AP - A transit operator on the job about three months in the nation's capital had just started her shift and took over an older train that federal safety officials had warned years earlier should be replaced.

AP - A conservative candidate in Iran's disputed presidential election said Wednesday that he was withdrawing his complaints about voting fraud for the sake of the country, state television reported.

AFP - Hours after the deadliest-ever train crash in Washington's subway system, investigators on Tuesday searched through the wreckage for the cause of the collision that claimed seven lives and injured scores of passengers.

AFP - Britain said Tuesday it was expelling two Iranian diplomats as international condemnation of Tehran reached its strongest level yet with US President Barack Obama questioning presidential poll results.

Reuters - The United States has agreed to pay $180 million to Kyrgyzstan to keep open the last remaining U.S. air base in Central Asia which is used to supply troops fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Reuters - Moody's Investors Service said on Tuesday that the U.S. government's triple-A credit rating was safe but added that it could be at risk if Washington were unable to bring its public debt back to a downward trajectory.

Reuters - A gunman working as a guard killed a rival of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Tuesday, security officials said, dealing a blow to a government plan to defeat al Qaeda ally Mehsud.

Reuters - Bernard Madoff's lawyer asked a judge to sentence Wall Street's biggest thief to a punishment of less than life in prison, saying the court should not give in to the "mob vengeance" sought by those he defrauded.

Reuters - Transit authorities in Washington, D.C., had been warned to upgrade older subway cars before a crash on Monday that killed nine people, U.S. investigators said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Iranian authorities said they would teach an exemplary lesson to "rioters" held in the worst unrest since the birth of the Islamic Republic, and accused Western powers on Tuesday of inciting the violence.

AP - Five-time champion Venus Williams recovered from an early stumble in her opening match at Wimbledon on Tuesday to beat Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.

AP - Indonesian scientists are reconstructing the largest, most complete skeleton of a prehistoric giant elephant ever found in the tropics, a finding that may offer new clues into the largely mysterious origins of its modern Asian cousin.

AP - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford will cut short a secretive Appalachian Trail hike and return to work Wednesday after revelations he'd been gone for four days with no contact with his staff, wife or state leaders.