AP - By day, Freeman Williams manages a small dental practice in suburban Houston. But on any given night, he's prowling crime-ridden streets and battling ne'er-do-wells in the video game "City of Heroes" as his virtual alter-ego: a female superhero named Robotrixie.

AP - Despite ongoing privacy concerns and legal disputes involving companies bidding on the project, the U.S. State Department plans to begin issuing smart chip-embedded passports to Americans as planned Monday.

AP - While the process isn't perfect, scanning machines do exist to detect liquid explosives like the ones purportedly at the heart of the terrorist plot broken up this week.

AP - Actress Suzanne Pleshette was undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer that was caught at an early stage, her agent said Friday.

AP - Sorry Sean Payton. Your head coaching debut with the New Orleans Saints will be a little overshadowed by a Southern California/Rose Bowl mini-reunion featuring Reggie Bush, LenDale White and Vince Young.

AP - A franchise long labeled a wasteland among the otherwise fertile fields of the NFL finally has a home of its own. And this is no one-bedroom fixer-upper. This is a $465 million palace.

AP - The man Indy Racing League fans lovingly call "Spiderman" once again is at the top of the IndyCar Series standings.

AP - Fred Smoot couldn't wait to get rookie cornerback Cedric Griffin to training camp. Entering his sixth NFL season, Smoot has become an expert in the time-honored tradition of rookie hazing.

AFP - NASA said it was ready to resume regular space shuttle flights to complete construction of the International Space Station after three years of trying to eliminate safety flaws which led to the 2003 Columbia disaster.

AP - Birders from around the country have been coming to the Rio Grande Valley to catch sight of a Northern Jacana that is far north of normal range.

AP - While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology.

Reuters - Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who starred in the 1987 film "La Bamba," was jailed early on Friday on suspicion of domestic abuse against his live-in girlfriend, Los Angeles police said.

Fashion Wire Daily - Fashion Wire Daily - Los Angeles - "It wasn't without trepidation that I decided to go into a movie called 'World Trade Center' directed by Oliver Stone," actor Nicolas Cage admitted recently to a group of journalists in Chicago. "I mean, it was a high-pressure gig and I knew that it had to be good and I didn't want to let anyone down."

AP - William Shatner, aka Capt. James T. Kirk of the "Star Trek" TV series and movies, is looking for a spokesperson for his new science fiction DVD club.

AFP - The dollar got a lift from a sharp rebound in US retail sales which raised the possibility of US interest rates moving slightly higher.

AP - Madonna struck a pose as Marie Antoinette in a performance of her "Vogue" video at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards. Now, Kirsten Dunst is doing it — in the pages of Vogue magazine.

AP - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accepted an emerging Mideast cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his decision, Israeli officials said Friday.

AP - Stocks dropped in light summer trading Friday after Apple Computer Inc. said its mishandling of employee stock options will require significant revisions to its most recent quarterly results. The major indexes ended the week with losses.

AP - Failure of the plot to blow up U.S.-bound planes saved the weakening economy from a major jolt. Now economists are keeping close tabs on consumers and businesses for lingering fears.