AP - Iraq's security has improved so much, even as U.S. troop levels have dropped, that President Bush seems likely to order thousands more soldiers home by year's end.

AP - Zimbabwe's president and his opposition rival agree to immediate talks about sharing power to resolve the country's political crisis.

AP - Iraq's government welcomed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday with word that it apparently shares his hope that U.S. combat forces could leave by 2010.

AFP - An Indian-born surgeon linked to the deaths of more than a dozen patients in Australia appeared in court on Monday to face a string of charges including manslaughter, court officials said.

AFP - China and Russia on Monday signed an agreement that ended a decades-long territorial dispute, in the latest sign of warming ties.

AP - Hours of fighting in the Somali capital killed at least seven civilians, including three young siblings who were leaving a religious school when a mortar landed nearby, witnesses said Monday.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI met privately on Monday with Australians who were sexually abused as children by priests, ending a pilgrimage to the country with a gesture of contrition and concern over a scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic church.

AP - Syria's foreign minister has arrived in Lebanon on the first such visit by a senior Syrian official in more than three years.

AFP - Chelsea's billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich is set to obliterate the transfer world record with a 150 million euro (238 million dollar) bid for AC Milan's Kaka, according to Monday's Gazzetta dello Sport.

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran on Monday of not being serious at weekend talks about its disputed nuclear program despite the presence of a senior U.S. diplomat, and warned it may soon face new sanctions.

AP - Half of Beijing's drivers left their cars at home and took public transportation instead on Monday, the first workday under new restrictions meant to clear this city's notoriously polluted skies before next month's Olympics.

AP - A last-minute plea deal could halt the first war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay on Monday, but military lawyers and observers say that appears extremely unlikely at this late stage.

AP - Barack Obama began Monday his first on-the-ground inspection of Iraq since launching his bid for the White House, with U.S. commanders ready to brief him on progress in a war he has long opposed and Iraqi leaders wanting more details of his proposals for troop withdrawals.

AFP - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged hundreds of thousands of young Catholics to beat back a "spiritual desert" spreading through the modern world as he closed Catholic World Youth Day in Australia.