Reuters - Seven years after the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue.

Reuters - Chinese President Hu Jintao said his country would stand by pledges made when it was awarded the Olympics as Games officials deflected fire over Internet censorship on Friday by lifting restrictions.

Reuters - A man sleeping on a Greyhound bus as it rolled across the Canadian Prairies was killed and decapitated by his seatmate as horrified passengers fled to safety in the night, witnesses and police said on Thursday.

Reuters - Republican White House hopeful John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama on Thursday of playing racial politics in some of the most biting back-and-forth of the presidential campaign.

Reuters - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic appeared before a U.N. war crimes judge for the first time on Thursday to answer genocide charges and said he had been kidnapped and feared for his life.

Reuters - Pakistan angrily rejected a New York Times report on Friday that said U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded members of Pakistan's spy agency helped plan the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul this month.

Reuters - Israel voiced displeasure on Thursday at recent U.S. engagement with Iran and urged the Bush administration to stand firm on demanding Tehran abandon nuclear projects with bomb-making potential, an Israeli official said.

AP - After a nasty split with the Boston Red Sox, Manny Ramirez is Hollywood-bound. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired the enigmatic slugger Thursday, giving up two minor leaguers in a startling, three-team trade that sent outfielder Jason Bay from Pittsburgh to Boston.

AP - A suspected thief trying to steal $10 worth of copper got himself into a stinky situation when he was trapped under a trash bin at a county landfill for 12 hours, sheriff's deputies said.

AP - From World War II hero to dancer and award-winning actor, Charles Durning has lived a storied life. The 85-year-old added to that resume Thursday with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to one for his idol, James Cagney.

AP - The Phoenix spacecraft has tasted Martian water for the first time, scientists reported Thursday.

AP - Passengers aboard a Canadian bus fled in horror as a fellow traveler viciously attacked his seat mate, repeatedly stabbing him and then severing his head, witnesses said Thursday.

AP - The U.N. Security Council approved another year of peacekeeping in Sudan's bloodied Darfur region Thursday night, but the U.S. abstained from a vote that reflected sharp divisions over genocide charges against the Sudanese president.

AP - A top U.S. biodefense researcher apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him in the anthrax mailings that traumatized the nation in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a published report.