AFP - At least 20 people including women and children were killed and more than 50 wounded Tuesday in a car bomb attack targeting a police headquarters in Pakistan's northwestern city of Kohat.

AP - An Iraqi soldier opened fire on American troops and killed two on Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. They were the first American servicemen killed since the U.S. declared an official end to combat operations in the country last week.

AP - "Borrow me $5 can?" may not be the most graceful way to ask for a few dollars, but it's music to the ears of many Singaporeans.

Reuters - French trade unions said 2.5 million people took to the streets Tuesday to protest over pension reforms that President Nicolas Sarkozy says he is determined to implement on the way to elections in 2012.

AP - French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.

AP - The international crossfire over Iran's stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery intensified Tuesday with a top European Union official calling it "barbaric" and an Iranian spokesman saying it's about punishing a criminal and not a human rights issue.

AP - A Christian minister vowed Tuesday to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops overseas.

AP - A salvaged 50-ton steel column was hoisted onto a support structure Tuesday at the World Trade Center site, where it will eventually serve as part of the entryway to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

AP - Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he's not running for re-election after more than 20 years in office.

AP - Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he's not running for re-election after more than 20 years in office.

AP - Less than a couple months after Nick Curtin opened a pharmacy in suburban Tulsa in 2008, the store was burglarized twice in one week. And just last year a masked man robbed him at gunpoint, making off with 1,800 pills.

Reuters - Republicans in the Congress showed little willingness to help President Barack Obama approve $350 billion worth of measures to boost the economy with midterm elections less than two months away.

Reuters - Hewlett-Packard Co is suing former Chief Executive Mark Hurd following his hiring by rival technology firm Oracle Corp, court documents showed.

AP - Tropical Storm Hermine gave a wet and windy punch to Texas on Tuesday but left only minor scrapes in the storm-weary Rio Grande Valley, which is proving resilient this hurricane season after taking a third tropical system on the chin.

AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has asked the U.S. to settle a dispute with Israel over settlement expansion that is threatening to derail Mideast peace talks.

AP - Firefighters ramped up their battle Tuesday against a wildfire that forced about 3,000 people to flee their homes as the wind-whipped blaze filled the surrounding canyon with heavy smoke and spit flames.

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.

AP - Maybe the language lovers who looked up "refudiate" this summer wanted to refute or repudiate its existence as a real word.

AP - A car bomb ripped through a police compound in a northwestern Pakistani city on Tuesday, killing 14 women and children and three officers, the latest in a string of attacks proving that Islamist militants remain a potent force in the country.

AP - A 36-year-old man who spent much of his adult life in prison was charged Tuesday with murdering a 14-year-old girl whose badly burned body was found behind an asphalt plant where he worked.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Tuesday, led by declines in financial shares as reports on the European banking system renewed worries over the sector's health.

AP - The flight attendant accused of onboard antics that captured the nation's attention when he told off a passenger and slid down the plane's emergency chute with a beer will undergo a mental health evaluation with the aim of avoiding jail time in a possible plea deal.