Reuters - Republican presidential nominee John McCain has a new attack dog. Her name is Sarah Palin, and she bites hard.

AP - Serena Williams watched the final shot sail beyond the baseline, and immediately her sister called for an instant-replay challenge. At that point, Venus Williams really had nothing else to lose.

AP - Boeing Co. aircraft assembly workers voted overwhelmingly to strike for the second time in three years but union leaders agreed to hold off on the walkout for 48 hours at the request of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and a federal mediator.

AP - Bill Melendez, the animator who gave life to Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other "Peanuts" characters in scores of movies and TV specials, has died. He was 91.

AP - A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney has arrived in Georgia, in a show of support for the South Caucasus nation and its pro-Western president.

AP - Coastal residents moved boats and booked inland hotel rooms while National Guard troops prepared to deploy along the Southeastern coast as Tropical Storm Hanna plowed through the Atlantic on a shifting track toward the U.S.

AP - Pakistan stands with the U.S. against international terrorism, the Muslim nation's presidential front-runner wrote in a column appearing Thursday amid furor over a U.S.-led cross-border attack in Pakistani territory.

AP - City and state officials tried to hold them off, but New Orleans resident would have none of it. After Hurricane Gustav brushed by the city, they wanted back in, and now.

AP - The Republican presidential nomination his at last, John McCain makes his case for the presidency to the GOP convention and the nation after his surprise choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, energized delegates with a rousing speech.

AFP - Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin breaks her silence Wednesday as a political storm rages around her, with her high stakes speech to the Republican National Convention

AFP - The United States and Russia squared off Wednesday as Vice President Dick Cheney said Washington had a "deep" interest in the ex-Soviet Caucasus, a key energy corridor he said must be developed.

Reuters - North Korea has begun moving around some previously stored equipment at its Yongbyon nuclear plant but does not appear to be trying to rebuild the facility, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Hanna is expected to regain hurricane strength when it takes aim at the U.S. East Coast later this week as more potentially deadly storms rev up in the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. forecasters said on Wednesday.