AP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown handed President Bush good news on two fronts Monday: a modest increase in Britain's troops for the tough Afghanistan fight and a fresh European effort to squeeze Iran's nuclear ambitions.

AP - Hundreds of Taliban fighters took over several villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday just outside the region's largest city, and NATO and Afghan forces were redeploying to meet the threat, officials said.

AP - Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin fell in love at a time when lesbians risked being arrested, fired from their jobs and sent to electroshock treatment.

AP - Even as flood fears eased in Iowa City, the state's south and east prepared for new problems ahead for a string of towns along the Mississippi River.

AFP - US President George W. Bush is set to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his predecessor Tony Blair, and visit Belfast for talks on the future of Northern Ireland on Monday, the final day of his farewell tour of Europe.

AFP - Tens of thousands of victims of China's Sichuan earthquake were evacuated Monday as torrential rain lashed the region, triggering flood warnings on rivers including the Yangtze and the Pearl.

Reuters - The world's biggest insurer, American International Group Inc , replaced CEO Martin Sullivan on Sunday after it suffered two quarters of record losses from risky mortgage bets and its share price more than halved over the past year.

Reuters - South Korean construction workers joined striking truckers on Monday in the latest blow to new President Lee Myung-bak, whose repeated policy stumbles have seen his popularity plunge after less than four months in office.

Reuters - Authorities in China's troubled far-western region of Xinjiang are telling people who want to watch the Olympic torch as it passes through the area to stay at home and tune into the television instead.

Reuters - At least 12 people were killed and 22 injured in a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel suicide blast in northern Sri Lanka on Monday, the military said.

Reuters - The death toll in a powerful earthquake that hit northern Japan at the weekend rose to 10 on Monday as troops and rescue workers searched for survivors in the remote, mountainous area worst hit by the tremor.

Reuters - Israeli envoys holding a new round of indirect peace talks with Syrian counterparts in Turkey will propose that the two leaders meet at a Paris conference next month, Israeli political sources said on Monday.

Reuters - Thousands of victims of China's earthquake are moving to escape a new threat from rain-triggered landslides, officials said on Monday, while floods battered the nation's southern trade powerhouse.

Reuters - President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will present a united front against Iran's nuclear ambitions Monday and seek to dispel media suggestions of a rift over troop levels in Iraq.

AP - President Bush, capping his European trip on Monday in London and Belfast, will return home having further smoothed trans-Atlantic ties frayed over the war, but with only seven months left to advance his goals in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and the Mideast.