AP - A stiff drink comes with a stiff tax in Pittsburgh and surrounding towns these days, and that has made the county executive public enemy No. 1 in some quarters, reviled by name in song and on bar bills.

AP - Tim Russert's chair was empty on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, two days after his unexpected death.

AP - "The Incredible Hulk" was a box-office bruiser, yanking in $54.5 million over opening weekend and laying to rest the stigma of his unappreciated big-screen adventure five years ago.

AP - As the American economy slowed to a crawl and stockholders watched their money evaporate, CEO pay still chugged to yet more dizzying heights last year, an Associated Press analysis shows.

AP - Israel's persistent building of Jewish homes on disputed land undermines the U.S.-backed attempt to write an Israeli-Palestinian peace draft this year and invites questions about Israel's motives, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.

AP - Tea at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth II, bike rides in a Paris park and the lush German countryside, a stunning view from a Renaissance villa outside Rome, a rare stroll with the pope in the Vatican's private gardens?

AP - Displaced residents trickled back into the hardest-hit areas of Cedar Rapids on Sunday for their first up-close look at flood devastation, while a forecast of an earlier and lower flood crest at Iowa River sparked hope that the university city would escape a similar fate.

AFP - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a new bid to inject impetus into the faltering Middle East peace process, warned on Sunday that Jewish settlement expansion could harm the talks.

AFP - European foreign ministers gather Monday to take a first look at the EU's battered reform plans after Ireland's stunning rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

Reuters - More than 1,000 rescue workers including troops searched on Sunday for 13 people missing after a powerful earthquake rocked northern Japan, killing at least nine and injuring over 200.

Reuters - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday Israel's continued settlement building could hurt Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Reuters - President George W. Bush urged British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday not to set a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Reuters - Two human rights groups expressed concern on Sunday over the fate of Huang Qi, a Chinese activist who friends fear was detained for offering support to families of children who died in the Sichuan earthquake.