AP - General Motors Co. says it lost $1.2 billion from the time it left bankruptcy protection through Sept. 30, far better than it has reported in previous quarters and a sign that the auto giant is starting to turn around its business.

AP - President Barack Obama pointedly nudged China on Monday to stop censoring Internet access, offering an animated defense of the tool that helped him win the White House and suggesting Beijing need not fear a little criticism.

Reuters - The United Nations said on Monday that a climate change deal in Copenhagen next month is crucial to fighting global hunger, which Brazil’s president described as “the most devastating weapon of mass destruction.”

AP - A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin — drugs still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.

Reuters - The space shuttle Atlantis was poised for launch on Monday on one of the final missions to outfit the International Space Station so it can remain flying long after the shuttles are retired.

Reuters - President Barack Obama said on Monday that al Qaeda remained the biggest threat to U.S. security, as his aides stepped up pressure on Afghanistan and Pakistan to cooperate with Washington’s strategy in the troubled region.

Reuters - The United States has stepped up pressure on Pakistan to expand its fight against Taliban and al Qaeda militants, the New York Times reported on Monday, as a suicide bomber killed four people in the latest militant attack.

AP - What’s it going to cost me?

AP - The recruits assembled by moonlight at a watering hole. Hundreds of boys and young Kenyan men were herded onto trucks, which were covered with heavy canvas and driven through the night.

Reuters - Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country’s nuclear rights were not negotiable, the student news agency ISNA reported on Monday.

"There is an extraordinary pressure on the prosecutors in special cases in Romania", said Romanian ex-prosecutor Ciprian Nastasiu, who requested the release of Omar Hayssam. A book has been launched on the investigation Nastasiu undertook. He accused the fact that there have been mandates for monitoring some politicians while he was still a prosecutor - "Udrea, Stolojan, Verestoy, Voiculescu". Nastasiu, ex-prosecutor for the Romanian Authority for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), was sanctioned due to Omar Hayssam's fleeing Romania, a case which he investigated as well. He resigned from the Magistrate's Court.

AP - General Motors Co. will begin paying back $6.7 billion in U.S. government loans by the end of 2009 and could pay off that full amount by 2011, four years ahead of schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter.

AP - The portfolio of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard keeps on growing. Its troops watch over nuclear facilities, its rocket scientists enlarge Iran’s missile arsenal and its engineers have taken on a rail line as their latest big-ticket project. Could media mogul be next?

AP - America’s small cities are losing some of their traditional appeal to upwardly mobile families seeking wholesome neighborhoods, a stable economy and affordable living.

AFP - US President Barack Obama on Monday arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, for the second leg of his maiden state visit to China.

AFP - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened a UN food security summit on Monday calling for a “single global vision” to address the plight of the world’s billion hungry people.

AP - Doom spelled dollars at the box office as the global-disaster tale “2012″ opened at No. 1 domestically with $65 million and pulled in $225 million worldwide.

AP - Bill Belichick risked everything on one play Sunday night. It cost him a victory, and it may wind up costing him a trip back to Indianapolis for a rematch with Peyton Manning later this season.

AP - World leaders at a food summit on Monday rallied around a new strategy to fight global hunger and help poor countries feed themselves, but failed to pledge funds sought by the U.N.

AP - A pickup truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four people in an area that has become the focal point for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby Afghan border.

 Dacia, Hyundai and Alfa Romeo are the brands to record the most registrations in Europe during the first ten months of this year. On the other pole, the most drastic drops in registrations were recorded by Saab and Chrysler, according to the European Automobiles Constructors Association (ACEA), covering 28 countries. Overall, the number of new car registrations by 11% in Europe last month. During the first ten months of the year, the market shrank by 5% against the same 2008 period.

Reuters - U.S. President Barack Obama told Chinese students on Monday he did not fear their nation’s rise, ahead of talks on trade imbalances and currency strains that underline the sometimes tense embrace between the two giants.

Reuters - Gunmen wearing military uniforms shot dead at least 12 men in a pre-dawn attack in a village near Baghdad on Monday, villagers and police said.

A Romanian aged 21, convicted to spend time in a jail from Nice, was found hanging in his cell on Sunday afternoon, NiceMatin.com informs. The French authorities came to decide that the young man committed suicide. He did not leave any note to explain his gesture.

Reuters - Russia on Monday said it would not start a nuclear reactor at Iran’s Bushehr atomic power station by the end of the year as planned, citing technical reasons.

AFP - US President Barack Obama arrived in Beijing on Monday from Shanghai, for the second leg of his maiden state visit to China, an AFP photographer said.

AP - In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

President Traian Basecu declared on Sunday, during an electoral round-up in Sibiu (Central), that he appreciates Klaus Johannis, but "the person designating the Prime Minister is the President" and not "Felix, the informer", Romanian news agency Mediafax informs.

AP - Police officials in southern Afghanistan say militants have attacked a police checkpoint in the violent province of Kandahar overnight, killing at least three policemen and wounding another six.

Reuters - A Federal Reserve official said on Monday that the U.S. economy still faced “significant weaknesses” and urged policymakers to allow large financial institutions to fail if needed.

"Heroes die, fighters return to their homes and the opportunists make it to the foreground", the BBC consultant for the 1989 Revolution said in Bucharest on Sunday. Elsewhere in the news, the Romanian 1989 Revolution is still unfinished. Last but not least, the Americans publish details about the Omar Hayssam dossier in a book by Victor Gaetan.

AP - Authorities acted on a tip Sunday and searched a wide area in south-central North Carolina trying to find a 5-year-old girl reported missing by her mother, who has been charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.

Reuters - American squeamishness about talking about sex has helped keep common sexually transmitted infections far too common, especially among vulnerable teens, U.S. researchers reported Monday.

AFP - US President Barack Obama on Monday hailed improvements in relations between China and Taiwan, saying there was no need to change Washington’s “one-China” policy.

AP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a historic apology Monday to thousands of impoverished British children shipped to Australia with the promise of a better life, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home.

<img src=”http://d.yimg.com/a/p/afp/20091116/capt.photo_1258341396158-1-0.jpg?x=130&y=89&q=85&sig=ebQLd8ZoRU9P_PspskgNkw–” align=”left” height=”89″ width=”130″ alt=”

(afp.com)” border=”0″ />AFP - A blast outside a police station in the suburbs of Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar wounded at least eight people on Monday, police said.

AFP - The UN atomic agency unveils its latest report on Iran’s disputed nuclear drive Monday, with world powers warning Tehran is “running out of time” to respond to a UN-brokered offer to end the standoff.

AFP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an emotional apology on Monday to half-a-million “Forgotten Australians” who faced sexual abuse, violence and forced labour in childcare homes over a period of decades.

AP - Fingers will be flying when space shuttle Atlantis blasts off Monday: About 100 of NASA’s geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets.

AP - Kosovo’s first independent elections have ended peacefully, with the prime minister claiming his party won convincingly and some minority Serbs ignoring a call to boycott and casting ballots alongside ethnic Albanians.

AP - Charles Woodson helped Green Bay’s defense finally play up to its potential against a big-time opponent, forcing two fumbles and picking off a pass by Tony Romo on the goal line in a 17-7 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

AFP - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the Afghan government Sunday it cannot count on long-term US support, demanding President Hamid Karzai take concrete steps to tackle graft.

Reuters - Kosovo held its first elections on Sunday since declaring independence from Serbia last year, with unemployment, corruption, poor infrastructure and low investment the biggest issues for voters.

Reuters - The families of three Americans held in Iran on spy charges appealed again for their release on Sunday, saying they feared for their mental well-being after more than three months in captivity.

AP - In courtrooms barred to the public, dozens of terror suspects are pleading for their freedom from the Guantanamo Bay prison, sometimes even testifying on their own behalf by video from the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

AP - Hundreds of French and Afghan troops on Sunday pushed into a hostile valley in eastern Afghanistan where militants launch quick attacks, then disappear into hillside villages. The mission: secure the area for a planned bypass road around the Afghan capital to move supplies from neighboring Pakistan.

AP - President Barack Obama is walking a tightrope on his first trip to China, seeking to enlist help in tackling urgent global problems while weighing when and how — or if — he should raise traditional human rights concerns.

AP - A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin — drugs that are still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.

AP - Reggie Bush helped the New Orleans Saints overcome another bundle of mistakes to stay unbeaten for the best start in team history.

AP - Authorities acted on a tip Sunday and searched a wide area in south-central North Carolina trying to find a 5-year-old girl reported missing by her mother, who has been charged with human trafficking and child abuse involving prostitution.