Reuters - Al Gore, long mocked as an exaggerating bore, seems certain to land a lead role at the Democratic National Convention as an internationally recognized defender of the Earth.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama accused White House rival John McCain of trying on Wednesday to scare voters with attacks on his character, as McCain launched a new ad labeling Obama more of a celebrity than a leader.

Reuters - Israel's right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu called on Thursday for a new parliamentary election after Ehud Olmert pledged to resign following his party's leadership contest in September.

AP - The Detroit Tigers sent veteran catcher Ivan Rodriguez to the New York Yankees for hard-throwing reliever Kyle Farnsworth on Wednesday, a trade that filled glaring holes for both contenders.

AP - An attorney for Britney Spears said Wednesday that he will not seek an extension for a restraining order against Osama "Sam" Lutfi, but that doesn't mean the pop star wants her former sidekick back in her life.

AP - At least one of many large, lake-like features on Saturn's moon Titan studied by the international Cassini spacecraft contains liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface, NASA said Wednesday.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."

AP - President Bush approved an order that rewrites the rules governing spying by U.S. intelligence agencies, both in the United States and abroad, and strengthens the authority of the national intelligence director, according to a U.S. official and government documents.

AP - A year after the worst U.S. bridge collapse in a generation brought calls for immediate repairs to other spans, two of every three of the busiest problem bridges in each state — carrying nearly 40 million vehicles a day — have had no work beyond regular maintenance.

AP - Radovan Karadzic makes his first appearance Thursday before the U.N. war crimes tribunal on charges that the former Bosnian Serb leader was behind massacres and atrocities against Muslims and Croats.

AP - Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is due in federal court to answer charges that he lied about hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from an oil services contractor.

AP - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to resign amid corruption allegations and his own plummeting popularity has intensified doubts about Israel's prospects for reaching peace deals with the Palestinians and Syria.

AFP - The Beijing Olympics were plunged into another controversy on Wednesday as China announced a backflip on Internet freedoms for the thousands of foreign reporters covering the Games.