Reuters - The Taliban urged Afghans on Thursday to target foreign military bases and "beat and kill" Westerners in retaliation for burnings of copies of Islam's holy book, the Koran, at NATO's main base in the country as a third day of protests began.

Reuters - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces rained rockets and bombs down on opposition-held neighborhoods of the city of Homs, reducing buildings to rubble and killing more than 80 people, including two Western journalists.

Reuters - U.S. and European officials are downplaying allegations that Iran and al Qaeda have recently stepped up cooperation in preparation for possible attacks on U.S. and other Western targets.

Reuters - A car bomb struck an area of central Baghdad on Thursday, killing seven people and wounding 24, Iraqi police said.

Time.com - Sanctions on Iran are beginning to work, goes the argument from the Obama Administration, and they should be given more time to bring Tehran to heel

AP - The Swedish Royal Court says Crown Princess Victoria has been admitted to a hospital for the birth of her first child, who would be a future heir to the throne.

AP - A police spokesman in Haiti says one person has been killed and 120 others revelers have been injured in accidents and in street clashes during Carnival festivities.

AP - The trial of a woman charged with lying about her role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide is expected to transport jurors back nearly two decades to a roadblock outside a family owned hotel where prosecutors say the defendant decided who would live and who would die.

AP - New Zealand authorities are investigating the maintenance of all the country's hot air balloons following a fiery crash last month that killed 11 people.

Reuters - Air Canada's 8,600 mechanics, baggage handlers and cargo agents have rejected a tentative contract agreement with the country's biggest airline, a union spokesman said on Wednesday, marking another setback for the carrier during a year of rocky labor relations.

AP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard put her job on the line Thursday, announcing a leadership ballot in hopes of quashing a comeback by the premier she ousted in a Labor Party coup. But Kevin Rudd's supporters said that even if Gillard survives Monday's vote, the turmoil surrounding her unpopular government will continue until she is out.

The Christian Science Monitor - London is considered the most spied-on city in the world, courtesy of its ubiquitous CCTV cameras, purportedly there to reduce crime. But according to a recent report, there's been little or no change in London's crime rates since they were more widely installed in the mid 1980s.

Time.com - U.S. Senator seeks to calm rising tensions over the fate of 16 Americans facing trial in Cairo for their democracy-promotion efforts

The Christian Science Monitor - After four days of daily protests, some violently dispersed, Spain is bracing for a cycle of social unrest against the harshest austerity measures in decades. At stake is not only Spain’s economic recovery, but that of the European Union.