In your pre-vacation Friday media column: the AP warns reporters on war propaganda, another Newsweek departure, China's "future of journalism" candidate, and ABC pulls a story, while standing by it.

Hurricane Earl is weakening. The storm's been downgraded to a Category 1 and may not even be a hurricane at all when it reaches New England late tonight. And the tropical storm warning for NYC has been lifted. Hooray!

Peter Orszag, the possibly-bald former White House Budget Director with an attractive woman or two at his side, is the newest Op-Ed columnist at the New York Times. But only once or twice a month. Lazy bum. [NYT]

Tennis is the most repetitive of sports. But yesterday a real live fight broke out in the stands at the U.S. Open! Most exciting moment ever, at a tennis match? It seems likely.

[Russian President Dmitry Medvedev bites a watermelon while visiting a farm 450 miles southeast of Moscow. Wuss! Putin would have impregnated it, and then shot it. Pic via AP.]

[A woman in Surf City, North Carolina, watches the waves being whipped up by Hurricane Earl, which has the potential to ruin countless Labor Day weekend travel plans as it travels up the eastern seaboard. Image via AP]

[The wind dared to tousle Anna Wintour's hair while she watched imaginary boyfriend Roger Federer play at the U.S. Open today alongside his very real wife, Mirka. Anna subsequently banned Mother Nature from ever appearing in Vogue. Image via AP]

The Justice Department has thrown yet another lawsuit at America's loony desert dingbat moon colony, Arizona. This one, however, was filed against obnoxious self-serving tyrant Joe Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County, for refusing to cooperate in a civil rights investigation.

The husband of ailing 93-year-old actress Zsa Zsa Gabor says he wants to have her body plastinated by controversial anatomist and Body Worlds exhibit founder Gunther von Hagens when she dies. We knew she was well-preserved, but that's just creepy.

The Somali government is teaming up with Somali pirates. Anti-government insurgents are teaming up with Somali pirates. And we'd love to team up with Somali pirates on some sort of t-shirt licensing deal. Pirates: awesome, till they kill you. [NYT]

[A barber cuts a customer's beard on a makehift barbershop at a camp for people displaced by floods in Pakistan's Punjab province. Floods have receded in north and central Pakistan, but are continuing in the south. Pic via AP.]

[A child dressed as Hindu God Krishna looks on during festivities to mark Janmashtami at a school in Mumbai, India.](Pic AP)

[These women in the stands at the U.S. Open today didn't seem too happy about the 90-degree temperatures. Hopefully the umbrellas helped. Image via AP]

Last week, British spy Gareth Williams was reportedly found in his apartment, stabbed to death and stuffed in a gym bag. Well, turns out he wasn't stabbed to death; his death was much more mysterious and movie-like.

A Washington man was charged with a hate crime today for assaulting a 7-11 clerk wearing a turban last week. His words to the convenience store employee? "You're not even American, you're Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country."

George Smithey, a 70-year-old mentally retarded San Quentin Death Row inmate, hung himself in his cell Saturday, five days after his death sentence was commuted. A prison spokesman didn't know "whether Smithey had learned his death sentence had been overturned."

Caroline Giuliani, Harvard student and daughter of Rudy, will have her charges for shoplifting cosmetics from Sephora dismissed in exchange for a single day of community service. That's reportedly the normal outcome for first-time petty shoplifting charges, okay? [Pic: AP]

On Sunday, Phillip Tisson scored the winning goal for St. Lucia's soccer team in its game against St. Kitts-Nevis in the Digicell Caribbean Cup tournament being held in Brooklyn. Hours later, he was shot dead.

[A costumed reveller performs in the Notting Hill Carnival in London, the largest festival of its kind in Europe. Pic via AP.]

[Melanie Oudin's legs were looking lovely as she returned a shot during the first day of play at the U.S. Open. Image via AP]