 AP - House Democrats are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark, $940 billion health care overhaul bill that would simultaneously deliver on President Barack Obama's promise to expand coverage while slashing the deficit, a strategy aimed at winning over the party's fiscal conservatives.
 AP - President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a package of tax breaks and spending designed to give the nation a jobs boost by encouraging the private sector to start hiring again.
 AP - A Pennsylvania woman accused of trolling the Internet as "Jihad Jane" while she cared for her boyfriend's father denied in court Thursday that she sought to kill a Swedish artist targeted by radical Muslims or agreed to marry a terrorism suspect to help him get travel documents.
 AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has urged Russia to delay launching Iran's nuclear plant until Tehran proves that it's not pursuing atomic weapons.
 AP - The picture of an economy growing modestly without producing inflation yet struggling to create jobs emerged from government reports Thursday.
AP - President Barack Obama has postponed his trip to Asia until June so he can stay in Washington for a possible Sunday vote on his health care overhaul plan.
 AP - Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown.
AP - Norway's Opera said Thursday that downloads of its browser more than doubled after Microsoft Corp. was forced to give European users a choice of Web software to settle European Union antitrust charges.
AP - Sandra Bullock canceled her appearance at the London premiere of "The Blind Side" days after Internet reports alleged she was having trouble in her marriage and that she had left the couple's Southern California home.
 AP - There was some Big East synergy early in the tournament with both its teams playing in the first wave of games finishing with a halftime score of 28-22. The only problem for the conference with a record-tying eight teams in the field was that Notre Dame was leading Old Dominion by the score, but Villanova was behind Robert Morris.
Reuters - New applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell last week and factory activity in the Mid-Atlantic region accelerated in March, suggesting the economy remained on a modest recovery path.
 Reuters - Democrats in the House of Representatives on Thursday predicted weekend passage of a sweeping healthcare overhaul that budget analysts said would hit President Barack Obama's fiscal targets and cut the U.S. deficit over 10 years.
 Reuters - Some Tea Partiers say they can pinpoint the precise moment when they made it clear to the Republican Party they had no intention of being its lapdog.
 Reuters - The United States kept up pressure on China on Thursday to let the yuan climb as Beijing disclosed it was sounding out exporters on whether they could cope with a stronger exchange rate.
Reuters - Greece raised the stakes on Thursday in its quest for EU help to tackle its debt crisis, saying it cannot achieve promised deficit cuts if its borrowing costs remain so high and may have to call in the IMF.
Reuters - President Barack Obama signed into law a $17.6 billion jobs bill on Thursday and sounded an optimistic note about the U.S. economy, saying it may soon begin adding jobs instead of losing them.
Reuters - The changing face of U.S. homegrown extremism has officials and analysts worried as a growing number of unlikely militants in small-town America radicalize themselves using the Internet and plot attacks at home and abroad.
Reuters - The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it will begin to take a closer look at the environmental and human health impact of shale gas drilling, which could mean new regulations on a booming area of the energy sector.
 AFP - A flurry of Middle East diplomacy was marred on Thursday as a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a civilian in Israel as the EU foreign policy chief was visiting the Palestinian enclave.
 AFP - Thailand's rural underclass, vying to revive flagging momentum after a week of colourful protests, appealed Thursday for a popular uprising against the well-entrenched political and aristocratic elite.
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