Much of Gaza was in the dark on Friday evening after the main power plant shut down because of a fuel shortage, a spokesman for the plant said.
Northern and central Gaza, including densely populated Gaza City, were without power on Friday, Gaza Electric Company spokesman Jamal Dirdisawai said Friday.
Benny Willingham was the type of person who would make sure you got home safely after he jumped your car battery. The kind of man who made sure to fix a leaky faucet or take out the trash at church. The grandpa who would never miss a grandson's ball game, even if he had to pull the first shift at a coal mine just hours later.
Willingham, 61, was laid to rest Friday, four days after a massive mine explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Naoma snatched his life and those of at least 24 others.
Hundreds filed into tiny mountain churches Friday to mourn four of their loved ones in southern West Virginia, where faith runs as rich and deep as the very coal seams that thousands risk their lives to extract.
[Updated 9:38 p.m.] Rescuers expect to find out by about
midnight whether any of the four missing miners is still alive, West Virginia
Gov. Joe Manchin said Friday night.
[Posted 7:07 p.m.] Rescue teams geared up to make another attempt Friday to search for possible survivors at a West Virginia mine where an explosion earlier this week killed 25 miners.
"We're basically in a point of going back in again," Kevin Stricklin of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration said at a Friday afternoon news conference.
President Obama on Friday received his second opportunity to shape the U.S. Supreme Court when Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement.
The president named Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the court last year.
In replacing Stevens, Obama likely will nominate a candidate that would maintain the court's ideological balance of five conservative to four liberal-leaning judges.
A 7-year-old Russian boy adopted by an American family last year was put on a return flight to Moscow this week because of violent and psychotic behavior, according to a Tennessee grandmother.
The child showed up unannounced at Russia's child protection ministry Thursday, triggering an international investigation.
Tiger Woods continued his remarkable golfing comeback with a two-under-par round of 70 at the Masters on Friday that left him in touch with the leaders near the halfway stage.
The day before, in his first competitive start in five months following the scandal over his admitted marital infidelities, the American had shot 68 - his best opening round at the first major tournament of the season.
A look at highlights from the day's business news:
Stocks finish strong; Dow touches 11,000
Stocks gained Friday, with the Dow briefly topping 11,000 and the broad market ending higher for the seventh of eight weeks, as economic optimism trumped concerns about Greek debt.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 70 points, or 0.6 percent, closing at 10,997.35. The Dow got as high as 11,000.98 in the final 10 minutes of trading but ended the session just short of that.
Greece is in danger of defaulting on its national debt as its bond market comes under increasing pressure, unless its European neighbors intervene.
Analysts believe that the shape of Greece's fiscal future – default or bail-out – could be decided in the coming days.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's party is on the verge of victory in parliamentary elections, the first such contests since the end of the island nation's long and bloody civil war.
Results on Friday showed that Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance has won with decisive margins in most districts declared so far, winning seats held by their main rival, the right-wing United National Front.
Her speeches are typically loaded with partisan zingers and Obama-bashing, but for the first time since the 2008 presidential campaign, Sarah Palin delivered a speech that focused as much on policy ideas as it did on political combat.
Her much-anticipated remarks Friday to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference were laced with a heavy dose of Republican cheerleading that drew applause from the audience of party activists who had stampeded into the venue to snag prime seating for her appearance.
Iran announced Friday it has advanced its nuclear technology, unveiling new, faster centrifuges and celebrating "giant steps" forward.
In a speech celebrating National Nuclear Day, President MahmoudAhmadinejad slammed "selfish behavior" by "arrogant" countries that have tried to negotiate a halt to Iran's nuclear activity. As he spoke, a crowd chanted "God is great" and "Death to America."
A 12-year-old Yemeni bride died of internal bleeding following intercourse three days after she was married off to an older man, the United Nations Children's Fund said.
The girl was married to a man at least twice her age, said Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
Her death is "a painful reminder of the risks girls face when they are married too soon," Kaag said Thursday.
Tens of thousands of supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday marched through the streets of the holy Shiite city of Najaf to commemorate the seventh anniversary of Baghdad's fall.
Adobe, the makers of the Flash animation platform, said Apple's refusal to run Flash on the iPad, iPhone and other products could hurt the company's bottom line.
The comments were part of an official quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"[T]o the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed," read the report.
U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, the anti-abortion Michigan Democrat criticized for backing President Obama's health care plan, said Friday he won't seek re-election to his House seat.
He told reporters his service to Michigan has been "one of the great honors of my life" and that it's "time to begin a new and exciting chapter" in his life.
He said that his announcement allows potential candidates to organize campaigns and that he's "committed to helping the Democrats retain this seat."
When Sarah Palin speaks in public, she always finds the media spotlight. Or maybe the spotlight finds her.
Either way, he former Alaska governor will again be firmly in front of the cameras Friday afternoon, when she addresses the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
[Updated at 11:02 a.m.] Read our full CNN.com story
[Updated at 10:53 a.m.] A representative from the Supreme Court delivered a letter from Justice Stevens to the White House at 1030 a.m. announcing his intention to retire this summer, a White House official told CNN.
[Updated at 10:48 a.m.] Justice John Paul Stevens' decision to retire after nearly 35 years on the bench will give President Barack Obama another opportunity to shape the nation's highest court.
Read Justice Stevens' letter (PDF) | What's your reaction? Who should replace him?
Stevens, who turns 90 on April 20, was not on the bench for a brief public session Monday; the court will hold its next public session in two weeks.
Speculation over Stevens had increased after he confirmed last fall he had hired only one law clerk for the next court term, which begins in October. Sitting justices can hire four law clerks, while retired members only get one.
The chief of staff of the interim Kyrgyz government, which took over after President Kurmanbek Bakiev fled the capital, accused the president Friday of stealing the country's money when he left.
Officials released Maj. Nidal Hassan's booking photo.
An Army major charged with shooting 13 people to death at Fort Hood, Texas, in November has been moved to a jail in Bell County, Texas, a deputy said Friday.
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