AFP - John Toshack resigned as Wales coach on Thursday after just one match of his country's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

AFP - Eleven police recruits died and another four were injured when flames engulfed their barracks in a Cairo suburb on Thursday, a security official told AFP.

AP - The legitimacy of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections is severely threatened by insurgent attacks on candidates and the lack of security provided by the government, an international rights group 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 - South Africa's murder rate, one of the highest in the world, has dropped by 8.6 percent to its lowest level in nearly two decades, according to statistics released Thursday.

Reuters - Stocks rose at the open on Thursday after better-than-expected jobless benefits figures and data that showed the trade deficit narrowed more than forecast painted a rosier picture for economic growth.

AP - A suicide car bomber hit the central market of a major city in Russia's North Caucasus on Thursday, killing at least 17 and wounding more than 130 people in one of the worst attacks in the volatile region in years, officials said.

Reuters - New 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.

Reuters - McDonald's Corp reported higher global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months in August, helped by sales of smoothies, frappes and other cold drinks in the United States.

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.

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

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.

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 - As exhausted Detroit firefighters battled wind-fed blazes burning wild in some neighborhoods and threatening to char much of the city, a half-dozen departments from surrounding communities brought in sorely needed — and gladly accepted — help.

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.