AP - National Guard troops stand ready, batteries and water bottles are selling briskly, and one small-town mayor has spent a sleepless night worrying. The New Orleans area is skittishly watching as a storm marches across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary.

AFP - Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Thursday ordered a halt to armed operations by his 60,000-strong Mahdi Army militia, blamed by Washington for some of the worst sectarian killings of Sunni Arabs in the war-torn country.

AP - Oil prices fluctuated sharply Thursday as Tropical Storm Gustav spun toward the Gulf of Mexico, with some traders fearing a disruption in supplies and others betting that the government would tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve if needed. Either way, consumers were likely to see a hike in gas prices for Labor Day weekend.

AP - Spielberg! Affleck! J.Lo! They were among the Hollywood celebrities attending events in Denver as the Democratic National Convention nominated Barack Obama as the party's presidential candidate.

AP - China and several Central Asian nations rebuffed Russia's hopes of international support for its actions in Georgia, issuing a statement Thursday denouncing the use of force and calling for respect for every country's territorial integrity.