AP - Sheryl Crow is giving away free music — a tactic she calls the "Tupperware" party approach to inspiring young people to vote.

AP - U.S.-led coalition troops battled a group of militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing over 30 insurgents, while three NATO soldiers were killed in a roadside blast elsewhere, officials said Thursday.

AP - Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

AP - China is hoping that American college students watching the Summer Olympics will want to travel there, providing a bump similar to what Australia and Greece enjoyed in 2000 and 2004.

AP - Democratic dominance in presidential elections has been the norm for decades throughout much of the country's union-strong industrial Great Lakes region.

AP - Spain began three days of mourning Thursday for the 153 people who died when a jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff in the nation's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years.

AP - Tropical Storm Fay lumbered offshore for what was likely to be a brief stay over the Atlantic Ocean's energizing waters after flooding hundreds of homes, trapping residents and leaving much of Florida a soggy mess.

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew into Baghdad on Thursday for discussions with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials, hoping to iron out remaining differences in a U.S.-Iraq security deal that envisions the withdrawal of American troops.

AFP - Moscow moved closer Wednesday to recognising the independence of Georgian separatist regions, escalating a bruising international row over Russia's assault on the ex-Soviet republic.

AFP - A Spanish tourist jet carrying 173 people careered off a Madrid airport runway and broke up in flames on Wednesday killing at least 146 people, national radio reported.

Reuters - The U.S. military spoke out on Wednesday against a deadly Iraqi special forces raid on the governor's office in one of the country's most restive provinces, saying it was a "rogue operation."

Reuters - The United States and Poland signed a deal on Wednesday to station parts of a U.S. missile defense shield on Polish soil, drawing a sharp response from Moscow.

Reuters - Jamaica's Usain "Lightning" Bolt roared to gold in the 200 meters on Wednesday to become the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to win an Olympic sprint double.