Time.com - Nine weeks before the midterm elections, Barack Obama finds himself on the wrong side of the polls. Where did all that adoration go -- and is a Republican sweep next?

AP - Hurricane Earl packed winds near 140 mph as it blew toward North Carolina on Thursday, putting the Eastern Seaboard up to Maine on alert for a Labor Day weekend pounding by waves, gales and rain.

Reuters - Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 campaign workers for this month's election, a sour note as U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived for talks.

Reuters - Powerful Hurricane Earl bore down on the U.S. East Coast on Thursday on a path toward North Carolina's barrier islands, which it was expected to lash with dangerous winds and pounding surf.

AP - The cap that ended BP's three-month oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico was set to come off Thursday as a prelude to raising a massive, failed piece of equipment and preparing for a final seal on the broken seafloor well.

AP - Typhoon Kompasu struck South Korea on Thursday, killing at least four people and toppling trees, streetlights and scaffolding in what was called the strongest storm to hit the Seoul area in 15 years.