AP - Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought — at least 46 million.

AP - Republican John McCain declined to disavow Thursday the tough criticism by his campaign of his Democratic opponent's experience as a community organizer, saying politics is "tough business" even as he praised Barack Obama's service.

AP - Sometimes, it pays to be pokey. Going slow has paid the state of New York about $27 million and counting. New Hampshire and Oklahoma, too, are sitting on a pile of federal money.

AP - With Lehman Brothers' shares signaling another steep drop on Friday, top executives are racing to put a sale of the beleaguered investment bank in place before it loses further market value and confidence.

AP - John McCain running mate Sarah Palin sought Thursday to defend her qualifications but struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she's never met a foreign head of state.

AP - John McCain is mocked as an out-of-touch, out-of-date computer illiterate in a television commercial out Friday from Barack Obama as the Democrat begins his sharpest barrage yet on McCain's long Washington career.

AP - As a gigantic Hurricane Ike steamed through the Gulf of Mexico toward the Texas coast, officials in America's fourth-largest city made a bold decision: Instead of fleeing, residents here would stare down the storm.

AFP - Russian troops laboured Thursday over a tentative pull-out from Georgia as Moscow vowed to strengthen its military after last month's war and turned its diplomatic fire on Ukraine.

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.