Reuters - President Barack Obama will announce on Monday a six-year infrastructure revamp plan with an initial investment of $50 billion to jump-start job creation, a white house official said.

AFP - Spain may have to wait four years before its soaring jobless rate, the eurozone's highest, drops to where it was before the economic crisis, the outgoing labour minister said on Monday.

AFP - World oil prices diverged on Monday, the end of the traditional peak demand season for motor fuel in the United States.

AP - Survivors who swam to safety after their overcrowded boat capsized over the weekend said nearby fishermen refused to help drowning passengers in the dark of night, instead looting the goods aboard the burning vessel and beating people with oars.

AFP - A prominent Afghan television news journalist and political activist has been murdered near his Kabul home, police and media rights groups said Monday, describing the killing as a "brutal beheading."

Reuters - Encouraging news about the U.S. employment picture continued to spill over onto financial markets on Monday, lifting world stocks on hopes that a slip back into recession could be avoided.

AP - Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Monday that his party will try to block any extension of Israel's settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the recently launched Mideast peace negotiations.

AFP - The Congolese government denied Monday that hundreds of people drowned in two boating disasters at the weekend but admitted it was unable to give the exact number of victims.

AP - The Dutchman charged with killing a 21-year-old Peruvian woman and suspected in the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway has acknowledged extorting money from Holloway's parents and says he did it to get back at them.

AP - When news came over the radio that a landslide had buried two pickup trucks and a bus along a major highway, Suagustino Pascual Tuy and others rushed to the rescue, picks and shovels in hand.

AP - A dovish U.S. Jewish group says more than 150 film and theater artists have signed a letter of support for Israeli actors who refused to perform in a West Bank settlement.

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

AP - Hundreds of Afghans railed against the United States and called for President Barack Obama's death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce an American church's plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11.

Reuters - Australia's top investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd warned investors it would miss profit forecasts after weak markets took a toll on its trading and advisory business, sending its shares to a 15-month low.

AP - Group of 20 leaders should use their November summit to make a serious push for the conclusion of stalled global trade negotiations, the head of the WTO said Monday.

Reuters - Australian Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard will know on Tuesday if she can form a new minority government with the support of three independents, ending more than two weeks of uncertainty after the August 21 elections.

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.

AFP - US lawmakers returning from summer recess face a conundrum on tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year, with the economy seemingly sputtering ahead of looming congressional elections.

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.

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.

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 - U.S. regulators probing the May flash crash are focusing on a trading practice known as "quote stuffing", in which large numbers of rapid-fire orders to buy or sell stocks are placed and canceled almost immediately.