AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton closed the book on her 2008 presidential bid with an emphatic plea for the party to unite behind Barack Obama.

AFP - Thousands of Thai protesters stormed a state-run TV station and the seat of government on Tuesday, in what Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said was an effort to provoke another coup.

AFP - Russia on Tuesday formally recognised the Georgian rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states in a startling new challenge to the West that drew a hail of criticism.

Reuters - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in northern Iraq on Tuesday killing 28 people, in an attack that showed that parts of Iraq have yet to see the security gains felt elsewhere.

Reuters - North Korea said on Tuesday it will stop disabling its nuclear facilities and consider restoring the Yongbyon reactor that can make material for atomic bombs, accusing the United States of violating a disarmament deal.

Reuters - The number of Americans without health insurance dropped modestly in 2007 and the poverty rate remained stable, while median household income rose slightly, the government reported on Tuesday.

Reuters - Russia recognized two rebel regions of Georgia as independent states on Tuesday, escalating tension in the volatile Caucasus and putting Moscow on a collision course with the West.

Reuters - A Sudanese passenger plane was hijacked on Tuesday after leaving war-torn Darfur and has been forced to land in Libya, Arab media and Libyan authorities said.

Reuters - Authorities on Tuesday were investigating whether three men arrested in Colorado with guns and drugs planned to kill Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, but said they posed no real threat.

Reuters - Home prices fell a record annual 15.9 percent in June, but the monthly rate of decline slowed from May which suggested the decimated housing sector may be stabilizing, according to Standard & Poor's on Tuesday.

Reuters - Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sought to heal the wounds of their bruising nominating battle on Tuesday and unite the Democratic party behind Obama's bid to seize the White House from President George W. Bush's Republicans.

AP - For a second straight year, SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade, a trend attributed to a record number of students now taking the test.