AP - Some victims in a botched hostage rescue of a tourist bus in the Philippines may have been hit by police fire, the nation's top law enforcement official said Thursday.

AP - Four prisoners with links to al-Qaida have escaped from the U.S.-controlled part of a maximum-security prison in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday.

AP - Afghanistan's top prosecutor said Thursday that while President Hamid Karzai backs the work of Western-supported anti-corruption teams, he wants investigations to be led by Afghans and free of interference from international advisers.

Reuters - Britain's financial watchdog slapped a 17.5 million pounds ($27 million) fine on Goldman Sachs on Thursday for inadequate disclosure of a U.S. probe into the Wall Street powerhouse.

AP - BP's long-awaited internal report on what it believes went wrong when a rig exploded and started the massive Gulf oil spill never mentions the words blame, regret, apology, mistake or pollution. The word fault shows up 20 times, but only once in the same sentence as the company's name.

AP - Cuba's communist economic model has come in for criticism from an unlikely source: Fidel Castro.

AFP - Violent crime declined last year in South Africa, the police minister said Thursday, with murders down 8.6 percent to under 17,000, in one of the world's most violent countries.

Reuters - Australia's competition regulator blocked National Australia Bank's $12 billion bid for AXA Asia Pacific for a second time, dashing NAB's efforts to cement its dominance in the world's fourth-largest wealth management market.

Reuters - Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.25 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.45 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2 percent at 5.16 EDT.

AP - North Korea celebrated its 62nd anniversary Thursday with odes to supreme leader Kim Jong Il and pilgrimages to his late father's statue amid hints that a political meeting believed aimed at promoting his son as successor is imminent.

Reuters - Switzerland remains the world's most competitive economy, while the United States has fallen from second to fourth after losing the top spot last year, according to the World Economic Forum's annual rankings issued on Thursday.

AFP - Australian regulators rejected National Australia Bank's 12.2 billion US dollar bid for financial firm AXA Asia Pacific on competition concerns Thursday, in a move welcomed by rival suitor AMP.

AP - South Korea's central bank left its key interest rate near a record low Thursday for a second straight month as the risk of slowing global growth outweighed a buoyant outlook for the local economy.

AP - The third Mexican mayor in a month was slain by suspected drug gang hitmen on the same day the U.S. secretary of state raised hackles in Mexico by saying the country is "looking more and more like Colombia looked 20 years ago."

AP - Politically weakened but refusing to bend, President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that Bush-era tax cuts be cut off for the wealthiest Americans, joining battle with Republicans — and some fellow Democrats — just two months before bruising midterm elections.

AFP - US stocks were slightly up on Wednesday after news of a successful Portuguese debt auction eased the previous day's concerns about the European economy.