AFP - European powerhouse Germany received a blow Tuesday as orders for its industrial goods unexpectedly dropped significantly in July, following a strong rise the month before, official data showed.

AP - Hundreds of Iraqi artifacts looted from museums and archaeological sites across the country have been returned to Iraq.

AFP - Two teachers were among five people killed in a string of attacks by suspected militants in Thailand's restive south, sparking calls for schools to be closed, officials said Tuesday.

AP - North Korea freed the crew Tuesday of a South Korean fishing boat seized a month ago, a sign the rivals may be talking behind the scenes to improve relations that have plummeted to their lowest point in years since the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.

AP - European Union countries have approved a financial oversight structure meant to shield against market turmoil and contain the excessive risk-taking that many blame for the global financial crisis.

Reuters - Change swept through the top of Britain's banks on Tuesday as Barclays said its investment banking supremo Bob Diamond will take over as chief executive and HSBC was expected to say its chairman is going into government.

AP - Sales of passenger cars in China — the world's biggest auto market — rose 18 percent in August from a year earlier as government subsidies and price cuts by dealers helped spur demand.

AFP - Rwandans and the international community need to work together to end President Paul Kagame's rule and pave the way for a democratic transition, exiled leaders said in a report obtained by AFP Tuesday.

AP - The crowded rooftop bleachers overlooking Wrigley Field stand as proof that no matter how bad the Chicago Cubs played, the ballpark was simply not big enough to hold everyone who wanted to see them play.

AFP - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard retained power by a tiny, one-seat majority Tuesday after winning the backing of two key independent MPs in the first hung parliament in decades.

AFP - The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have postponed the implementation on Tuesday of a customs union due to disagreement over sharing tariff revenues and problems meeting World Trade Organisation rules, officials said.

AP - Tropical Storm Hermine rolled into south Texas early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to an area battered by Hurricane Alex earlier this summer.

AP - A wind-whipped wildfire sent flames roaring through a rugged canyon in the Colorado foothills, forcing hundreds of people to flee and destroying dozens of homes — some that belonged to the firefighters themselves, authorities said early Tuesday.

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 - 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.

Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2 to 0.7 percent, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Tuesday.

AP - A determined Republican stall campaign in the Senate has sidetracked so many of the men and women nominated by President Barack Obama for judgeships that he has put fewer people on the bench than any president since Richard Nixon at a similar point in his first term 40 years ago.

Reuters - Silicon Valley technology giant Oracle Corp has hired Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co who resigned amid a scandal, as president.

AP - An imam who has become the public face of a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has returned to the United States following a taxpayer-funded tour of the Middle East, his wife said Monday.

AP - A combative President Barack Obama rolled out a long-term jobs program Monday that would exceed $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and runways, and coupled it with a blunt campaign-season assault on Republicans for causing Americans' hard economic times.

Reuters - President Barack Obama, scrambling to spur job creation, proposed a six-year plan on Monday to rebuild infrastructure with an initial $50 billion investment and prepared new business tax cuts.

AP - A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighborhood Monday, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

AP - Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s.