AP - Chimneys and walls crumbled to the ground, roads cracked in half and residents were knocked off their feet as a powerful magnitude-7.1 earthquake rocked New Zealand's South Island early Saturday. The prime minister said it was a miracle no one was killed.

Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?

AP - In the end, Hurricane Earl wasn't even as bad as some of the no-name nor'easters that pound New England from time to time.

AFP - Islamabad on Saturday urged India to help find a way to progress the trial in Pakistan of seven suspects linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which has strained ties between the nuclear-armed rivals.

AP - Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he has formed a council to pursue peace talks with the Taliban.

AFP - Nearly six million people in the country will be told that they have paid the wrong amount of tax, with 1.4 million facing demands to pay more.

AFP - A Darfur rebel group said 10 people were killed in clashes with Sudanese police in two camps for displaced people in the war-ravaged region of western Sudan on Saturday.

AP - BP crews worked Saturday to slowly raise the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, careful not to damage or drop a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation.

AP - BP crews worked Saturday to slowly raise the 300-ton blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, careful not to damage or drop a key piece of evidence in the spill investigation.

AP - Anti-war protesters hurled shoes and eggs at Tony Blair on Saturday as he held the first public signing of his fast-selling memoir.

AP - Kara DioGuardi is following Ellen DeGeneres and Simon Cowell out the door at "American Idol."

AP - Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street.

Reuters - President Barack Obama, previewing a big push on the U.S. economy next week, on Saturday defended policies that he said "have stopped the bleeding" and put the middle class on the road to recovery.

AP - A claim by Arizona's governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up.

AP - A claim by Arizona's governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up.

AP - Authorities searched a Northern California landfill Friday for signs of a missing man authorities said might be a fifth murder victim linked to a suspect who was shot and killed by police after a high-speed chase.

AP - An 11-year-old boy was recovering Saturday after a sea lion mauled him at a popular Sydney zoo's aquarium show as horrified visitors looked on.

AP - What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling.

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to inject urgency into Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Friday, warning the negotiations may be "the last chance for a very long time" to reach an agreement.

AP - One of the investors in a proposed Islamic center near ground zero is a Long Island medical clinic owner whose expressions of sympathy for Palestinians included a donation to a charity later shut down for links to Hamas.

Reuters - Chinese officials have ordered state companies to meet investment bankers to explore ways to block BHP Billiton's $39 billion bid for Potash Corp, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.

AP - Authorities say a wildfire burning in rural San Diego County was sparked by two illegal immigrants who set a signal fire after they got lost.

AP - Federal investigators said Friday that a suspicious fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a future mosque in Tennessee was arson and offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.