AP - Hurricane Ike, a colossal storm nearly as big as Texas itself, began battering the coast Friday, threatening to obliterate waterfront towns and give the skyscrapers, refineries and docks of the nation's fourth-largest city their worst pounding in a generation.

AP - A Metrolink commuter train believed to be carrying up to 350 people collided with a freight train Friday, killing two people and injuring an unknown number of others. Firefighters put out a blaze under part of the wreckage and pulled people from a demolished Metrolink passenger car that was left lying on its side with the commuter train's engine shoved back inside it. Two other cars in the Metrolink train remained upright.

AP - Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Friday she thinks Barack Obama regrets not making Hillary Rodham Clinton his running mate.