AFP - Monks from one of Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred temples defied China's crackdown to protest in front of visiting foreign reporters in Lhasa on Thursday, voicing their support for the Dalai Lama.
AP - Pat Riley can't understand why Shaquille O'Neal keeps talking about the Miami Heat. Riley responded to O'Neal's criticisms Wednesday with some of his own, saying his former center was wrong to disparage some of his old teammates and trainers in a Boston Globe story.
AP - Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Wednesday, making a rare nighttime touchdown to wrap up "a two-week adventure" at the international space station.
Reuters - Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton's positive rating has dropped to a new low of
37 percent in an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on
Wednesday.
AP - Uneasy lies Chikezie, who won't wear the crown. The one-name singer — who previously worked security at Los Angeles International Airport — was eliminated from "American Idol" as the show narrowed the competition to nine finalists.
Reuters - The United Nations human rights council
should address the crisis in Tibet, a rights group urged, as
Beijing continued its propaganda blitz in the wake of more than
two weeks of Tibetan protests in western China.
AP - Behind the Pentagon's closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush Wednesday they are worried about the Iraq war's mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they'd go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.
AP - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
AP - State Department workers viewed passport applications containing personal information about high-profile Americans, including the late Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith, at least 20 times since January 2007, The Associated Press has learned.
AP - Republican John McCain on Wednesday called anew for the United States to work more collegially with democratic allies and live up to its duties as a world leader, drawing a sharp contrast to the past eight years under President Bush.
AP - Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald's restaurants, has died, a Southern California McDonald's official said Wednesday. He was 89.
AP - A rattlesnake rancher who calls himself Bayou Bob found a new way to make money: Stick a rattler inside a bottle of vodka and market the concoction as an "ancient Asian elixir." But Bayou Bob Popplewell's bright idea appears to have landed him on the wrong side of the law, because he has no liquor license.
Reuters - The U.S. space shuttle
Endeavour returned to Florida on Wednesday, capping a milestone
flight that brought Japan fully into the International Space
Station partnership with the delivery of the first part of its
research laboratory.
AFP - President Nicolas Sarkozy called for France and Britain to open a new chapter in cross-Channel ties Wednesday as he and his glamorous new wife received a royal welcome in London.
Reuters - The basic ingredients for life --
warmth, water and organic chemicals -- are in place on Saturn's
small moon Enceladus, scientists said on Wednesday in detailing
the content of huge plumes erupting off its surface.
AFP - Iraq's premier on Wednesday gave militiamen battling his forces in Basra 72 hours to lay down their arms, as firefights in several Shiite strongholds across the country killed more than 50 people.
Reuters - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
ordered Shi'ite militiamen to surrender on Wednesday as a
crackdown on followers of powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
spread across southern towns leaving a ceasefire in tatters.
Reuters - Republican presidential candidate
John McCain, looking to chart an independent course on U.S.
foreign policy, called on Wednesday for a more vigorous
international diplomacy and a new effort to rebuild frayed
relations with allies.
Reuters - Canadian investigators violated the
rights of terrorism suspect Omar Khadr when they interrogated
him at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, his lawyers told
Canada's top court on Wednesday.
Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court considered on
Wednesday whether mentally ill criminal defendants who have
been found competent to stand trial must be allowed to
represent themselves.
AP - The FBI is analyzing a torn, tangled parachute found buried by children in southwest Washington to determine whether it might have been used by famed plane hijacker D.B. Cooper, the agency said Tuesday.
AP - Iraq's leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled government forces for control of the southern oil capital, fought U.S. and Iraqi troops in Baghdad and unleashed rockets on the Green Zone.
AP - Trustees for the government's two biggest benefit programs warned that Social Security and Medicare are facing "enormous challenges" with the threat to Medicare's solvency far more severe.
AP - A 20-foot-long chunk of construction crane plummeted 30 floors at the site of a high-rise condominium Tuesday, killing two workers and smashing into a home that the contractor used for storage, police said.
AP - A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday.
AP - Magician Penn Jillette and tennis champ Monica Seles were the first stars eliminated from the sixth season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars." Each came into Tuesday's results show in last place.
AP - Pat Summitt celebrated her 100th NCAA tournament win in typical fashion: a second-round blowout. Two days after Summitt publicly challenged her team to play harder, the Lady Vols responded with a dominant defensive effort, crisp offense and a 78-52 rout of host Purdue on Tuesday night.
