Steve Shickles

AP - A look at the insular military leadership behind the recent crackdown in Myanmar:

AP - Videotapes of angry officers savagely beating civilians and charges that a murder plot was hatched within an elite special operations unit have Chicago’s troubled police department reeling again.

AP - A U.N. envoy failed to meet with Myanmar’s top two junta leaders in his effort to persuade them to ease a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, but was allowed a highly orchestrated session Sunday with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Reuters - Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on
Sunday blamed opposition groups behind a tourism boycott
campaign for a homemade bomb that wounded 12 foreign tourists
in the remote Indian Ocean island chain on Saturday.

AP - Defense contractor Brent Wilkes hosted fancy dinner parties and chartered jets for powerful members of Congress while his company was racking up more than $100 million in government contracts.

AP - The former world chess champion Garry Kasparov entered Russia’s presidential race on Sunday, elected overwhelmingly as the candidate for the country’s beleagured opposition coalition.

Reuters - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari had talks on
Sunday with Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and several members of the military government to discuss
ending a crackdown on protests against military rule.

AP - When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph.

AFP - A UN envoy met Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and leaders of the ruling junta Sunday, as he tried to broker an end to a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.

AP - Three strong earthquakes struck Sunday near New Zealand and the U.S. territory of Guam in remote parts of the Pacific Ocean, monitoring agencies said.

Reuters - President George W. Bush, hosting
major polluting nations last week, sought to convince skeptics
that he wants to help shape the next global deal on climate
change, despite his long history of shunning such efforts.

AFP - Afghanistan's Taliban rejected Sunday President Hamid Karzai's new offer of peace talks, insisting foreign troops leave the country first, as violence continued unabated.

AP - The Supreme Court is set to begin a term that could lead to enhanced rights for terrorism detainees, a ruling against part of a child pornography law and shorter prison terms for crack cocaine dealers.

AP - Kansas State did it to Texas again, this time with spectacular special teams. Two kick returns for touchdowns and an interception return for another score propelled the Wildcats to a 41-21 win Saturday over the No. 7 Longhorns, handing Texas its worst home defeat in 10 years under coach Mack Brown.

AP - Just as Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops predicted, the third-ranked Sooners couldn’t run it up on Colorado. In fact, the Sooners couldn’t even beat the Buffaloes. Kevin Eberhart kicked a career-long 45-yard field goal as time expired to send Colorado past the stunned Sooners 27-24 Saturday.