AP - China's Cabinet vowed a complete overhaul of the scandal-ridden dairy industry Monday, pledging to inspect every link from the farm to the dinner table to try to restore public trust in Chinese-made food products.

AP - Individual European governments issued a cascade of deposit guarantees to shore up their banks but fell short of any coordinated action Monday to deal with the crisis sweeping financial markets, even as stock markets crashed and the euro sank to its lowest level for over a year.

AP - The 38-year-old teacher wanted to participate in Iraq's first provincial elections in four years — until she realized that a new law would require the ballot to list her name, not just her party.

AP - A former Taliban ambassador said Monday that the hard-line militants sat with Afghan officials and Saudi King Abdullah over an important religious meal in Saudi Arabia late last month as the insurgency raged back home.

AP - Three European scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for separate discoveries of viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer, breakthroughs that helped doctors fight the deadly diseases.

AP - Hamas will cease to recognize Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian president after Jan. 8 and replace him with one of its own leaders, according to a resolution approved by the Islamic movement's legislators Monday.

AFP - Mauritania's military leadership showed no sign of wanting to bow to an African Union ultimatum for the junta to reinstate the ousted president on Monday, as the opposition called for sanctions.

AFP - Thousands of anti-government protesters marched to Thailand's parliament Monday, using trucks to try and seal off the building ahead of an address by the new cabinet, police and Thai media said.

AFP - Australians who sound like crocodile hunter Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee actor Paul Hogan could soon be a relic of the past, a report said on Sunday.