AP - Rescue workers using bare hands and buckets searched frantically for students believed buried in a wrecked dormitory after Italy's deadliest quake in nearly three decades struck this medieval city before dawn Monday, killing more than 150 people, injuring 1,500 and leaving tens of thousands homeless.

AP - The nation should stop pouring billions into futuristic, super-expensive F-22 jet fighters, pull the plug on new presidential helicopters and put the money into systems U.S. soldiers can use against actual foes, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared Monday.

AP - A top Pentagon official on Monday dismissed North Korea's rocket launch as a failure_ both technologically and as an effort to market its missiles to other countries. "Would you buy from somebody that had failed three times in a row and never been successful?" Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked during a press briefing at the Pentagon.