Reuters - The Dalai Lama says he understands why Tibetan exiles were angry that the Olympic torch reached the top of Mount Everest but had advised them against protesting.

Reuters - The United Nations estimated 1.5 million people have been "severely affected" by the cyclone that swept through Myanmar, with the United States expressing outrage on Thursday at delays in allowing in aid.

AP - Myanmar's military regime allowed in the first major international aid shipment Thursday, but it snubbed a U.S. offer to help cyclone victims struggling to recover from a tragedy of unimaginable scale.

AP - Iraqi police commandos captured the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq in a raid in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said Thursday, in what could mark a significant blow to the Sunni insurgency in its last urban stronghold.

Reuters - Iraqi security forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said on Friday.

AP - Jenny, recognized as the world's oldest living gorilla in captivity, celebrated her 55th birthday Thursday with a four-layer frozen fruit cake and banana leaf wrapped treats at her wooded home in the Dallas Zoo.

Reuters - Fierce clashes raged in Beirut on Thursday after the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah said the U.S.-supported Lebanese government had declared war by targeting its military communications network.

Reuters - World powers will in the coming days offer a revised package of incentives to Iran but Washington has refused to send its own envoy to help present the deal, diplomats and a U.S. official said on Thursday.

AP - Brandon Webb became the first pitcher to win his first eight starts in three years, tossing his 13th career complete game to help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3 on Thursday.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama on Thursday did not rule out selecting rival Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate if he ultimately defeats her in a race in which he has an almost insurmountable lead.

AP - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, responding to fresh accusations that he illegally accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from a U.S. citizen, on Thursday said he will step down if he is indicted.

AP - Sen. Barack Obama got a front-runner's welcome back at the Capitol Thursday, pressing congressional "superdelegates" to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved a bill to create a $300 billion mortgage-insurance fund and provide billions more in homeowner aid to stabilize a housing market shaken by a wave of foreclosures and a credit crunch.

AP - Cindy McCain says she will never make her tax returns public even if her husband wins the White House and she becomes the first lady.

AP - "CSI" co-star Gary Dourdan has been charged with felony possession of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy stemming from his arrest last month, prosecutors said.

AFP - Deadly gunbattles erupted in Beirut on Thursday after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah charged that a Lebanese government crackdown on his group was tantamount to a "declaration of war," stoking fears of a full-blown sectarian conflict.

AP - Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest — dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

AP - There's a grim, rarely talked-about twist to all that medical know-how doctors learn to save lives: It makes them especially good at ending their own. An estimated 300 to 400 U.S. doctors kill themselves each year — a suicide rate thought to be higher than in the general population, although exact figures are hard to come by.

AFP - More than one million homeless in Myanmar were battling to stave off disease and hunger Thursday, but the military government maintained tight limits on foreign assistance six days after a massive cyclone.

Reuters - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Thursday that he accepted campaign donations from an American businessman but denied that they were bribes and said he would only resign if he were indicted.

AP - Her money drained and her options dwindling, a resolute Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to press on with her presidential bid even as she and top advisers were hard-pressed to describe a realistic path for her to wrest the nomination from Barack Obama.

AP - The federal government's new advice to doctors for helping smokers quit recommends the drug Chantix, which has recently been linked with depression and suicidal behavior. The new guidelines mention the psychiatric risks but also say the popular Pfizer Inc. drug is the most effective at helping people get off cigarettes.

Reuters - Myanmar's military government came under pressure on Wednesday to open its borders to more international help after a devastating cyclone that a U.S. diplomat said may have killed more than 100,000 people.

AP - Undercover agents who posed as college students to bust more than 100 suspected drug dealers at San Diego State University never had to crack a book to gain acceptance on campus. All it took was cash.

Reuters - Osama bin Laden's suspected "media director" rejected U.S. terrorism court proceedings and renewed his allegiance to the al Qaeda leader on Wednesday in a hearing marred by technical flaws in a new Guantanamo courtroom.

AP - Roger Clemens isn't welcome on the U.S. Olympic baseball team. U.S. general manager Bob Watson said Wednesday that he isn't considering the 45-year-old right-hander for his roster for the Beijing Games.

AP - President Bush said Wednesday that Cuba's post-Fidel Castro leadership has made only "empty gestures at reform" and rejected calls for easing of U.S. restrictions on the communist island.

AP - Hungry people swarmed the few open shops and fistfights broke out over food and water in Myanmar's swamped Irrawaddy delta Wednesday as a top U.S. diplomat warned that the death toll from a devastating cyclone could top 100,000.

AP - The Rev. Al Sharpton was arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday as he and hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic to protest the acquittal of three detectives in the 50-bullet shooting of an unarmed black man on his wedding day.

AFP - Democrat Hillary Clinton Wednesday vowed she would not quit the party's bitter White House race, but faced mounting pressure to step aside in favor of a resurgent Barack Obama.

Reuters - Barack Obama took a commanding lead in the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday, but Hillary Clinton said she would fight on after loaning her campaign $6.4 million to keep it alive.

AP - At age 82, it sounds like Mrs. Garrett is still teaching youngsters about the facts of life.

Reuters - Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as Russian president on Wednesday and nominated his predecessor Vladimir Putin as prime minister, ushering in an unprecedented period of dual rule.

Reuters - Iraq's foreign minister urged Iran and the United States on Wednesday to stop trading accusations and sit down for a fourth round of talks to seek solutions to Iraq's security woes.

AFP - The death toll from the Myanmar cyclone could top 100,000, the top US diplomat in the country said Wednesday, as thousands of shell-shocked survivors emerged from the flood waters, desperate for food.