AP - Buzz Aldrin has done the moonwalk, but the cha-cha isn't coming quite so easy.

AFP - The US Congress narrowly passed an historic health overhaul, taking the United States closer to universal medical care and handing Barack Obama the biggest triumph of his presidency.

AP - Sen. John McCain says Democrats who championed the historic health care bill that passed the House haven't heard the last of the issue, predicting reprisals at the polls and in the courts.

Reuters - North Korea will try a U.S. citizen for illegally entering the country, the official KCNA news agency said on Monday.

AP - Sandstorms whipping across China shrouded cities in an unhealthy cloud of sand and grit Monday, with winds carrying the pollution outside the mainland as far as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

AFP - Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu pleaded guilty at a politically charged trial in Shanghai on Monday to taking bribes, a defence lawyer told AFP.

AFP - Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu and a Chinese fellow employee will plead guilty to bribe-taking at politically charged trial which opened Monday, a defence lawyer was quoted as saying.

AP - Tanzania and Zambia on Monday requested a U.N. conservation meeting to weaken the ban on African ivory so they can sell off their own stocks, despite criticism that they are failing to crack down on rising incidents of poaching.

Reuters - With speculation swirling that Google Inc will soon announce the closure of its China-based Internet portal, the reaction from some Chinese has been hurry up and leave, or simply: so what?

Reuters - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee will begin hammering out new rules for the financial system on Monday, two years after Bear Stearns' collapse ushered in the worst financial crisis in decades.

AFP - Australian national Stern Hu and a Chinese fellow employee of Rio Tinto will plead guilty to bribe-taking at their trial in Shanghai, Dow Jones Newswires reported Monday, quoting a defence lawyer.

AP - Israel will not restrict construction in east Jerusalem, Israel's prime minister said Sunday hours before he left for Washington, despite a clear U.S. demand that building there must stop and a crisis in relations between the two longtime allies.

AP - For those who haven't flown in a while, be prepared to be scanned, swabbed or thoroughly patted down. Maybe all three.

AFP - US President Barack Obama's historic drive to extend health insurance to nearly all Americans stood Sunday on the cusp of passage through the House of Representatives after an 11th-hour deal.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet him at the White House, even as the Israeli leader rebuffed a key US demand to halt settlement construction in east Jerusalem.

AFP - US President Barack Obama's historic drive to extend health insurance to nearly all Americans stood Sunday on the cusp of passage through the House of Representatives after an 11th-hour deal.

AP - President Barack Obama says the health care legislation passed Sunday night by the House is "a victory for the American people" and "a victory for common sense."