AFP - More than 15,000 activists gathered to open the World Social Forum, where anti-globalization and peace and security issues will be discussed over the next six days.

AP - Seton Hall fired basketball coach Louis Orr on Friday, a little more than a week after the Pirates lost by 20 points in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.

AP - Silicon Valley's historic orchards have virtually disappeared but one notable fruit still stands: Apple.

New home sales fell more sharply than expected in February -- and along with them, the price of a new house -- in the latest signs of a slowdown in what had been a white-hot housing market.

AFP - French President Jacques Chirac defended his eye-brow-raising exit from an EU summit session, accusing the French head of Europe's employer union of piquing French pride by daring to speak in English.

New home sales fell more sharply than expected in February -- and with them, the median price of a new house -- in the latest signs of a slowdown in what had been a white hot housing market.

AP - The prime minister said Friday that if the government confirms that the Basque separatist group ETA's permanent cease-fire is authentic, he will push for peace talks in a matter of months.

Reuters - Car dealership group AutoNation Inc. on Friday forecast a first-quarter profit that was lower than Wall Street expectations.

AFP - East Asia and Pacific nations must protect young people from HIV/AIDS or face an epidemic that will kill nearly 20,000 children a year in less than a decade.

BT is targeting more than 3,000 broadband users who it says are exceeding their monthly download limits.

AP - One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.

AP - Toshiba Corp. said Friday it has postponed the release of high-definition DVD players in the United States until April, a month later than planned, so that it can synchronize the sales with title releases from Hollywood studies.

AP - India's prime minister invited Pakistan on Friday to join his country in a "treaty of peace, security and friendship" to end nearly six decades of tension between the nuclear-armed nations.

Reuters - The New York City Opera has a spotty past when it comes to presenting revivals of Broadway musicals, but Frank Loesser's 1956 classic provides a better fit for the company than most.

Reuters - No one does preoccupied better than Bill Nighy -- best known Stateside for roles in such films as "Love Actually" and "The Constant Gardener" -- and playing to his strength as a serenely detached public relations guru just about saves "Gideon's Daughter," a ponderous story of family alienation.

Government-funded drag racing moves to the desert in the United Arab Emirates in the name of saving lives. By Michael Spinelli from Wired magazine.

AP - Each year, endangered white sturgeon lay millions of fertilized eggs on the silty bed of the Kootenai River in the Idaho Panhandle. Yet experts estimate only 10 of the sturgeon hatched from those eggs survive.

AP - Suspected insurgents killed one policeman and wounded three others in a drive-by shooting in west Baghdad Friday morning, police said.

AP - As debate over the issue flares in several states, a major adoption institute says in a new report that it strongly supports the rights of gays and lesbians to adopt, and urges that remaining obstacles be removed.

AP - Kenton Paulino beat West Virginia at its own game, hitting a 3-pointer as time expired to give Texas a 74-71 victory over the Mountaineers on Thursday night in the third round of the NCAA tournament.