AP - The hidden face of the Emirates' economic crunch is in places such as Industrial Zone 18 and the ramshackle compound for about 700 migrant workers within. For more than six months, they have lived on charity, fought off rats and slept amid piles of trash after a construction company abruptly closed and left them jobless.

AFP - Pakistan's cricket chief stressed Wednesday that British police had yet to charge any of the three players accused of spot-fixing and said there was "zero tolerance" against corruption.

AP - Afghan election officials said Wednesday that scores of additional polling stations will be closed during the Sept. 18 parliamentary vote because of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

Reuters - The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose more than 1 percent in afternoon trading on Wednesday, while the Dow and Nasdaq added to gains as worries about Europe's banking system decreased, easing risk aversion.

AP - Fidel Castro's warnings of a looming war between the United States and Iran have Cuba buzzing with fears of nuclear Armageddon. But the revolutionary icon's alarming predictions have barely registered in the place where it might matter most: Iran.

AP - Wind-whipped flames swept through at least three Detroit neighborhoods, destroying dozens of homes, including many that were vacant, officials said.

AP - Oil prices followed stocks higher on Wednesday, as worries about European debt problems eased and buyers returned to the market.

AP - Authorities are searching for eight people who have not been accounted for as a wildfire tore through their neighborhoods this week.

Reuters - Members of Goldman Sachs Group Inc's New York Principal Strategies team are in talks with several groups, including KKR, Perella Weinberg and BlackRock Inc, to possibly join one of them, a source familiar with the matter said.

AP - Most of the country will see a colder-than-usual winter while summer and spring will be relatively cool and dry, according to the time-honored, complex calculations of the "Old Farmer's Almanac."

AP - The leader of a small Florida church that espouses anti-Islam philosophy said Wednesday he was determined to go through with his plan to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, despite pressure from the White House, religious leaders and others to call it off.

AP - The FBI on Wednesday was trying to determine whether a passenger staged a bomb hoax that prompted a search of a Thai Airways jetliner at Los Angeles International Airport.

AP - In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it.

AFP - Speculation swirled Wednesday that US President Barack Obama may shake-up his crisis-scarred staff, as top political enforcer Rahm Emanuel mulled a run for Chicago mayor.

Reuters - President Barack Obama will push billions of dollars in new business tax incentives and spending on big construction projects on Wednesday, as he tries to convince a balky Congress to pass measures intended to spur the economy and create jobs.

AP - Its power spent, what was left of Tropical Storm Hermine made its way north Wednesday, drenching a large swath of Texas and prompting a search for possible flood victims near Austin.

AFP - The European Union said Wednesday it had suspended a request at the World Trade Organization for the right to impose sanctions on Washington over a controversial US anti-dumping calculation.

AP - Smithfield Foods Inc. said Wednesday higher selling prices for pork and improvement in hog market prices helped it return to a profit in its fiscal first-quarter.

AP - Suddenly, the race for Chicago mayor is on. Mayor Richard M. Daley has thrown the competition for the city's top job wide open by announcing he won't run for a seventh term, ending 21 years of token opposition and prompting speculation about who's next in line to lead the nation's third largest city.

AP - Suddenly, the race for Chicago mayor is on. Mayor Richard M. Daley has thrown the competition for the city's top job wide open by announcing he won't run for a seventh term, ending 21 years of token opposition and prompting speculation about who's next in line to lead the nation's third largest city.

AP - At his inaugural parade a half-century ago, President John F. Kennedy watched the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's marching unit pass him on Pennsylvania Avenue and declared it unacceptable. Not one cadet was black, he told an aide, and something ought be done about it.

Reuters - Stubbornly high unemployment and signs of persistent weakness in the housing market have prompted economists to further cut their outlook for U.S. growth in the second half of the year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.