthday.

Senior leaders of al-Qaeda may be diverting fighters from the war in Iraq to the Afghan frontier area, the top American commander in Iraq told the Associated Press on Saturday.

A helicopter carrying the Rev. Sun Myung Moon crashed Saturday into a mountain in South Korea, injuring the founder of the Unification Church and 13 others, officials said.

Iran on Saturday ruled out freezing its uranium enrichment program, casting doubt over the value of its talks with six world powers less then an hour after they started.

Angelina Jolie has left the building. Oh, and so have the twins. Before dawn Saturday, the Hollywood superstar and her newborn twins left the French Riviera hospital where she gave birth a week ago, the hospital said in a statement.

The former president of a major Chinese stock brokerage has gone on trial on insider-trading charges in connection with the company's 2006 stock market debut, a state news agency reported Saturday.

Sometimes, I guess, timing is everything. When DaimlerChrysler AG announced in 2006 that it planned to bring the Smart fortwo micro car to the United States after nearly a decade in Europe, gas prices had reached about $2.80 a gallon. Now, Americans are paying more than $4 a gallon at the pump, SUV sales are plummeting and consumers are hungry for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

NEW YORK | Citigroup has become the latest big bank to quell Wall Street's worries about a financial sector implosion, posting a $2.5 billion second-quarter loss that was smaller than expected.

NEW YORK | Wall Street closed out an impressive week with a mixed performance Friday after disappointing high-tech earnings punctured some of investors' enthusiasm over better-than-expected bank earnings reports. But the major indexes still ended the week with big gains, the result of rising optimism about the troubled financial sector.

CONCORD, N.H. | Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush "the devil." But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.

NEW YORK | Freddie Mac Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Syron pocketed nearly $19.8 million in compensation last year, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday, even though the mortgage company's stock lost half its value in 2007.

MOSCOW

Officials from 35 nations will converge Monday in Switzerland to try to revive the on-again, off-again Doha round of trade negotiations.

The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and a gallon of gas finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped?

Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive John Thain is making a pitch to Wall Street: Buy the brokerage's shares while they're still cheap. But investors don't seem ready to listen.

The pace of U.S. venture capital investments remained steady at $7.4 billion during the second quarter despite a wobbly stock market that has made it increasingly difficult for the financiers of new ideas to cash out of startups.

THE GOOD: The flow of money going to U.S. startups remained steady in the second quarter as venture capitalists invested $7.4 billion, unchanged from a year ago.

The pace of U.S. venture capital investments remained steady at $7.4 billion during the second quarter despite a wobbly stock market that has made it increasingly difficult for the financiers of new ideas to cash out of startups.

The price of oil recorded its biggest weekly drop ever, and a gallon of gas finally pulled back from its record high. So is it time to declare the energy bubble popped?

Mortgage financier Freddie Mac took a step toward issuing common and preferred stock to help bolster its balance sheet Friday when the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted its registration statement filed earlier in the day.

Google Inc. shares plunged nearly 10 percent Friday after the Internet search leader's second-quarter earnings missed analysts' expectations.

The trash talking has begun.

Citigroup has become the latest big bank to quell Wall Street's worries about a financial sector implosion, posting a $2.5 billion second-quarter loss that was smaller than expected.

Mattel Inc. said Friday its second-quarter profit fell by nearly half as higher costs offset strong sales of toys related to summer movies like "Kung Fu Panda" and the latest Batman film and the benefit from the weaker dollar.

Oilfield services provider Schlumberger Ltd. opened the petroleum sector's midyear earnings period on a strong note Friday, reporting a nearly 13 percent jump in profit driven by robust spending among customers searching for new sources of crude and natural gas.

Tiger Woods and Kenny Perry couldn't have picked a better place to be on Saturday.

The Washington Mystics have fired Tree Rollins as coach and promoted assistant Jessie Kenlaw to the position on an interim basis.

Tiger Woods and Kenny Perry couldn't have picked a better place to be on Saturday. Anywhere but Royal Birkdale. A fearsome wind sweeping off the Irish Sea turned the third round of the British Open into a test of survival, the only goal to limit the damage.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton edged Felipe Massa on the final lap Saturday to take the pole position for the German Grand Prix.

Oscar Freire closed in on the sprint title at the Tour de France by winning Saturday's 14th stage, while Australia's Cadel Evans kept the yellow jersey in the doping-battered race.

The sun finally came out at the British Open on Saturday, but the wind off the Irish Sea sure picked up.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has edged Felipe Massa to take the pole position for the German Grand Prix.

With Tiger Woods on the couch back in the States, is there any reason to pay attention to the British Open?

With Tiger Woods on the couch back in the States, is there any reason to pay attention to the British Open? Well, let's see ...

Cadel Evans of Australia wore the yellow jersey as riders started Saturday's 14th stage of the Tour de France, the last day before the showcase race hits the high mountains in the Alps.

Tiger Woods on crutches was supposed to be a chance for someone else to seize the spotlight at the British Open. Greg Norman wasn't the guy anyone had in mind. Neither was David Duval. Indeed, Royal Birkdale proved to be fertile ground for fairy tales on Friday.

The Tampa Bay Rays returned home and moved back on top of the AL East. Baseball's most surprising team this season entered the All-Star break on a seven-game losing streak, having dropped out of first place in the division, one-half game behind the Boston Red Sox.

Paul Casey and Lee Westwood each took a double-bogey six at the opening hole and the players who just made the cut at 9-over at the British Open struggled to get back into contention.

Philadelphia's Jamie Moyer fooled the Florida Marlins with his deceptive stuff for the 10th straight time. Ten in a row is where the Mets' streak ended after they couldn't figure out the Reds' Bronson Arroyo.

Christina Kim's second-round 68 at the LPGA State Farm Classic looked ordinary compared to her opening 63, but it included a birdie putt on her last hole that gave her a one-stroke lead over the charging Michelle Wie and three others.

Richard S. Johnson was disappointed his score wasn't lower while Nick Flanagan was just happy to be playing well on the PGA Tour.

Welterweight boxer Oscar Diaz remains in critical but stable condition two days after collapsing during a fight, but the doctor who performed surgery on him said he should survive.

Add a chapter to gymnast's dramatic comeback story.

Best bets on TV. Plus, top five Greg Norman choke jobs.

On Golf: Along came a spider. Charismatic Colombian Camilo Villegas, known as Spider-Man, scuttled past nearly half the field at the 137th British Open.