AFP - South Korea was on alert Thursday for possible political change in its nuclear-armed neighbour following the disclosure that longtime North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers, desperate for capital and fighting for its survival, unveiled a plan to shed weak assets and sell a stake in its funds business, but investors were skeptical and its shares hit new lows.

Reuters - U.S. military prosecutors filed charges on Wednesday against an Afghan prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, alleging he committed war crimes by storing and hiding anti-tank mines in his homeland.

Reuters - President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July allowing U.S. special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without approval from the Pakistan government, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Reuters - South Korea's president convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet to prepare for possible changes in North Korea after speculation its leader Kim Jong-il had suffered a stroke, an official said on Thursday.

Reuters - A spat over gender politics erupted on the U.S. presidential campaign on Wednesday with John McCain accusing the Democrat of a sexist attack on his running mate and Barack Obama denouncing Republicans for "lies and phony outrage."

Reuters - President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July allowing U.S. special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without approval from the Pakistan government, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Reuters - Hurricane Ike gathered strength as it churned through the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters on Thursday on a track that would skirt the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch before slamming into the Texas coast on Saturday.

AP - Carlos Pena hit a three-run homer in the 14th inning, then Tampa Bay reliever Jason Hammel escaped a major jam Wednesday night to give the AL East-leading Rays a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox.

AP - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has presented its rescue plan, now it has to convince Wall Street it can make good on its promises.

AP - How's this for a twist: Of all the No. 1 songs in the 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Chubby Checker's "The Twist" ranks as the most popular single.

AP - New data from a public health registry that tracks the health effects of 9/11 suggest that as many as 70,000 people may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the terrorist attacks.

AP - A scandal involving sex, drugs and — uh, offshore oil drilling. It's a strange mix, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for those in Congress pressing to expand oil and gas development off America's beaches while trying to stave off an election-year rush by Democrats to impose new taxes and royalties on the oil industry.

AP - North Korea's Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could have partial paralysis, media reported Thursday, after the South Korean government said he remained in control of his country.