AP - Hurricane Earl sideswiped North Carolina's Outer Banks early Friday, flooding the vacation islands but causing no injuries and little damage, then chugged up the Eastern Seaboard toward Cape Cod, a weaker but still dangerous storm.

AP - Private employers hired more workers over the past three months than first thought, a glimmer of hope for the weak economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend. But the unemployment rate rose because not enough jobs were created to absorb the growing number of people looking for work.

AP - Pakistani officials say the second suspected U.S. missile strike of the day has killed two people in the country's restive tribal region.

AP - A senior law enforcement official says investigators have released a scientist detained at Miami International Airport after screeners spotted a metal canister in his luggage that looked like a pipe bomb, prompting an evacuation.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.

AP - Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance.

AP - An Indonesian volcano that was quiet for four centuries shot a new, powerful burst of hot ash more than 10,000 feet (three kilometers) in the air Friday, sending frightened residents fleeing to safety for the second time this week.