AP - Arizona is preparing to ask an appeals court to lift a judge's ruling that put most of the state's immigration law on hold in a key first-round victory for the federal government in a fight that may go to the U.S. Supreme Court.

AP - Veteran New York Rep. Charles Rangel said Thursday there's no deal yet to settle his ethics case and avoid an election-season trial on charges of violating House rules.

AP - Estimates of the number of graves potentially affected by mix-ups at Arlington National Cemetery grew to as many as 6,600 on Thursday, as the cemetery's former superintendent blamed his staff and a lack of resources for the scandal that forced his ouster.

AP - A second U.S. Navy sailor who went missing in a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan was found dead and his body recovered, a senior U.S. military official and Afghan officials said Thursday.

AP - President Barack Obama said Thursday that the racial firestorm that led to the ouster of a black Agriculture Department official was a "phony controversy" generated by the media. He said his administration overreacted by forcing her out.

AP - Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted a video edited in a way that made her appear racist.

AP - New jobless claims fell last week for the third time in four weeks but remain elevated. The decline is a sign that the economy likely added jobs in July, although not enough to lower the nation's high unemployment rate.

AP - Chelsea Clinton's wedding along the Hudson River will be under a no-fly zone.

AP - Rookie right-hander Stephen Strasburg went on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with inflammation in his throwing shoulder, the latest indication of how careful the Washington Nationals are being with their prized pitcher.

Reuters - New claims for unemployment benefits slipped last week, but stayed at a stubbornly high level that underscored the labor market recovery was having trouble gaining traction.

Reuters - The tide of lawsuits unleashed by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico breaks into an Idaho courtroom on Thursday, just as the company's rivals are counting the cost of a ban on offshore drilling.

Reuters - Heavy monsoon rains in Islamabad on Thursday hampered recovery efforts at the site of a Pakistani plane crash that killed all 152 people on board a day earlier, a senior police officer said.

Reuters - U.S. Representative Charles Rangel is near a deal on ethics charges that would let him avoid a trial that fellow Democrats fear could hurt them in the November election, an aide for the New York lawmaker said on Thursday.

Reuters - Afghan President Hamid Karzai questioned on Thursday the willingness of his Western allies to strike insurgent bases in Pakistan given the strong evidence of Islamabad's support for the Taliban.

Reuters - A U.S. judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law hours before it was to take effect, handing a victory to the Obama administration as it tries to take control of the issue.

AFP - Monsoon rain and clouds on Thursday hampered the search for the black box of a Pakistani airliner that slammed into hilly woodland killing all 152 people on board, the nation's worst aviation disaster.

AFP - A French nursing assistant admitted Thursday suffocating eight of her newborn babies "because she did not want any more children", prosecutors said.