AP - President Felipe Calderon tried to rally frustrated Mexicans behind his increasingly bloody drug war Thursday, saying he knows violence has surged under his watch, but arguing that it is the price of confronting powerful and brutal cartels.

AP - An electoral official accused President Hugo Chavez and his allies of breaking campaign laws by using state-run media to berate rivals and praise friends ahead of this month's legislative elections.

AP - The developers planning to build a $100 million Islamic center near the World Trade Center site still have financial hurdles to clear: They haven't finished buying all the property they want for the project and are nearly a quarter-million dollars behind on real estate taxes and late fees.

associatedcontent - Based on the direct death toll and economic losses, here are the top five most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history.

Reuters - About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming.

Reuters - An oil and gas platform operated by Mariner Energy burst into flames in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, but the crew of 13 escaped and there were no signs of an oil spill, the Coast Guard said.

Reuters - Hurricane Earl raked North Carolina's barrier islands with gusting winds, pounding surf and rain on Thursday as it took a swipe at the U.S. East Coast on an offshore path toward New England and Canada.

AP - One of two known survivors of a drug gang's massacre in northern Mexico of 72 undocumented Central and South American migrants said in an interview broadcast Thursday that they were killed because they refused to work for the traffickers.

AFP - A fresh batch of US unemployment figures will on Friday provide Americans with a crucial litmus test for the sputtering economic recovery and President Barack Obama's policies.

The Starting Point - The Starting Point is a preview of the stories we expect to cover today and a snapshot of the news that occurred overnight.

AP - Police had been negotiating with James Jae Lee for several hours and intended to keep him talking for as long as it took to safely resolve the standoff at the Discovery Channel's headquarters. Inside the lobby, Lee's three hostages had no intention of waiting.

AP - An oil platform that burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday was the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed.

Reuters - At least 25 suspected drug gang members were killed in an army raid in rural northeastern Mexico on Thursday, the army said in a press release.

AFP - Maria Sharapova has kept alive her hopes of a second US Open crown, four years after her first, with an impressive 6-1, 6-2 win over Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.