AP - Conditions in the western Iraqi province of Anbar, where a brutal insurgency once ruled, have improved so dramatically that the United States is handing over responsibility for security in the Sunni stronghold to Iraq within days. Troops freed up in Iraq could shift to Afghanistan.

AP - Police say rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight is in a Las Vegas jail on drug and assault charges after he was accused of beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife.

AP - Talk about an extreme makeover: Scientists have transformed one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

AFP - Russia accused the West on Wednesday of ratcheting up tensions in the Black Sea with an increased NATO naval presence and warned against isolating Moscow over the conflict in Georgia.

Reuters - Corporate America is having the hardest time getting its customers to pay their bills since the last U.S. recession in 2001, according to a study released on Wednesday.

Reuters - U.S. military planners have begun pondering the thorny question of how Georgia's shattered armed forces might be rebuilt without provoking a Russian backlash that could risk direct confrontation with Moscow.

Reuters - The hijackers of a Sudanese airliner surrendered to authorities in Libya on Wednesday after releasing all the passengers, Libya's aviation authority said.

Reuters - Three U.S. soldiers killed four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots on the bank of a Baghdad canal last year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.