Reuters - Followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched Friday against a pact letting U.S. forces stay in Iraq until 2011, toppling an effigy of President George W. Bush where U.S. troops once tore down a statue of Saddam Hussein.

AP - Chanting and waving flags, thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr filled a central Baghdad square Friday to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years.

AP - European and Asian stock markets rebounded Friday as expectations of a recovery on Wall Street prompted investors to scoop up battered financial and energy shares.

Reuters - Ashlee Simpson-Wentz and her rock-star husband Pete Wentz have become parents for the first time, People magazine reported on Friday.

AP - Attorney General Michael Mukasey was hospitalized but conscious and alert early Friday after collapsing during a late-night speech to a conservative legal group.