Reuters - Southern African leaders will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Zimbabwe's crisis, but the region's designated mediator, South African President Thabo Mbeki, will not attend, officials said.

AP - Brian Roberts had three hits against the team that was interested in acquiring him and the Baltimore Orioles made their first visit to Wrigley Field a memorable one, beating the Cubs 7-5 Tuesday night to end their 14-game home winning streak.

AP - The number of Americans with diabetes has grown to about 24 million people, or roughly 8 percent of the U.S. population, the government said Tuesday.

AP - Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor. One by one, in low voices, they told of being tortured by the Kenyan army because they were suspected of aiding rebels. They told of being beaten and made to shake hands with corpses. They told of being forced to crawl through barbed wire tunnels and of genitals squeezed by pliers.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday asked his finance team to help Hillary Rodham Clinton pay off a debt of at least $10 million from her failed presidential campaign, setting the stage for joint appearances by the two former rivals later in the week.

AP - In less than a day, an electrical storm unleashed nearly 8,000 lightning strikes that set more than 800 wildfires across Northern California — a rare example of "dry lightning" that brought little or no rain but plenty of sparks to the state's parched forests and grasslands.

AP - Claire McCaskill, senator from Missouri, is hardly a household name outside her home state. But Barack Obama knows who she is.

AP - The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says its warplanes have killed more than 22 militants in the country's troubled east.

AP - A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers and an interpreter north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Wednesday, and Iraqi police reported 14 Shiite gunmen were arrested after fighting south of the capital.

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are updating Teddy Roosevelt's admonition to speak softly and carry a big stick. The Fed policymakers are starting to raise their voices while brandishing the stick even though they don't appear ready to use it.

AP - Saying the world can "shout as loud as they like," President Robert Mugabe refused to give into pressure from Africa and the West and vowed to go ahead with this week's runoff election, even though his opponent quit the race.

AFP - Two rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip slammed into southern Israel on Tuesday as an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and the Islamist movement entered its sixth day.

AFP - Zimbabwe's government defied global criticism on Tuesday by vowing to push ahead with a presidential run-off election this week even as the opposition leader remained holed up in the Dutch embassy.

Reuters - U.S. radio personality Don Imus on Tuesday defended linking a football player's race to brushes with the police as Imus tried to dampen a brewing race controversy over remarks he made one day earlier.