AP - Iran said Thursday it will free one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months in an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

AP - A suicide car bomber hit a central market in southern Russia on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 130 in one of the North Caucasus region's worst attacks in years, officials said.

AP - Hundreds of angry Afghans burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to the Christians" on Thursday to protest plans by a small American church to torch copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

AP - North Korean children are already singing the praises of the young man in line to become the reclusive nation's next leader, analysts say, but the rest of the world doesn't even know the age, or, until recently, how to spell the name of Kim Jong Il's youngest son.

AP - Four prisoners with links to al-Qaida being guarded by American troops escaped from a maximum-security prison in Baghdad and are still at large, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

AP - U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he had agreed with Rwanda's president, who threatened to pull troops out of Sudan, on the importance of Rwanda continuing in peacekeeping operations.

AFP - Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz will stay in Britain to be interviewed by police over the alleged spot-fixing scandal, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Ijaz Butt said on Thursday.

AFP - Australian regulators rejected National Australia Bank's 12.2 billion US dollar bid for financial firm AXA Asia Pacific on competition concerns Thursday, in a move welcomed by rival suitor AMP.