AP - The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits slipped last week, the latest sign the employment picture is slowly brightening.

AP - A final agreement nearly in hand, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are about to embark on one last sales job that will determine the outcome of the president's signature health care overhaul.

AP - Serious street clashes erupted between rioting youths and police in central Athens Thursday as some 30,000 people demonstrated during a nationwide strike against the cash-strapped government's austerity measures.

AP - Preliminary election results released by Iraq's electoral commission show Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is winning in two Shiite provinces in southern Iraq.

AP - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday implored Israelis and Palestinians to move beyond a diplomatic spat that has marred his trip to the region, urging the sides to waste no time in resolving their decades-old conflict despite daunting obstacles.

AP - Facing potential bankruptcy, the board that governs the once flush-with-cash Kansas City school district is taking the unusual and contentious step of shuttering almost half its schools.

AP - Toyota's massive recalls are prompting Congress to reconsider whether the nation's auto safety agency has lived up to its mission of protecting motorists.

AP - Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim is the first man from a developing nation to become the world's richest person — a shift that underlines the loosening of America and Europe's stranglehold on the top spots in the billionaires' club.

AP - Michael "Big Mike" Lynche made Kara DioGuardi cry and turned the rest of the "American Idol" judges giddy with a moving performance of "This Woman's Work."

AP - Alex Rodriguez may soon be talking to federal authorities, and he hopes it will happen close to spring training.

Reuters - Vice President Joe Biden called on Thursday for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to start without delay despite Palestinian insistence that Israel first cancel a settlement project condemned by Washington.

Reuters - Greek public and private sector workers went on strike on Thursday, grounding flights, shutting schools and halting public transport in the second nationwide walkout in a fortnight in protest against austerity plans.

Reuters - Preliminary results from Iraq's national election began to trickle in on Thursday, showing Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ahead in the country's largely Shi'ite south.

Reuters - The controversial "Volcker rule" to curb risky trading by banks got a boost in the Senate on Wednesday, as two Democrats introduced a bill that would enact and expand the rule.

Reuters - London-based oil major BP has agreed to buy Brazilian, Azeri and Gulf of Mexico assets from Devon Energy for $7 billion, as the U.S. producer refocuses on onshore U.S. fields.

Reuters - President Barack Obama declared on Wednesday the "time for talk is over" and urged the U.S. Congress to vote on healthcare as his health secretary directly challenged insurers to forgo profits to make coverage more affordable.

AFP - Prospects for indirect peace talks lay in tatters on Thursday after the Palestinians said they would not negotiate with Israel unless it reversed plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem.

AFP - Greek police battled demonstrators on Thursday as the country ground to a halt in the latest protest strike against government austerity measures aiming to end a crippling debt crisis.