AP - Hallmark Cards Inc., a $4 billion empire built on a demand for printed sentimentality, enters its second century facing a weak economy and what could be an even greater challenge: a generation that has grown up posting its sentiments online.

AP - Hallmark Cards Inc., a $4 billion empire built on a demand for printed sentimentality, enters its second century facing a weak economy and what could be an even greater challenge: a generation that has grown up posting its sentiments online.

AP - Jefferson Thomas, who as a teenager was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the nation's first major battle over school segregation, has died. He was 68.

Reuters - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was confident a law extending the lives of nuclear power reactors could be passed without backing from the upper house of parliament, setting up a clash with opposition parties.

AP - President Barack Obama is asking Congress to approve at least $50 billion in long-term spending in the nation's roads, railways and runways in a pre-election effort to show he's trying to stimulate the sputtering economy.

AP - More than 80 years ago, Germany sold tens of thousands of bonds to American investors in an effort to recover financially from World War I. Later, Adolf Hitler used some of the money raised by those bonds to build the powerful Nazi war machine that would ravage Europe during World War II.

AP - It was a broiling fall evening in this southern Afghan battlezone, and U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Reed wanted to celebrate his birthday in style — at T.G.I. Friday's on the boardwalk.

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 - 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.

AFP - US President Barack Obama unveiled plans Monday to spend at least 50 billion dollars to expand and renew US roads, railways and airports, in a fresh bid to fire up sluggish economic growth.

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.

AP - Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Monday 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.

AFP - Global stock markets rose and the dollar fell on Monday as investors further digested better-than-expected US jobs data which reduced prospects of a return to recession.

AFP - US President Barack Obama will travel to the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin Monday as part of a broad effort to stem ebbing political support over the slowing economic recovery.

AP - The USS Olympia, a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser that returned home to a hero's welcome after a history-changing victory in the Spanish-American War, is a proud veteran fighting what may be its final battle.

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.

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.

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.

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.