AP - Oil prices jumped Friday in Asia to near $117 a barrel on expectations tropical storm Gustav will soon enter the Gulf of Mexico area, home to a quarter of U.S. crude supplies and 40 percent of its refining capacity.

AP - An oxygen tank exploded and blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, air safety officials said Friday, but investigators appear to be no closer to figuring out why.

AFP - The income gap between urban and rural areas in China is the worst in a generation, state media reported Friday, five years after leaders made equality a top policy aim.