AP - The same year that Sputnik soared into space saw the launch of another Soviet-era icon that may have loomed larger for generations of Russians: a huge toy store in central Moscow called Detsky Mir, or Children's World.

AP - Iraq's foreign minister told lawmakers Tuesday the U.S. made major concessions in talks on a new security agreement, urging them to approve the deal to keep U.S. troops here after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

AP - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will not step down and Western critics who called the country's recent election a sham can "go hang," the longtime ruler's spokesman said Tuesday.

AP - Hezbollah instructors trained Shiite militiamen at remote camps in southern Iraq until three months ago when they slipped across the border to Iran — presumably to continue instruction on Iranian soil, according to two Shiite lawmakers and a top army officer.

AP - Not long after two top commanders of Latin America's last major rebel army were killed — one in a raid, the other by a turncoat bodyguard — Diego Canizares decided to call it quits.

AFP - Four Iraqis are suing two US firms and their employees for allegedly torturing them at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Bagdad five years ago.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Tuesday to stick with a three-year old pledge to raise African aid levels to $25 billion a year, after a report the leaders may be about to backtrack.

AFP - Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant InBev stood by its takeover offer for Anheuser-Busch on Tuesday after being turned down last week, but left the door open for a hostile bid.

AP - Israel closed its crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to a cross-border rocket attack, the military said.

AP - Secrecy surrounded the start of talks between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government on Tuesday aimed at easing tensions following anti-government riots in Tibet in March.