AP - Barack Obama launched his historic fall campaign for the White House on Thursday with an outdoor Democratic National Convention extravaganza that blended old-fashioned speechmaking, Hollywood-quality stagecraft and innovative, Internet age politics.

AP - Residents, tourists and oil workers fled as Gustav swamped Jamaica on Thursday, leaving 59 people dead in its wake. Louisiana and Texas put their national guards on standby, and New Orleans said a mandatory evacuation might be necessary.

AP - The economy pulled out of a dangerous rough patch in the spring, thanks largely to strong exports, but the rebound isn't expected to last. Economic slowdowns overseas could make exports tail off just as Americans are hunkering down after the bracing impact of rebate checks wanes, plunging the country into another rut later this year.

AP - An aide says Republican presidential candidate John McCain decided on a running mate early Thursday.

AP - Mexico's Supreme Court voted 8-3 Thursday to uphold legal abortion in the capital, opening the possibility that similar measures could be adopted elsewhere in Mexico — and perhaps beyond.

AP - Afghan officials said Thursday that a deadly U.S.-led special forces raid on a remote western village last week was based on misleading information provided by a rival clan.

AP - Rapper DMX has pleaded out a Miami drug case and now awaits extradition to face more charges in Arizona.

AP - An art museum in northern Italy said Thursday it will continue displaying a sculpture portraying a green frog nailed to a cross that has angered Pope Benedict XVI and local officials.

AP - Venus Williams and James Blake kept favorites on the fast track at the U.S. Open, with top-seeded Rafael Nadal and Ana Ivanovic hoping to join them later Thursday in reaching the third round.

Reuters - Democrats prepared a grand spectacle on Thursday to celebrate the historic presidential nomination of Barack Obama, who will take the party reins with a speech that spells out his vision for change in America.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Gustav hit Jamaica with near hurricane-force winds on Thursday after killing at least 59 people elsewhere in the Caribbean and taking aim at New Orleans and Gulf of Mexico oil fields, where it could become a major hurricane next week.

Reuters - Russia faced diplomatic isolation over its military action against Georgia on Thursday, with its Asian allies failing to offer support and France saying EU leaders were considering sanctions.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is looking at cutting some 1,200 jobs in its latest round of cost cutting, a person familiar with the matter said, as weak financial markets spur layoffs across Wall Street.

Reuters - An outbreak of an unusual strain of Salmonella that sickened more than 1,400 people and put 286 in the hospital appears to be over in the United States, federal health officials said on Thursday.

Reuters - Top U.S. and Pakistani military officials met this week on a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean to discuss the presence of militant safe havens in Pakistan and their role in Afghan violence, officials said on Thursday.

Reuters - A U.S. appeals court has upheld the dismissal of criminal charges against 13 former executives at KPMG, saying prosecutors violated the defendants' rights by pressuring the accounting firm not to pay their legal bills.

Reuters - U.S. forces arrested the deputy head of a committee that purged Iraq's government of members of Saddam Hussein's party, an ally said, but the U.S. military said he was a wanted militia leader behind a deadly Baghdad bombing.

AFP - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Washington on Thursday of manufacturing the Georgia conflict as tensions mounted with the United States threatening to scrap a nuclear deal in protest at Moscow's actions.

AFPTV/POOL - Barack Obama was Thursday to summon America to join his crusade for change, as the Democratic convention climaxes in a historic echo of Martin Luther King's" "I have a dream" speech.