AFP - Global efforts to improve access to drinking water have been hampered by rapid urbanisation, with the proportion of people in urban areas with access actually declining, according to UN figures presented at a conference in Stockholm this week.

Reuters - Republicans in the Congress showed little willingness to help President Barack Obama approve $350 billion worth of measures to boost the economy with midterm elections less than two months away.

AP - Iraqi officials displayed hundreds of recovered artifacts Tuesday that were among the country's looted heritage and span the ages from a 4,400-year-old statue of a Sumerian king to a chrome-plated AK-47 bearing the image of Saddam Hussein.

AFP - BP will publish an eagerly awaited report on the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Wednesday, the company announced.

Reuters - Stocks fell on Tuesday, led by declines in financial shares as reports on the European banking system renewed worries over the sector's health.

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.

AFP - A European satellite designed to map Earth's gravitational field is now operational after ground technicians fixed a glitch preventing it from sending its science data back home, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday.

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

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.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Hermine barely maintained such status on Tuesday as 40 mile per hour winds continued to lash south Texas and the storm moved further inland, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

AP - Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes where Egypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast. But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city, boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.

AFP - The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have postponed the implementation on Tuesday of a customs union due to disagreement over sharing tariff revenues and problems meeting World Trade Organisation rules, officials said.

AP - Tropical Storm Hermine was forecast to continue losing strength as it moved over southern Texas and northeastern Mexico on Tuesday.