Humpback whale caught in buoys in Scotland (AP)

AP - A rescue operation was planned to untangle a humpback whale caught in creel buoys near a remote Scottish island. Officials said the rescue would be difficult because of rough weather conditions.

Summary Box: China accused of trade violations (AP)

AP - UNION COMPLAINT: The United Steelworkers union asked the Obama administration on Thursday to crack down on various Chinese trade practices in the area of clean energy.

Iran to free female American for holiday clemency (AP)

AP - Iran said Thursday it will free Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, as an act of clemency to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Why Foreign Businesses in China Are Getting Mad (Time.com)

Time.com - Foreign businesses in China are voicing growing frustration about the country's heavily regulated market -- a bureaucratic maze many say is deliberately designed to hamstring non-Chinese players to the advantage of their local competitors

Israel's Military on the Spot in Hearing Over Activist Rachel Corrie's Death (Time.com)

Time.com - The family of a young American activist killed by an Israeli army bulldozer she was trying to block from demolishing a Palestinian home are fighting a civil suit in Israel's courts, forcing the authorities reveal details of her death

Sudan's Darfur rebels say attacked by Ugandan LRA (Reuters)

Reuters - A Darfur rebel group said on Thursday it was attacked by Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army guerrillas in Sudan's west.

Afghans protest Quran burning plan, torch US flag (AP)

AP - Hundreds of angry Afghans burned a U.S. flag and chanted "Death to the Christians" to protest plans — canceled Thursday — by a small American church to torch copies of the Muslim holy book on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

UN soldier shot and robbed outside Haitian bank (AP)

AP - The United Nations mission in Haiti says one of its peacekeepers and a civilian woman have been shot by robbers outside a bank in the capital.

Suicide car bombing in southern Russia kills 17 (AP)

AP - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed extremists "without souls, without hearts" for a suicide car bombing that killed 17 people Thursday in the crowded central market of a city in the North Caucasus.

U.S. Marines take back pirate-held ship off Somalia (AP)

AP - U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, reclaiming control and taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said.

Air India bomb perjury trial starts in Canada (Reuters)

Reuters - A Canadian man's own actions will prove he lied to a court about having no knowledge of the conspiracy that led to the deadly bombing of Air India Flight 182 in 1985, prosecutors said at the start of a perjury trial on Thursday.

Somali refugees tell of hellish scene in Mogadishu (AP)

AP - Terrified Somalis fleeing an offensive by Islamist insurgents in their capital described a hellish scene of putrefying corpses, graves hastily dug in gardens and neighborhoods flattened by mortars.

(AP)

AP - Iran says female American held for more than year will be released.

Four escape U.S. custody at Iraq prison that held Saddam (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers - BAGHDAD — Four prisoners escaped a maximum-security U.S. military facility housing al Qaida in Iraq suspects and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, officials said Thursday, in an embarrassing development for American forces as they hand over security operations in Iraq.

Australian regulators reject NAB bid for AXA Asia Pacific (AFP)

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.

Germany considers scrapping the draft (The Christian Science Monitor)

The Christian Science Monitor - The young man playing with kids at the Main Krokodile preschool here isn't your typical caregiver. He's among the tens of thousands of Germans who fulfill their military service by working with children, the elderly, or the disabled. The head of the school, Berndt Niedergesäss, is all for it: "The children love dealing with men," he says.

Banging a Drum for the MDG Summit (OneWorld.net)

OneWorld.net - NEW YORK, Sep 7 (IRIN) - Activists are pulling out all the stops ahead of a development summit at UN headquarters on 20-22 September. Pro-aid and anti-poverty lobbyists are trying everything from giant letters to banging pans to raise awareness of the high-level event.