AP - The Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle to acquire forward Jermaine O'Neal from the Indiana Pacers for point guard T.J. Ford, center Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th pick in the draft and a player to be named, Yahoo reported Wednesday.

AP - Divers having difficulty removing bodies from a capsized ferry were forced to use heavy weights to help pull the dead out of the upside-down vessel, Philippine officials said Thursday.

AP - If Christian conservatives stay on the sidelines during the fall campaign, presidential hopeful John McCain probably stays in the Senate.

AP - Many of the nation's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers are turning to their parents or other adults for free alcohol.

AP - It was swift and chaotic, witnesses said, as the plastics plant worker with a determined look opened fire, killing five co-workers then himself in rural western Kentucky.

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday warned Zimbabwe's president against declaring victory in what she said will be an illegitimate run-off election this week.

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she expected developments on North Korea's long-delayed nuclear declaration within hours, as she arrived in Japan to attend a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

AP - The Federal Reserve's aggressive period of cutting interest rates to keep the country from falling into a recession is over. That point is in general agreement. The trouble starts when you try to figure out what period the Fed has now entered.

AP - Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional.

AFP - The White House said Wednesday that it could move to take North Korea off a terrorism blacklist "quite soon" after, and if, the North delivers a full accounting of its nuclear programs.

AFP - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called Wednesday for peacekeepers to be sent to Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe defied world criticism by vowing to go ahead with this week's run-off election.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush believes the Iran nuclear issue can be solved diplomatically in a process involving allies including Israel, the White House said on Wednesday.

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court in a major capital punishment decision struck down on Wednesday the death penalty for child rape, its first decision in more than 30 years on whether a crime other than murder can be punished by execution.

Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.