“Stocks are closing with modest gains after reports on housing, manufacturing and jobs indicated the economy continues to grow, although slowly. Trading was slightly muted Thursday head of a closely watched monthly report on employment that’s due out Friday. First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week. According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 50 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,320.” (09/02/10)

“A shootout between soldiers and suspected drug cartel members in northeastern Mexico left 25 purported gunmen dead Thursday, the military said. A reconnaissance flight over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state spotted several gunmen in front of a property, according to a statement from Mexico’s Defense Department.” (09/02/10)

“Last night in Baiji, an attack on an Awakening Council checkpoint left two dead and five wounded. An official in Mashadah survived an assassination attempt that killed his brother and another person; he was wounded as well. In Mosul, gunmen killed a taxi driver. … A civilian was shot dead. Two hostages were liberated. In Baghdad, a senior education ministry official was assassinated. One soldier was killed and another was wounded as they tried to defuse a bomb in Hilla. A U.S. military vehicle struck a civilian car in Numaniya, killing three and wounding a fourth person. An Awakening Council member was shot dead at a checkpoint in Tuz Khormato.” (09/02/10)

“Two American soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Thursday hours before Defense Secretary Roberts Gates arrived in Kabul for talks with President Hamid Karzai and the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. General David Petraeus. The marines, serving as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), were killed in separate militant attacks in the east and the south of the country.” (09/02/10)

“Suspected leftist rebels killed 14 police officers and wounded seven in an ambush of a five-truck convoy in southern Colombia, a police commander said Thursday. Elsewhere in the country, two separate mine blasts on Wednesday and Thursday killed four soldiers and wounded six more, authorities reported.” (09/02/10)