AFP - More than a million people fled Louisiana as killer Hurricane Gustav on Sunday roared toward New Orleans, a fragile US coastal city still deeply scarred by the devastating 2005 Katrina storm.

Reuters - Five Sudanese men accused of murdering a U.S. aid worker are religious extremists who plotted to attack foreigners at New Year's Eve gatherings, Sudanese prosecutors told a court on Sunday.

Reuters - Russia does not want confrontation with the West but will hit back if attacked, Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday, a day before EU leaders meet to draft a response to Moscow's actions in Georgia.

Reuters - Hurricane Gustav disrupted Republican John McCain's convention on Sunday -- President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney opted out of attending and Republicans considered shortening the event.

Reuters - U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore oil production and were racing to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav's landfall, which could rival the wrath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Reuters - Thousands of people in New Orleans and across the U.S. Gulf Coast fled their homes on Sunday as Hurricane Gustav barreled through the Gulf of Mexico packing a punch potentially as powerful as Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic won her sort of split decision, beating No. 21 Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 Sunday to reach the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.

AP - Batman's rich alter-ego Bruce Wayne has added half a billion dollars to his riches. "The Dark Knight" on Sunday became the second movie in Hollywood history to top $500 million at the domestic box office, raising its total to $502.4 million, according to estimates from distributor Warner Bros.

AP - Cody Miller was a high school football player who was allergic to ragweed. Douglas Briggs was a doctor coping with pain from an old back injury.

AP - Americans are changing the game plan for retirement, with millions laboring right past the traditional retirement age and working into their late 60s and beyond.

AP - Russia's conflict with Georgia and recognition of its small breakaway territories as independent states may have broad repercussions for separatist movements in the former Soviet sphere and around the world.

AP - Lawyers for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick have proposed a deal in which he would plead guilty to two felonies, make restitution and serve five years' probation in exchange for avoiding jail time, a newspaper reported Sunday.

AP - An Afghan army commander said that U.S. and Afghan troops were fired on first from a village where a government investigative commission says scores of civilians were killed, according to a report released Sunday.

AP - Cubans returned from shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads Sunday, but no deaths were reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

AP - John McCain ordered changes in the Republican National Convention that was to be a four-day celebration of his presidential nomination Sunday, to "redirect our efforts" to reflect the seriousness of Hurricane Gustav as it churned toward the Gulf Coast. President Bush, Vice President Cheney and prominent GOP governors decided to skip the gathering altogether.