NEW YORK, Dec. 5  -- Eight quarterbacks were among the ailing when the injury report for the NFL's 14th week was released Friday afternoon.

The quarterbacks who will not play are Cincinnati's Carson Palmer (right elbow) and Detroit's Dan Orlovsky (right thumb). Buffalo's Trent Edwards (groin) and Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck (back) are listed as doubtful.

Tennessee's Vince Young (right thumb) is questionable, with Houston's Matt Schaub (knee), Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger (knee) and Tampa Bay's Brian Griese (right elbow) in the probable category.

Among those on the list, only Orlovsky was not a starter when the 2008 season started Sept. 4.

NEW YORK, Dec. 5  -- Crude oil prices dropped Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange with prices down more than 20 percent in the past week and headed toward $40 per barrel.

NEW YORK, Dec. 5  -- Rating errors for auto insurance policies resulted in the loss of $16.1 billion in premium revenues in 2007, an industry research group said Friday.

Quality Planning Corp., which tracks information for the insurance industry, said the "auto premium leakage" declined from the $16.6 billion lost in 2006. However, insurers' revenue losses still came to almost 10 percent of the $162 billion in auto premium revenues for the year, the Insurance Journal reported Friday.

"The year 2007 saw the first decrease in auto premium leakage since Quality Planning began issuing this industry report five years ago," said Raj Bhat, president of Quality Planning.

NEW YORK, Dec. 5  -- Dallas Stars forward Sean Avery was suspended by the NHL for six games for comments he made about his former girlfriend and another player.

Avery, 28, had been suspended indefinitely by the league following his statements Tuesday regarding Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf and Elisha Cuthbert. On Friday, league officials defined the penalty.

The NHL cited provisions of its constitution regarding conduct detrimental to the league in justifying the suspension.

In addition to the suspension, which is without pay, Avery has agreed to undergo a professional anger-management evaluation.

Washington, December 5 : In what projects blogging as a dangerous business, an annual "prison census" survey suggests that most of the journalists jailed worldwide are associated with the Internet medium.

The survey report, compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), shows that about 45 per cent of all media workers jailed worldwide are bloggers, Web-based reporters, or online editors.

New York, Dec 5 : Alex Rodriguez has set the record straight – he and Madonna are just friends.

"We''re friends - that''s it," A-Rod told People in an interview.

In the interview, the 33-year-old denied reports that he travelled to Mexico with the Material Girl as well as the rumor that they are shopping for a Manhattan apartment together, reports the New York Daily News.