AP - It was an unlikely diplomatic tool amid the escalating rhetoric of the Cold War: a few paddles, a few ping pong balls and nine giddy U.S. table tennis players in a country Americans hadn't seen for decades.

AP - A sailor is being praised as a hero for helping get five others to safety at the cost of his own life when a sailboat capsized during a regatta on the Gulf of Mexico.

AP - Fire investigators are asking for the public's help in identifying who may be to blame for a blaze that badly damaged the historic Texas Governor's Mansion.

AP - The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time over the weekend, passing the once-unthinkable milestone just in time for the peak summer travel season.

AP - Wicked weekend storms pounded the country from the Midwest to the East Coast, forcing hundreds of people to flee flooded communities, spawning tornadoes that tore up houses and killing at least eight people.

AP - Running down a busy Manhattan sidewalk, drawing funny looks from passers-by as his teammates wearing green T-shirts and feather headdresses brought up the rear in their quest for more water balloons, David Abrams felt entirely unlike himself.

AP - A possible tornado toppled trees in Nebraska and record flooding chased people from their Indiana homes early Sunday as the Midwest braced for still more violent weather.

AP - Two astronauts floated outside the international space station Sunday and finished two of the maintenance tasks on their work list during the final spacewalk of the space shuttle Discovery's visit to the orbiting outpost.