AP - Two of Northern California's more than 1,400 wildfires choked parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills, darkening a 100-mile stretch between Sacramento and Reno with clouds of black smoke.

AP - President Bush on Monday signed legislation to pay for the war operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of his presidency and beyond, hailing the $162 billion plan as a rare product of bipartisan cooperation.

AP - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Monday he will never question others' patriotism during the race and blames his own "carelessness" for some criticism of him so far.

AFP - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed China's leaders Monday on sensitive human rights issues, but said she was encouraged by their decision to hold talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys.

AFP - Robert Mugabe was attending an African Union summit in Egypt on Monday amid growing calls for African leaders to shun the Zimbabwean president over his widely discredited election win.

Reuters - A Chinese fund manager has won a lunch with famed U.S. investor Warren Buffett after bidding $2.11 million for the opportunity in a charity auction, more than three times what the lunch fetched last year.

Reuters - An Iranian court on Monday sentenced to death an Iranian businessman on charges of spying for Israel after a two-day trial, media said.

Reuters - The U.N. World Food Program, which has warned of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea due to a food shortage, said on Monday it reached a deal with Pyongyang to rapidly expand aid, and that a U.S. ship carrying wheat had arrived.

Reuters - Rebuilding at the World Trade Center site will take longer and cost more than previously projected, a report from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is set to say on Monday, a source familiar with the contents said.

Reuters - Levees on the cresting Mississippi River held on Sunday as the worst U.S. Midwest flooding in 15 years began to ebb, but multibillion-dollar crop losses may boost world food prices for years.

Reuters - Six people were killed and one was seriously injured on Sunday when two medical helicopters collided on their way to a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona, air officials said.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrived on Monday at an African Union summit where he will be under pressure to negotiate with the opposition after winning a one-candidate election condemned by monitors as unfair and violent.

AP - Sweep revenge for the White Sox against the Cubs. Carlos Quentin, Brian Anderson and Jim Thome homered to back Mark Buehrle's seven strong innings Sunday night as the White Sox completed a three-game sweep at U.S. Cellular Field by beating the Cubs 5-1.

AP - He was the comedian who actually said the seven words you can never say on television, but close friends and family members remembered George Carlin as a man who, when he was off stage, had only a kind word for everyone he met.

AP - Ron Alexander has long been intrigued with the true story of a young idealist who met his death in Alaska's unyielding wilderness in 1992.