AP - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by rebel soldiers earlier this year, said Thursday he is considering taking a new job as U.N. human rights chief.

Reuters - North Korea handed over a long-delayed account of its nuclear activities on Thursday, prompting a still-wary U.S. President George W. Bush to ease some sanctions on a country he once deemed part of an "axis of evil."

AP - The Zimbabwe opposition party's No. 2 official was freed on bail Thursday, two weeks after being arrested and charged with treason.

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.