Top Stories - The Christian Science Monitor

Washington and New York - George W. Bush, meet Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Los Angeles - How California fares with a $4 billion short-term bond sale this week will help answer a key question looming over the current US financial crisis: are traditional credit markets so frozen that states won't be able to raise revenues to tide them over their cash crunch?

Some enter Oval Office with underwhelming vote totalsWhile Americans might like their presidents to take office as the choice of more than half of the electorate, some of the most famous Oval Office occupants – among them Abraham Lincoln, John Adams, and Bill Clinton – didn't take on the job that well supported.

The US Supreme Court has refused to take up the case of a Georgia death-row inmate who says the courts have denied him an opportunity to prove his innocence even after seven of nine trial witnesses changed their testimony.

WASHINGTON, PARIS, AND LONDON - As governments of the industrialized world struggle with the global credit crisis, they may be relearning an old lesson: there is more strength in standing together than in struggling alone.

Washington - American's armed forces are growing bigger to reduce the strains from seven years of war, but if the US is confronting an era of "persistent conflict," as some experts believe, it will need an even bigger military.

Hollywood, Calif. - The upward march of ticket prices may halt. The growth of premium movie houses – with their reserve seating and gourmet food – could slow. There may be fewer new movies, and each one may stay for a shorter time in theaters before moving to DVD, cable, and satellite.

American Paul Krugman is this year's Nobel economics prize winner, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday. The academy cited the Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist for his work integrating "the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography."

Moscow - The global perception of the Russia-Georgia war this summer is that an armored juggernaut of old Soviet military proportions rolled over its puny rival after a five-day conflict.

A dispute over what to do about 17 Chinese Muslims detained at the Guant??namo Bay military prison is developing into a major showdown over the power of the judiciary to enforce fundamental constitutional rights in the war on terror.

New York - The dramatic changes in the US financial system – the debt write-downs and consolidation of corporate balance sheets – are now mirrored at kitchen tables around the United States.

New York and baltimore - America runs on credit.

Atlanta - Facing more than 500 complaints a year about giant alligators in suburban swimming pools, ditches, and culverts, South Carolina has joined seven other Southern states in an ambitious effort to recruit thousands of would-be gator wranglers to cull the toothy and well-armored brood.

Tawila, Sudan - During the US vice presidential debate last week, Sen. Joe Biden (D) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R) found common ground on at least one topic: Both support imposing a no-fly zone in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

Baghdad - Tears rarely roll down Iraqi farmer Hassan Mohammed Hamoud's proud, sun-creased face.

Washington - In a bid to fix blame for the meltdown in financial markets, the lead House oversight panel this week launched into the bailout of insurance giant American International Group (AIG) – and the non-bailout of Lehman Brothers investment bank.

Washington - The eagle has crash-landed – or has it?

Washington - We get it. And we can move more quickly, and in a more united fashion, than you think.

Pune, India - These gumshoes don't wear trench coats or dark glasses. They don't even carry weapons.

New York - The Federal Reserve is now stepping in where financiers fear to tread.

Oakland, Calif. - A promo for CNN's citizen journalism site, iReport.com, reads: "You won't believe what people are uploading." Maybe readers should take that literally.

Jerusalem - Yazan Khalaf has no shortage of big dreams. Aspiring to be a pilot, the young Arab-Israeli entering the 10th grade is also trying to "change the whole world."

Pankisi Gorge, Georgia - When Russian tanks rolled toward Tbilisi, Georgia, in August, shops closed and streets emptied as residents stayed indoors, glued to their televisions and radios. A hundred miles northeast, in the mountainous enclave of Pankisi Gorge, Chechen refugees also watched Russian troops advancing on TV, but with less stupefaction and more cynicism.

Washington - The US Supreme Court is set to hear a case this week that will provide important practical advice to workers asked to participate in an internal company investigation of alleged sexual harassment by a senior manager.

Washington - Battered by successive shocks, the world economy may be slipping into multicontinent recession.

Baghdad - The Johara Hotel was a backpacker's delight. Rooms were just $12 at the tiny, 10-room inn that was part youth hostel and part rooming house. European, Asian, and American tourists stayed there, even as embargoes tightened on Iraq ahead of the invasion.

Islamabad, Pakistan - For Pakistan, moments of success have been few in the fight in its northwestern tribal area against members of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Washington - The military is expanding the number of airplanes for reconnaissance and surveillance in Iraq and Afghanistan in response to demands from the Pentagon chief to assume a "war footing" in getting more planes into the air.