AFP - International efforts to mediate an end to the conflict between Georgia and Russia were set to intensify Tuesday, but Moscow signalled it opposes a peace plan calling for an immediate truce.

Reuters - NASA has abandoned plans to get its replacement for the retiring U.S. space shuttles into service by 2013 because of a lack of additional funds and technical issues, officials said on Monday.

Reuters - Thirteen people were killed and 10 wounded in a bomb attack on an air force bus in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday, police said.

Reuters - The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has denied reports that it killed more than a dozen civilians in an air strike to the northeast of the capital.

Reuters - France spearheaded an international peace mission on Tuesday to try to halt Russia and Georgia's five-day-old Caucasus war, which has rattled world oil markets and unnerved the West.

Reuters - U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps carved his name among Olympic greats on Tuesday, winning a record-equaling ninth gold on a dominant morning for Americans in the pool.

AP - Aaron Rodgers shrugged off a shaky beginning as Brett Favre's replacement.

AP - Ed McMahon is being sued by another creditor. Westmoore Lending of Huntington Beach, Calif., sued McMahon for more than $275,000 it says the pitchman and former "Tonight Show" sidekick owes from a 2006 loan.

AP - Just months before President Bush leaves office, his administration is antagonizing environmentalists by proposing changes that would allow federal agencies to decide for themselves whether subdivisions, dams, highways and other projects have the potential to harm endangered animals and plants.

AP - A roadside bomb hit a Pakistan air force truck in a northwestern city Tuesday, killing 14 people as the military pounded insurgent positions in a nearby tribal region.

AP - Michael Phelps climbed out of the pool, unzipped his skin-tight suit and ambled over to chat with his coach.

AP - If you're a senior citizen and make less than $50,000 a year, Barack Obama has a deal for you: the rest of your life free of federal income tax.