Reuters - Western states joined the United Nations in urging action to ensure a fair outcome from Zimbabwe's elections but most African countries avoided the issue at a summit of the Security Council and the African Union on Wednesday.

AP - Members of the embattled polygamist sect said Wednesday life was relatively normal on their West Texas ranch at the center of one of the nation's largest child-custody cases.

AFP - Pope Benedict XVI received a rapturous welcome Wednesday on his first papal visit to the United States, but chided Americans for a moral breakdown he said fueled the church's child sex scandal.

AP - Researchers from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo have discovered a rare giant turtle in northern Vietnam — a find that carries great scientific and cultural significance. Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle was previously thought to be extinct in the wild. Three other turtles of the species are in captivity, said experts from the Zoo's Asian turtle program.

AP - A temporary restraining order against Britney Spears' friend Sam Lutfi was extended Wednesday after an attorney told a judge all parties had agreed on the matter.

AP - Doctors now have a better way of helping parents make an agonizing decision — whether to take heroic steps to save a very premature baby. The number of weeks in the womb has generally been the chief factor.

AP - Feted at the White House on his 81st birthday, Pope Benedict XVI praised Americans for their deep religious beliefs Wednesday but later told the nation's bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been "very badly handled."