yahoo top stories

Reuters - An explosion ripped through a major Mexican refinery on Tuesday, killing one worker and pushing gasoline prices higher on market talk that Mexico's state oil company Pemex might have to import more fuel.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Hermine barely maintained its tropical storm status on Tuesday as 40 mile per hour winds kept lashing south Texas and the storm moved further inland about 15 miles south-southeast of San Antonio, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.

AP - Tropical Storm Hermine gave a wet and windy punch to Texas on Tuesday but left only minor scrapes in the storm-weary Rio Grande Valley, which is proving resilient this hurricane season after taking a third tropical system on the chin.

AP - Mikhail Youzhny briefly slowed Spain's march through the U.S. Open bracket.

AP - Barbara Walters is feeling wonderful after heart surgery in May — and has practically no scar, she added proudly Tuesday as she returned to active duty on "The View" after taking the summer off for recovery.

Reuters - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police residential complex in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people, officials said, in another blow for a country grappling with devastating floods.

Reuters - Civil and military leaders stepped up calls on Tuesday for an obscure U.S. pastor to drop his plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, as fears grew it would fan religious hatred.

Reuters - French trade unions said 2.5 million people took to the streets Tuesday to protest over pension reforms that President Nicolas Sarkozy says he is determined to implement on the way to elections in 2012.

Reuters - Iran has raised its gasoline output to attain self-sufficiency in the strategic product and foil sanctions targeting its energy needs, the state television's website reported its oil minister as saying.

AP - State-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos says an explosion has occurred at its Cadereyta refinery outside the northern city of Monterrey.

AFP - Pakistan's devastating floods have left 10 million people without shelter, the United Nations said Tuesday, as authorities rushed to bolster river defences to save two towns from catastrophe.

AP - The flight attendant accused of onboard antics that captured the nation's attention when he told off a passenger and slid down the plane's emergency chute with a beer will undergo a mental health evaluation with the aim of avoiding jail time in a possible plea deal.

AP - A car bomb ripped through a police compound in a northwestern Pakistani city on Tuesday, killing 11 women and children and one officer, the latest in a string of attacks proving that Islamist militants remain a potent force in the country.

Reuters - Afghan and NATO forces are planning an offensive to clear Taliban insurgents from areas around the city of Kandahar by late November, the NATO commander for southern Afghanistan said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Cuba will soon turn some small-scale manufacturing and retail services into cooperatives as the state retreats from minor businesses in an effort to boost the island's troubled economy, government and Communist Party sources said.

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 - Call it Zombies 101.

Reuters - A huge blast shook police headquarters in the northwestern Pakistani town of Kohat on Tuesday, causing many casualties, police said.

AP - Mozambique's government is reversing bread and water price increases that had touched off deadly riots, the planning minister said Tuesday.

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.