AP - Isaac Hayes apparently died of a stroke, officials with the sheriff's department said Tuesday.

AP - Average scores on the ACT college entrance exam dipped slightly for the high school class of 2008 as the number of students taking the exam jumped by 9 percent compared to last year.

AP - Talk of Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel as a potential running mate for Democratic candidate Barack Obama tends to confound partisans in both parties.

AP - The Chinese crashed what was supposed to be a U.S. Olympic party.

AP - Most Americans think staging the Olympics in China was a good decision despite China's human rights abuses, Beijing's smog and threats of attacks by militants, according to a poll released Wednesday.

AP - Scrambling to find ways to punish Russia for its invasion of pro-Western Georgia, the United States and its allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club of wealthy nations and have scrapped plans for an upcoming joint NATO-Russia military exercise, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

AP - For Michael Phelps, it's not enough to just set a new standard. He has to demolish the old one. Winningest Olympian ever? He's two golds past that already and not finished yet, just over halfway to his goal of breaking Mark Spitz's record seven in a single Olympics.

AP - A bomb ripped through a bus carrying civilians and members of the military during Wednesday morning rush hour in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing 18 people and wounding 40, security officials said.

AP - The head of Georgia's national security council said Wednesday that 50 Russian tanks had entered the strategic Georgian city of Gori, and another top Georgian official said his country's troops were completely driven from the separatist province of Abkhazia.

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday urged Russia to follow through on an order to end military operations in Georgia, as he met President Dmitry Medvedev on a high-stake peace mission.

AFP - President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to Russia's military onslaught against Georgia, but the Tbilisi government reported new attacks and there was a wary international response.

Reuters - Pakistan's ruling coalition said on Tuesday the army would not intervene to support embattled President Pervez Musharraf, whom the government says it will impeach for years of alleged misrule.

Reuters - Most U.S. and foreign corporations doing business in the United States avoid paying any federal income taxes, despite trillions of dollars worth of sales, a government study released on Tuesday said.

Reuters - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected an Israeli peace proposal because it does not provide for a contiguous Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, Abbas's office said on Tuesday.