AP - The international space station's toilet trouble appeared to be taken care of Wednesday after a Russian cosmonaut replaced a malfunctioning pump.

Reuters - Republican John McCain launched his November election campaign for the White House on Tuesday with a searing attack on Democratic rival Barack Obama and a pledge to break with the energy policies of the Bush administration.

AFP - Astronauts have attached a bus-sized Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station, giving the orbiting outpost its biggest room and providing Japan with a key foothold in space.

AP - Flash flooding carried away houses and ripped a child from his father's grasp in Belize, raising the death toll from Central America's twin tropical storms to at least seven — with rain still causing floods Tuesday in neighboring Mexico.

AP - NASA's Phoenix lander got extra playtime in the Martian dirt on Tuesday, doing another practice dig as scientists tried to perfect the technique ahead of the actual excavation.

AP - A little strategically placed makeup quickly turns the wimpiest of male barn swallows into chick magnets, amping up their testosterone and even trimming their weight, new research shows.

AP - With astronauts hustling inside and out, the international space station got its biggest live-in addition yet, a Japanese lab stretching 37 feet that opens for business Wednesday.

AFP - Fifteen Belgian colza fields, owned by Bayer CropScience, have been contaminated by genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned in Europe, the country's public health ministry announced Tuesday.

AFP - A pair of astronauts floated out of the International Space Station on Tuesday to detach a giant Japanese laboratory from the US shuttle Discovery for its installation on the orbiting outpost.

Reuters - The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season will likely be a busy one with 15 tropical storms, of which eight will turn into hurricanes, the noted Colorado State University forecasting team said on Tuesday.

AP - Spacewalking astronauts floated outside the international space station Tuesday to help install the orbiting outpost's newest room, a bus-sized Japanese laboratory.