BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Police and university authorities faced pressure on Tuesday to explain how a gunman apparently evaded detection after killing two people and then went on to kill 30 others two hours later in America's worst shooting rampage.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea may have begun shutting down a nuclear reactor and source of weapons-grade plutonium, just days after it was supposed to do so under a disarmament deal, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.

AP - North Korea may be preparing to shut down its main nuclear reactor, news reports said Tuesday, renewing hopes that Pyongyang will comply with a disarmament agreement days after it missed a deadline to shutter the facility.

Reuters - Police and university authorities faced pressure on Tuesday to explain how a gunman apparently evaded detection after killing two people and then went on to kill 30 others two hours later in America's worst shooting rampage.

Reuters - North Korea may have begun shutting down a nuclear reactor and source of weapons-grade plutonium, just days after it was supposed to do so under a disarmament deal, South Korean media reported on Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - After months of delay, Sudan said it would let 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur to reinforce an African Union force struggling to keep the peace, the most substantial agreement to date.

AP - Congressional Democrats say there is no doubt President Bush will soon be confronted with legislation calling for an end to the Iraq war.

AP - The U.N. Security Council moved swiftly to start what will likely be a months-long process to deploy the first significant U.N. peacekeeping force in conflict-wracked Darfur following the Sudanese government's long-awaited approval.

AP - Attorneys say a federal jury that awarded more than $2.8 million to a man who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina sends a strong message to insurers who refused to pay thousands of other homeowners for damage from the storm.

Reuters - After months of delay, Sudan said it would let 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur to reinforce an African Union force struggling to keep the peace, the most substantial agreement to date.

AFP - A mixture of anger and sadness swept across the United States on Tuesday as police hunted for clues into what motivated a gunman to kill at least 30 people in the nation's deadliest ever school shooting.

ROME (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier went on trial in Rome on Tuesday accused of killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq but was being prosecuted in absentia because Washington has ruled out handing him over.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders are drawing up confidence-building steps under U.S. auspices to help guide talks they have agreed to hold every two weeks, U.S. diplomats said on Tuesday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it had dismissed a German army instructor who was filmed ordering a recruit to imagine he was firing a machine gun at 'African Americans' who were insulting his mother.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Legal concerns have prompted Malaysia to stay out of a loose U.S.-backed security pact formed in response to the September 11 attacks, Defence Minister Najib Razak said on Tuesday.

AP - A top Iraqi insurgent leader claimed in an audiotape posted online Tuesday that his al-Qaida-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

AP - Floodwaters swirled through low-lying communities and evacuated residents waited for rivers to crest early Tuesday as a deadly spring storm lingered in the Northeast for a third day.

AP - Intelligence officials reported increased activity Tuesday around North Korea's main nuclear reactor, indicating the country may be preparing to uphold its agreement to shut down the plant.

AP - The Buffalo Sabres' big boppers are back and so is home-ice advantage.

Reuters - A U.S. soldier went on trial in Rome on Tuesday accused of killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq but was being prosecuted in absentia because Washington has ruled out handing him over.

Reuters - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched a U.S.-initiated series of meetings on Sunday, bypassing some of the most contentious issues of the Middle East conflict.

Reuters - The German Defence Ministry said on Tuesday it had dismissed a German army instructor who was filmed ordering a recruit to imagine he was firing a machine gun at "African Americans" who were insulting his mother.

AFP - Anger mounted Tuesday among survivors of the deadliest shooting rampage in US history over why officials at a Virginia university failed to close the campus when gunfire first broke out.

AFP - North Korea may be preparing to shut down a reactor which provides plutonium for nuclear weapons days after it missed a deadline to do so under an international disarmament deal, news reports said Tuesday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The head of an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq said the country has become a 'university of terrorism' producing highly qualified warriors since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three men killed by U.S. forces during a raid in the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Monday were not Iraqi police as was first reported by the U.S. military, it said on Tuesday.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia pledged on Tuesday to shut down airlines that persisted to flout safety markers, as the United States advised its citizens not to fly on the nation's airlines after a recent spate of accidents.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's cabinet debated on Tuesday who would replace six ministers loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after they quit a day earlier, and officials said non-sectarian technocrats would likely be chosen.

AP - Virginia Tech's president said Tuesday that a university student was the gunman in at least the second of the two campus attacks that claimed 33 lives to become the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

AP - Intelligence officials reported increased activity Tuesday around North Korea's main nuclear reactor, indicating the country may be preparing to uphold its agreement to shut down the plant.

AP - Stocks pointed to a lower opening Tuesday as investors awaited the government's consumer inflation gauge and prepared themselves for another batch of first-quarter earnings reports.

Reuters - The head of an al Qaeda-led group in Iraq said the country has become a "university of terrorism" producing highly qualified warriors since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Reuters - Three men killed by U.S. forces during a raid in the Iraqi insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Monday were not Iraqi police as was first reported by the U.S. military, it said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Israeli and Palestinian leaders are drawing up confidence-building steps under U.S. auspices to help guide talks they have agreed to hold every two weeks, U.S. diplomats said on Tuesday.

Reuters - The United States has advised its citizens not to fly Indonesian airlines, saying recent accidents raise questions about the country's aviation safety.

Reuters - Iraq's cabinet debated on Tuesday who would replace six ministers loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr after they quit a day earlier, and officials said non-sectarian technocrats would likely be chosen.

AFP - The gunman who killed 32 people on a Virginia campus was a student of Asian origin and may have acted with a second suspect, the university's president said Tuesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of children are dying of AIDS in developing countries because they do not have access to treatment readily available elsewhere, U.N. health agencies said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. space tourist Charles Simonyi and two fellow crew members will return to earth a day later than planned because of boggy ground at the landing site, a spokesman for Russian mission control said on Tuesday.

AP - Surging energy prices pushed consumer inflation up by the largest amount in nearly a year in March.

AP - A top Iraqi insurgent leader claimed in an audiotape posted online Tuesday that his al-Qaida-linked group had begun manufacturing its own rockets.

AP - Intelligence officials reported increased activity Tuesday around North Korea's main nuclear reactor, indicating the country may be preparing to uphold its agreement to shut down the plant.

Reuters - Hundreds of thousands of children are dying of AIDS in developing countries because they do not have access to treatment readily available elsewhere, U.N. health agencies said on Tuesday.

Reuters - U.S. space tourist Charles Simonyi and two fellow crew members will return to earth a day later than planned because of boggy ground at the landing site, a spokesman for Russian mission control said on Tuesday.

AFP - A Virginia campus was rocked with grief Tuesday after 33 people were killed in a shooting rampage that the university president said involved an Asian man and a possible accomplice.

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - A student from South Korea was the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university, police said on Tuesday. They gave no motive for the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States' top general on Tuesday said U.S. forces intercepted Iranian weapons headed to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the last month, but he did not know who had sent them.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of children are dying of AIDS in developing countries because they do not have access to treatment readily available elsewhere, U.N. health agencies said on Tuesday.

AP - A gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that killed 33 people, the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, was identified Tuesday as a senior English major from South Korea.

Reuters - A student from South Korea was the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university, police said on Tuesday. They gave no motive for the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history.

Reuters - The United States' top general on Tuesday said U.S. forces intercepted Iranian weapons headed to the Taliban in Afghanistan in the last month, but he did not know who had sent them.

AFP - Police on Tuesday identified the gunman who carried out the deadliest school shooting in US history as a 23-year-old Korean university student and suggested he acted alone.

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - A student from South Korea was identified on Tuesday as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power Tuesday morning after a rare spring nor'easter hit on Sunday and Monday, knocking out electric service to more than 1.3 million customers from the Carolinas to Maine and Quebec.

CAMP PENDLETON, California (Reuters) - Charges against one of the eight U.S. Marines accused in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha have been dismissed, a Marine Corps official said on Tuesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran vowed on Tuesday to press ahead with plans to sharply increase its capacity to enrich uranium, defying international pressure to halt activities the West fears are aimed at making nuclear bombs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon ordered a U.S. contractor to hire a World Bank employee and girlfriend of then-Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 for work related to Iraq, the contractor said on Tuesday.

AP - The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service.

AP - The heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Tuesday the mortgage finance giants are developing new types of loans to help distressed borrowers with high-risk mortgages keep their homes at a time of rising foreclosures.

AP - Campus bomb scares and perceived threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage killed 33 people.

AP - AOL is seeking to capture advertising dollars normally spent on television by showcasing five new interactive programs a month before the broadcast networks announce their fall lineups.

AP - Jerry West will leave as the Memphis Grizzlies' director of basketball operations July 1, ending a five-year stint with the former expansion franchise.

Reuters - A student from South Korea was identified on Tuesday as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

Reuters - More than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power Tuesday morning after a rare spring nor'easter hit on Sunday and Monday, knocking out electric service to more than 1.3 million customers from the Carolinas to Maine and Quebec.

Reuters - Iran vowed on Tuesday to press ahead with plans to sharply increase its capacity to enrich uranium, defying international pressure to halt activities the West fears are aimed at making nuclear bombs.

Reuters - The Pentagon ordered a U.S. contractor to hire a World Bank employee and girlfriend of then-Pentagon No. 2 Paul Wolfowitz in 2003 for work related to Iraq, the contractor said on Tuesday.

AFP - A 23-year-old student from South Korea described as a "loner" was identified Tuesday as the gunman who carried out the deadliest school shooting in US history.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power on Tuesday after a rare spring Nor'easter hit on Sunday and Monday, knocking out electric service to more than 1.3 million customers from the Carolinas to Maine and Quebec.

CAMP PENDLETON, California (Reuters) - Charges have been dropped against one of the eight U.S. Marines accused in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha and he has been granted immunity for his testimony, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. space tourist Charles Simonyi enjoyed an extra day in space on Tuesday when boggy ground meant the date and location of his return to Earth in a capsule with two others had to be changed.

AP - Representing America's anguish, President Bush told Virginia Tech students and teachers at a somber convocation Tuesday that the nation is praying for them and 'there's a power in these prayers.'

AP - Energy prices surged in March at the fastest pace since Hurricane Katrina, but other consumer costs eased, providing relief from worries that inflation was getting out of hand.

AP - The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site, police said.

AP - Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage killed 33 people.

AP - NBA referee Joey Crawford was suspended indefinitely by commissioner David Stern on Tuesday for his conduct toward Tim Duncan, who contends the official challenged him to a fight.

Reuters - More than 250,000 homes and businesses remained without power on Tuesday after a rare spring Nor'easter hit on Sunday and Monday, knocking out electric service to more than 1.3 million customers from the Carolinas to Maine and Quebec.

Reuters - Charges have been dropped against one of the eight U.S. Marines accused in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha and he has been granted immunity for his testimony, the Marine Corps said on Tuesday.

AFP - Tears and anger echoed through a hall here Tuesday as US President George W. Bush joined thousands of mourners to pay tribute to the 32 people gunned down by a South Korean student at Virginia Tech University.

AFP - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday urged countries to bolster aid for Iraqi refugees and to keep their borders open to the growing exodus, amid warnings that hosts Jordan and Syria were overstretched.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contrary to published reports, the United States has seen no signs that North Korea has begun to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility as called for in a February 13 six-country agreement, a senior U.S, official said on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The disastrous state of the U.S. military is putting the country in strategic peril, a retired U.S. general said on the eve of a showdown between President George W. Bush and Democrats over paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AP - Congressional Democrats say there is no doubt President Bush will soon be confronted with legislation calling for an end to the Iraq war.

AP - The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site, news agencies reported.

AP - After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a 'rush to judgment' on stricter gun control. A leading House supporter of restrictions on firearms conceded passage of legislation would be difficult.

AP - The sport utility vehicle carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about 91 mph moments before it crashed, the superintendent of state police said Tuesday.

AP - Authors of a new comprehensive analysis of antidepressants for children and teenagers say the benefits of treatment trump the small risk of increasing some patients' chances of having suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

AP - Wall Street traded mostly higher Tuesday, briefly pushing the Dow Jones industrials into record territory after a rise in home construction and a mild reading on consumer inflation encouraged investors to buy.

AP - Joey Crawford is done ejecting players and coaches this season. On Tuesday, he was the one getting tossed. The veteran NBA referee was suspended indefinitely by commissioner David Stern for his conduct toward Tim Duncan, who contends the official challenged him to a fight during a game in Dallas.

Reuters - Contrary to published reports, the United States has seen no signs that North Korea has begun to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility as called for in a February 13 six-country agreement, a senior U.S, official said on Tuesday.

Reuters - The disastrous state of the U.S. military is putting the country in strategic peril, a retired U.S. general said on the eve of a showdown between President George W. Bush and Democrats over paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university was identified on Tuesday as a student from South Korea and a troubled loner whose behavior had sometimes alarmed those around him.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday.

AP - After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a 'rush to judgment' on stricter gun control.

Reuters - The gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university was identified on Tuesday as a student from South Korea and a troubled loner whose behavior had sometimes alarmed those around him.

AFP - A 23-year-old loner, whose gory and disturbing writings troubled his classmates and teachers, will now go down in US history among the country's deadliest killers.

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - The gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university was identified on Tuesday as a student from South Korea and a troubled loner whose behavior had sometimes alarmed those around him.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's intelligence agency confirmed reports of increased activity at North Korea's nuclear reactor, possibly indicating a shutdown, a South Korean daily said on Wednesday.

AP - The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.

AP - Looking pretty is costing John Edwards' presidential campaign a lot of pennies. The Democrat's campaign committee picked up the tab for two haircuts at $400 each by celebrity stylist Joseph Torrenueva of Beverly Hills, Calif., according to a financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission.

AP - Marine biologists were standing watch on Tuesday over a young whale that lost its way in New York harbor and nearly wandered into a narrow waterway notorious for industrial pollution.

AP - Now that he's back on the standup circuit, Dave Chappelle has a lot to say. The comic, who walked out on a $50 million deal to continue his TV show and briefly took a respite in South Africa, shattered the Laugh Factory's endurance record by taking to the comedy club's stage for six hours and seven minutes on Sunday.

AP - The Cardinals look a lot more like September duds than World Series champions. Tom Gorzellany and Matt Capps combined on a four-hitter and Adam LaRoche hit a three-run homer in a 6-1 victory over St. Louis on Tuesday that gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a two-game sweep.

Reuters - The gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university was identified on Tuesday as a student from South Korea and a troubled loner whose behavior had sometimes alarmed those around him.

Reuters - South Korea's intelligence agency confirmed reports of increased activity at North Korea's nuclear reactor, possibly indicating a shutdown, a South Korean daily said on Wednesday.

AFP - A day after the deadliest school shooting in US history, a portrait emerged of the 23-year-old South Korean gunman as a disturbed, isolated man whose gory writings troubled his classmates and teachers.

AP - He was known as 'The Glide' on the basketball court, but Clyde Drexler did not have the same magic on the dance floor. He was eliminated from ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' Tuesday.

AP - Sidney Crosby warned that no one should be surprised if the least-likely players made the biggest plays in what was expected to be a high-scoring Ottawa-Pittsburgh playoff series. Anton Volchenkov proved that in what may turn out to be a pivotal game.

AFP - The deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history sent shudders around the world on Tuesday, especially in Seoul after the gunman was identified as a South Korean student.