AP - A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car in an alley behind a police station in a strategically important town in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 17 police and civilians in an explosion that shattered the station and neighboring homes.

Reuters - A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday killing at least 19 people, police said, in a new wave of attacks by al Qaeda- and Taliban-linked militants.

AP - Tony Blair says he could cancel a planned public appearance in London to promote his new memoir amid security concerns.

AP - Hundreds of Afghans railed against the United States and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce an American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11.

AP - Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Sunday that his party will try to block any extension of Israel's settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the recently launched Mideast peace negotiations.

AP - Edward Nino Hernandez is in many ways a typical 24-year-old Colombian male. He loves to dance reggaeton, dreams of owning a car — preferably a Mercedes_ and wants to see the world.

Reuters - Australian Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard will know on Tuesday if she can form a new minority government with the support of three independents, ending more than two weeks of uncertainty after the August 21 elections.

AP - Oil prices slipped to near $74 a barrel Monday in Asia as traders weighed whether growing Chinese demand can offset weak U.S. fuel consumption amid high unemployment.

Reuters - Aftershocks rocked New Zealand's second-biggest city on Monday causing further damage and forcing authorities to extend a state of emergency after the country's most damaging earthquake in 80 years.

AP - Only one of Nidal Haidar's six sisters is married. She has given up on ever getting hitched.

Reuters - President Barack Obama launches several economic initiatives this week aimed at generating some desperately needed U.S. job growth and limiting predicted Democratic losses in November 2 congressional elections.

AFP - President Barack Obama will call for a 100-billion-dollar business tax credit this week to boost the sagging US economic recovery, The Washington Post reported.

AP - The Black Widow of eating contests gobbled up nearly 181 chicken wings in 12 minutes, devouring the national championship record in Buffalo on Sunday.

AP - A third man survived last month's massacre of 72 migrants by suspected drug traffickers in Mexico and is now in the United States, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said Sunday.

Reuters - Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts said on Monday, arguing for greater investment in water storage.

AP - Craiglist's "adult services" section has been shut down in the U.S., but prostitution on the Internet is alive and well — even, quite possibly, on Craigslist.

AP - How do you get penny pinchers to spend these days? Pitch products that promise to save them money.

AP - A flight attendant who captured America's attention when he told off a plane full of passengers and then slid down an emergency chute resigned from his job last week and wasn't fired, his lawyer said Sunday.

Reuters - The U.S. economy appears to be trudging along, neither booming nor busting, growing steadily enough to diminish double-dip recession fears but not quickly enough to bring down unemployment.

AP - Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes.

AP - Investigators looking into what went wrong in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are a step closer to answers now that a key piece of evidence is secure aboard a ship.

AP - Duong Nghe Ly can't wait to begin his senior year at South Philadelphia High School. A day of violence there last year changed his life, and he wants to learn if his school has been transformed as well.

AP - Government agencies are seeking broad new authority to ramp up killings and removals of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, despite two recent court actions that restored the animal's endangered status in every state except Alaska and Minnesota.

AP - It is a place of sacrifice. A place of mourning. A place people pass by on their way to grab lunch. It's a place where tourists crane their necks to snatch a glimpse around barriers walling off an enormous construction site — which is also what it is.

AP - Seeking ways to spur economic growth ahead of the November elections, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, a White House official said Sunday.

AP - Motivated by the deaths of two friends in war-zone explosions, 1st Lt. Timothy Dwyer decided to become a bomb hunter.

AFP - US lawmakers returning from summer recess face a conundrum on tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year, with the economy seemingly sputtering ahead of looming congressional elections.

AP - For more than half a century, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Paul Conrad poked fun at politicians, taking on presidents from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush.

AP - American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States — all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities.

AP - In the end, Earl's worst damage in New England was to seasonal businesses hoping to end their summer on a high note.

Reuters - The world economy is recovering moderately but still faces challenges such as the need for medium-term fiscal consolidation, the IMF's First Managing Director, John Lipsky, said on Sunday.

AP - For more than two hours on the night of May 16, 2007, Shane Maggi terrorized a Native American couple at their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, pistol whipping them and firing bullets above the husband's head.