- Americans marked the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with solemn remembrances around the country on Thursday.

- Recovery has eluded some for whom the World Trade Center towers were the crowning jewel of their view.

- Joseph Biden Jr. is an experienced, serious and smart man. But he does say some curious things.

- Hockey often keeps kids in Alaska on the straight and narrow, but it can also be a roiling pressure cooker, full of big expectations and even bigger disappointments.

- Reforms may be afoot in the nation, once described by President George W. Bush as the last dictatorship in Europe.

- In 1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber returning from a routine Cold War alert mission exploded during airborne refueling, sending its cargo of B28 hydrogen bombs plummeting toward the residents of Palomares, Spain.

- Even as Lehman pledged to shrink operations in a drastic step to shore up its financial position, its stock price sank Thursday by almost 40 percent.

- As Wall Street scoured the financial industry for the next weakest link after Lehman Brothers, it set its sights on a familiar target: Washington Mutual.

- On Wall Street, there is a growing sense that despite the best efforts of Richard Fuld Jr., Lehman Brothers may never be the same again - if it survives as an independent investment banking firm at all.

- For three and a half hours on Thursday, in tones that were alternately pugilistic and needy, Vladimir Putin tried to explain himself and Russia's actions in Georgia.

- Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia told Polish leaders that their decision to deploy a U.S. anti-ballistic missile shield on Polish territory posed a threat to Russian security.

- The leader of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region on Thursday said first that he wanted to join Russia but then insisted that he favored independence, according to news reports.

- The main opposition leader in Zimbabwe said that he had struck a deal to share power with President Robert Mugabe.

- France turned a page Thursday when Jean-Marie Le Pen, 80, France's best-known far-right leader and a five-time presidential candidate, announced that he would not run again for the presidency.

- The fire erupted on a single truck carried by the train, and traffic in the 50-kilometer tunnel will remain suspended until Friday, according to SNCF, France's rail operator.

- An insurgent attack Thursday on a compound in eastern Afghanistan killed a U.S. soldier, bringing the death toll this year to 112.

- Officials cited the better security situation in Iraq and the expiration at the end of the year of the UN Security Council resolution that sets the legal basis for the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.

- In India, early adopters of globalism made certain choices freely and enthusiastically. They studied English. They honed their skills at software. But latecomers to the game often view the social changes with uncertainty.

- The okapi, an elusive animal that scientists say has not previously been photographed roaming in the wild, has been snapped by a camera in Congo.

- When the third show in the spring/summer 2009 New York season featured models actually smiling, you could blame it on Sarah Palin's ever-present image - or take it as a sign that American designers are determined to be cockeyed optimists.

- A host of new Web sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil'Grams and Kidmondo, offer parents a chance to invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives.

- If the United States wants to wipe out

- Global restraints on nuclear proliferation are in the process of being abandoned.

- Few writers have lied as much as Stendhal, or spoken the truth better than he.

- From Syria to France, pilgrimage destinations, even unconventional ones, are recognizing the potential for growth for tourism.

- The iPhone may be Apple's most talked-about product, but on Tuesday Apple focused attention on its most dominant franchise: the iPod and the iTunes music and video store.

- High-tech took on a fashionable twist in New York when the designer Vivienne Tam sent models down the runway clutching slim, red Hewlett-Packard laptops instead of evening bags.

- Men of all kinds will be dominating the theater district this season, mostly in revivals of various vintages.

- Who controls the political conversation in the coming weeks will be important for the U.S. presidential candidates, along with enthusiasm, resources and television advertising.

- The designation of a Japanese silver mine as a World Heritage site has sparked debate over the value of the Unesco label and whether it can do more harm than good in preservation.