AP - Roger Federer's bid for his first Olympic singles medal has ended with a loss to American James Blake. With the sort of lackluster performance that was once unthinkable for Federer, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals on Thursday night. Meanwhile, Serena and Venus Williams both lost as well.

AP - Poland and the United States reached an agreement Thursday that will see a battery of American missiles established inside Poland, the prime minister said, announcing a plan that has infuriated Russia and raised the specter of an escalation of tension with the region's communist-era master.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton's name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary.

AP - GORI, Georgia (AP — Russian troops searched selected cities, forests and fields in Georgia on Thursday, looking for military equipment left behind by Georgian forces. In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister declared Georgia could "forget about" regaining its two separatist provinces.

AFP - Washington on Wednesday sent an envoy to Beijing and US and South Korean negotiators prepared to meet in New York to help break a deadlock over a mechanism to verify North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

AFP - Russian forces started withdrawing Thursday from the flashpoint Georgian city of Gori, officials said, adding a new twist to the campaign for a permanent peace between the neighbours.

Reuters - A New Orleans judge on Wednesday dismissed charges against seven policeman accused of killing two people on a bridge amid the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Reuters - The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, Bill Gwatney, died in a hospital after being shot by a lone gunman at the party's headquarters in Little Rock, officials said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Americans scaled back their driving during June by almost 5 percent in response to soaring fuel costs, the government said on Wednesday -- a day after announcing the biggest six-month drop in U.S. petroleum demand in 26 years.

Reuters - The U.S. military was so eager to get the sluggish Guantanamo war crimes trials moving that the legal adviser to the Pentagon overseer adopted a "spray and pray" approach to pursuing charges, a U.S. general testified on Wednesday.

Reuters - Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, under mounting pressure to resign, called on Thursday for reconciliation to tackle economic problems and Islamist militancy.

Reuters - U.S. presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain target religious voters on Saturday when as guests of one of America's foremost evangelists they discuss faith in public life, AIDS, the environment and other issues.

Reuters - Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima led a golden day for Asia in the pool and the gymnastics arena on Thursday, underlining the continent's growing might.

Reuters - U.S. military planes began delivering aid to Georgia as Washington stepped up support for a shaky ceasefire with Russian troops around the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

AP - Brett Favre took it easy on his rocket right arm after firing a few duds earlier in the day.