Jon Stewart last night turned his attention to Ronald Reagan “fan fiction” author (and, you know, Wall Street Journal columnist) Peggy Noonan, who is angry at Barack Obama for his recent scandals, but gives her former boss a pass for a little thing like Iran-Contra.

Read more here: Jon Stewart and the Ghosts of Presidential Scandals Past

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell by 23,000 last week, further evidence that the job market is slowly returning to health.

Read more here: US unemployment aid applications fall to 340K

GROZNY, Russia (AP) — The father of a Chechen immigrant shot dead by U.S. law enforcement agents while being questioned about his ties to a Boston Marathon bombings suspect said Thursday that he regrets allowing his son to go to the United States.

Read more here: Father of man shot in Boston probe shares regrets

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Aixtron’s new chief executive laid out a strategy focused on returning to profit and wrestling back leadership of the global market for LED chip-making equipment from U.S. rival Veeco Instruments. The German company swung from a profit in 2011 to a net loss of 103.2 million euros ($132.9 million) last year as orders from customers making light-emitting diode (LED) chips for televisions and lighting equipment dried up. …

Read more here: Aixtron shake-up aims for LED equipment top spot

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Niger’s defense minister announced that 20 Nigerien soldiers were killed and another 16 injured when a suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives inside a military installation in the city of Agadez on Thursday.

Read more here: 20 killed in 2 simultaneous car bombs in Niger

Need help finding things to do? Grab Gravy, today’s first app worth downloading, and find local events and all the information you need to plan to attend them. We’ve also got CallSnap, an app that lets you respond to a call you can’t take by snapping and sending a photo. Finally, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega’s classic high-speed platformer, has finally come to Android for your old-school gaming approval.

Read more here: New Android apps worth downloading: Gravy – local events, CallSnap, Sonic the Hedgehog

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's main opposition party marked a bittersweet 150th birthday on Thursday — trailing badly in polls ahead of September elections and hearing praise for its efforts to reform Europe's biggest economy from French President Francois Hollande, a recent left-wing winner who has lost his luster.

Read more here: German opposition party marks bittersweet 150th

ELLENWOOD, Ga. (AP) — Federal authorities are investigating after a Boeing 747 on approach to Atlanta’s airport lost parts from its right wing that landed on a woman’s house.

Read more here: Feds investigate after plane parts hit Ga. home

LONDON (AP) — A British government official says both suspects in the brutal killing of a solider were part of previous security services investigations for possible terror links.

Read more here: UK official: Suspects part of previous probes

By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) – British pharmaceutical company BTG announced two deals on Thursday that it said could create an interventional medicine business with potential sales of $1 billion. Chief Executive Louise Makin told Reuters the deals would more than double BTG’s revenues in the fast-growing market of targeting specific areas rather than administering drugs to the whole body. BTG added to its liver cancer treatments by agreeing to buy the targeted therapies division of Nordion Inc for about $200 million, adding Therasphere radioactive glass beads to its chemotherapy beads unit. …

Read more here: BTG says interventional medicine buys could boost sales to $1 bln