AP - A Japanese journalist held hostage in Afghanistan for five months managed to send out a message via Twitter that he was alive when his captors asked him how to use a cell phone.

US Ryder Cup picks: Woods, Johnson, Cink, Fowler (AP)

AP - Tiger Woods was a no-brainer as a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup.

'Beetlejuice' actor Glenn Shadix dies in Alabama (AP)
AP - Glenn Shadix, best remembered for his portrayal of a portly, pretentious designer in the metaphysical comedy "Beetlejuice," died Tuesday at his home in Birmingham. He was 58.

Sex, violence, Islam: Syrian TV soap raises drama (AP)

AP - In a new Syrian soap opera, a beautiful green-eyed young woman named Layla is torn over whether to take off the niqab, the billowing black Islamic garb that hides every part of her except her eyes.

Google milks animated doodle mystery on Twitter (AP)
AP - For a dozen years, Google Inc. has been occasionally swapping its everyday logo for a "doodle," a sketch celebrating holidays, inventions, artists and sporting events, and showcasing designs from contest-winning students.

Boston Dawna, the Batman of Venice Beach, retires (AP)

AP - Hipsters, hustlers, celebrities, thieves, dope peddlers and just about everyone else in gritty, quirky Venice Beach know Boston Dawna. You can't miss the one-woman crime fighter.

Report: Castro blasts Ahmadinejad as anti-Semitic (AP)

AP - Fidel Castro criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for what he called his anti-Semitic attitudes and questioned his own actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 during interviews with an American journalist he summoned to Havana to discuss fears of global nuclear war.

Urban gardeners hope to feed Detroit (WXYZ.com)
WXYZ.com - It looks like a farm somewhere in the Midwest; row after row of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and corn. Butterflies flit among the flowers. Somewhere a cricket chirps. But this isn't Kansas; it's the heart of Detroit.

Clinton calls plan to burn Quran 'disgraceful act' (AP)

AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks a "disrespectful, disgraceful act."

FDA cites claims on 2 green tea beverages (AP)
AP - Federal health regulators have issued warnings to the makers of Canada Dry ginger ale and Lipton tea for making unsubstantiated nutritional claims about their green tea-flavored beverages.

Ronald Reagan movie planned for 2011 (Reuters)
Reuters - The story of Ronald Reagan's life -- from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world -- is about to spill out on the big screen in a way quite different from the miniseries that caused such a stir seven years ago.

Mexico: 2 bodies likely massacre investigators (AP)

AP - Two dead bodies found in the northern state of Tamaulipas appear to be those of a state detective and local police chief who investigated the massacre of 72 migrants in August, prosecutors said.

Demjanjuk health issues taking over trial (AP)

AP - John Demjanjuk attends most sessions of his trial in a hospital bed set up in the courtroom, wearing dark sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face.

Big quake aftershocks plague New Zealand city (AP)

AP - A powerful new 5.1-magnitude aftershock rattled terrified residents of New Zealand's earthquake-stricken city of Christchurch on Wednesday, as officials doubled their estimate for repairing the damage from nearly 300 aftershocks in five days.

Jaguar dumps swimmer after anti-gay tweet (Reuters)

Reuters - Luxury car maker Jaguar has cut its sponsorship of star Australia swimmer Stephanie Rice, a triple Olympic gold medalist, after she sent a tweet using an anti-gay slur.

LAPD brass plead for calm; protesters egg station (AP)

AP - Police Chief Charlie Beck pleaded for calm and vowed his department would conduct an exhaustive investigation into a bicycle officer's fatal shooting of a drunken day laborer with a knife.

Ancient city by the sea rises amid Egypt's resorts (AP)

AP - Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.

All eyes on BP report on Gulf oil spill disaster (AP)

AP - Oil giant BP PLC on Wednesday planned to release the conclusions of its internal investigation into the rig explosion that killed 11 workers and led to the massive Gulf of Mexico spill.

A hoax? Joaquin Phoenix film gets viewers guessing (Reuters)
Reuters - Whether a hoax or not, a new documentary about Joaquin Phoenix and his transition from acclaimed, brooding actor to bearded, shambolic hip-hop wannabe has captivated viewers at the Venice film festival.

Creator of TV western "Bonanza" dead at 93 (Reuters)
Reuters - David Dortort, who created "Bonanza," the top-rated western that aired for 14 years on the NBC television network, died September 5 at his Los Angeles home. He was 93.