AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday delivered a stinging attack on pop culture, consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic pilgrims gathered in Australia for World Youth Day.

Reuters - Pakistani security forces backed by gunship helicopters cleared two northwestern towns of Taliban militants after 15 soldiers were killed in an ambush last weekend, the military said on Thursday.

Reuters - Colombia misused the symbol of the Red Cross in this month's military rescue of politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other rebel-held hostages, it said on Wednesday, admitting a possible violation of the rules of war.

Reuters - Sudan's president, accused of masterminding genocide in Darfur, might escape war crimes charges if he brings to justice two men suspected of mass killings, Western envoys said on Wednesday.

Reuters - The United States fails on most measures of health care quality, with Americans waiting longer to see doctors and more likely to die of preventable or treatable illnesses than people in other industrialized countries, a report released on Thursday said.

Reuters - U.S.-led coalition troops have killed eight Afghan civilians in an air strike in the western province of Farah during a raid against suspected militants, the U.S. military said.

Reuters - The United States said on Wednesday it was sending an envoy to join nuclear talks with Iran to signal to Tehran and others that Washington wanted a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

Reuters - Two men often mentioned as possible running mates to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama joined him on the campaign trail in Indiana on Wednesday, further stoking speculation about the Democrat's closely guarded search for a No. 2.

AP - In one of those charming English villages near Royal Birkdale Golf Club, the lamp posts are adorned with alternating pictures of Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington. One is home. The other is hurting.

AP - Police in the District of Columbia are set to begin registering residents for handguns Thursday now that the district's 32-year-old ban has been lifted.

AP - President Bush invoked executive privilege to keep Congress from seeing the FBI report of an interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and other records related to the administration's leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003.

AP - The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

AP - "Mad Men" and "Damages" have a shot at Emmy nomination history. AMC's 1960s Madison Avenue drama and FX's legal thriller, both semifinalists for the Emmy nods that were to be announced early Thursday, could be the first basic cable series to get best-series bids.