AP - A conservative Republican congressman says he supports helping victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but did not offer an apology for remarks he made while questioning the need for federal compensation.
AP - Iran has assembled hundreds of advanced machines reflecting a possible intention to speed up uranium enrichment, diplomats have told The Associated Press.
AFP - A new classified US National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq paints a rosier picture of the conditions on the ground than previous reports on the war, The Wall Street Journal reported online Thursday.
Reuters - A top official in the U.S. private
security firm Blackwater said on Thursday it was too soon to
pass judgment on the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians by its
employees last September and urged critics to await an FBI
report.
AP - Iraq's prime minister pledged Thursday to expand his crackdown on Shiite militias to Baghdad, despite a mixed performance so far against militants in the southern city of Basra.
AP - The former Iraq war contractor accused of trying to take bomb components on an airplane had a history of mental illness and was distraught over his mother's 2005 slaying, said a lawyer representing his family in the case.
AP - The U.S. military says an American airman has been killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
Reuters - Questions put to Osama bin Laden's
deputy in an online forum this week indicated Al Qaeda's
violent tactics may be seriously questioned by some of the
movement's sympathizers, a U.S. counterintelligence official
said on Thursday.
AFP - The Israeli army dismantled on Thursday 10 roadblocks in the West Bank, as part of a pledge to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to remove 50 in the occupied region, an army spokeswoman said.
AFP - Islamist extremists plotted suicide attacks on at least seven flights from Britain to North America in a simultaneous attack of "truly global impact," a prosecutor said Thursday.