PT Underground

AP - Even in the chin-high piles of roadside rubble, the crumbled cinderblock and the eerily empty streets of this neighborhood in western Mosul, America's top military officer sees hope. But he also sees peril and an urgent need to get the economy going — jobs, services, some semblance of regular life.

AP - World leaders embraced for the first time on Tuesday an ambitious but nonbinding goal of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions in half by midcentury to stave off global warming. Unimpressed environmentalists called the effort too slow and too uncertain.

AP - Sultan al-Mazeen recently stopped at a gas station to fill up his SUV, paying 45 cents a gallon — about one-tenth what Americans pay these days.

AP - Israeli troops stormed the shopping mall in this West Bank city Tuesday and ordered it to close, saying the popular facility is linked to the militant Islamic Hamas.

AFP - Luiz Felipe Scolari has warned Chelsea's rivals that he won't pull any punches in the Premier League title fight.

AP - Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

AP - Ecuador's government seized three television stations and 195 businesses on Tuesday to collect debts stemming from a bank failure in the 1990s. The economy minister resigned just hours before the takeover.

AFP - Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations were set Wednesday to press major developing powers including India and China to back a G8 offer to at least halve global carbon emissions by 2050.

AP - The Federal Reserve will issue new rules next week aimed at protecting future homebuyers from dubious lending practices, its most sweeping response to a housing crisis that has propelled foreclosures to record highs.

AP - Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.

AP - World leaders embraced for the first time on Tuesday an ambitious but nonbinding goal of slashing greenhouse-gas emissions in half by midcentury to stave off global warming. Unimpressed environmentalists called the effort too slow and too uncertain.

AP - Firefighters pushed back a blaze threatening this small coastal community just enough to allow hundreds of people to check on their homes Tuesday as a separate fire 300 miles north forced residents of other towns to evacuate.

AP - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama sought Tuesday to send the same message to a critical constituency: They understand that Hispanics share the same economic concerns as other Americans — and they will help the whole country prosper.