USA

"Tomorrow, the hard work will begin," Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor-elect of California, declared in a victory speech Tuesday night. Almost complete returns showed 54 percent of voters approved the recall of Gov. Gray Davis (D). Among the replacement candidates, Schwarzenegger was the clear favorite with 48 percent support. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, who finished second with 32 percent, and other Democrats pledged to put aside bitter partisan divisions and work with the Republican governor on pressing state issues such as next year's projected $8 billion budget shortfall. Bustamante will remain in office until the current term ends in 2006.

In the latest ruling on the national do-not-call list, a federal appeals court in Denver said the Federal Trade Commission may temporarily enforce a ban on sales calls to more than 50 million registered numbers, while telemarketers pursue their court challenge. It its decision Tuesday, the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals questioned a lower court's conclusion that the list violates free-speech rights, but didn't reverse it.

Saying "24 years is a long time," Sen. Don Nickles (R) of Oklahoma announced he won't seek a fifth term in 2004. The chairman of the powerful Budget Committee and former GOP whip was known as a staunch conservative and tax-cut advocate. His departure comes as the two main parties are vying for control of the Senate in next year's elections. Republicans now have a slim 51-to-48 majority.

Americans Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon won the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry, for their research into how cells regulate the passage of salts and water. Agre works at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and MacKinnon is with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at The Rockefeller University in New York. Later, the Nobel Prize for economics went to American Robert Engle and Clive Granger of Britain.

The wife of US Sen. Judd Gregg (R) of New Hampshire was safe after being abducted at knifepoint Tuesday from her home in the Washington suburb of McLean, Va. Two thieves reportedly forced Kathleen Gregg to withdraw cash at a nearby bank before fleeing. Police released surveillance images of one of the suspects and of their car. The FBI is assisting the investigation.

The president of the Jesuit Loyola University of New Orleans, the Rev. Bernard Knoth, resigned Tuesday after a review board found a complaint of past sexual misconduct against him to be credible. Rules adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in the wake of a national sex-abuse scandal call for immediate removal of officials in such cases.