Reuters - Hurricane Earl raked North Carolina's barrier islands with gusting winds, pounding surf and rain on Thursday as it took a swipe at the U.S. East Coast on an offshore path toward New England and Canada.

AP - An oil platform that burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday was the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed.

AP - President Felipe Calderon tried to rally frustrated Mexicans behind his increasingly bloody drug war Thursday, saying he knows violence has surged under his watch, but arguing that it is the price of confronting powerful and brutal cartels.

AFP - A fresh batch of US unemployment figures will on Friday provide Americans with a crucial litmus test for the sputtering economic recovery and President Barack Obama's policies.

AP - One of two known survivors of a drug gang's massacre in northern Mexico of 72 undocumented Central and South American migrants said in an interview broadcast Thursday that they were killed because they refused to work for the traffickers.

AP - An electoral official accused President Hugo Chavez and his allies of breaking campaign laws by using state-run media to berate rivals and praise friends ahead of this month's legislative elections.

Reuters - An oil and gas platform operated by Mariner Energy burst into flames in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, but the crew of 13 escaped and there were no signs of an oil spill, the Coast Guard said.

AP - In an early sign of promise, Israeli and Palestinian leaders pledged Thursday in a cordial first round of talks to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year.

AP - The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 110 mph winds Thursday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and potentially most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.

AP - The death toll from Typhoon Kompasu, which battered the Korean peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains, rose to five in South Korea, an official said Friday.