AFP - An early Beatles tape which captures John Lennon and Paul McCartney cracking jokes in a recording studio sold at auction in Britain for 9,800 pounds (12,400 euros, 19,000 dollars) on Tuesday.

AP - The last survivor of the deadliest mountaineering disaster to hit K2 limped into base camp with frostbitten feet Tuesday, but thick clouds threatened to keep him on the mountain for at least another night.

AP - The beating of two Japanese journalists by police in western China drew an official apology Tuesday, but Beijing also set new obstacles for news outlets wanting to report from Tiananmen Square in the latest sign of trouble for reporters covering the Olympics.

AP - Blood was washed off the road. Debris was cleared away. And authorities said peace had been restored Tuesday in China's restive Muslim region where 16 police were killed in an attack that may have been timed to overshadow Olympic celebrations.

AP - Iran responded to incentives aimed at defusing a dispute over the country's nuclear program on Tuesday, the State Department and an EU diplomat said, adding that the response will now be studied by the six nations that devised the package.

AP - President Bush was greeted in Asia with dueling demonstrations by prayerful, flag-waving supporters and raucous protesters doused by police water cannons Tuesday, reflecting sharp political divisions at the outset of his three-nation trip.

AFP - A frostbitten Italian climber limped into K2 base camp Tuesday after an ice fall that killed 11 others, but swirling cloud prevented helicopters plucking him from the world's second highest peak.

Reuters - Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition are close to a power-sharing deal that would turn Robert Mugabe into a ceremonial president, a South African newspaper reported on Tuesday.

AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Wednesday in Jerusalem, officials with the two leaders said Tuesday.

AFP - Brazilian authorities have discovered the head and arms of a British teenager murdered and dismembered over a week ago, allegedly by her drug-addict ex-boyfriend.

AP - A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in a predominantly Shiite area in Baghdad on Monday, the first deadly attack against American troops in the capital in nearly a month.