AP - Five militants freed in a prisoner swap with Israel prayed and laid wreaths at the grave of a slain Hezbollah commander Thursday, vowing to fight Israel as supporters showered them with rice.

AP - Kuwait's official news agency says the tiny Gulf country has named an ambassador to Iraq for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War.

AP - Thousands of Israelis prayed and cried at funerals Thursday for two soldiers whose return from Lebanon in black coffins touched off a nationwide wave of anguish.

AP - The world's natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.

AP - They fan out across Baghdad in summer's scorching heat — men in blue overalls picking up trash, mowing the sparse grass in parks, and standing on ladders to paint highway underpasses and prune palm trees.

AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday delivered a stinging attack on pop culture, consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic pilgrims gathered in Australia for World Youth Day.

AFP - Pope Benedict XVI warned hundreds of thousands of young Catholics Thursday of the perils of pop culture and pillaging the earth's resources after a rapturous welcome at the world's biggest Christian festival.

AFP - Efforts to agree on a framework for talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe's political crisis stalled Thursday as state media accused the opposition leader of pulling out of a deal at the last moment.

AP - Argentina's Senate has narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package whose proposal has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food shortages.

AP - When they talk of their government's failure, South Africans in the tangle of shacks and narrow lanes that is Alexandra point to an unfinished modern brick and steel building near the edge of the township.