AP - Months after returning to the radio with a pledge to mend the wounds caused by his comments about a women's basketball team, Don Imus is once again defending on-air remarks regarding race.

AP - Firefighters from neighboring states arrived to help Monday after an "unprecedented" lightning storm sparked more than 800 wildfires, from Big Sur to wine country to Humboldt County.

AP - The choice for John McCain's running mate is such a mystery that few people even know who is helping in that search. The Republican is leaning on a consummate behind-the-scenes player in Washington — attorney Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. — for this maximum-discretion, minimal-disclosure assignment.

AP - Divers wriggled into an upside-down ferry Tuesday and found bodies but no survivors three days after the vessel capsized during a powerful typhoon with more than 800 people aboard, officials said.

AP - Outraged at the turmoil in Zimbabwe, the U.N. Security Council declared that a fair presidential vote is impossible because of the "campaign of violence" waged by President Robert Mugabe's government.

AFP - Philippine rescue teams battled furious seas and high winds Monday in a desperate hunt for more survivors of a ferry that sank in a typhoon with 862 people aboard.

AFP - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was holed up in the Dutch embassy in Harare Monday after saying he was abandoning his election challenge to President Robert Mugabe because of growing violence.

Reuters - The world's major cities are also among the planet's worst polluters but they have the solutions to most of their problems at their fingertips, a leading environmental consultancy said on Monday.

Reuters - U.S.-led coalition troops killed some 55 Taliban insurgents who ambushed them in southeastern Afghanistan, close to the Pakistan border, the U.S. military said on Monday.

Reuters - Rescuers halted efforts on Monday night to find nearly 800 people missing from a capsized ferry in the Philippines as darkness fell and large swells prevented divers from drilling holes into the doomed vessel.

Reuters - American evangelicals remain more Republican than Democratic but are not locked tightly in the embrace of either party, according to a new survey released on Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Reuters - European Union states agreed on Monday to impose new sanctions against Iran, including an asset freeze on its biggest bank, over its refusal to meet demands to curb its nuclear program.

Reuters - Republican John McCain said on Monday if elected president he would challenge American experts to develop a futuristic battery to power cars and win a $300 million prize.

Reuters - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has taken refuge in the Dutch embassy after pulling out of a presidential election because of attacks on his supporters, Dutch officials said on Monday.