Thai authorities Thursday began deploying 50,000 troops on the streets of Bangkok ahead of rallies by anti-government protesters that they fear could turn violent, the deputy prime minister said.

The demonstrations by the so-called "Red Shirts," who support fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, begins Friday -- two weeks after the kingdom's top court confiscated 1.4 billion dollars of the tycoon's assets.

The party of Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych has formed a majority coalition in parliament which will now appoint a government, the speaker announced Thursday.

"I announce the creation of the coalition of 'stability and reform'," said parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, adding that the coalition had a majority of 235 MPs in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada.

Yanukovych's Regions Party on Wednesday formed an alliance with two minority parties, leaving it just seven votes short of a 226-member parliamentary majority.

British oil giant BP said Thursday it will pay US firm Devon Energy 7.0 billion dollars (5.1 billion euros) for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.

"BP today announced a transaction that will deliver a material exploration position in the deepwater offshore Brazil and significantly enhance its position in core strategic areas," the group announced in a statement.

"In a broad-ranging deal, BP will pay Devon Energy 7.0 billion dollars in cash for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the US deepwater Gulf of Mexico."

The party of Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych has formed a majority coalition in parliament which will now appoint a government, the speaker announced Thursday.

"I announce the creation of the coalition of 'stability and reform'," said parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, adding that the coalition had a majority of 235 MPs in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada.

Yanukovych's Regions Party on Wednesday formed an alliance with two minority parties, leaving it just seven votes short of a 226-member parliamentary majority.

Chinese security forces have stepped up a crackdown in Tibet's capital Lhasa, two years after protests marking a failed 1959 uprising erupted in deadly violence, the police and reports said Thursday.

The "strike hard storm" began earlier this month and is aimed at cracking down on Tibetan independence activities and ordinary crime, a policeman at the city's Niangre precinct told AFP by phone.

Iran has freed for the new year holidays a prominent opposition figure rounded up during protests against the disputed June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, news reports said Thursday.

A number of activists and journalists have also been freed under varying conditions in the last few days, the reports said.

"Mostafa Tajzadeh, a top member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation who was arrested on June 13 (a day after the election) was allowed to go on leave," opposition website kaleme.com reported.

Three south Yemeni independence activists were killed and five wounded on Thursday when demonstrations in southern towns sparked clashes with police, opposition sources said.

Two Southern Movement followers were killed and two wounded in a gunfight during protests in the town of Daleh, a leading opposition figure said, asking not to be named.

Another activist was killed and three wounded in a similar clash as police tried to recapture a government building occupied by separatist activists in the town of Tur al-Bahah, in Lahij province, another source said.

British oil giant BP said Thursday it will pay US firm Devon Energy seven billion dollars for assets in Brazil, Azerbaijan and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Brazilian assets mark BP's entry into the emerging market country.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward said the deal was a "strategic opportunity," which fit well with the company's other global interests.

As part of the deal, BP will sell half of its Canadian oil sands project at Kirby in Alberta province, to Devon Energy for 500 million dollars.

Two US missile strikes deep in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt killed up to 16 militants, with more bodies recovered from the wreckage on Thursday, security officials said.

Two successive bombing raids by unmanned spy planes hit a building and vehicles late Wednesday in North Waziristan, a bastion of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Myanmar's junta has allowed the party of Aung San Suu Kyi to reopen offices closed since 2003 as international anger grew Thursday over new laws barring the opposition icon from elections this year.

The US slammed the legislation as a "mockery", while UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed to Myanmar's military regime to free Suu Kyi and let her take part in the country's first polls in two decades.

AP - A final agreement nearly in hand, President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders are about to embark on one last sales job that will determine the outcome of the president's signature health care overhaul.

AP - On Christmas Day, a passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit tried to blow up the plane with plastic explosives in his underwear. He failed, yet the very attempt shook the U.S. government, set federal agencies against each other and triggered months of political second-guessing.

AP - Toyota's massive recalls are bringing new scrutiny to the government's auto safety agency, prompting Congress to look at how federal safety officials have lived up to their mission of protecting motorists.

AP - A New Jersey man with apocalyptic visions is accused of years of terrorizing his family, raping his five daughters and impregnating three, beating his children with wooden boards and even moving at one point to avoid child welfare investigators.

AP - The naming of Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim as the world's richest person — the first from a developing nation — underlines the loosening of America and Europe's stranglehold on the top spots in the billionaires' club.

AP - The Pashtun tribal leaders picked at the chocolate cake and fruit laid out for them at the conference table. Politely, they listened to speeches touting a new program to release detainees from Afghanistan's largest U.S.-run military prison if community leaders vouch for them.

AP - A conservative group's bashing of several Obama administration lawyers as the "al-Qaida Seven" has struck a nerve in the U.S. legal community, prompting even some fellow Republicans to denounce the group's attack.

AP - Georgia's public defender system is still trying to recover its financial footing five years after a courthouse gunman racked up a $3 million taxpayer-funded defense tab on the way to his conviction.

AP - Michael "Big Mike" Lynche made Kara DioGuardi cry and turned the rest of the "American Idol" judges giddy with a moving performance of "This Woman's Work."

AP - Alex Rodriguez may soon be talking to federal authorities, and he hopes it will happen close to spring training.

Stewie befriends a teen pop superstar.

Porn star Bree Olson bares it all in a not-so-censored beer pong game with Dave Attell.

Nick makes a romantic gesture towards Bridget in an attempt to heal their marriage.

In an effort to teach Ritchie’s class some street smarts, Christine encourages the school to let them take the subway on a field trip but ends up stranded at the station as the train leaves without her.

Conservative lawyers attack Liz Cheney, Bob McDonnell says it’s OK to fire gay people, and Marc Thiessen discusses the rights of enemy combatants.

Get a sneak peek on what’s coming up in this season in New York.

Learn what Kara Keough does on her free time to pay for school. Go to Part 5

The Curtin girls are cause a lot of drama during the party. Go to Part 4