AFP - Visiting US President George W. Bush vowed on Thursday to support Israel in battling "terror" groups as the nation marks its 60th anniversary still struggling to find peace with Arab neighbours.

AP - Democrat John Edwards is endorsing former rival Barack Obama, fresh signs of the party establishment embracing the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her increasingly long-shot candidacy.

AP - A woman accused of booking clients for a high-priced call girl ring pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering and promoting prostitution in the federal probe that brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Reuters - President George W. Bush, in the Middle East to encourage struggling Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, has emphasized historic ties with Israel saying the United States was its "oldest and best friend in the world."

AP - The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

Reuters - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks, is tentatively scheduled to appear before a Guantanamo war court judge for the first time on June 5, a military official said on Wednesday.

AP - Cindy McCain, whose husband has been a critic of the violence in Sudan, sold off more than $2 million in mutual funds whose holdings include companies that do business in the African nation.

Reuters - Former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards will endorse fellow Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday, a campaign spokeswoman said, giving a big boost to the Illinois senator in his effort to rally the party around his bid for the White House.

AP - The moment that a devastating earthquake struck central China, the hills surrounding the city of Chengdu shook, people ran outside in confused panic, and a thick, white cloud of dust enveloped a mountain reserve.

AP - The Red Cross estimated Wednesday that the cyclone death toll in Myanmar could be as high as 128,000 — a much higher figure than the government tally. The U.N. warned a second wave of deaths will follow unless the military regime lets in more aid quickly.

Reuters - Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, stung by a third election defeat in as many months, scrambled on Wednesday to regain the confidence of voters as well as some of their own members.

Reuters - The United Nations estimated those affected by the Myanmar cyclone at up to 2.5 million on Wednesday and called an urgent meeting of big donors and Asian states as the Myanmar junta continued to limit foreign aid.

AP - Astronomers have discovered the youngest known supernova in the Milky Way galaxy, still just a baby at 140 years old. The scientists, who announced their findings Wednesday, used a radio observatory in New Mexico and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space to identify when the supernova, or stellar, explosion occurred. They put the star-dying event at sometime around 1868.

AFP - Visiting US President George W. Bush paid a 60th anniversary tribute to Israel as a democracy challenged by "terrorists" on Wednesday just before a rocket attack wounded 14 people in a shopping mall.

AP - Angelina Jolie is indeed expecting twins, and it was Jack Black who let the news slip with a "Brady Bunch" crack. Long rumored to have two children by Brad Pitt on the way, Jolie confirmed the news during a side-by-side "Today" show interview with Black, her "Kung Fu Panda" co-star. The two are in Cannes, France, promoting the animated film.

AP - Hold on, NFL. Spygate isn't over. Not if the "incensed" Pittsburgh Steelers fan in Congress has anything to do with it. Sen. Arlen Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots' taping of opposing coaches' signals, possibly similar to the high-profile Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

Reuters - Congress pushed the Bush administration on Wednesday to do more to boost global agriculture, faulting a long-term decline in foreign aid for the food crisis unfurling across the developing world.

Reuters - The death toll from China's deadliest earthquake in decades climbed to nearly 15,000 on Wednesday, as officials warned of calamities downstream from broken rivers and dams strained to bursting point.

AFP - More than 40,000 people were dead, missing or buried under rubble in China's southwest, officials said Wednesday, as the full horror of its devastating earthquake began to emerge.

Reuters - The United States said on Wednesday six world powers had no plans to offer Iran security guarantees to encourage it to suspend nuclear activity, hours after Russia floated the idea.

AP - Soldiers hiking over landslide-blocked roads reached the epicenter of China's devastating earthquake Tuesday, pulling bodies and a few survivors from collapsed buildings. The death toll of more than 12,000 was certain to rise as the buried were found.

AP - A series of bombs exploded across the ancient city of Jaipur on Tuesday, killing at least 60 people and transforming busy markets, a jewelry bazaar and a Hindu temple into scenes of carnage.

AP - John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having "emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews."

AP - One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week — more than four decades after it was last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible's Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.