AP - Afghanistan's top Islamic organization on Wednesday called for an end violent protests over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, as police shot four protesters to death to stop a crowd from marching on a U.S. military base in the southern part of the country.

AP - Reunited at last in death, Coretta Scott King was laid to rest beside the tomb of her husband after a stirring funeral with 10,000 mourners that was both lyrical and mournful, and at times political.

AP - If President Bush gets his way, the venerable $255 Social Security death benefit will fade into history. And 16- and 17-year-old high school dropouts will lose their monthly survivor payments.

AP - Election workers counted ballots into the night as Haitians anxiously awaited the results of presidential elections that officials hailed as a success despite delays that caused many polls to open late.

Reuters - The Iraqi holy city of Kerbala was shrouded in black on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims converged to mourn the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson here 1,300 years ago.

AP - A "highly pathogenic" strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in poultry stocks in Nigeria — the first reported case of the disease in Africa, the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health said Wednesday.

AP - A court commissioner issued a restraining order Tuesday against celebutante Paris Hilton, ordering her to stay away from an event producer who claimed she threatened and harassed him.

AP - Carl Icahn called for Time Warner Inc. to split into four separate companies, citing a report he commissioned that accused the media conglomerate of mismanaging for the short term.

AP - Rick Tocchet, Wayne Gretzky's close friend and top assistant coach, headed to New York to face NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after he was implicated as the financier of a nationwide sports betting ring.

Reuters - Afghan police fired at a crowd trying to storm a U.S. military base on Wednesday, killing three and wounding 20 in fresh protests over cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammad that have unleashed rage across the Muslim world.

Reuters - Islamic Jihad ruled out on Wednesday joining a new Palestinian government following Hamas's election victory or forging any long-term truce with Israel.

Reuters - North Korea will resume six-party talks on its nuclear activities only if the United States drops threatened sanctions against it, a North Korean official said on Wednesday as talks between Tokyo and Pyongyang ended in rancor.

Reuters - The Philippine government could sign a peace deal with Muslim rebels as early as September, Manila's chief negotiator Silvestre Afable said on Wednesday after returning from the latest round of talks in Malaysia.

Reuters - Nepalis trickled into schools, temples and courtyards on Wednesday to vote in local elections seen by many as the first real test of King Gyanendra's rule since he seized power a year ago.

AFP - Hamas could agree to a "long-term truce" with Israel only if it is willing to return to the 1967 borders and recognise the rights of Palestinians to self-determination, its exiled leader told BBC radio.

AFP - Durbar Square, the historic heart of old Kathmandu, was thronged with people, but only a few were voting at two polling stations erected for the first elections since King Gyanendra's coup a year ago.

AFP - A wheat shipment to Iraq funded by mining giant BHP Billiton and described by the company as a humanitarian gesture was a "soft bribe" to obtain a foothold in Iraq's lucrative oil industry, the head of an Australian corruption inquiry suggested.

AFP - President George W. Bush came in for criticism during the funeral of civil rights campaigner Coretta Scott King, with speakers questioning the US-led war in Iraq, a domestic eavesdropping program and the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

AFP - The satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo printed all 12 of the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as well as a new front-page caricature of its own.