Johnson & Johnson said to be in talks to acquire Synthes Inc., which manufactures surgical instruments. Johnson & Johnson could pay up to $20 billion.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a likely Republican candidate for president with strong credentials but a rap for being 'unexciting,' sought to show a little flair at a tea party rally in Friday.

The House passed its federal budget bill Friday on a near party-line vote, but both the Senate and the president are working hard to forge a bipartisan alternative.

AP - President Barack Obama confidently predicted Friday that a divided Congress would raise the nation's borrowing limit to cover the staggering federal debt rather than risk triggering a worldwide recession, but he conceded for the first time he would have to offer more spending cuts to Republicans to get a deal.

AP - In a prelude to a summer showdown with President Barack Obama, Republicans controlling the House pushed to passage on Friday a bold but politically dangerous budget blueprint to slash social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid and fundamentally restructure Medicare health care for the elderly.

AP - Powerful spring storms roared through parts of the South on Friday, toppling trees, smashing buildings and killing at least 10 people, including two sets of parents and children who were huddled together as the winds raged outside their homes.