NEAR ZAWIYAH, Libya - Rebels closing in on Libya's capital fought forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi for control of oil facilities vital to winning the civil war.
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AMMAN - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that military and police operations against pro-democracy protesters have stopped, but activists reported more bloodshed overnight.
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BEIJING - China and the United States share a responsibility for boosting global market confidence, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping told visiting U.S. President Joe Biden in talks on Thursday that focused on shoring up trust between the two big powers.
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ISTANBUL - Turkey launched a heavy air and artillery assault on Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq overnight following a declaration by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that he had lost patience with separatists fighting in south-east Turkey.
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BEIJING - A former Chinese official's manifesto for a new burst of reform mixing Mao, markets and guarded political relaxation has opened a rare window into ideas shaping the country's next generation of "princeling" leaders.
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NEW DELHI - A popular Indian anti-graft campaigner won a bitter fight against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to hold a two-week public fast from Thursday, stepping up the pressure on the government to show a restive nation it can tackle rampant corruption.
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BERLIN - Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden on Thursday welcomed Franco-German plans to tackle the euro zone debt crisis as a step in the right direction but said powers to impose sanctions must remain with national governments, rather than the European Commission.
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ATKINSON, Ill - President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he will propose a plan in September to jump-start the U.S. economy as he struggles to convince skeptical voters that he has something new to offer.
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CARACAS - Venezuela will nationalize its gold industry and is moving its international reserves out of Western countries, President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday in a combative step ahead of his re-election bid next year.
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CAPE TOWN - South African mining minister Susan Shabangu described the mounting death toll in the country's lethal mines as ?carnage" on Thursday and said there was a link between the pursuit of profits and the body count.
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DUBAI - Burned, wounded and forced into medical exile in Riyadh, Ali Abdullah Saleh had seemed down and out, but a speech by the Yemeni leader suggests he might yet return home to a country convulsed by months of unrest, violence and economic misery.
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HERAT, Afghanistan - A roadside blast killed 20 people and wounded at least 12 travelling in two minibuses in the western Afghan province of Herat on Thursday, provincial authorities said.
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LONDON - New evidence of hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World points to a four-year cover-up by the company, and intensifies focus on Prime Minister David Cameron's judgement in hiring an ex-editor who may now face criminal prosecution.
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