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The nation's shoppers took advantage of deals on toys and TVs with some renewed vigor in stores and online on Black Friday after a year of concentrating their spending on basic necessities.

NEW YORK - Dubai's debt crisis rattled world financial markets Friday, raising concerns that some banks could further tighten lending and stall the global economic recovery.

NEW YORK - This was the sideswipe investors had feared.

After a dismal 2008 holiday shopping season, retailers are gearing up early with major Black Friday discount announcements. Best Buy is at the head of the pack with several steals.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Debt-burdened Dubai insisted that it took into account market fallout from its appeal to delay paying creditors, but offered no specifics and did little to ease worries that dragged down global markets for a second day Friday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned to Earth with a smooth touchdown Friday to end an "amazing" flight that resupplied the International Space Station.

After a Northwest Airlines plane flew past Minneapolis last month, air traffic controllers asked the pilots repeatedly for explanations about why they didn't heed radio calls, according to transcripts released on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices settled down more than 2 percent at about $76 a barrel on Friday as fears of possible defaults in Dubai convulsed financial markets and boosted safe-haven demand for the U.S. dollar.

LONDON - European stock markets rebounded Friday after Wall Street didn't fall as much as feared on the news that Dubai is having trouble handling its debt.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - New York's apple orchards are being carpeted with red as unpicked apples drop to the ground.

The space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station are separately flying around the Earth until Friday, and they can be seen as a pair of bright lights in the sky at certain times over the next few days.

TASIILAQ, Greenland - Gert Ignatiussen returns to this fjord-front Inuit town with the spoils of his hunting trip. Six seals, all killed with a single shot to the head.

FARMINGTON, N.M. - A New Mexico State University researcher is using tree planting to help arid, impoverished regions in the Four Corners region and Africa.

If Americans don't eat better and exercise more, diabetes cases will double by 2034 and costs to care for the patients will triple, according to a new report that paints a bleak picture of the future.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent in a truncated session on Friday as a possible debt default by a Dubai state-owned conglomerate led to fresh concerns about the global financial system.

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders expressed confidence in the global economic recovery on Friday despite fears about a debt default by Gulf emirate Dubai, while major banks played down their exposure to the debt.

TORONTO - The Supreme Court of Canada said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was entitled to close a store in Quebec in 2005, seven months after workers voted to become the first Walmart store in North America to unionize.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumers turned out in strong numbers to hunt for holiday bargains on Black Friday, though many said they were spending selectively and industry executives questioned whether the momentum would last.

TOKYO - Japanese flocked to a large gymnasium in central Tokyo in recent weeks to see what for them was an unusual sight: senior bureaucrats being grilled over their budget requests for next year.

MANCHESTER, Conn. - Holiday shoppers across the state came out in droves on Black Friday, including an unruly crowd at a toy store that drew 20 police officers and delayed the midnight opening by nearly an hour.

NEW YORK - Shades of the roiling energy markets that were set off last year by the crisis on Wall Street emerged again Friday with crude seeing the largest percentage drop in prices since January.

While many Americans feast on turkey and all the fixings today, a new study finds food waste per person has shot up 50 percent since 1974. Some 1,400 calories worth of food is discarded per person each day, which adds up to 150 trillion calories a year.

Scientists have long wondered why the hammerhead shark has such a strangely shaped head, one that looks like two heads of a hammer protruding from the sides of the shark's snout, with an eye at the outer edge of each protrusion.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs and World Online misled investors during the 2000 initial public offering (IPO) of the Dutch Internet provider, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

UPLAND, Calif. - Police say a Wal-Mart store in Southern California closed its doors for several hours before dawn after some Black Friday shoppers began fighting over bargain merchandise.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rising fears of a possible debt default at a Dubai state-owned conglomerate is the catalyst for an "overdue correction" in equities and risk assets, the chief executive of top bond fund manager Pimco said in an interview on Friday.

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. - Black Friday began truly black at one New Jersey Mall.

RICHMOND, Va. - The bluish haze that has hung over the Third Street Diner's bar and booths for decades finally lifts next month as a new anti-smoking law takes hold in Virginia, a huge shift for a state whose tobacco habit dates to the Jamestown settlement some 400 years ago.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and a top House Republican acknowledged in holiday messages Thursday the economic struggles facing Americans this Thanksgiving but offered starkly different recipes for relief.