• Recovery loses speed as consumers turn cautious (AP)
<p>AP - The recovery lost momentum in the second quarter as growth slowed to a 2.4 percent pace, its most sluggish showing in nearly a year and too weak to drive down unemployment.



• Dudley to outline BP plans to help Gulf recover (AP)

</a>AP - Incoming BP CEO Bob Dudley was set to outline his company's long-term efforts to help the Gulf of Mexico recover from the oil spill Friday morning, and will be getting help from a Clinton administration-era emergency management official.



• July is deadliest month of Afghan war for US (AP)

AP - Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month's record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war.



• Wildfire explodes in rural hills near Los Angeles (AP)
<p>AP - Firefighters plan an aggressive air attack at first light Friday against a fast-moving wildfire that exploded in northern Los Angeles County, chewing through more than 7 square miles of dry brush, forcing thousands of evacuations and burning at least three structures.



• Obama to sell auto bailout good news in Michigan (AP)

AP - President Barack Obama is going to the heart of the U.S. auto industry to push an important election-year claim: his administration's unpopular auto industry bailout has turned into an economic good-news story.



• Arizona sheriff not relenting after court ruling (AP)
<p>AP - Lost in the hoopla over Arizona's immigration law is the fact that state and local authorities for years have been doing their own aggressive crackdowns in the busiest illegal gateway into the country.



• GOP gets wish: Rangel case in campaign season (AP)

AP - Republicans wanted an election-season ethics case against Democratic powerhouse Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. And now, it looks like they have one.



• FBI access to e-mail and Web records raises fears (AP)

AP - Invasion of privacy in the Internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on Web surfing. Those are among the criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a key surveillance law.



• Source: J-Lo close to deal for `American Idol' (AP)

</a>AP - Former "Fly Girl" Jennifer Lopez is poised to return to television — this time as a judge on "American Idol."



• Haynesworth fails test again, misses practice (AP)

AP - Albert Haynesworth has failed his conditioning test for a second consecutive day and is being forced to sit out practice again at Washington Redskins training camp.



• China overtakes Japan as No.2 economy: FX chief (Reuters)
Reuters - China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy, the fruit of three decades of rapid growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
• Imports slow second-quarter growth (Reuters)
Reuters - Economic growth slowed in the second quarter as a capital investment drive by businesses saw imports increasing at their fastest pace since the first quarter of 1984, a government report showed on Friday.
• House to take up offshore drilling reform bill (Reuters)

Reuters - Three months after the catastrophic oil rig explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. House of Representatives was poised on Friday to debate legislation clamping down on the industry's offshore drilling practices.



• U.N. rights body tells Israel to end Gaza blockade (Reuters)

</a>Reuters - Israel must lift its military blockade of the Gaza Strip and invite an independent, fact-finding mission to investigate its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a United Nations rights body said on Friday.



• U.S. embassy Paris says mail in scare seems harmless (Reuters)
Reuters - Two employees of the U.S. Embassy in Paris were examined for possible poisoning Friday after handling a suspicious envelope, but preliminary results indicated it was not harmful, the embassy said.