AP - A man charged with raping and killing a 5-year-old North Carolina girl was expected in court Friday, a day after authorities revealed what they believed happened to her in her final days.

AP - Oprah Winfrey was set to announce Friday that her powerhouse daytime television show, the foundation of a multibillion-dollar media empire with legions of fans, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air.

AP - Two days before shipping off to war, Marine Pfc. Jesse Sheets sat inside a trailer in the Mojave Desert, his gaze fixed on a computer that flashed a rhythmic pulse of contrasting images.

AP - A gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan Friday, killing four people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

AP - As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

AP - Hoping to see the USA in your Chevrolet Volt or Nissan Leaf? The tiny Iowa town of Elk Horn will have plenty of electric charging stations and no wait — if you can get there.

AP - Santa's "elves" at the North Pole have been given their walking papers — but they're not going quietly.

AP - This city did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program — seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford.

AP - As protests resounded outside, the University of California Board of Regents approved a fee 32 percent fee increase for students attending the state's premier public schools.

AP - Former NBA star Jayson Williams is expected to plead guilty Friday in the fatal 2002 shooting of a hired driver, weeks before he faced a second trial for reckless manslaughter.

AP - When the nation's swine flu vaccination program began in early October, health officials predicted it was going to be "messy." They were right.

AP - For the second time in a little more than a year, a glitch at one of the two centers that handle flight plans for the nation's air travel system set off delays and cancellations for passengers around the country.

AP - Several family members who say they were sexually abused as children by adult relatives remember being taken to various locations and photographed with naked men, police investigators said in a search warrant released Thursday.

AP - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wants to report previously unrecorded flights he took on planes owned by friends and campaign donors, a state ethics official said Thursday, even as the governor's lawyer continued to defend his travel practices.

AP - New York juries are often loath to impose the death penalty, even for terrorists.