Cuba's Robles in trouble in 110 hurdles at worlds

Dayron Robles hit the first hurdle that came his way Wednesday, a sign that one of the biggest stars of the world championships is struggling with an injury and might not make it into the men's 110-meter hurdles final.

Shortly after the Cuban pulled off his Che Guevara training jersey and got out of the blocks, his old hamstring injury acted up again. After his awful start, Robles never looked comfortable and needed to rely on his natural speed to squeeze into Thursday's semifinals.

The Olympic champion qualified — barely — as the third place finisher from his heat in 13.67 seconds, .76 off his world record time.

"It hurts, and I can't run as well as I usually can," Robles said, leaving him in doubt for the rest of the championships.

"I can't say that I am going to run, and I can't say that I am not going to run," Robles added. "I will work hard with my team, doctor and physio, to see what my chances are."

What retirement? Favre's back, with the Vikings

This is the way it is with Brett Favre: He announces he's done, then has second thoughts.

Many of his new Minnesota teammates never believed he was truly staying retired. Vikings coach Brad Childress, just three weeks after Favre told him he wouldn't be joining the team, was persistent enough to place another call.

SKorea aborts rocket launch minutes before liftoff

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea on Wednesday aborted its first domestic launch of a rocket just minutes before scheduled liftoff because of a technical problem, delaying space ambitions that have threatened to anger rival North Korea.

The rocket was to have shot into space about four months after North Korea was widely criticized for firing its own rocket in defiance of United Nations sanctions. The North said it would keep a close eye on the international response to Seoul's rocket launch.

Buffett says unchecked U.S. debt threatens economy: report

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said the U.S. economy has avoided a meltdown and appears on a slow path to recovery, but Congress must now deal with enormous amounts of debt that threaten to erode U.S. purchasing power.

In an opinion column published on Wednesday by the New York Times, Buffett wrote that he "resoundingly applauds" actions by the Federal Reserve and the Bush and Obama administrations to pump trillions of dollars into the financial system.

But the "gusher of federal money" has run up a high level of debt that could fuel inflation, he said.

"The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery," Buffett wrote.

"But enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects. For now, most of those effects are invisible and could indeed remain latent for a long time. Still, their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself."

Hijackers threatened to blow up mystery ship: reports

The hijackers of a cargo ship that disappeared off the coast of France threatened to blow it up if their ransom demands were not met, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday.

Russia on Tuesday arrested eight people on suspicion of hijacking the Arctic Sea off the Swedish coast and sailing it to the Atlantic Ocean, ending weeks of silence about the fate of a ship which has intrigued European maritime authorities.

The limited information from Russian authorities has failed to satisfy skeptics who voiced doubts about whether the piracy actually took place or was a convenient cover story to conceal a possible secret cargo of arms or nuclear material.

UBS to divulge 4,450 account names, more expected

Swiss banking giant UBS AG agreed Wednesday to turn over to the IRS the details of 4,450 accounts suspected of holding undeclared assets by American customers, ending an intense trans-Atlantic legal fight.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said the accounts held $18 billion in assets at one time. Many have since been closed, he said.

The deal will give the Internal Revenue Service thousands of long-sought account names, and is expected to provide even more UBS clients who voluntarily disclose their financial details to the agency, Shulman said.

Analysis: Liberals tired of health care compromise

Frustrated liberals have a question for President Barack Obama and Democratic lawmakers: Isn't it time the other guys gave a little ground on health care? What's the point of a bipartisan bill, they ask, if we're making all the concessions?

Wave of Baghdad blasts kills at least 86

A truck bomb exploded across the street from Iraq's Foreign Ministry near the Green Zone Wednesday, knocking out concrete slabs and windows and leaving a mass of charred cars outside as a wave of explosions around Baghdad killed at least 86 people.