AP - The percentage of American children who are overweight or obese appears to have leveled off after a 25-year increase, according to new figures that offer a glimmer of hope in an otherwise dismal battle.

Reuters - The Phoenix lander has sent back new pictures from the arctic circle of Mars, showing for the first time the spot where it will dig through the Red Planet's dusty surface looking for water and assess conditions for life.

AP - Tiger Woods entered the room with a slight limp and unwavering determination to play the U.S. Open.

AP - David Cook says he's dating an "American Idol" alum.

Reuters - Prices of U.S. single-family homes plunged a record 14.4 percent in March from a year earlier, while consumer confidence slumped to its lowest in 16 years in May as gasoline prices surged.

AFP - Chinese authorities were Wednesday engaged in an all-out evacuation effort as a dangerously swelling lake formed by this month's devastating earthquake threatened to engulf the area.

Reuters - Germany said on Tuesday the international community must push for a faster response from Iran over its nuclear program, while Washington said a new U.N. report suggested Tehran wanted to acquire nuclear weapons.

Reuters - Newly diagnosed cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan surged 46.4 percent in 2007, bringing the five-year total to nearly 40,000, according to U.S. military data released on Tuesday.

AFP - Myanmar's ruling junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by a year on Tuesday, triggering international condemnation of the Nobel Laureate's detention.

Reuters - New aftershocks toppled 420,000 houses and injured dozens in southwest China on Tuesday, heaping destruction and fear on a region struggling to recover from the country's worst earthquake in decades.

AP - Republican John McCain on Monday sharply criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for not having been to Iraq since 2006, and said they should visit the war zone together.

AP - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander spent its first full day in the Martian arctic plains checking its instruments in preparation for an ambitious digging mission to study whether the site could have once been habitable.

AP - Paul McCartney can now add one more honor to the numerous awards, accolades and the knighthood he has already received.

Reuters - Iran's alleged research into nuclear warheads remains a matter of serious concern and Tehran should provide more information on its missile-related activities, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

Reuters - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Monday said the United States should stay the course in Iraq even though he was "sick at heart" at mistakes made in the six-year conflict.

AFP - A NASA probe sent back never-before-seen pictures of Mars' north pole Monday, in the most ambitious mission to date to find life-sustaining minerals on the Red Planet.

AP - At dawn in a ramshackle elementary school in rural Cambodia, the children think of only one thing: their stomachs. They anxiously await the steaming buckets of free rice delivered to their desks.

AP - President Bush paid tribute Monday to America's fighting men and women who died in battle, saying national leaders must have "the courage and character to follow their lead" in preserving peace and freedom.

AP - Since even the long arm of the law can't rein in fuel prices, the long legs of the law are getting more exercise these days.

AP - Brandon Webb is on a different type of streak, thanks to Mark Teixeira and the Atlanta Braves.

Reuters - A sharp-eyed Mars orbiter snapped an image of sister probe Phoenix descending through Martian skies toward a polar landing site to search for water and assess conditions for life, mission managers said on Monday.

AP - Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake.

AP - Half of this small town lay in ruins or heavily damaged Monday following a deadly tornado that ripped apart a stretch of northern Iowa.

AP - A $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit challenging YouTube's ability to keep copyrighted material off its popular video-sharing site threatens how hundreds of millions of people exchange all kinds of information on the Internet, YouTube owner Google Inc. said.

Reuters - Several countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO) criticized the new U.S. farm bill on Monday for raising farm support when the WTO is trying to reach a deal to cut agricultural subsidies.

Reuters - China was preparing to dynamite rock, mud and rubble forming a dangerously large "quake lake" on Monday, hoping to avert a new disaster two weeks after a catastrophic tremor struck Sichuan province.

AFP - At least eight people were killed and scores more wounded Monday in the bombing of a packed commuter train by suspected Tamil rebels in the suburbs of the Sri Lankan capital, officials said.

Reuters - At least seven people were killed on Sunday by tornadoes and violent thunderstorms spawned by a powerful spring storm system that moved across the United States' midsection, authorities said.

Reuters - The United States will prod Sunni Arab states to offer more support to the Iraqi government at a conference in Sweden this week as a way of countering the growing influence of non-Arab Iran in Iraq.

Reuters - Foreign aid workers saddled up for the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta on Monday to see whether army-ruled Myanmar will honor a promise made by its top general to give them freedom of movement.

AP - The three-day weekend probably didn't bring much relaxation to investors if they stopped at a gas station on the way to the beach or a barbeque.

AP - Al-Qaida fighters and other Sunni insurgents have largely scattered from the northern city of Mosul in the face of a U.S.-Iraqi sweep, fleeing to desert areas further south, an Iraqi commander said Sunday. He vowed the forces will not allow them to regroup.

AP - Calmer, cooler weather helped firefighters get a handle Sunday on a destructive wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains that has brought a fierce start to the state's fire season.

AP - Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday offered a spiritual defense for continuing her presidential campaign, as she sought to put to rest the uproar over her comments about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

AP - Members of the Rolling Thunder motorcycling group roared into town for a White House visit Sunday, where they presented President Bush with his own cowhide vest jacket and pushed for increased veterans benefits.

AP - Scott Dixon stayed ahead of the trouble, got a boost from his crew and drove to his first Indianapolis 500 victory Sunday.

AP - A powerful aftershock destroyed tens of thousands of homes in central China on Sunday, killing two people and straining recovery efforts from the country's worst earthquake in three decades. More than 480 others were injured.

Reuters - Hundreds of Colombians huddled in makeshift shelters on Sunday afraid to go home a day after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake damaged scores of homes and triggered landslides killing at least 11 people.

AP - Mitch Bocik waddles to the putting green, his legs bent and unsteady, his putter doubling as a cane. For balance, his left hand grips the right shoulder of D.J. Engel, his half brother and almost constant companion.

Reuters - "Entre les murs" (The Class), a film set in a tough Parisian high school, won the Palme d'Or for best picture at the Cannes festival on Sunday.

Reuters - Hillary Clinton's campaign prepared for its next big test as it tried on Sunday to move away from her controversial remarks about the assassination of Robert Kennedy 40 years ago.

Reuters - Lebanon's parliament elected army chief Michel Suleiman as head of state on Sunday, reviving paralyzed state institutions after an 18-month standoff between a U.S.-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

AP - Indiana Jones unearthed box office gold at domestic theaters with a performance that puts it on track to become the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.

AFP - Colombia's leftwing FARC guerrilla army on Sunday confirmed that its founder and longtime chief, Manuel Marulanda, has died after leading a bloody, four-decade long campaign against Bogota.

AFP - Lebanon's new president Michel Sleiman appealed for unity after his election on Sunday, a move hailed as the start of a new era after a bitter political feud threatened to plunge the nation into civil war.

Reuters - Manuel Marulanda, the founder and top commander of Colombia's main left-wing rebel army, has died of a heart attack after more than four decades fighting a fierce guerrilla war, his rebel group said.

Reuters - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday accused the United States of political interference and threatened to expel its ambassador, as his party began its campaign for next month's election run-off.

Reuters - Myanmar was promised nearly $50 million in cyclone aid on Sunday, but some Western donor countries said their cash was contingent on the junta keeping its word on letting in foreign aid workers and assessment teams.