AP - America's trade deficit shot up in July to the highest level in 16 months as oil imports hit an all-time high, offsetting strong export growth. The deficit with China climbed to the second highest level on record.

AP - President Bush said Thursday that after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 fade from memory, history will look back at America's response and conclude that "we did not tire, we did not falter and we did not fail."

AP - Authorities in the Houston area and along the Southeast Texas Gulf Coast ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Ike lumbered toward the coast and threatened to grow even stronger.

AP - The nation paused Thursday morning to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with heartfelt remembrances at the World Trade Center site, the dedication of a memorial at the Pentagon and a planned visit to ground zero by the presidential candidates.

AFP - Pakistan and the United States were drawn into a dispute Thursday over the right military strategy to hunt down Al-Qaeda, seven years after the September 11 attacks stunned the world.

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.