AP - The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Ike has weakened to Category 2 storm as it moves over Cuba.

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 - As a ferocious Hurricane Ike ripped across Cuba, a tropical storm warning was issued for the Florida Keys early Monday.

AP - The Bush administration's seizure of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is potentially a $200 billion bet that it will help reverse a prolonged housing and credit crisis.

AP - Job No. 1 for the next president? In the minds of an overwhelming number of Americans, it's fixing what ails the sick economy. What the voters will have to sort out are very different approaches offered by Barack Obama and John McCain.

AP - Nearly a year after O.J. Simpson walked into a casino hotel room intent on reclaiming some sports memorobilia, lawyers in his robbery-kidnapping trial are finally set to begin picking a jury.

AP - When reports circulated over the weekend of a last-minute deal to keep Coney Island's historic Astroland amusement park open for another year, owner Carol Hill Albert was not amused.

AP - LOS ANGELES — No Madonna kiss. No Michael Jackson cameo. No flying Howard Stern. Not even a Kanye tantrum.

AP - World stock markets soared Monday after Washington announced a bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — a move that could help bolster a shaky U.S. housing market and renew global investor confidence.

AP - On the very first point of the match, Serena Williams hit a backhand so hard that her earring flew off. Turns out she was just getting warmed up. Williams kept pounding away, her shots and shouts getting louder with every stroke. And when she finished off Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 7-5 Sunday night for the U.S. Open championship and a ninth Grand Slam title, Williams really went wild.

Reuters - China and Japan, the biggest buyers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bonds, praised Washington for its rescue of the ailing mortgage giants, but investors had no illusions the bailout would end the global credit market misery.

Reuters - Hurricane Ike pounded northeastern Cuba with 120 mile per hour (195 kph) winds, torrential rains and massive waves that rolled through coastal towns on Monday on a path toward the Gulf of Mexico oil fields and possibly New Orleans.

Reuters - Missiles fired by U.S. drones killed 13 people, including 7 foreign militants, on Monday in a Pakistani village where a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden is located, intelligence officials and witnesses said.

Reuters - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in an interview with U.S. radio broadast on Monday that a plan to take control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had been structured in a way to protect U.S. taxpayers.

Reuters - The U.S. military said it planned to reopen an investigation into civilian deaths in a coalition air strike in western Afghanistan last month after new evidence

Reuters - The drama queen came face-to-face with the comeback queen at Flushing Meadows on Sunday. Jelena Jankovic provided the on-court theatrics and Serena Williams bounced away with the U.S. Open trophy.

AFP - Hurricane Ike raged over Cuba early Monday, pummeling the island with gale force winds and torrential rain after killing dozens in beleaguered Haiti and worsening its growing humanitarian disaster.

AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy visits Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday in a bid to ramp up the international pressure on Russia to withdraw more troops from Georgia and shore up a fragile peace deal.