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 - Australian soldiers have captured a key Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, the military said Sunday.

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.

AP - Hurricane Hernan weakened to Category 1 strength on Sunday as it lumbered over cooler waters far from land.

AP - Iraq and China are set to revive a $1.2 billion oil deal that was canceled after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the Iraq's oil ministry said Sunday.

AFP - AB de Villiers threw down a challenge to South Africa's bowlers Sunday after a fighting innings of 97 gave his team an outside chance of victory in the fourth and final Test at the Oval.

AP - Nearly 70 young Vietnamese women swept past in groups of five, twirling and posing like fashion models, all competing for the hand of a Taiwanese man who had paid a matchmaking service about $6,000 for the privilege of marrying one of them.

AP - Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier.

AP - A reef of gold buried beneath this vast, parched grassland arcs across some of the world's poorest countries. Where the ore is rich, industrial mines carve it out. Where it's not, the poor sift the earth.

AP - VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia — South Ossetian refugees on Sunday described being shelled and shot at and forced to run for their lives — leaving homes, family members and most of what they had behind. They talked of hiding in the woods, being mocked by Georgian soldiers and passing the dead on the roadside.

AP - Russian news agencies say the Defense Ministry is claiming to have sunk a Georgian missile boat that was trying to attack Russian navy ships in the Black Sea.

AFP - Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest rivers, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.