Reuters - Stocks rose modestly on Thursday as better-than-expected jobs and trade data added to optimism over the economic recovery.

AP - President Barack Obama implored a Florida minister to call off his Quran-burning "stunt," saying it would jeopardize U.S. troops abroad.

AP - New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was in a two-car accident near his home Thursday morning, but was unhurt and hours later practiced as usual with his team just days before the season opener.

Reuters - President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that an obscure U.S. Christian pastor's plan to burn the Koran could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings, as international pressure mounted on Washington to step in.

AP - Traffic deaths have plummeted across the United States to levels not seen in more than a half-century, spurred by technology, safety-conscious drivers and tougher enforcement of drunken driving laws.

AP - Authorities in Texas say it is unlikely they will find alive two missing swimmers swept away by floodwaters from the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine (hur-MEEN').

Reuters - McDonald's Corp's European sales growth fell in August from the sizzling levels it experienced for much of the year due to weakness in France, which generates the company's biggest European sales, and its shares fell nearly 3 percent.

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.

AFP - Nigeria has set off on what some may consider a near impossible task in Africa's most populous nation -- holding fair elections -- and has upped the ante by giving itself only four months to prepare.

AP - Former first lady Laura Bush will speak at a National Park Foundation fundraiser in Pittsburgh on Friday, a day before joining Michelle Obama in rural Pennsylvania to remember the victims of Flight 93, which crashed there in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Reuters - President Barack Obama stood firm on Thursday in opposition to a Republican push to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the rich but stopped short of threatening to veto such a measure if passed by Congress.

AFP - Energy-hungry India is considering setting up an 11-billion-dollar fund to help finance the expansion of power companies' generation capacities, the country's power secretary said Thursday.

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 - FBI agents visited Thursday with a minister of a small Florida church that plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11, as public safety became a paramount concern and President Barack Obama added his voice to the chorus of opposition.

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 - Alabama seafood market owner David Scott faces a difficult decision as he tries to rejuvenate his business after the Gulf oil spill: He can accept a piece of BP's $20 billion claims fund — relatively fast, easy money — or sue the oil giant for a bigger payday, wait years and risk ending up with nothing.

AP - Alabama seafood market owner David Scott faces a difficult decision as he tries to rejuvenate his business after the Gulf oil spill: He can accept a piece of BP's $20 billion claims fund — relatively fast, easy money — or sue the oil giant for a bigger payday, wait years and risk ending up with nothing.

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 - 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.

AP - A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hazleton, Pa., may not enforce its crackdown on illegal immigrants, dealing another blow to 4-year-old regulations that inspired similar measures around the country.

AP - The police officer who shot and killed a knife-wielding man whose death has sparked three days of violent protests in Los Angeles had been involved in two previous shootings while on duty, according to a media report.

AP - Hundreds of residents evacuated by a wildfire that has destroyed at least 169 houses in the Colorado foothills were being temporarily allowed back to their homes Thursday.

Reuters - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to a two-month low, while the trade deficit narrowed sharply in July, hopeful signs for the stuttering economic recovery.

AP - The backers of a proposed Islamic center near ground zero are expressing regrets about creating a firestorm with a plan they thought would be simple and noncontroversial.

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.