By including Cairo on his first Mideast tour as defense secretary, Chuck Hagel is highlighting the Obama administration's hope of preserving influence with the Egyptian military as the country struggles with its transition to democracy.

Germany's top court has upheld the legality of an anti-terrorism database, but has ordered the government to tweak how it is operated.

LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday its first quarter earnings shrank to less than one tenth of the year-earlier quarter as its TV business languished, masking a recovery in mobile phone sales.

Law enforcement officials searched the home of a second Mississippi man implicated in the mailing of ricin poison-laced letters to the president and a U.S. senator after charges were dropped without explanation against the man arrested in the case last week.

The European Union says it probably will take legal action soon against Hungary over concerns about constitutional changes that have raised accusations democracy is under threat in the member state.

South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc. on Wednesday reported its third consecutive quarterly profit as prices for PC memory chips rose.

Italy's president has summoned Enrico Letta, the No. 2 leader of the Democratic Party, for consultations amid speculation he will be tapped to try to form a government and end Italy's political paralysis.

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:

A couple of weeks before her ex-husband agreed to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers, Jamie McCourt reached a divorce settlement that gave her $131 million tax-free and several luxurious homes.

PSA Peugeot Citroen said Wednesday crumbling automobile markets across Europe lay behind a steep drop in its first quarter sales.

A violent clash between authorities and assailants described as a terrorist gang left 21 people dead in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, the local government said Wednesday.

Daimler AG warned Wednesday that profits this year would be lower than last year's as it reported a 60 percent slide in first-quarter earnings amid slumping auto sales in Europe.

A prominent Russian opposition leader on trial for embezzlement said Wednesday that his innocence will be obvious for all to see by the end of the proceedings, even if the court finds him guilty.

Legendary Indian singer Shamshad Begum has died. She was 94.

An eight-story building housing several garment factories collapsed near Bangladesh's capital Wednesday morning, killing at least 70 people and trapping many more in the rubble, officials said.

David Lee went from Golden State's All-Star power forward and double-double machine to the Warriors' biggest cheerleader and strategic adviser during timeouts.

Despite vast differences with President George W. Bush on ideology, style and temperament, President Barack Obama has stuck with Bush policies or aspirations on a number of fronts, from counterterrorism to immigration, from war strategy to the global fight against AIDS.

A panel of experts offered a dire assessment of the U.S. education system in a report released 30 years ago this week that sparked the modern school reform movement. Some excerpts from that report, "A Nation at Risk":

A lethal new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month appears to jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday.

U.S. students are falling behind their international rivals. Young people aren't adept at new technology. America's economy will suffer if schools don't step up their game.