AP - North Korean children are already singing the praises of the young man in line to become the reclusive nation's next leader, analysts say, but the rest of the world doesn't even know the age, or, until recently, how to spell the name of Kim Jong Il's youngest son.
AP - U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said.
AP - The death toll from flooding caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine climbed Thursday after Texas authorities recovered the body of a missing swimmer and Oklahoma driver drowned trying to cross a swollen creek.
AP - Donald Trump offered Thursday to buy out a major investor in the real estate partnership that controls the site near ground zero where a Muslim group wants to build a 13-story Islamic center and mosque.
AP - The anti-Muslim leader of a tiny Florida church backed off his threat to burn the Quran, defusing an international firestorm Thursday after he said he was promised that a planned Islamic center and mosque would be moved away from New York's ground zero. The imam planning the center, however, quickly denied such a deal.
AP - The anti-Muslim leader of a tiny Florida church backed off his threat to burn the Quran, defusing an international firestorm Thursday after he said he was promised that a planned Islamic center and mosque would be moved away from New York's ground zero. The imam planning the center, however, quickly denied such a deal.
Reuters - Chip makers National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments Inc on Thursday issued quarterly financial targets that stoked investors' worries about a sluggish economy.
AP - Neighborhoods once filled with million-dollar homes and scenic mountain cabins have become piles of smoking rubble. On one lot, all that survived was a tennis court. On others, all that's left are crumbling, ash-covered foundations.
AP - The father of a U.S. soldier serving in Afghanistan says he tried nearly a half dozen times to pass an urgent message from his son to the Army: Troops in his unit had murdered an Afghan civilian, planned more killings and threatened him to keep quiet about it.
Reuters - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will present the Obama administration's latest view of what the United States should do to press China to reform its exchange rate practices at a hearing next week, a key Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.
AP - Consumers curious — or concerned — about the chemicals in household cleaning products will get detailed rundowns under state plans to require manufacturers to detail their products' contents.
McClatchy Newspapers - RAYSNAR, Afghanistan — Fazlur Ahmed is a guard at a rural school in southern Afghanistan, but on Thursday the Afghan police officer was thrown into battle and severely wounded in a U.S.-led assault on a Taliban position.
AP - With a blunt remark that grated on Mexicans, Washington's top diplomat was merely echoing a growing concern about the alarming violence and instability being caused by Mexico's war on drug cartels.
AP - A city all too familiar with civil unrest was caught by surprise by the level of outrage over the fatal police shooting of an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was menacing officers with a knife.
Reuters - Casey's General Stores Inc confirmed it was in buyout talks with convenience store operator 7-Eleven, which offered the company $40 per share in cash earlier this month.
Reuters - In a concession to the European Union that it hopes to join, Serbia supported a compromise U.N. resolution on Kosovo on Thursday that dropped its earlier demands to reopen talks on the status of its former province.
Time.com - Foreign businesses in China are voicing growing frustration about the country's heavily regulated market -- a bureaucratic maze many say is deliberately designed to hamstring non-Chinese players to the advantage of their local competitors
Time.com - The family of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer, is fighting a civil suit in Israel's courts, forcing the authorities to reveal details of her death
Politico - In the political world, it was the viral video of the day: The impassioned, way-over-the-top, Raging-Bull-style stump speech delivered Wednesday evening by Minerva, Ohio, Councilman Phil Davison.
AP - If Rahm Emanuel decides to run for Chicago mayor, the White House chief of staff would easily be the best-known figure in the race, with national name recognition that few others could match and invaluable experience from helping engineer the Democrats' takeover of the House in 2006.
AP - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was in a two-vehicle accident near his home Thursday morning but was unhurt and hours later practiced as usual with his team just days before the season opener.
AP - The Environmental Protection Agency asked nine natural gas companies Thursday to voluntarily disclose the chemical components used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.
AP - The Environmental Protection Agency asked nine natural gas companies Thursday to voluntarily disclose the chemical components used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.
AP - In early August, three women, each of them more than four months pregnant, sought abortions from Dr. Steven Brigham at his clinic in New Jersey. Instead of turning them down, authorities said Brigham used a novel scheme to take advantage of the disparities in state abortion laws.
AP - Iran said Thursday it will free Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Ann Coulter - In response to Gen David Petraeus' denunciation of Florida pastor Terry Jones' right to engage in a symbolic protest of the 9/11 attacks by burning copies of the Quran this Sept. 11, President Obama said: "Let me be clear: As a citizen, and as president, I believe that members of the Dove World Outreach Center have the same right to freedom of speech and religion as anyone else in this country."
AP - Wisconsin election officials and the U.S. Department of Justice have reached an agreement on how the state will comply with a new law designed to ensure all military and overseas voters have their ballots counted.
Reuters - Stocks rose on Thursday as stronger-than-expected jobs and trade data helped lift optimism about the economic recovery, although sentiment was fragile as investors fretted over European banks.
AP - Lawyers for a Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up a plane near Detroit on Christmas said Thursday that they've talked to prosecutors about resolving the case with a deal.
AP - A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hazleton, Pa., may not enforce its crackdown on illegal immigrants, dealing another blow to 4-year-old regulations that inspired similar measures around the country. The city's mayor pledged to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Reuters - Ford Motor Co has invited Lincoln dealers to a meeting in October to discuss its plans to breathe new life into the lagging luxury brand at a critical time for many of its U.S. retailers.
AP - Record-low mortgage rates failed to pull the housing market out of its funk. Now rates are inching higher, but don't blame them if home sales stay sluggish.
AP - The 76-year-old wife of imprisoned former Gov. George Ryan has a terminal lung disease, Ryan's attorney told a judge Thursday as he sought bail for Ryan while the judge considers a request to toss part of his corruption conviction.
AP - Iran said Thursday it will free Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.