AP - Grieving family members demanded answers Monday from mining officials about the underground gas explosion that left at least 104 men dead in northeastern China.

AP - Four U.S. service members were killed in the past 24 hours in Afghanistan, NATO forces said Monday.

AP - Romania's centrist president will face a socialist former foreign minister in a Dec. 6 runoff election, partial results showed Monday, in a race key to helping the country emerge from a political and economic crisis.

AP - A Chinese court on Monday sentenced to three years in prison a veteran dissident who had criticized the government's response to a 2008 earthquake that killed about 90,000 people.

AP - A French navy ship of the type that Russia hopes to buy arrived Monday for a visit to St. Petersburg, fueling concern in Georgia and other ex-Soviet nations that it may be used to intimidate its neighbors.

Time.com - Talking with the Taliban

AFP - France's financial watchdog began hearings on Monday into insider trading allegations against more than a dozen current and former executives of European aerospace giant EADS.

AP - Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted the country could deter any military strike by Israel.

AP - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is seeking a new source of legitimacy while making his first visit to Brazil, a nation that maintains close ties to the U.S., Israel and other countries trying to halt Iran's nuclear push.

AFP - Two Congolese militiamen accused of seeking to wipe out a village blocking a strategic route in an ethnic war, enter the dock in The Hague Tuesday for the International Criminal Court's second trial.