MEMPHIS, Tenn. - FedEx Corp. cut its fourth-quarter earnings expectations Friday, blaming continuing increases in fuel costs.

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended the week with a big decline as investors grappled with two of the biggest threats to the economy: fallout from turmoil in the credit market and surging energy prices. All three major indexes suffered losses for the week.

NEW YORK - Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil's recent path higher.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. Analysts forecast that trade would continue to be one of the economy's few bright spots this year.

RICHMOND, Va. - Circuit City Stores Inc. on Friday gave in to pressure from activist shareholders, essentially putting itself up for sale and agreeing to nominate dissident directors to its board.

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc.'s new chief executive, Vikram Pandit, plans to stick with a global banking model after months of intense review _ but only after shrinking the company by about one-fifth first.

NEW YORK - Clear Channel Communications Inc., a major radio and outdoor advertising company, reported higher first-quarter earnings Friday on asset sales but operating results were flat, reflecting weak demand for radio advertising.

DUBLIN, Ireland - Guinness beer owner Diageo PLC rattled an Irish icon Friday, announcing plans to lay off more than half of its brewery workers, close two breweries and shift most production to a new, high-tech plant in the Dublin suburbs by 2013.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Microsoft Corp. will focus on growing its own advertising and Internet search business after it withdrew its takeover offer for Yahoo Inc., Chairman Bill Gates said Friday.

NEW YORK - American International Group Inc. says it will raise $12.5 billion in the coming months as the insurer looks to shore up a capital base that has been rocked by deterioration in the credit markets.

Entertainment  (top)

PHOENIX - DMX was arrested on drug and animal-cruelty charges following an overnight raid on the rapper's house Friday, authorities said.

CHICAGO - Jury selection began Friday in R. Kelly's long-delayed child pornography trial.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A judge in Florida says the 17-year-old son of wrestler Hulk Hogan should serve eight months in jail for reckless driving. Nick Bollea was led off to begin his sentence immediately after Friday's ruling. He will be on five years' probation and lose his driving privileges for three years.

LAS VEGAS - Toni Braxton's return to the stage on the Las Vegas strip has been pushed back for at least another month.

NEW YORK - Rapper Foxy Brown has pleaded guilty to menacing a neighbor with her cell phone last year. She avoided jail based on time already served.

YONKERS, N.Y. - The queen of hip-hop soul is establishing a foundation to help women develop careers and gain self-confidence.

LOS ANGELES - Niko Bellic is richer than Tony Stark.

NEW YORK - A journalism think tank studying "The Daily Show" doesn't believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart _ because otherwise they wouldn't get the jokes.

Headlines  (top)

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops' remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.

NEW YORK - Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the governor's mansion. The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels.

YANGON, Myanmar - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar _ but so is the heavy rain.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

MADISON, Wis. - Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home's only bathroom, on the advice of a religious "superior" who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

ANTHONY McCARTNEY

OMAHA, Neb. - The 55-year-old Omaha man who performed a tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife says he did the same thing to himself two years ago.

SEATTLE - Seattle slugger Richie Sexson was suspended for six games and fined Friday by Major League Baseball after charging the mound and throwing his helmet at a Texas pitcher the previous night. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, cited Sexson for "violent and aggressive actions."

Health  (top)

WASHINGTON - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.

ATLANTA - Flu vaccine manufacturers expect to make a record number of doses for next flu season despite concerns that demand may drop because this year's vaccine was largely ineffective.

BEIJING - The United States is offering to help China in its fight against a viral infection that has killed 34 children, including two reported Friday, and sickened thousands of others.

LAS VEGAS - Seventy-seven more people who were treated at a Las Vegas outpatient clinic have been diagnosed with hepatitis C, health officials said.

CHICAGO - There's a grim, rarely talked-about twist to all that medical know-how doctors learn to save lives: It makes them especially good at ending their own. An estimated 300 to 400 U.S. doctors kill themselves each year _ a suicide rate thought to be higher than in the general population, although exact figures are hard to come by.

ATLANTA - More than half of U.S. adults with diabetes also have arthritis, raising a serious obstacle for diabetic patients urged to exercise, according to a government study.

WASHINGTON - Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong is calling on Congress to renew the nation's war on cancer.

Hitech  (top)

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook Inc. is loosening its grip on millions of personal profiles to allow inhabitants of its popular Internet hangout to transplant the information and applications to other Web sites.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - EBay Inc. is exploring whether to require customers to use its online payment service PayPal, a move that has angered users and prompted antitrust scrutiny in Australia, where a PayPal-only rule takes effect next month.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. has agreed to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits in Canada alleging it misled customers about the staying power of their iPods, the latest courtroom truce over the dwindling battery life of early generations of the device.

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. on Friday said it has appealed a $1.39 billion fine imposed in February by the European Commission for the company's failure to comply with a 2004 antitrust order.

SAN FRANCISCO - It's a new kind of virus for Sun Microsystems Inc.

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

DALLAS - Texas officials may claim that Amazon.com owes millions in sales taxes on purchases that state residents made from the Internet retailer.

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Meat retailers can now trace their wares from the ranch to the refrigerator case using DNA analysis.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Microsoft Corp. will focus on growing its own advertising and Internet search business after it withdrew its takeover offer for Yahoo Inc., Chairman Bill Gates said Friday.

HARTFORD, Conn. - Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies under an agreement with officials nationwide that was announced Thursday.

International  (top)

YANGON, Myanmar - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar _ but so is the heavy rain.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Unchallenged by Lebanon's army, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah routed Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-allied government and seized control of large swaths of Beirut's Muslim sector Friday in a telling demonstration of its military prowess.

KFAR AZA, Israel - Gaza attackers sent mortar shells crashing into a border community late Friday, killing an Israeli in his garden and wounding three others, officials said. Israel retaliated with missile strikes that left five Hamas militants dead.

BOGALAY, Myanmar - The 68-year-old fisherman tries to explain how a cyclone swept away the rest of his family, but he can utter only a few simple words before he is overcome by tears and trauma.

BELGRADE, Serbia - For 13 years, he has eluded capture for atrocities a U.N. judge described as "scenes from hell ... written on the darkest pages of human history."

BAGHDAD - Shiite militants launched rockets toward the fortified Green Zone on Friday, taking advantage of a sandstorm that gave cover from attacks by U.S. aircraft. Some rockets fell short, including one that damaged the British Broadcasting Corp. bureau.

TORONTO - Canadian authorities quarantined a train in northern Ontario Friday after a woman died and several other people came down with an undetermined illness.

GENEVA - The United Nations says it will resume food aid flights to Myanmar on Saturday.

MOSCOW - Russia showcased its military might and youthful new president to the world Friday, as heavy tanks and missile launchers rumbled across Red Square in a Victory Day parade for the first time since the Soviet era.

JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert's political opponents demanded his resignation Friday, saying new allegations that the Israeli prime minister illegally accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from a U.S. citizen render him unfit for the country's top job.

Politics  (top)

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama all but erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among national convention superdelegates on Friday and won fresh labor backing as elements of the Democratic Party began coalescing around the Illinois senator for the fall campaign.

WASHINGTON - With the racially tinged Democratic race drawing to an awkward close, Barack Obama and John McCain face the challenge of winning over "Hillary Democrats" _ the white, working-class voters who favored the former first lady over Obama's historic candidacy.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Campaigning a few miles from each other Friday, Barack Obama trained his eye on November and the GOP, while Hillary Rodham Clinton battled for her political life, trying to hang on a bit longer in hopes of denying him the Democratic presidential nomination.

WASHINGTON - Daniel Suson has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked on the superconducting super collider and a forthcoming NASA probe. Now he's heading back to school to take on an even trickier task _ getting elected to public office.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican John McCain on Friday disputed blogger Arianna Huffington's contention that she heard him say he voted against President Bush in 2000.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Perhaps Barack Obama's competitive juices need new outlets now that he has expanded his lead over Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

NEW YORK - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain was "losing his bearings" for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president.

ALBANY, Ore. - Barack Obama got a boost from a major-college basketball coach in Oregon on Friday, but it's the coach who may need help come November.

Religion  (top)

SANTA FE, N.M. - Authorities say the leader of an apocalyptic sect in northeastern New Mexico has been released from jail after his son posted his bond.

NEW YORK - Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.

WASHINGTON - Nearly two-dozen conservative Christian leaders have signed a letter to the Senate Finance Committee questioning an investigation into six large ministries that preach a gospel of prosperity.

NEW YORK - Author Brian McLaren is among the most influential American religious thinkers of the last decade.

Prominent evangelicals urged Christian conservatives Wednesday to support "an expansion of our concerns beyond single-issue politics," angering some leaders on the religious right who have been closely allied with the Republican Party.

FORT WORTH, Texas - More than 200 Methodists attended a lesbian couple's commitment ceremony Friday in defiance of a vote to uphold a church law that says gay relationships are "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Science  (top)

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

WASHINGTON - Daniel Suson has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked on the superconducting super collider and a forthcoming NASA probe. Now he's heading back to school to take on an even trickier task _ getting elected to public office.

CONCORD, N.H. - Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest _ dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

WASHINGTON - Remains of meals that included seaweed are helping confirm the date of a settlement in southern Chile that may offer the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.

DALLAS - A gorilla recognized as the world's oldest in captivity celebrated her 55th birthday by munching down a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats.

LEBEC, Calif. - A group of environmentalists and the owners of a large stretch of wilderness have reached a deal that would set aside the largest parcel of land for conservation in California history.

MADRID, Spain - Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a $500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish.

BOISE, Idaho - Eight Western states on Thursday rejected a company's plan to ship tons of radioactive waste from Italy for disposal in Utah, saying importing foreign loads would violate the group's rules.

BOULDER, Wyo. - There isn't anything metropolitan about this tiny unincorporated town in southwest Wyoming, where a few single-family homes and a volunteer fire station stand against a skyline of snowcapped mountains.

Sports  (top)

SALT LAKE CITY - The Utah Jazz are hoping home court really is an advantage. Right now, they'll take any edge they can get.

PITTSBURGH - Some NHL rivalries evolve from a big game, a major trade or a short-lived scuffle, then fade after a few years. Not the Philadelphia Flyers vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins.

ROME - Roger Federer lost again, falling to 27th-ranked Radek Stepanek 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) Friday in the Rome Masters quarterfinals.

DENVER - The Colorado Avalanche want to play a faster, more attacking brand of hockey, similar to the style that brought them two Stanley Cup titles.

SEATTLE - Seattle slugger Richie Sexson was suspended for six games and fined Friday by Major League Baseball after charging the mound and throwing his helmet at a Texas pitcher the previous night. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, cited Sexson for "violent and aggressive actions."

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. - Hot blasts of wind on a diabolical course made The Players Championship tough enough to turn someone's hair gray. Not that the leaders needed any help with that Friday.

CHICAGO - Ted Lilly kept his glove on his hand this time.

GREEN BAY, Wis. - The Green Bay Packers released Koren Robinson on Friday, the latest setback for the veteran wide receiver trying to resurrect his career after serving an NFL suspension and jail time.

SAN DIEGO - Center fielder Jim Edmonds was released Friday by the San Diego Padres after his batting average dipped to .178 _ more than 100 points below his lifetime average _ and he struggled to track down fly balls.

INDIANAPOLIS - In the past, there was usually little strategy involved in trying to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500. Just hold the gas pedal down and drive.

Strange  (top)

OMAHA, Neb. - The 55-year-old Omaha man who performed a tracheotomy on himself with a steak knife says he did the same thing to himself two years ago.

ROCK ISLAND, Tenn. - One moment, Justin Hill was turning into his driveway. Minutes later he was being flown to a hospital as his home went up in flames. Then he got a traffic ticket.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman _ she's pregnant with her 18th child. Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

ALTA, Iowa - A 78-year-old legally blind man nicknamed "The Hammer" has bowled a perfect game. Dale Davis of Alta, Iowa, nailed 12 consecutive strikes and reached 300 on Saturday night during league play.

SALT LAKE CITY - Three men say they drove to 48 states in less than five days, ending their journey in the Four Corners area of southeastern Utah. The Four Corners destination allowed them to quickly hit four states _ Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

BERLIN - A trio of packaged pythons has caused a scare at a German post office. Police in Darmstadt say the snakes were stuffed into a parcel that was handed in for mailing to eastern Germany. It contained two tiger pythons and an albino tiger python of more than 3 feet in length.

ALTON, Ill. - Sandy Baumberger says she never expected to see her wallet again when it was stolen 35 years ago.

ELWOOD, Ind. - Twenty-two years after graduating from high school, Angie Collins is now her former English teacher's favorite student.

NORWALK, Conn. - A New York woman has filed a $100 claim against Norwalk saying a family outing to the Maritime Aquarium was ruined by dog feces. The woman claims her child's shoes, along with the entire outing, were ruined when her 1-year-old stepped in dog feces outside the Maritime Garage.

DALLAS - A gorilla recognized as the world's oldest in captivity celebrated her 55th birthday by munching down a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats.

Today-in-history  (top)

Today is Friday, May 9, the 130th day of 2008. There are 236 days left in the year.

Us  (top)

NEW YORK - Big corporations give him money. Presidential candidates seek his endorsement. He has influential friends in Congress and the governor's mansion. The Rev. Al Sharpton has emerged over the past decade as perhaps the nation's most prominent civil rights leader, a status that was demonstrated again this week when he led protests against police brutality that briefly shut down six of Manhattan's major bridges and tunnels.

MADISON, Wis. - Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home's only bathroom, on the advice of a religious "superior" who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.

WASHINGTON - Daniel Suson has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked on the superconducting super collider and a forthcoming NASA probe. Now he's heading back to school to take on an even trickier task _ getting elected to public office.

LAS VEGAS - Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Mother's Day draws a crowd in the home of an Arkansas woman _ she is pregnant with her 18th child.

UNION, Mo. - A woman who slashed a young mother and kidnapped her newborn entered into a plea deal Friday, and the prosecutor revealed additional details of the 2006 attack _ including that the victim was stabbed repeatedly and her toddler son was tied up.

PHILADELPHIA - Hundreds of mourners lined up in the pouring rain outside a cathedral Friday to pay their respects to a Philadelphia police officer killed in the line of duty.

NEW ORLEANS - Even though he's only 37 and in good health, Nathan Davis has already made out his will. In it, he bequeaths money to the University of Alabama athletic department and his ashes to Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Washington  (top)

WASHINGTON - Blackwater Worldwide, the security contractor blamed by an angry Iraqi government for the shooting deaths of 17 civilians, is not expected to face criminal charges _ all but ensuring the company will keep its multimillion-dollar contract to protect U.S. diplomats.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is reinforcing the sides of its topline mine-resistant vehicles to shore up what could be weak points as troops see a spike in armor-piercing roadside bombings across Iraq, The Associated Press has learned.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in March as demand for imports fell by the largest amount since the last recession was ending. Analysts forecast that trade would continue to be one of the economy's few bright spots this year.

WASHINGTON - The governing military junta in Myanmar has agreed to allow a single U.S. cargo aircraft to bring in relief supplies for victims of a devastating cyclone, the Bush administration said Friday.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration accused Iran and Syria on Friday of fueling ongoing violence in Lebanon by inciting members of the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement to take up arms against the country's western-backed government.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops' remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority.

WASHINGTON - Former CIA operative Valerie Plame is trying to resurrect a lawsuit against those in the Bush administration she says illegally disclosed her identity.

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court appeared reluctant Friday to uphold hefty fines for a reporter who refuses to identify the sources of her stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks.

WASHINGTON - Democrats' plans to help hundreds of thousands of homeowners struggling with rising subprime mortgage rates and plummeting house values could be sidetracked by President Bush's threatened veto and the opposition of many congressional Republicans.