AFP - Former prime minister Tony Blair on Monday cancelled a planned book signing session in London to promote his memoirs after anti-war protestors threatened to target it.

AFP - A senior culture ministry official and the head of a Cairo museum from which a Van Gogh painting was stolen will stand trial on charges of negligence, a judicial source said on Monday.

Reuters - Taliban threats, shuttered polling centers and warnings of widespread fraud are clouding hopes for Afghanistan's September 18 parliamentary election, a key test of an already fragile democracy, observers have warned.

AFP - The World Trade Organization will issue its long-awaited opinion on Europe's challenge to American subsidies to US aerospace giant Boeing next week, a source close to the matter said Monday.

Reuters - U.S. oil prices slipped below $74 per barrel on Monday as the end of the U.S. driving season and high levels of unemployment in the world's biggest oil consumer raised concerns over the outlook for demand.

Reuters - World stocks rose on Monday on hopes the U.S. economy can avoid slipping back into recession, although the International Monetary Fund's chief economist warned of weak growth in both the United States and Europe.

AP - Mexican authorities opened shelters and warned people to watch out for mudslides Monday as Tropical Storm Hermine approached the northeastern border with Texas, the second major storm to hit the area this season.

AP - A judge in the Bahamas dismissed charges Monday against two people accused of trying to extort money from John Travolta after the actor decided he no longer wanted to face the pain of a new trial stemming from the death of his teenage son on the island chain.

Reuters - President Barack Obama will announce on Monday a six-year plan to revamp the United States' aging roads, railways and runways with a $50 billion up-front investment to jump-start job creation.

AP - In an unusually blunt warning, the U.N. atomic agency said Monday that its monitoring of Iran's nuclear activities is being hampered because Tehran objects to giving some agency inspectors access to its program.

AP - An Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for adultery is now facing a new punishment of 99 lashes because a British newspaper ran a picture of an unveiled woman mistakenly identified as her, the woman's son said Monday.

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

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.

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.

Reuters - The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co in the first offering of the automaker's stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.

AFP - Brazil's Petrobras unveiled one of the world's biggest share offerings Friday, a sale of up to 64 billion dollars in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into a leading oil exporter of the 21st century.

AP - Summer is rarely a hot sales season for Campbell Soup Co., and this year's sweltering June and July made that even more true, but the company said Friday that cost-cutting and strong drink sales helped its net income climb.