AP - Iraq's prime minister pushed Iran's leaders to back off their fierce opposition to a proposed security pact with the U.S. on Sunday, promising that his country will not be a launching pad for any attack on them.

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday urged Colombian rebels to lay down their weapons, unilaterally free dozens of hostages and end a decades-long armed struggle.

AP - Rallying international aid for Afghanistan, first lady Laura Bush on Sunday showcased projects to better the lives of war-weary Afghans. Yet at each stop, an eerie reminder of the country's violent past was just a glance away.

AP - An additional 120 troops were sent Monday to help soldiers with explosives and anti-tank weapons blast rocks and mud slowing the drainage of a still-rising lake that threatened to flood more than 1 million people downstream.

AP - A man suspected of killing seven people in a knifing rampage foretold the mayhem in a series of messages posted on the Internet, including one just before the attack saying, "It's time," police and media reports said Monday.

AFP - Shahid Afridi and Wahab Riaz shared six wickets to script Pakistan's emphatic 70-run victory over Bangladesh in the opening match of a triangular one-day series here on Sunday.

AP - Ruling party militants prevented the opposition from holding a rally in a Harare suburb Sunday, while police attacked supporters in Bulawayo and stopped them from putting up election campaign posters, party officials said.

AP - For Miladis Bouza, the global food crisis arrived two decades ago. Now, her efforts to climb out of it could serve as a model for people around the world struggling to feed their families.

AFP - Thirty-seven people were trapped underground Sunday in a mine now in danger of flooding after an explosion, officials said, as hopes for the miners' survival dwindled.

AP - A suicide truck bomber who concealed his explosives under tanned animal hides struck a U.S. patrol base Sunday in northern Iraq, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding 18 other Americans, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

AP - A man plowed into shoppers with a truck Sunday and then stabbed 17 people within minutes, killing at least seven of them in a grisly attack that shocked a country known for its low crime rate.

AP - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pushed Iran on Sunday to back off its fierce opposition to a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, Iraqi officials said, as he promised Iranian leaders that Iraq will not be a launching pad for any attack on their country.

AP - Faced with record-high oil prices, the world's leading economies and oil consumers Sunday pledged greater investment in energy efficiency and green technologies to control their spiraling thirst for petroleum.

AP - First lady Laura Bush, on a mission to highlight signs of progress in war-weary Afghanistan, ventured outside the capital Sunday to an area that symbolizes both the destruction and attempt at rebirth.