National News

• Jury finds sex offender guilty of second-degree murder of Fla. teen 3 years ago

• NTSB: Firefighting helicopter's main rotor lost power just before fatal crash

• Ky. Supreme Court won't rehear case of inmate seeking to be executed in killings of 2 children

• NY panel investigates lawmaker over claims of sexually explicit e-mails with state employee

• Man held in 1985 killing of Pa. teen; police say death followed dispute over marijuana plants

• Ohio hospital says patient leaps from 5th-floor window, lands on emergency room roof

• Grand Canyon flooding damaged 'most beautiful place' but tribe says it will bounce back

• Program to pay NYC students to pass Advanced Placement tests shows mixed results

• Former Mass. principal at center of pregnancy pact furor lands new job at Catholic school

• Reputed mob boss, awaiting trial in Boston, asks judge's permission to get out and exercise

World News

• Some of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Pakistan

• French actor Jean Reno released from Martinique hospital

• White South African farmer who threw black worker to lions freed from prison

• Spanish couple get to airport late, just miss boarding doomed airliner by minutes

• Iraqi journalist released by US forces in Baghdad after 26 days in custody

• Saudi women get behind the wheel and begin to erode a ban on female drivers

• US Virgin Islands man receives life sentence for strangling 12-year-old girl

• Christian groups defy Chinese ban, call quiet missionary work during Olympics a success

• Mexicans call for death penalty against police involved in deadly kidnappings

• NATO says Russia calls halt to military cooperation in response to tensions over Georgia

Politics

• Poll: Frustrated social conservatives increasingly opposed to mixing church and politics

• Minnesota poll finds Obama ahead of McCain in Midwestern battleground state

• The administration's evolving rhetoric on timetables for pulling US troops out of Iraq

• Former Sen. Nunn appears dropped from Obama VP consideration; out of country until Monday

• Election panel rules McCain not bound by spending limits in primaries, doesn't rule on loan

• Obama not just inspiring black voters to register, but also to abandon the Republican Party

• Obama says McCain would deliver a third Bush term; McCain camp wonders Bush who?

• Bush expresses thanks to ousted Pakistan president, expresses sympathy over terror attacks

• McCain, Obama agree to 3 presidential debates, 1 vice presidential

• Report: Many in Medicare stop drug treatment when faced with paying full cost of prescriptions

Business News

• Heinz sees gains in quarter, Hormel takes hit, both affected by commodity costs

• Gap's 2nd-quarter profit rises 51 percent, helped by cost-cutting, inventory control

• Ellison's $84.6M package catapults Oracle CEO to top of best-paid executive list

• Oil jumps $5 on growing US-Russia tensions, sliding dollar, worries of OPEC output cut

• AP Top Business News At 5:47 p.m. EDT

• Congressmen demand Merck, Schering-Plough supply info on possible Vytorin cancer risk

• Stocks end mixed as oil prices rise; financials see partial recovery on bullish call on Lehman

Entertainment News

• AP Top Entertainment News At 5:38 p.m. EDT

Sports News

• Oft-injured Carl Pavano to start for Yankees on Saturday at Baltimore

• NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw dead at 63 of pancreatic cancer; led union for decades

• Rams RB Steven Jackson back to work after signing a 6-year, $44 million deal

• Big Brown will make Monmouth Stakes final prep for Breeders' Cup Classic

• Williams sisters could meet in quarterfinals of US Open after playing in final at Wimbledon

• AP Top-Sports Headlines At 5:30 p.m. EDT