New York  - US stocks fell on Friday after two leading banks said they made less money in March, but the major indices were still up at least 6 per cent for the week.

JPMorgan Chase & Co and Bank of America Corp said that earnings had fallen this month after they made money in the first two months of the year, pushing their shares down more than 3 per cent, Bloomberg financial news reported.

Washington  - A US court on Friday ordered Iran to pay 25 million dollars plus interest to the family of an Israeli soldier kidnapped and killed by Hamas 15 years ago.

Nachshon Wachsman, a 19-year-old soldier with both US and Israeli citizenship, was kidnapped by four members of Hamas in 1994, while waiting for a ride on a street in Lod, Israel.

He was held captive for six days before being executed by his captors as the Israeli military staged a rescue operation to free him oustide Jerusalem.

Washington  - Some of the nation's top bank chiefs told President Barack Obama Friday that they would work with him towards the economic recovery, and agreed on the need for an overhaul of financial market regulations.

"Were all in this together," John Stumpf, the head of Wells Fargo & Co, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg financial news service after the meeting. "Were trying to do the right thing for America."

New York  - The cultural clone of shamed financial scammer Bernard Madoff has been arrested and charged after help from former tennis great John McEnroe, who reportedly lost 2 million dollars in a fine art fraud.

Mac got mad and then got even after bankrupt Lawrence Salander sold him and others shares in paintings the gallery dealer didn't actually own.

Local media reported that art-mad Mac paid up the big bucks in 2004 for a 50 percent interest in two paintings by abstract expressionist Arshile Gorky, Pirate I and Pirate II.

San Francisco/Fargo, North Dakota  - Residents of North Dakota's largest metropolitan area were evacuating Friday as the Red River roared to its highest ever level and a crack appeared on a crucial sandbag dike.

The US Army Corps of Engineers was building a secondary dike behind the compromised barrier that sprang a leak as the river, which runs from Canada through Minnesota and North Dakota, rose to record- breaking 12.22 metres.

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - The European Union on Friday welcomed US President Barack Obama's revised strategy for Afghanistan and vowed to contribute to a "civilian surge" with more money and more trainers.

"(We heard) a very important speech, a very important analysis ... we have a lot of points in common," the EU's top foreign policy official, Javier Solana, told the German Press Agency dpa on the sidelines of a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in the Czech Republic.