AFP - Much-vaunted EU plans to tax banks skidded into trouble after moves to clamp down on big-spending governments also hit buffers despite broad agreement on Tuesday to regulate the financial sector.

AP - European Union nations agreed to create new financial oversight institutions Tuesday, hoping to prevent a repeat of the government debt crisis that nearly left Greece bankrupt and brought the European banking system to its knees.

AP - Hermine weakened Tuesday but continued dumping heavy rains on a northern crawl through Texas, barely holding on to tropical storm strength but leaving behind a path of widespread power outages and landslides in Mexico.

AFP - Twelve people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a bomb attack targeting a police headquarters in Pakistan's northwestern city of Kohat on Tuesday, police said.

AP - World stocks fell Tuesday, particularly in Europe, where concerns about the health of banks resurfaced and EU finance ministers created new financial oversight bodies but failed to agree on a bank or trading tax.

AP - Motorists should see pump prices slide again after they spending a little more to fill their tanks over the Labor Day weekend.

AP - Firefighters in Colorado are planning to aggressively ramp up the fight against a 3,500-acre wildfire that has forced thousands of people from their homes in a rugged canyon northwest of Boulder.

Reuters - China's state-owned chemicals group Sinochem Corp has approached Singapore state investor Temasek to join a consortium that may bid for Canada's Potash Corp , sources with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday.

AFP - New opinion polls Tuesday made painful reading for President Barack Obama's Democrats, cementing conventional wisdom that they face a pounding by Republicans in November's congressional elections.

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.

AFP - Mozambique on Tuesday rolled back price increases for bread, water and electricity, hoping to soothe public outrage that erupted in three days of deadly rioting last week.

AP - A Florida church is rebuffing warnings by the U.S. military's top official in Afghanistan to cancel a scheduled Sept. 11 burning of the Muslim holy book.

AP - Turns out politics, for all its focus on the gloomy economy, is a recession-proof industry.

AP - A former JetBlue flight attendant accused of cursing out a passenger and sliding down an emergency exit chute will be mentally evaluated for a possible plea deal.

AP - Strikes hobbled public transit in France and London on Tuesday, forcing tourists and commuters to bear the brunt of a wave of discontent over government cost-cutting measures that are expected to prompt walkouts across Europe this fall.

AP - A Japanese journalist held hostage in Afghanistan for five months managed to send out a message via Twitter that he was alive when his captors asked him how to use a cell phone.

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 chief executive and HSBC said its chairman is leaving to go into government.

AP - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he has asked the U.S. to settle a dispute with Israel over settlement expansion that is threatening to derail Mideast peace talks.

Reuters - China wants to quell tensions with the United States through quiet talk, not shouting matches, a top diplomat told White House advisers on Tuesday, aiming to pave the way for a visit by President Hu Jintao early next year.

Reuters - Wall Street dropped on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 briefly falling 1 percent, after reports on the European banking system reignited concerns about the financial stability of the region.

AP - President Barack Obama will call on Congress to pass new tax breaks that would allow businesses to write off 100 percent of their new capital investments through 2011, the latest in a series of proposals the White House is rolling out in hopes of showing action on the economy ahead of the November elections.

AP - The bombers and fighters flew across the English Channel by the hundreds, London in their sights, intent on forcing Britain out of the war, and Hitler's way.

AP - Half-buried in rubble, Bazelais Suy struggled to breathe — a dead woman lay on his chest. He knew he had to get her off, fast. Because he could still move his arms, he somehow managed to remove his belt, loop it around the woman's own belt and drag her off. But his legs were still pinned.

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.

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.

AP - American movie star Angelina Jolie met flood victims in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday and appealed to the international community to provide aid needed to help the country recover from its worst natural disaster.

AP - An Indonesian volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air Tuesday, dusting villages 15 miles (25 kilometers) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.