Reuters - Flooding on the Mississippi River has closed the St. Louis harbor to barge traffic, halting commercial traffic at an important junction of several major waterways, said the U.S. Coast Guard.

Reuters - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday rejected questions about his patriotism even as he drew fire for a supporter's attack on Republican rival John McCain's military record.

Reuters - African leaders on Monday pushed President Robert Mugabe to open talks with the opposition after he was re-elected unopposed in an election condemned as violent and unfair by the continent's own monitors.

AP - Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic and No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova were ousted in the fourth round Monday, leaving Wimbledon without any of the top four women in the quarterfinals for the first time.

AP - New York City officials say Bon Jovi will play at a free concert in Central Park this summer.

AP - A 150-pound sea turtle raised by humans returned to freedom on Monday after nine years of captivity, swimming away after the veterinarians who cared for her helped steer her toward the ocean.

AP - Wall Street turned mixed Monday in the final session of an arduous first half, as the price of oil pulled off its high and temporarily relieved some of the market's inflation worries.

AP - Former detainees of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are suing U.S. contractors in four states for alleged torture.

AP - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe sought a boost of political legitimacy at a summit of African leaders Monday after his re-election was widely discredited as a sham.

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.