AFP - John McCain and Barack Obama declared a truce Thursday in their rancorous White House campaign, joining somber Ground Zero ceremonies on the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terror strikes.

Reuters - Pakistani forces killed up to 100 al Qaeda-linked militants in fierce clashes near the Afghan border on Thursday, a security official said, as tensions grew with the United States over how to tackle militancy.

Reuters - AIDS remains largely a disease of gay and bisexual men in the United States but also disproportionately infects black women, according to an analysis published on Thursday.

Reuters - A fire on a freight train forced the closure of the undersea Channel Tunnel on Thursday, halting all rail traffic, including passenger services, between France and Britain, the tunnel operator said.

Reuters - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday against starting an arms race in Europe by stationing a U.S. missile defense shield near Russia's borders and said there was no basis for a new Cold War.

Reuters - Presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama called a temporary halt to their fierce political skirmishing on Thursday in honor of the 7th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Reuters - Thousands of people fled coastal areas in the path of Hurricane Ike on Thursday as the storm gathered strength on its collision course with the Texas coast, on a track that would skirt the heart of the U.S. offshore oil patch.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's survival was called into question as its chief executive scrambled to sell assets to cover losses from toxic real estate investments, sending shares down as much as 46 percent.

Reuters - In a somber ceremony outside the Pentagon, President George W. Bush on Thursday dedicated the first major September 11 memorial on the seventh anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

AP - Orlando Magic forward Pat Garrity is retiring from the NBA.

AP - Recalling the nation's unity in a time of peril seven years ago, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama placed their partisan contest on hold Thursday and spoke as one in honoring of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

AP - Kanye West and one of his bodyguards were arrested Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport after an altercation with paparazzi in which the rapper allegedly smashed a camera on the floor.

AP - President Bush secretly approved U.S. military raids inside Pakistan against alleged terrorist targets, according to current and former U.S. officials with recent access to the Bush administration's debate about how to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban inside the lawless tribal border area.

AP - A fire broke out Thursday on a train shuttling trucks under the English Channel between England and France, injuring six people and suspending traffic in the undersea tunnel, officials said.