AP - A combative President Barack Obama rolled out a long-term jobs program Monday that will exceed $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and runways, and coupled it with a blunt campaign-season assault on Republicans for causing Americans' hard economic times.

AP - Mexican authorities urged people to move to shelters while officials in Texas distributed sandbags and warned of flash floods as Tropical Storm Hermine headed toward the northwestern Gulf coast on Monday.

AP - The lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned on an adultery conviction says he and her children are worried the delayed execution could be carried out soon.

AP - Jefferson Thomas, who as a teenager was among nine black students to integrate a Little Rock high school in the nation's first major battle over school segregation, has died. He was 68.

AP - Huge posters plastered across the North Korean capital hailed the nation's biggest political convention in 30 years as a historic event as the world watched Monday for signs that the country's next leader was making his public debut.

AP - A Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car in an alley behind a police station in a strategically important town in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 17 police and civilians in an explosion that shattered the station and neighboring homes.

AP - Rare color footage of the bomb damage inflicted on London during World War II has surfaced on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Blitz.

AP - A judge in the Bahamas dismissed charges Monday against two people accused of trying to extort money from John Travolta after the actor decided he no longer wanted to face the pain of a new trial stemming from the death of his teenage son on the island chain.

AP - Hundreds of naked and partially nude cyclists have pedaled their way through Philadelphia to promote bicycling awareness and cleaner air.

AP - The U.S. Open welcomed two new faces to the quarterfinals — France's Gael Monfils and Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

AFP - Spain's government Monday rejected a ceasefire by Basque fighters ETA as totally inadequate and demanded it renounce guns and bombs forever in its battle for an independent homeland.

AFP - The son of an Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery said Monday that he fears she will be executed shortly after this week's end to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

AP - Two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova double-faulted 10 times and was upset by 45th-ranked Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-5, 7-6 (4) in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Monday.

AP - Chauncey Billups scored 19 points, Kevin Durant had 17, and the United States powered into the quarterfinals of the world championship with a 121-66 victory over Angola on Monday.

AP - Venus Williams says 30 is the new 20. Sam Querrey likes to think 20 could be No. 1.

AFP - Fabio Capello confirmed he will pick Wayne Rooney to play for England against Switzerland in a Euro 2012 qualifier here Tuesday despite revelations over the striker?s private life.

AP - Gael Monfils beat countryman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 Monday to give France its first U.S. Open quarterfinalist in a decade.

AP - Patrick McEnroe resigned as U.S. Davis Cup captain after 10 years on Monday and will leave after the Americans' playoff against Colombia this month.

AP - Revis Island is open for business again — just in time for the New York Jets to start what they hope will be a Super Bowl run.

AP - The NFL will update its teams this week on the repositioning of the umpire to the offensive backfield.

Reuters - The San Diego Padres suffered their 10th successive defeat in a 4-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday, their once-commanding lead in the National League West slipping to one game over the San Francisco Giants.

AP - Delonte West is returning to the Boston Celtics.

AP - Michigan-Notre Dame seems so last century now.

AP - Olympic bronze medalist and Tour de France veteran Levi Leipheimer (LEE'-vy LYP'-hy-mur) is visiting Maine to take part in the second annual bicycling fundraiser put on by "Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey.

AP - The New Jersey Devils did more than sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a $100 million contract.

AFP - Gael Monfils became the first Frenchman in the US Open quarter-finals since 2000, ousting countryman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 on Monday to reach the last eight on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.

AP - The Deutsche Bank Championship isn't the only thing at stake on Labor Day.

AP - The distinguished Oxford University debate club has featured such speakers as Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Malcolm X.

AP - A new 5th Street Gym will open next month on the site of the famous gym where Muhammad Ali and other top boxers trained.

AP - One more race to go until the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, and all of a sudden Tony Stewart looks like a serious contender.

AP - Two groups of scientists have developed tests for gene doping in what the World Anti-Doping Agency hailed Friday as a major breakthrough in fighting the next frontier in cheating in sports.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

AP - A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:

Reuters - The U.S. economy appears to be trudging along, neither booming nor busting, growing steadily enough to diminish double-dip recession fears but not quickly enough to bring down unemployment.

AP - Summer is rarely a hot sales season for Campbell Soup Co., and this year's sweltering June and July made that even more true, but the company said Friday that cost-cutting and strong drink sales helped its net income climb.

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.

AFP - Brazil's Petrobras unveiled one of the world's biggest share offerings Friday, a sale of up to 64 billion dollars in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into a leading oil exporter of the 21st century.

AFP - The World Trade Organization will issue its long-awaited opinion on Europe's challenge to American subsidies to US aerospace giant Boeing next week, a source close to the matter said Monday.

Reuters - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has approved a $690 million payment to French retailer Casino and other owners of a supermarket chain nationalized earlier this year, state media said on Saturday.

AP - Private mortgage insurer Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. said Friday it added $1.2 billion in new primary insurance coverage in August and the number of delinquent loans it insures declined.

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.

CQPolitics.com - Leading voices in both parties sparred Sunday over the state of the economy and the role that Bush tax cuts should play in the recovery.

Reuters - The U.S. government is likely to take a loss on General Motors Co in the first offering of the automaker's stock, six people familiar with preparations for the landmark IPO said.

BusinessWeek - Goldman Sachs may not have a lot of friends in the White House these days, but one of its former employees has made a good impression. After three years as an analyst in Goldman's fixed-income, currencies, and commodities division, Monique Pean began her own jewelry line that can now be found in Barneys, Jeffrey New York, and around the neck of Michelle Obama.

AP - East Asia is the world's electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are largely anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple's iPhone.

AP - Craiglist's "adult services" section has been shut down in the U.S., but prostitution on the Internet is alive and well — even, quite possibly, on Craigslist.

AP - Former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd is in talks to take a top executive job at Oracle Corp., the database software maker run by his friend Larry Ellison, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said Sunday.

Ben Patterson - Fighting the urge to check your work e-mail while you’re on holiday doesn’t exactly qualify as the worst problem in the world; after all, it’s pretty nice to have a job at all in this tough economy, right? Then again, the pressure to hang onto a job seems to be driving more and more connected workers to stay plugged in even while they’re trying to tune out.

Ben Patterson - Feel the need to "check in" on Foursquare or Facebook every time you saunter into a restaurant, browse the goods at your neighborhood grocery store, or cram into a rock concert? Well, if you, you’re still in the minority — and you’re also probably a guy below 40 — according to the latest research.

Macworld.com - Mac users of personal finance software tend to fall into two categories—those who use Quicken, and those who hate Quicken with the red-hot passion of a thousand suns. No finance management alternative has yet captured the mindshare of the Mac market, but LittleFin Software steps up to the plate with the release of Chronicle 3.4. (Note: this Mac application is no relation to the Chronicle for iPad journal app.)

AP - Google Inc.'s methods for recommending websites are being reviewed by Texas' attorney general in an investigation spurred by complaints that the company has abused its power as the Internet's dominant search engine.

Mashable - The new iPod touch - with Facetime, multitasking, and the Retina display - is so close to an iPhone that even Apple can sometimes get confused.

PC World - The European Commission is considering opening a second enquiry to investigate if China is illegally subsidizing tech companies that produce wireless modems.

Digital Trends - Internet giant Google has proposed paying some $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over privacy violations that occurred when it launched its Buzz social networking service earlier this year. Some 30 percent of the proposed settlement money would go towards legal fees associated with the case, $2,500 each would go to the seven Gmail users who brought the suit, and the remainder would be split amongst organizations that promote online privacy and privacy education. Google admits no wrongdoing in the settlement, which still must be approved by a judge.

PC World - Aiptek has introduced the i2, a pocket-sized twin lens camcorder that can record 3D video, at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin.

Mashable - Ad Age has obtained an internal Google document that highlights some of the biggest AdWords buyers for the month of June 2010, offering insight into how big brands are using Google and how much they are spending.

Appolicious - The free WordPress for Android app was upgraded thanks to feedback from faithful users. Updates include fixes to numerous, annoying bugs like unexpected app crashes, log-in issues and more.Most notable in the recent upgrade is a new comment feature, which displays comments in real time as comments arrive in your Droid notification bar.

PC World - Only two days left until Apple releases the first major upgrade to the iOS 4 mobile operating system on Wednesday, September 8. Apple lists a number of enhancements and features that will be added with iOS 4.1, but the things that make iOS 4.1 a critical update are buried in the Apple fine print.

PC World - The market for enterprise disk storage systems grew strongly in the second quarter, continuing to recover from a slump brought on by the economic slowdown of 2008 and 2009, research company IDC said on Friday.

PC World - A clever spammer found a glitch in Facebook's photo upload system and used it to post thousands of unwanted Wall messages this week.

PC World - More people browsed the Internet last month with a device running Apple's mobile operating system, iOS, than used Linux to do so. That's a first for Apple, according to NetMarketShare, a firm that produces metrics on the market share of browsers, operating systems and search engines.

AFP - Five puppies that were thrown into a river by their owner, sparking worldwide outrage after a video of the deed appeared online, have been rescued and put up for adoption, a Croat daily said Monday.

AP - George Clooney's hitman tale "The American" has captured the top spot at the box office with a $16.4 million debut over the long Labor Day weekend.

AP - A judge in the Bahamas dismissed charges Monday against two people accused of trying to extort money from John Travolta after the actor decided he no longer wanted to face the pain of a new trial stemming from the death of his teenage son on the island chain.

AP - The most Earth-shattering event in Brazil this weekend took place in New York, where singer Ivete Sangalo played a sold out show at Madison Square Garden. Too bad, few Americans even noticed.

omg! - 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.

AP - There's been intense competition going on at the U.S. Open, and it has nothing to do with aces or foot faults.

AP - Hip-hop star Kanye West is still feeling the pain over his ambush of Taylor Swift last year — and he's expressing his pain all over Twitter.

AP - Olympic bronze medalist and Tour de France veteran Levi Leipheimer (LEE'-vy LYP'-hy-mur) is visiting Maine to take part in the second annual bicycling fundraiser put on by "Grey's Anatomy" star Patrick Dempsey.

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.

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.

Reuters - It was the middle of the night in Jardim Tiradentes, one of Sao Paulo's rougher neighborhoods. A two-man crew was waiting to film a police raid when chief inspector Rafael Correa Lodi broke the bad news.

Reuters - Japan's most famous orchestral conductor, Seiji Ozawa, returned briefly to the stage Sunday following a nine month battle with throat cancer. Ozawa arrived to open the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto city, central Japan, to deafening applause, explaining that he was back as he took up the conductor's baton for Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" but with a bad back.

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.

Fashion Wire Daily - They danced, they sang and host Jimmy Fallon killed it at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards held Sunday, Aug. 29, at the Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

AFP - Sexist, obscene, racist were the accusations thrown at Michel Houellebecq over his previous novels. Now it's plagiarism, after France's best-known living writer allegedly cut and pasted chunks of Wikipedia into his new book.

AP - Standup comic Robert Schimmel, a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show, has died after suffering serious injuries in a car accident. He was 60.

AP - Federal regulators have backed off a plan to remove a Shire PLC low blood-pressure treatment from the market after warning in August that the drug has not been proven effective.

AP - It's hard to predict which pills will best lower which patient's high blood pressure, but researchers are hunting ways to better personalize therapy — perhaps even using a blood test.

AP - UNICEF says more than 300 people have died in the West African nation of Cameroon from the country's worst cholera outbreak in 20 years.

AP - The vaccine used to contain the recent swine flu pandemic was effective, but health authorities will need to ramp up the speed and volume of production during the next global outbreak, a World Health Organization official said Monday.

AP - A leading virus expert urged health authorities around the world Sunday to stay vigilant even though the recent swine flu pandemic was less deadly than expected, warning that bird flu could spark the next global outbreak.

AP - Health officials in Chad say an outbreak of cholera in the Central African nation has killed at least 41 people.

Time.com - A new study finds that some users of the weight-loss pill Meridia may have an increased risk of heart attack or stroke

LiveScience.com - To most human males, the thought of your mother anywhere near your sex life is probably horrifying. Not so for the bonobo, one of our closest primate relatives. A new study confirms that hanging out with mom boosts male bonobos' chances of getting intimate with a fertile female.

HealthDay - (HealthDay News) -- Here are the latest clinical trials, courtesy of ClinicalConnection.com:

HealthDay - MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- As parents prepare for their children's return to school, they need to remember that healthy meals and snacks are essential for learning.

HealthDay - THURSDAY, Sept. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Older people prefer to read negative news stories about the young, possibly because it makes them feel better about themselves, a new study suggests.

AP - People who take bone-strengthening drugs for several years may have a slightly higher risk of esophageal cancer, a new study suggests.

HealthDay - WEDNESDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A drug widely used to treat high blood sugar in type 2 diabetics may hold some promise in the prevention of tobacco-induced lung cancer, according to extremely preliminary findings in a mouse study.

LiveScience.com - As schools start back into session around the country, some parents of young children face a difficult question: Send their little ones to kindergarten as soon as they become age-eligible, or hold them back in hopes that an additional year of maturity will give them an academic boost?

AP - The military has arrested an Air Force sergeant and accused him of having unprotected sex with partners he met at "swinger" parties in central Kansas even though he knew he was HIV positive, according to a military affidavit.

AP - British drug regulators say GlaxoSmithKline's controversial diabetes pill Avandia should be pulled from the U.K. market because of concerns that the drug can increase the risk of heart attacks.

Reuters - People who use prescription antihistamines to relieve allergy symptoms may be more likely than non-users to carry excess pounds, a new study suggests, although the significance of the connection is not yet clear.

Reuters - A study funded by Abbott Laboratories offered more detailed evidence that its weight-loss drug Meridia increases heart risks, prompting renewed calls by consumer advocates and others to pull the drug from the market.