LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A celebrity photographer who briefly dated Britney Spears at the height of her career meltdown was sentenced to 45 days in jail on Friday after clashing with an official trying to serve him a restraining order.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. chocolate maker Hershey Co <HSY.N> is considering launching a bid of at least $17 billion for British chocolatier Cadbury Plc <CBRY.L> as it seeks to trump a hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - L.A Galaxy's turnaround from worst to best in Major League Soccer, which could be completed with a win in Sunday's MLS Cup final, has been largely due to David Beckham's change in attitude, captain Landon Donovan said Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson's personal physician told investigators he was not the first doctor to give the pop star propofol, the powerful anesthetic that was one of the drugs to cause his death, according to court papers unsealed on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could sputter next week as volumes dry up in holiday-shortened trading and with a slew of economic reports likely to illustrate the recovery is still fragile.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Past the security man and his pit bull and through a haze of eye-watering smoke, two youths load up a pipe next to a row of shiny glass jars with two dozen varieties of marijuana bud displayed like candy.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Past the security man and his pit bull and through a haze of eye-watering smoke, two youths load up a pipe next to a row of shiny glass jars with two dozen varieties of marijuana bud displayed like candy.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - David Beckham and the L.A Galaxy are hogging the attention for Sunday's MLS Cup final but opponents Real Salt Lake expect to benefit from a backlash from supporters in Seattle.

PARIS/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A French attorney for Roman Polanski who said the film director would not return voluntarily to the United States to face child sex charges is not authorized to speak in the case, Polanski's U.S. attorneys said on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unilever United States Inc. said on Friday it was voluntarily recalling certain Shedd's Country Crock chilled side-dish products because they may contain sulfites.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce will be sidelined indefinitely with a bulging disc in his neck, the team said on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Talks between General Electric and Vivendi over the future of NBC Universal have stalled, the New York Times reported on Friday night.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite its neighbor's aggressive rhetoric and dynamiting of two border bridges, Colombia's defense minister said on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp, Time Warner Inc and Qualia Capital LLC are interested in buying Hollywood's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio, home of the James Bond movies, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief executive of Delta Air Lines Inc <DAL.N> says the SkyTeam alliance of global carriers would be willing to invest more than its proposed $1.02 billion in Japan Airlines <9205.T>, the Wall Street Journal reported.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp <BAC.N> Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis has said he would consider postponing his retirement if directors need more time to find a successor or smooth the transition to the next CEO, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Adam Lambert -- the man with the outsize personality who delivered an audacious octave-and-a-half sitar-tinged purr of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on the most-watched TV show in the country, dodged sex toys thrown at him onstage during the "American Idol" tour and did it all without smearing his eyeliner -- is curled in the fetal position.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited on Friday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

HAVANA (Reuters) - The husband of Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez said he was attacked by government supporters as he waited on Friday to confront state security agents accused of detaining and beating his wife two weeks ago.

LONDON (Reuters) - The Afghan government would quickly be overthrown if NATO troops pulled out of the country now, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Friday.