AFP - The United States, Mexico and Costa Rica remained unbeaten in the semi-final phase of regional World Cup qualifying Wednesday, continuing their march toward South Africa 2010.
AP - Caribbean tourism officials are working overtime to reassure reluctant travelers that plenty of sun-soaked islands were untouched by a recent spate of deadly tropical cyclones. -- read full article
AP - A Druse politician in Lebanon who recently helped reconcile rival factions within his minority community was killed when a bomb tore through his car, police said.
Reuters - Russia wants the United States and its
European allies to provide convincing guarantees that a planned
missile defense shield is not aimed against Moscow, Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Thursday. -- read full article
AP - A small blip on a computer screen sent champagne corks popping among physicists in Switzerland. Near Chicago, researchers at a "pajama party" who watched via satellite let out an early morning cheer.
AP - North Korea's Kim Jong Il had brain surgery after a stroke last month and could have partial paralysis, media reported Thursday, after the South Korean government said he remained in control of his country.
AP - The day after Hurricane Gustav roared through western Cuba, families were salvaging belongings from their flattened homes when state-television cameras turned up.
AP - Pakistan's military chief has criticized U.S. cross-border raids from Afghanistan, saying his country's sovereignty will be defended and warning that the assaults could stoke militancy.
AP - Pakistan's military chief says his country's sovereignty will be defended "at all costs" after a raid by U.S. ground troops near the border with Afghanistan.
AP - Smugglers threw two children overboard and forced dozens of other African refugees to swim to shore in the middle of the night, leaving more than three dozen dead, the U.N. and an aid group said Wednesday. -- read full article
AP - Two Russian strategic bombers landed in Venezuela on Wednesday as part of military maneuvers, the government said, announcing an unprecendented deployment to the territory of a new ally at a time of increasingly tense relations with the U.S.
AP - Cholera has killed two people in a province south of Baghdad, indicating that water quality and sanitation remain poor in a country that has endured years of war, health officials said Wednesday. -- read full article
AFP - Poland, which joined the European Union in 2004, wants to adopt the eurozone single currency by 2011, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Wednesday, setting a target entry date for the first time.
AP - British prosecutors said Wednesday they were seeking a retrial of seven men accused of plotting to down trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives disguised as soft drinks.
