Reuters - Doves flew and confetti rained down as the Olympic torch was carried along the ancient Great Wall on a misty Thursday, the day before the opening of Games that China hopes will demonstrate its modern-day strength.

AP - Brett Favre's journey from retirement and back has finally ended — in New York.

AP - Federal prosecutors have decided not to pursue a criminal case into how Heath Ledger obtained the powerful painkillers that contributed to his overdose death this year, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

AP - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is taking up the issue of possible job losses due to the closure of a DHL shipping site in Ohio, the result of a corporate merger aided by his campaign manager during his work as a lobbyist.

AP - Osama bin Laden's former driver is expected to ask the Pentagon jury that convicted him of a war crime to spare him from life in prison Thursday, his defense lawyers said.

AP - Israel is building up its strike capabilities amid growing anxiety over Iran's nuclear ambitions and appears confident that a military attack would cripple Tehran's atomic program, even if it can't destroy it.

AP - As many as eight firefighters and a pilot are presumed dead in the crash of a helicopter that had just picked up workers battling a blaze in a Northern California forest, officials said Wednesday.

AP - At least two women who have protested being evicted from their homes ahead of the Olympics were rounded up and taken to a police station, amid ramped up efforts Thursday by activists to use the games to spotlight their causes.

AP - The investigation spanned six continents, but in the end, federal investigators say they found the anthrax killer in their own back yard.

AP - President Bush praised the spread of freedom in Asia while training a harsh spotlight Thursday on the region's democratic laggards, sharply criticizing oppression and human rights abuses in China, Myanmar and North Korea.

AFP - Military jurors found Osama bin Laden's former driver Salim Hamdan not guilty Wednesday on terrorist conspiracy charges but convicted him on the lesser charge of providing material support to Al-Qaeda.

AFP - Flag-waving crowds cheered the torch relay through Beijing's Tiananmen Square Wednesday as Olympic fever mounted, but a dramatic Tibet protest and a row over Darfur clouded the Games build-up.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush plans to voice deep concerns about human rights in China in a speech on Thursday, hours before he arrives in Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Games.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush issued one of his strongest rebukes to China on human rights on Wednesday, two days before Beijing hosts an Olympics it hopes will showcase its modern face and economic might.