AP - A capsized boat that killed as many as 200 people was carrying four times as many people as the passenger list claimed, and boat operators bribed officials to allow them to overload the vessel, a Congolese official said investigators have found.

AFP - A US soldier was killed fighting insurgents in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, a day after rebels killed a senior government official in the country's north.

AP - The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warned Tuesday an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

AP - Strikes hobbled public transit across France and in London on Tuesday, with tourists and commuters bearing the brunt of a wave of discontent over government austerity measures.

AP - Iran's nuclear chief said Tehran has the right to bar some U.N. inspectors from monitoring its disputed nuclear program, the semiofficial Isna news agency reported.

AP - The European Union has condemned the death sentence by stoning for a widowed Iranian woman convicted of adultery.

AP - North Korea requested a shipment of rice, cement and heavy equipment days after rival South Korea offered relief aid to its communist neighbor to help it recover from recent flooding, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

AP - Prime Minister Julia Gillard will lead Australia's first minority government in 67 years after two independent lawmakers threw their support behind her center-left Labor Party on Tuesday, ending two weeks of uncertainty left by national elections that ended on a knife-edge.

Reuters - Change swept through the top of Britain's banks on Tuesday as Barclays said its investment banking supremo Bob Diamond will take over as group chief executive next year and HSBC was expected to announce later that its chairman is going into government.

Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2 to 0.7 percent, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Tuesday.

AP - European Union countries will discuss a possible levy on banks and a tax on financial transactions to better control market forces and protect public finances from the costs of bailouts, as they gather Tuesday in an atmosphere more benign than when they last met in July.

Reuters - Silicon Valley technology giant Oracle Corp has hired Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co who resigned amid a scandal, as president.

AP - An imam who has become the public face of a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has returned to the United States following a taxpayer-funded tour of the Middle East, his wife said Monday.

Reuters - President Barack Obama, scrambling to spur job creation, proposed a six-year plan on Monday to rebuild infrastructure with an initial $50 billion investment and prepared new business tax cuts.

AP - The Justice Department won't say if the blowout preventer that failed to stop oil from gushing from BP's undersea well into the Gulf of Mexico is on its way to shore.

AFP - President Barack Obama will call for a 100-billion-dollar business tax credit this week to boost the sagging US economic recovery, The Washington Post reported.

AFP - Brazil's Petrobras unveiled one of the world's biggest share offerings Friday, a sale of up to 64 billion dollars in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into a leading oil exporter of the 21st century.

AP - Summer is rarely a hot sales season for Campbell Soup Co., and this year's sweltering June and July made that even more true, but the company said Friday that cost-cutting and strong drink sales helped its net income climb.