AP - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was roused from bed and arrested Tuesday after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration.
AP - Though Barack Obama isn't accused of anything, the charges against his home-state governor — concerning Obama's own Senate seat no less — are an unwelcome distraction. And the ultimate fallout is unclear.
AP - Weary Democratic congressional leaders pushed to clear the final obstacles to a $15 billion bailout of U.S. automakers Tuesday night, but the rescue plan faced new snags as Republicans raised deep concerns.
AP - The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.
AP - Masked youths and looters marauded through Greek cities for a fourth night Tuesday, in an explosion of rage triggered by the police shooting of a teenager that has unleashed the most violent riots in a quarter century.
AP - Both engines of a military jet fighter failed before the aircraft crashed and burned in a residential area, killing four people on the ground as it destroyed two houses, a congressional aide said Tuesday.
AP - Cancer will overtake heart disease as the world's top killer by 2010, part of a trend that should more than double global cancer cases and deaths by 2030, international health experts said in a report released Tuesday. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the shift, particularly in China and India, where 40 percent of the world's smokers now live.
AP - The star of "The Nanny" wants to go from playing nasally New Yawkers to succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
AP - Me-ouch! Veterinarians in Boston on Tuesday performed an unusual surgery to reattach the face of a cat they believe was injured by a car's fan belt, probably because she tried to stay warm under the hood.
AP - Record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez and the New York Mets reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a $37 million, three-year contract. The sides still have to work out a written agreement and the pitcher must pass a physical, two people familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the contract had not yet been completed.
Reuters - The governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was arrested on Tuesday on "staggering" corruption charges that alleged he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by fellow Democrat, President-elect Barack Obama.
Reuters - White House and Democratic negotiators pushed to clinch a deal on Tuesday that would provide $15 billion in loans to U.S. automakers, force the wounded giants to answer to a "car czar" and make the government their biggest shareholder.
Reuters - Japan's Sony Corp said it will cut 16,000 jobs, curb investment and pull out of businesses to save $1.1 billion a year as the financial crisis ravages demand for its electronics products.
Reuters - Riot police battled protesters outside Greece's parliament and in Athens suburbs on Tuesday while opposition socialists called for the conservative government to quit to end the worst civil unrest in decades.
Reuters - The United States and other rich nations must pledge by the end of next year specific targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to win agreement on a U.N. climate pact, the U.N.'s top climate official said on Tuesday.
Reuters - Cancer is on pace to supplant heart disease as the No. 1 cause of death worldwide in 2010, with a growing burden in poor countries thanks to more cigarette smoking and other factors, global health experts said on Tuesday.
Reuters - The National Football League said on Tuesday it will lay off almost 14 percent of the league's staff as part of a cost-cutting plan in response to the recession.
Reuters - Violence in Iraq has in the past few weeks fallen to its lowest level since summer 2003 and security gains, while still at risk of reversal, are less fragile than before, General David Petraeus said on Tuesday.
AFP - Riot police clashed with protesters Tuesday near the funeral of the Athens schoolboy whose killing by police set off a wave of violence, which Greece's prime minister blamed on the "enemies of democracy."
AFP - Pakistan said Tuesday it would not hand over suspects in the Mumbai terror strikes to India and warned that while it wanted peace with its neighbour, it was ready for war if New Delhi decided to attack.
