AP - Lt. Christopher Hanes knew something was wrong as soon as he stepped into the Friends bakery. The oven was unused, the water tank was empty and a large concrete bin was full of dirt that the two employees claimed was used to cool cakes.

AP - Deadly Hurricane Ike roared across Cuba on Monday, blowing homes to rubble and sending waves crashing over apartment buildings. Some 900,000 Cubans evacuated, and forecasters said it could hit Louisiana or Texas this weekend.

AFP - US oil giant ConocoPhillips will pay up to 9.6 billion dollars (8.0 billion US dollars) for a half share of a coal seam gas (CSG) venture with Australia's Origin Energy in a deal that could thwart a hostile bid by Britain's BG Group.

Reuters - The frontrunner to become Japan's next leader will pledge tax cuts and bigger government spending to boost the economy, a newspaper said on Monday, a contrast with rivals worried about the country's huge debt.

Reuters - South African President Thabo Mbeki will meet Zimbabwe's rival parties in Harare on Monday in a new attempt to secure a power-sharing deal amid growing doubts over his chances of success.

AP - As of Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008, at least 4,155 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - A roadside blast in southern Afghanistan killed six civilians Monday, and a Canadian soldier died in another explosion in the same region, officials said.

AP - The U.S. military said Sunday it has new evidence about civilian casualties from an American attack that Afghanistan says killed scores of women and children and it is sending a senior officer to the country to review its initial finding that no more than seven civilians died.

AP - Hurricane Ike's torrential rains swelled rivers across Haiti and sent floodwaters gushing into homes in the dead of night in one eastern town, killing at least 58 people.

AP - Several explosions, reportedly caused by missile strikes from unmanned U.S. drone aircraft, hit a house and seminary linked to a key Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan, officials said.

AP - Hurricane Ike's winds and massive storm surge ripped apart houses and toppled trees Monday as the deadly storm roared across Cuba toward Havana and its historic but decaying old buildings.

AFP - Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a result of land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions of birds and reptiles are also perishing, conservation group WWF said Sunday.

AFP - India's Tata Motors can go ahead with making the world's cheapest car in the east of the country after talks yielded a compromise ending violent protests against its factory, officials said Sunday.