Vowing to find ways to stimulate the sputtering economy, President Obama will call for long-term investments in the nation's infrastructure that would cost at least $50 billion; critics, meanwhile, blast the plan as a 'hail Mary' and merely a second stimulus.

YOU DECIDE: Investment or Stimulus II?

Obama's Economic Plan Too Little, Too Late?

Labor Secretary Defends Obama on Jobs

FULL COVERAGE: America's Election HQ

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, tells Turkey it must join the international coalition seeking to contain Iran

Iran: Israeli Attack Would Mean Destruction of Jewish State

Son of Iranian woman who faced death by stoning for adultery says authorities have imposed a new sentence of 99 lashes after case of mistaken identity

Afghans Protest U.S. Church's Plan to Burn Koran

From Burn a Quran Day to arson at the site of mosque construction, anti-Islam rhetoric seems to intensify as Americans approach the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.



Islam - Religion and Spirituality - Rhetoric - Social Sciences - Religion

Joran van der Sloot speaks from Peruvian prison and says he has only himself to blame, but suggests the FBI lured him to Peru to extradite him on U.S. extortion charge.



Natalee Holloway - Aruba - Joran van der Sloot - United States - De Telegraaf

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, scrambling to jump-start job creation in a sluggish U.S. economy, announced 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.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has requested another 2,000 troops for the foreign force fighting the Taliban insurgency, despite waning support for the war in troop-contributing nations, NATO officials said.

A Russian regional leader who claims to have visited an alien spaceship says he is retiring.

Police investigators say a radical Muslim sect has killed a retired police officer and a market trader in northern Nigeria, the latest targeted shootings blamed on the group.

European ministers on Monday discussed ways to crack down on illegal immigration, block false asylum demands and harmonize EU immigration policy so that one country's solution doesn't become ano...

If they were looking for a mea culpa, the protestors and egg- and shoe-throwers who, on Saturday, greeted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his first public book signing will be sorely disappointed. In an exclusive interview on This Week with anchor Christiane Amanpour, an unrepentant Blair danced around questions of whether he had any regrets about Iraq.



Tony Blair - Iraq - Christiane Amanpour - Prime minister - History

Buildings collapse, 2 seriously injured as powerful quake rocks New Zealand



New Zealand - South Island - Earthquake - Oceania - Tsunami

Gates tours Afghan war zone, sees signs of progress in US counterinsurgency strategy



Afghanistan - War in Afghanistan - Asia - Hamid Karzai - United States

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan has requested another 2,000 troops for the foreign force fighting the Taliban insurgency, despite waning support for the war in troop-contributing nations, NATO officials said.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pushing ahead with its nuclear program in defiance of tougher sanctions, the U.N. atomic watchdog said in a new report that Washington called "troubling" but Tehran dismissed as "not balanced."

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.

Members of a St. Lucian soccer team played in remembrance of a slain teammate as they took the field for a final match in a New York City tournament.

Former professional wrestler Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart was arrested Sunday for possession and trafficking in a controlled substance and burglary.

John Brownfield Jr. became a corrections officer following deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

From Burn a Quran Day to arson at the site of mosque construction, anti-Islam rhetoric seems to intensify as Americans approach the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.



Islam - September 11 attacks - Qur'an - Warfare and Conflict - War on Terrorism

President Obama has for months said that rebuilding the economy and creating jobs is his "most urgent task." Despite sagging public confidence in his abilities, he will try again to make the case that he means business.



Labor Day - Barack Obama - President of the United States - President - Business

Joran van der Sloot speaks from Peruvian prison and says he has only himself to blame, but suggests the FBI lured him to Peru to extradite him on U.S. extortion charge.



Peru - Natalee Holloway - United States - Federal Bureau of Investigation - Extortion

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.

MIAMI (Reuters) - The remnants of Tropical Storm Gaston look very likely to strengthen again as a tropical cyclone in the Atlantic and could threaten the Caribbean's Leeward Islands in coming days on a westward track, U.S. forecasters said on Sunday.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc's ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well is secure with no threat of spewing crude again, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said