AP - Oil prices edged higher Tuesday in Asia, staying above $140 a barrel, amid concerns about tensions between Iran and Israel and a weakening dollar.

AP - Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and — in a move sure to cause controversy — support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.

AP - The Pentagon said Monday it is charging a Saudi Arabian with "organizing and directing" the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole — and will seek the death penalty.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama rejected a retired general's suggestion that Republican John McCain's military experience didn't necessarily qualify him to be president, as GOP surrogates lined up to label the remarks indecent and disrespectful.

AP - Helicopters and a bomber attacked insurgents massing in eastern Afghanistan under cover of darkness, killing an estimated 33 people, the U.S.-led coalition said Tuesday.

AFP - French diplomat Alain Le Roy was named Monday to succeed Jean-Marie Guehenno as head of the UN department of peacekeeping operations (DPKO), spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

AFP - African Union observers condemned Zimbabwe's one-man election as undemocratic on Monday, intensifying pressure on Robert Mugabe as he faced his peers after a vote much of the world has dismissed as a farce.

Reuters - Anwar Ibrahim, leader of Malaysia's revitalized opposition, left the Turkish embassy on Monday where he had taken refuge following sodomy accusations, the latest thunderbolt in Malaysia's political tempest.

Reuters - A Canadian who accused U.S. authorities of violating his rights and illegally deporting him to Syria where he was tortured lost an appeal on Monday.

Reuters - The United States will spend an additional $1.25 billion on international food aid donations this year and next as donor countries seek to blunt the effects of soaring food prices on the world's poor.

Reuters - Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

Reuters - Flooding on the Mississippi River has closed the St. Louis harbor to barge traffic, halting commercial traffic at an important junction of several major waterways, said the U.S. Coast Guard.

Reuters - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday rejected questions about his patriotism even as he drew fire for a supporter's attack on Republican rival John McCain's military record.

Reuters - African leaders on Monday pushed President Robert Mugabe to open talks with the opposition after he was re-elected unopposed in an election condemned as violent and unfair by the continent's own monitors.