AP - An Israeli military exercise over the Mediterranean appears to have been less a dry run for an attack on Iran than a message that Tehran must curb its nuclear ambitions, according to officials and experts.

AFP - French auto giant Renault said Thursday it is increasing its prices by an average of 1.5 percent to help offset rising raw material costs.

AP - Militants attacked troops from the U.S.-led coalition patrolling south of the Afghan capital on Thursday, killing three of them and an Afghan interpreter.

AP - A suicide bomber attacked a meeting of pro-government Sunni sheiks west of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 20 people. The U.S. military acknowledged coalition casualties but did not say how many.

AP - President Robert Mugabe on Thursday said he is open to talks with the opposition, which is boycotting Friday's runoff because its leader says state-sponsored violence has made it impossible to take part.

AP - President Bush on Thursday lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an "axis of evil."

AP - President Jose Ramos-Horta, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers earlier this year, has accepted the top U.N. human rights job, members of East Timor's parliament said Thursday.

AP - South Korea lifted its ban on U.S. beef imports Thursday and the government, paralyzed by weeks of tumultuous demonstrations, warned it would not tolerate further protests.

AFP - Nelson Mandela and George W. Bush led heightened international pressure on Robert Mugabe ahead of the one-man presidential run-off election in Zimbabwe on Friday.

AP - A Canadian judge said in a ruling Wednesday that the U.S. military's treatment of a teenage detainee at Guantanamo Bay violated international laws against torture.

AP - Israel will keep Gaza border crossings closed another day in response to Palestinian rocket fire that had violated a new cease-fire, the Defense Ministry said late Wednesday.

AFP - Unicredit, Italy's biggest bank by capitalisation, said on Thursday it planned to cut 9,000 jobs in western Europe and invest in central and eastern Europe to boost profits.

AP - Divers having difficulty removing bodies from a capsized ferry were forced to use heavy weights to help pull the dead out of the upside-down vessel, Philippine officials said Thursday.