AP - With its riveting orchestration, definitive guitar play and signature sensual baritone vocals, Isaac Hayes' theme song for the 1971 movie "Shaft" not only became one of pop music's iconic songs, but also the defining work of Hayes' career.

AP - Like others returning from a religious festival in Missouri, Hoang Vu stopped at the spot where a charter bus carrying fellow Vietnamese Catholics on the pilgrimage had crashed and killed 17 people.

AP - Rafael Nadal made a successful debut in Olympic singles Monday, overcoming numerous missed chances by sweeping the final four games to beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

AP - The condition of the American mother of a former Olympian who was stabbed on the opening day of Olympics competition was improving Monday, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympics Committee told the AP.

AP - With history about to slip away and Michael Phelps cheering him on, Jason Lezak pulled up next to the lane rope and set out after hulking Alain Bernard, like a NASCAR driver drafting down the backstretch at Daytona.

AP - A series of clashes and an airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed 25 militants and eight civilians held hostage by insurgents, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement Monday.

AP - President Bush, increasingly distracted by Russia's harsh military crackdown in Georgia, took in one final golden Olympic moment Monday then ended what was likely his last trip to Asia before he leaves the White House.

AP - Russia and Georgia clashed on land and at sea Sunday despite a Georgian cease-fire offer and claim of withdrawal from the separatist province of South Ossetia, officials from both countries said.

AFP - More than 100 militants and nine Pakistani soldiers have died in four days of fierce fighting in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the military said Sunday.

AFP - Georgia said Sunday it had ordered its forces, pushed back by superior Russian firepower, to cease fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia, and offered Moscow talks to end the conflict.

Reuters - Olympic organizers vowed to tighten security in central Beijing on Sunday after a U.S. tourist was killed in a stabbing attack.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was locked in long talks with opposition leaders on Sunday after signs they were about to reach a power-sharing deal to end a post-election political crisis.

Reuters - Suspected Muslim separatists and suicide bombers launched a dozen attacks in west China on Sunday, killing 11 people in the blasts and a subsequent shootout with police in renewed violence two days into the Olympics.

Reuters - The United States must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.