WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, scrambling to jump-start job creation in a sluggish U.S. economy, will announce on Monday a six-year plan to revamp aging roads, railways and airport runways with an initial $50 billion investment.

REYNOSA, Mexico (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Hermine strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, threatening to become a hurricane before landfall, but no damage was reported to U.S. or Mexican oil facilities.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told visiting U.S. congressmen he thinks it could be possible to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in a year despite huge differences, his spokesman said.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pushing ahead with its atomic work in defiance of tougher sanctions and the U.N. nuclear watchdog is concerned about Tehran's objections to some of its inspectors, an IAEA report shows.

KABUL (Reuters) - Several hundred Afghans chanting "Death to America" rallied outside a mosque in the Afghan capital on Monday to protest against an American church's plan to burn a copy of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

LAKKI MARWAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday killing at least 19 people, police said, in a new wave of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants.

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Emergency services in Guatemala on Monday resumed their search for victims of landslides that killed and buried dozens of people, as further rain was predicted for the Central American country.

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban threats, shuttered polling centers and warnings of widespread fraud are clouding hopes for Afghanistan's September 18 parliamentary election, a key test of an already fragile democracy, observers have warned.

LONDON (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday he had canceled a book-signing in London this week to mark the launch of his memoirs, over fears the event would be hit by protests.

LONDON (Reuters) - Increasingly erratic rainfall patterns related to climate change pose a major threat to food security and economic growth, water experts said on Monday, arguing for greater investment in water storage.

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks rose on Monday on hopes the U.S. economy can avoid slipping back into recession, although the International Monetary Fund's chief economist warned of weak growth in both the United States and Europe.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, scrambling to jump-start job creation in a sluggish U.S. economy, will announce on Monday a six-year plan to revamp aging roads, railways and airport runways with an initial $50 billion investment.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc , the largest oil producer in U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico, said Monday that Tropical Storm Hermine was not expected to affect its offshore operations.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Global banks will be required to hold Tier 1 capital of nine percent including a 3 percent so-called "conservation buffer," German weekly Die Zeit reported, quoting a draft proposal from the Basel Committee, the body tasked with drawing up global banking rules.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should not announce a limit on its actions if it resumes purchases of Treasury securities to stimulate the U.S. economy, the former vice chairman of the central bank said.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union finance ministers sought on Monday to make sanctions for EU budget rule breakers more automatic, but put off potentially difficult talks on a permanent mechanism to resolve euro zone crises.

GWANGJU, South Korea (Reuters) - The world economy is recovering moderately but still faces challenges such as the need for medium-term fiscal consolidation, the IMF's First Managing Director, John Lipsky, said on Sunday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will not discuss its exit from unlimited liquidity provision before December, the central bank's Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny was quoted as saying on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) - BP has revived the sale of its Alaskan assets after failing to offload them to U.S. oil and gas company Apache in July, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices slipped below $74 per barrel on Monday as the end of the U.S. driving season and high levels of unemployment in the world's biggest oil consumer raised concerns over the outlook for demand.

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker by volume, will introduce new smartphone models next week at its annual media and industry event, aiming to assure investors the company is on track to recovery.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Craigslist.com has dropped its "adult services" listings, which have become the target of U.S. state attorneys general who say the much-visited online classified ad site is not doing enough to quash prostitution.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oracle Corp has offered a job to Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co who resigned amid a scandal involving inaccurate expense receipts related to a female contractor, according to a source familiar with the situation.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc said on Friday it was the target of an investigation by the Texas Attorney General's office into the fairness of its search engine rankings.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Mocking officials online, exposing high-level corruption and discussing political tension could land journalists in many autocratic Middle East states in jail.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Concerns over Israeli access to BlackBerry data, and the use of the device by the United States to spy on the United Arab Emirates are behind the Gulf state's moves to curb the smartphone, Dubai's police chief said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics' first tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab, will go on sale in two weeks, it said on Thursday, turning up the heat on Apple Inc's iPad.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc is in talks with music labels on plans for a download store and a digital song locker that would allow its mobile users to play songs wherever they are as it steps up its rivalry with Apple Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Shares in Netflix Inc neared their all-time high on Thursday, after Apple Inc said that the company's streaming video service would be added to a new version of Apple TV.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co won the bidding war to buy data storage company 3PAR Inc for $2.4 billion, as rival Dell Inc bowed out on Thursday.

VENICE (Reuters) - Whether a hoax or not, a new documentary about Joaquin Phoenix and his transition from acclaimed, brooding actor to bearded, shambolic hip-hop wannabe has captivated viewers at the Venice film festival.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In the battle of the box office assassins, A-lister George Clooney barely mustered more firepower with his new chart-topper "The American" than the relatively unknown star of "Machete," as the summer moviegoing season wrapped feebly during the Labor Day holiday weekend.

LONDON (Reuters) - A giant bale of hay has killed a founding member of the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) band after it tumbled down a hill and crashed into his van.

NASSAU (Reuters) - A judge in the Bahamas on Monday dismissed the charges against two people accused of trying to extort $25 million from John Travolta over his son's death after the Hollywood actor requested the case be dropped.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock band Jane's Addiction said Monday it has parted ways with its latest bass player, former Guns N' Roses member Duff McKagan, five months after announcing his addition to the oft-vacated post.

VENICE (Reuters) - A powerful Chinese film on the plight of political prisoners condemned to forced labor camps in the late 1950s wooed critics in Venice on Monday, with some tipping it as a strong contender for the festival's top prize.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox announced Friday what media reports have speculated for weeks: Kara DioGuardi is leaving "American Idol."

VENICE (Reuters) - Martin Scorsese's latest film pays a personal tribute to Elia Kazan, one of Hollywood's and Broadway's most influential directors but also a controversial figure who turned anti-communist informant in the McCarthy era.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian Robert Schimmel died on Friday night in a Phoenix hospital from injuries he sustained in a car accident, his public relations firm said on Saturday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Chris Klein, who starred in the "American Pie" movies, pleaded no contest to drunken driving and will serve four years probation stemming from his arrest in June, court officials said on Friday.