AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew into Baghdad on Thursday for discussions with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials, hoping to iron out remaining differences in a U.S.-Iraq security deal that envisions the withdrawal of American troops.

AP - Tropical Storm Fay lumbered offshore for what was likely to be a brief stay over the Atlantic Ocean's energizing waters after flooding hundreds of homes, trapping residents and leaving much of Florida a soggy mess.

AP - Spain began three days of mourning Thursday for the 153 people who died when a jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff in the nation's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years.

AP - Democratic dominance in presidential elections has been the norm for decades throughout much of the country's union-strong industrial Great Lakes region.

AP - The Chinese and the wretched Beijing weather were no match for Misty May-Treanor and "Six Feet of Sunshine." May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won their second consecutive gold medal in beach volleyball Thursday, playing through a steady and sometimes driving rain to beat China in straight sets and extend their winning streak to 108 matches in a row.

AP - China is hoping that American college students watching the Summer Olympics will want to travel there, providing a bump similar to what Australia and Greece enjoyed in 2000 and 2004.

AP - Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage, a hospital spokeswoman said.

AP - U.S.-led coalition troops battled a group of militants in eastern Afghanistan, killing over 30 insurgents, while three NATO soldiers were killed in a roadside blast elsewhere, officials said Thursday.

AP - Sheryl Crow is giving away free music — a tactic she calls the "Tupperware" party approach to inspiring young people to vote.

AP - Baseball umpires and management signed an agreement Wednesday that will allow the sport to start using instant replay to help determine calls on the field. Major League Baseball still hasn't determined when the use of replays will start.

Reuters - A column of Russian armor withdrew from central Georgia on Thursday in what the Defense Ministry in Moscow said was the start of a pullback of forces, Interfax reported.

Reuters - Grieving relatives and medical staff on Thursday tried to identify the badly-burned bodies of victims of the crash of a Spanish jet in which 153 people were killed as it took off on a holiday flight from Madrid airport.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain dodged questions about their looming vice presidential picks on Wednesday as they renewed their battle over who has the best judgment on national security and the economy.

Reuters - Assassinated Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's widower emerged on Thursday as a likely candidate to become the next president as a split loomed in the ruling coalition led by his party.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley may incur further writedowns, mainly on their mortgage assets, said an analyst at Citigroup, who cut his third-quarter outlook for the U.S. investment banks.

Reuters - More than a dozen civilians have been killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman, two provincial officials said on Thursday.

Reuters - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Thursday and said the United States and Iraq are close to a deal on the presence of U.S. troops beyond this year.

Reuters - A Dutchman who had been given only a slim chance of survival after being diagnosed with leukemia won one of the Olympics most grueling events on Thursday, the marathon open-water swim.

AFP - Investigators on Thursday scoured the wreckage of a Spanish budget airline jet that broke up in flames after a failed take off from Madrid airport killing 153 people.

AFP - Georgia's South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions planned rallies Thursday to ask Russia for recognition as independent states, two weeks after Russian troops occupied both provinces.