Update on the latest news, sports, business and entertainment:

WALL STREET

Worries about Europe end 3-day rally

NEW YORK (AP) — Economic growth slowed across Europe last quarter, and the leaders of France and Germany tried to calm concerns about the region's debt troubles by pushing for long-term political solutions. Markets had hoped for immediate financial fixes like the introduction of a single bond jointly backed by eurozone members.

In the U.S., economic reports are mixed: Housing remains weak, but factory output rose last month at its fastest pace since an earthquake in Japan disrupted global manufacturing in March. Economic worries overshadowed strong U.S. profit reports.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 76, or 0.7 percent, to 11,406. The S&P 500 was down 11, or 1 percent, to 1,193. The Nasdaq fell 31, or 1.2 percent, to 2,523.

OBAMA

Obama seeks input from Iowans; Perry campaigns nearby

PEOSTA, Iowa (AP) — As President Barack Obama continues his bus tour in Iowa, he's seeking input from people directly affected by the tough economy.

The president reassured farmers, businessmen and others taking part in an economic forum at Northeast Iowa Community College that the country will get through an ongoing time of relentless joblessness. He then asked for ideas on how best to give an economic charge to the nation's heartland. At one point the president took part in breakout sessions at the forum.

He also leveled some criticism at Republicans, accusing the GOP of putting party ahead of country when it comes to trying to resolve the nation's economic woes.

Campaigning a short distance away in Dubuque, new GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry branded Obama's bus tour a folly. Perry lunched with voters at a local brewery and said the problem was that Americans are being "over-taxed, over-regulated and over-litigated."

Obama is in the second day of a three-day bus tour through Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois before heading to Massachusetts for a family vacation on Martha's Vineyard on Thursday.

US-LIBYA-SYRIA

Clinton: Libya, Syria show 'smart power' at work

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is defending the Obama administration's approach to crises in Libya and Syria. She says the United States remains the world's strongest leader but that doesn't always mean it should act alone or with brute force.

Clinton told a military audience on Tuesday that the administration is using "smart power" instead.

Although the White House is edging closer to an open demand that Syria's leader step aside, Clinton says it would be a mistake to make that move unilaterally. In Libya, the U.S. and other nations did respond to repression with a demand that the country's leader step aside.

Unlike in Syria, the U.S. also supported military action to protect civilians in Libya. The U.S. briefly led that operation and then handed control to NATO.

US-IRAQ

General sees Iran-backed militants as biggest Iraq threat

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior U.S. military officer says Iranian-backed militias present the most dangerous security threat for Iraq, outpacing al-Qaida-linked terrorists there.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the senior U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, says the Shiite militias are working to keep the Baghdad government weak and isolated. He says decisions on the number and types of attacks by the militias are made inside Iran, including through ties with the powerful Quds force.

The escalating threat comes amid a dramatic spike in violence across Iraq that military officials say appears to be linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.

The U.S. is preparing to pull American troops out by the end of the year. Iraqi officials are discussing whether they want to have some American forces stay in the country past that deadline.

AFGHANISTAN

Motorcycle bomb explodes at market

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — An Afghan official says a bomb has exploded in a vegetable market in southern Afghanistan, killing eight people.

Uruzgan provincial council director Amanullah Otaq says the explosives had been stowed in a parked motorcycle. He says the bomb was detonated in a busy market area of Uruzgan's Dihrawud district Tuesday just as the sun was setting and people were breaking their fast for the holy month of Ramadan.

Otaq says eight people were killed in the blast and dozens wounded.

Uruzgan provincial spokesman Hamid Milad Mudasir confirmed the blast. He says there were deaths but that he does not have figures because family members have taken bodies home and have not reported all of those who died.

GAS LINE BOMB

Okla. man pleads not guilty to gas pipeline bomb

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man accused of attaching a homemade bomb to a natural gas pipeline has pleaded not guilty.

Forty-year-old Daniel Herriman entered the plea Tuesday before Magistrate Judge Kimberly West in U.S. District Court in Muskogee.

The FBI says Herriman was arrested Friday after calling 911 and telling the Seminole County Sheriff's Office he had planted a bomb on the pipeline and wanted to surrender.

The FBI alleges Herriman admitted making the device and placing it on the pipeline Aug. 7 with a timer set to detonate at 2 a.m. The device did not explode and there was no damage. FBI spokesman Clay Simmonds said the agency doesn't know of a motive.

The bomb was discovered Wednesday at the Enerfin Resources substation near Okemah in Okfuskee County.

YALE-LAB ACCIDENT

APNewsBreak: OSHA faults Yale in lab accident

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Federal safety regulators say a piece of machinery that killed a Yale University student lacked required safeguards.

Michele Dufault (doo-FOH'), a senior from Scituate, Mass., was killed April 12 when her hair was pulled into a fast-spinning lathe as she worked alone in a machine shop.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrote in a letter to Yale that the lathe lacked an emergency stop button that could shut off power. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Tuesday through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The OSHA letter says rules for using the equipment were not posted. It also says Yale should ensure students don't work alone.

OSHA didn't fine Yale, saying it lacked jurisdiction.

A message for a Yale spokesman was not immediately returned.

ARUBA-MISSING AMERICA

NEW: Aruba plans search for missing US woman's remains

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Aruban authorities are planning an extensive search for a missing U.S. woman, using police, firefighters and possibly the military.

Solicitor General Taco Stein says they will be searching the southern part of the Dutch Caribbean island near where 35-year-old Robyn Gardner was reported missing by her travel companion. The operation is still being organized and is not expected to start for several days.

Stein told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the goal is to find Gardner's body or any evidence linked to her disappearance.

Fifty-year-old Gary Giordano of Gaithersburg, Maryland, is being detained in jail on suspicion of involvement in Gardner's death. He says she disappeared while they were snorkeling.

IRAQ-RAPE-SLAYING

US court rejects appeal in Iraq rape, slaying

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals panel has upheld the conviction of a former U.S. soldier serving five consecutive life sentences after being found guilty of crimes committed while he was on active duty in Iraq.

Three judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in the case of former Pfc. Steven Dale Green.

A federal district court jury in Paducah, Ky., convicted Green in 2009 of sexually assaulting and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering three of her family members while serving with Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division three years earlier.

Green was discharged from the Army with a personality disorder in May 2006, before the full scope of the crime became known to the Army. He is being held in a federal prison in Tucson, Ariz.

JERMAINE LEWIS-CRASH

Former Raven Jermaine Lewis charged in crash

REISTERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Baltimore County Police say they used a stun gun on former Ravens wide receiver Jermaine Lewis after a traffic accident.

Charging documents state that an officer responding to calls about a car that hit a fire department sign Monday evening without stopping went to Lewis' Reisterstown home, where the car was parked, and found Lewis on the couch. The officer questioned Lewis about the crash and documents state Lewis said that he hit the sign, but didn't hurt anyone.

When the officer tried to arrest Lewis, documents state Lewis refused to get up and the officer shocked him with a stun gun until he complied.

Lewis is charged with resisting arrest and cited for traffic offenses including driving on a revoked license and failure to stop at a crash scene.

SOLDIERS-GOUGING LAWSUIT

NEW: NY attorney general settles soldiers' $3.5M debt

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state's attorney general says an agreement with a finance company will clear $3.5 million in debt for nearly a thousand soldiers who bought electronics at highly inflated prices and credit terms.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says the soldiers shopped at a retailer outside the Army's Fort Drum military base, in northern New York.

He says Concord, Calif.-based Rome Finance Co. Inc. agreed through its bankruptcy trustee to take steps to restore the credit histories of hundreds of people. Calls to the trustee Tuesday haven't been returned.

A lawsuit filed by the attorney general's office accuses electronics retailer SmartBuy of defrauding soldiers through "wildly inflated" prices and high interest rates paid directly from military paychecks.

Fayetteville, N.C.-based SmartBuy last year closed a kiosk and storefront at a shopping mall near Fort Drum. It has denied wrongdoing.

INDIANA FAIR-MUSICIANS

Sugarland plans Ind. event, resumes tour Thursday

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Country duo Sugarland says it's planning a private memorial in Indiana to honor five fans who died when a stage and rigging collapsed at the Indiana State Fair last weekend.

Sugarland says in a letter posted on the group's website that the event will be held after families of the victims hold their own services and memorials. The duo will resume its touring schedule Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M.

Indiana State Fair officials say the proceeds from a concert Thursday by Train and Maroon 5 will benefit the victims of the stage collapse. The concert has been relocated to downtown Indianapolis.

Organizers say the two groups are donating their performance fees to a fund for the victims. The fair and venue management will donate the concert proceeds.