Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach said that the challenges about developing the oilsands were discussed during "open and candid" talks with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday night.

Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that a Florida pastor's plan to burn copies of the Koran is being used as an al Qaeda recruitment tool and he urged the minister to reconsider the decision.

Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Despite some electoral reforms, detecting graft in Afghanistan's September 18 parliamentary election will be harder than in last year's presidential poll due to the current voting system, a Western observer group said on Thursday.

Members of Toronto's Pakistani community are pushing people to donate to relief efforts in their flood-ravaged former homeland before the federal government stops matching donations Sept. 12.

Reuters - PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed 10 people and wounded four in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border Thursday, a government official said, as militants linked to al Qaeda launch a new wave of attacks.

Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - India led calls on Thursday for the United States to intervene to halt a small church's plan to burn copies of the Koran in commemoration of the September 11 attacks and urged a media blackout to calm tensions.

Reuters - KHARTOUM (Reuters) - A senior Sudanese official on Thursday hit back at comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Sudan was facing a "ticking time-bomb" in the countdown to the "inevitable" secession of the country's south.

Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that a Florida pastor's plan to burn copies of the Koran is being used as an al Qaeda recruitment tool and he urged the minister to reconsider the decision.

Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - British Members of Parliament (MPs) will next week grill outgoing BP Plc Chief Executive Tony Hayward, as part of an investigation into risks around deepwater drilling in the North Sea.

Command of Canada's Task Force Kandahar is in now in the hands of Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner, the final commander of Canada's combat mission in the central Asian nation.

Police may have accidentally shot some of the victims who were killed during a hostage-taking aboard a bus in the Philippines, officials say.

Reuters - VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (Reuters) - A suicide bomber set off a powerful blast near a busy market in Russia's restive North Caucasus Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, authorities said.

Reuters - MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines acknowledged for the first time Thursday that some of the hostages killed during a botched bus hijack rescue operation in Manila last month may have been shot by police.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams has called Premier Jean Charest's Quebec government bad for Canada.

Reuters - KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan will limit foreign involvement in two major anti-crime units in a move likely to worry its Western backers and stoke fears about President Hamid Karzai's commitment to fighting endemic graft.

Reuters - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's capital is ready for its biggest political event in decades: giant billboards proclaim an event to make the country's "history shine forever," the dress rehearsals are complete and the army is ready.

Reuters - MOSCOW (Reuters) - Regional police said 12 people were killed in a bomb blast on Thursday outside a market in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz, the Interfax news agency reported.

Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned Japan on Thursday that ties would suffer if Tokyo mishandles a dispute over a Chinese boat seized in disputed seas, intensifying a territorial rift that could deepen discord between Asia's top two economies.

Reuters - VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (Reuters) - A large blast hit near a market in the city of Vladikavkaz in Russia's restive North Caucasus on Thursday, killing at least four people, Russian news agencies reported.

Reuters - CANBERRA (Reuters) - Uncertainty over the shape of Australia's controversial mining tax is likely to last well into 2011 after national elections which returned the country's first minority government since World War Two.