AP - Leaders across the country felt increasing pressure Friday to shut down Occupy encampments after two men died in shootings and another was found dead from a suspected combination of drugs and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a propane heater inside a tent.

AP - The country's top Cabinet secretary, Francisco Blake Mora, a key figure in Mexico's battle with drug cartels, died Friday in a helicopter crash that President Felipe Calderon said was probably an accident.

AP - Heralding the end of one war and the drawdown of another, President Barack Obama observed Veterans Day on Friday by urging Americans to hire the thousands of servicemen and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

AP - Under pressure to control its dangerous debt, Italy sped a package of reforms toward approval Friday and prepared to hand its dysfunctional government over to a technocrat who Europe hopes can save the country from going broke. Financial markets around the world rallied in relief.

AP - All the familiar sights and sounds of a football weekend at Penn State were on display: Crowded sidewalks and restaurants, fans dressed in the blue-and-white of their cherished Nittany Lions, scalpers pestering passers-by for extra tickets.