Markets remained under pressure Friday ahead of the start of budget discussions between President Barack Obama and congressional leaders and as investors fretted over a military escalation in Gaza.

Japanese stocks, however, enjoyed solid gains on hopes that elections next month may lead to more stimulus measures being enacted, in the latest attempt to get the stuttering economy moving.

On a rare visit to the team's training ground to give his troubled squad a pep talk on Friday, AC Milan President Silvio Berlusconi denied he is considering selling the club.

Reports in Italy say that Berlusconi is becoming more and more disinterested with the club and is considering selling to the owners of Guangzhou Evergrande, the Chinese side coached by Marcello Lippi.

Bundesliga club Hoffenheim said midfielder Boris Vukcevic has awoken from a coma, a month and a half after he was injured in a car accident.

Vukcevic was put into an induced coma after operations following the accident on September 28, when his car collided head-on with a truck.

The artsy downloadable game "Journey" leads the pack of nominees for this year's Spike Video Game Awards.

The PlayStation 3 game received seven nods in such categories as best graphics, independent game, original score and game of the year.

The world's largest agency that deals with global migration says cholera is again on the rise in Haiti.

The International Organization for Migration says Haitian officials have confirmed 3,593 cholera cases and another 837 suspected cases since Hurricane Sandy's passage.

Comedian Katt Williams has been arrested after a man told Oakland police that the entertainer hit him over the head with a bottle.

Authorities say the 41-year-old Williams was briefly taken into custody on suspicion of assault Wednesday night after the apparent victim said he was attacked aboard a tour bus that was parked outside a downtown hotel.

Liz Lemon is getting married and you're invited.

Fans of "30 Rock" might have reasonably assumed that Lemon, the harried TV producer played by Tina Fey, would ride out the series' seventh and final season as a perennial bachelorette unlucky in love. But Fey, who is also the creator and producer of the NBC comedy, clearly thought otherwise.

Forget texting while driving. German police say they nabbed a driver who had wired his Ford station wagon with an entire mobile office.

Saarland state police said Friday the 35-year-old man was pulled over for doing 130 kph (80 mph) in a 100 kph zone while passing a truck Monday.

Russian police said Friday that nine men have been charged with organizing cells of a banned Islamist group.

The Interior Ministry said Friday that the men are nationals of Russia and Tajikistan who kept guns, explosives and fake U.S. dollars and euros in apartments they rented near "transport routes of federal importance" in Moscow.

Despite what his current team boss says, Lewis Hamilton is very happy about his decision to leave McLaren for Formula One rival Mercedes after this season.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh recently said he believes Hamilton rushed into his decision after retiring from the Sept. 23 Singapore Grand Prix with gearbox problem, and will regret the decision to end his 14-year relationship with the team. Mercedes has won one race in three seasons.