AP - Hurricane Dolly slammed ashore and then loitered over deep south Texas as a tropical storm, dumping as much as a foot of rain in places and ripping roofs off buildings with 100 mph winds.

AP - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama arrived in Berlin on Thursday, meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and kicking off the European leg of his overseas trip amid high expectations.

AP - Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it lost $8.67 billion in the second quarter largely because of a reduction in the value of assets.

AP - About 2 million Americans get a raise Thursday as the federal minimum wage rises 70 cents. The bad news: Higher gas and food prices are swallowing it up, and some small businesses will pass the cost of the wage hike to consumers.

AP - The towering trucks that give U.S. troops the best protection against roadside bombs and enemy bullets also make them vulnerable to routine hazards like sharp turns, rutted roads and rickety bridges.

AP - Japanese and Mongolian scientists have successfully recovered the complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old young dinosaur, a nature museum announced Thursday.

AP - 50 Cent has sued Taco Bell, claiming the fast-food restaurant chain is using his name without permission in advertising that asks him to call himself 99 Cent.

AP - CC Sabathia threw a three-hitter, his third straight complete game for his new team, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 on Wednesday night.

AP - Jessica Hardy's first trip to the Olympics could be over before it began. The swimmer tested positive for a banned substance, leaving her just two weeks to pursue any appeals before the Beijing Games begin.

AP - The scene repeats itself daily on city streets: a driver gets stuck bumper to bumper, blocking an intersection and preventing another car from turning left.

Reuters - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to call on Europe to do more in hotspots like Afghanistan when he speaks in Berlin on Thursday in his only formal address of a week-long foreign tour.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama has a 6-point lead over Republican John McCain in the presidential race as a growing percentage of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.

Reuters - Dolly, the 2008 Atlantic season's second hurricane, was downgraded to a tropical storm early Thursday as it moved further inland in South Texas, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest report.

Reuters - A black-and-white interrogation video of Osama bin Laden's driver showed Salim Hamdan denying under questioning in a dark cell that he worked for al Qaeda.

Reuters - The House of Representatives passed a massive housing rescue bill on Wednesday after the White House dropped a threatened veto, paving the way for passage of measures aimed at shoring up the worst U.S. home market since the Great Depression.

Reuters - The U.S. government's former point man in the fight against the heroin trade in Afghanistan has accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai of obstructing counter-narcotics efforts and protecting drug lords.

Reuters - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday after talks with North Korea that she believed Pyongyang was under no "illusions" it had to agree to a strong mechanism to verify its nuclear activities.

Reuters - Talks to salvage a global trade deal faced a crunch point on Thursday after three days of scant progress and officials said it would be clear soon whether it was worth pressing on.

AFP - US presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Thursday kicked off a European tour in Berlin, saying he aimed to give a fresh start to transatlantic ties, from the city where the Cold War was won.

AFP - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led calls Thursday for restraint over a Thai-Cambodia border dispute and North Korea signed a non-aggression treaty during annual Asian security talks.