DENVER (AP) — Contraception coverage by for-profit companies faces a prominent test in Denver.

Read more here: Birth control coverage up for federal appeal

NIAMEY (Reuters) – Two suicide bombers struck on Thursday at a military barracks and a plant run by French nuclear group Areva in northern Niger, according to military and company sources. The bombers killed themselves and wounded at least four people in the attacks in the towns of Agadez and Arlit, the sources said. (Reporting by Aboulaye Massalatchi; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Read more here: Two suicide bombers strike in northern Niger towns- sources

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Rebels in eastern Congo announced a ceasefire on Thursday in fighting with government troops hours before a visit to the conflict-plagued zone by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. “We've decided to announce this ceasefire to allow His Excellency Ban Ki-moon to visit Goma as he promised,” Amani Kabasha, political spokesman for the M23 rebel group, told Reuters following several days of clashes in the east near Goma on the Democratic Republic of Congo's border with Rwanda. …

Read more here: M23 rebels announce ceasefire for UN chief's Congo visit

WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are ready to pass legislation that links student loan rates to the financial markets in spite of a veto threat from President Barack Obama.

Read more here: House to vote on variable rate student loans

PARIS (AP) — International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has appeared at a special Paris court to face questioning over a controversial arbitrage deal that she oversaw as French finance minister.

Read more here: IMF head Lagarde in court in fraud probe

DUBAI (Reuters) – Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sharply criticized the country's leadership, opposition website Kaleme said on Thursday, two days after he was disqualified from running in next month's presidential election. “I don't think the country could have been run worse, even if it had been planned in advance,” Rafsanjani reportedly told members of his campaign team on Wednesday, the well respected website reported. “I don't want to get stoop to their propaganda and attacks but ignorance is troubling. Don't they understand what they're doing. …

Read more here: Barred from election, Rafsanjani lambasts Iranian authorities – report

BANGKOK (AP) — The price of oil fell below $94 per barrel Thursday after a private survey showed manufacturing activity in China falling to its lowest level in seven months, a sign that the recovery in the world’s No. 2 economy is fading.

Read more here: Oil falls below $94 as China manufacturing weakens

WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are ready to pass legislation that links student loan rates to the financial markets.

Read more here: House to vote on variable-rate student loans

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days of congressional hearings about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative political groups have lawmakers looking for ways to widen an investigation that has so far been largely contained within the tax collection agency.

Read more here: Tea party storm largely inside IRS _ so far

BEIRUT (AP) — A spokesman says Syria’s main opposition bloc welcomes renewed calls by its foreign supporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad give up power at the start of any political transition aimed at ending the country’s civil war.

Read more here: Syria opposition welcomes support for Assad ouster