Reuters - Iraq hanged two aides to Saddam Hussein before dawn on Monday but government efforts to avoid a repeat of uproar over the ousted leader's rowdy execution were thwarted when his half-brother's head was severed by the noose.

Reuters - Cuba said on Monday the United States should indict Luis Posada Carriles, a militant anti-Castro exile accused in the bombing of a Cuban airliner, for terrorism instead of minor immigration charges.

Reuters - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said on Monday the Islamist militant group Hamas would never recognize Israel.

AFP - A defiant President George W. Bush has dug in his heels ahead of congressional challenges to his plan to deploy more troops to Iraq, insisting that any other approach would lead to a US defeat.

Reuters - Peruvian President Alan Garcia said he and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez agreed on Monday to renew diplomatic ties between their countries, mending a rift that caused them to withdraw their ambassadors in May.

AFP - Two former aides of Saddam Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, were executed, a top Iraqi government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Reuters - Iran asked Saudi Arabia to help ease tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States as Washington held out the possibility of "engagement" with Tehran if it changed tack in Iraq.

Reuters - Scientists said on Sunday they have pinpointed a new gene linked to Alzheimer's disease, the incurable brain disorder that is the top cause of dementia in the elderly.

Reuters - On Martin Luther King Day last year, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin famously said his city would "be chocolate at the end of the day," a remark meant to encourage African Americans to return after Hurricane Katrina.

Reuters - Ken Ham's sprawling creation museum isn't even open yet, but an expansion is already underway in the state-of-the art lobby, where grunting dinosaurs and animatronic humans coexist in a Biblical paradise.

Reuters - A team at the institute that cloned Dolly the sheep have made a genetically engineered chicken that produces cancer drugs in its eggs.

Reuters - The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock"plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.