Top Stories - The Christian Science Monitor

EAST JABALIYA, GAZA STRIP - Maamon Khozendar, chairman of Khozendar and Sons Company Ltd., is one of Gaza's most successful industrialists. He's a petroleum importer, and executes major construction projects around the Palestinian enclave.

Washington - In an admission that its dependence on the Pakistani military has yielded few results against the Taliban, the United States is now seeking to change its relationship with Pakistan – the world's sole Muslim nuclear power and home of Al Qaeda's leadership.

Bills, bills! Ah, what's this?OK, Hermann Ilnseher thought, so his sister didn't come to his son Michael's high school graduation.

Thousands of people marched through Phoenix Saturday to protest what they consider the heavy-handed tactics of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in a crackdown on illegal immigrants. Latino activists said racial profiling is being used to stop people to check their legal residency and that illegal immigrants have been paraded through the streets in prison garb and shackles.

Beersheva, Israel - The Hagar bilingual kindergarten was founded as a rare cocoon from ethnic alienation for children and parents in Israel. But even this place of innocence and coexistence isn't immune to the deeper divisions between Jews and Arabs here that has followed the Gaza war.

LONDON - For a nation shaped by an overtly Christian heritage, Britain has apparently become a difficult place to be overtly Christian.

As a spunky teen who entered bodybuilding competitions, skied 74 miles an hour downhill to win the Alaska speed-skiing competition, and nearly ran a sub-5-minute mile, Kikkan Randall acquired the nickname "Kikkanimal."

Washington and baghdad - President Obama appears to be striking a compromise between his political commitments and the tactical views of his senior military commanders in favoring a 19-month withdrawal plan for Iraq.

BOURGES, FRANCE - Cecile Feit holds her Sundays dear. It's the day for romps in the park and family lunches, not for running her children's toy boutique.

Beijing - One of China's most prominent human rights law firms is fighting a government closure order, as authorities here step up a crackdown on troublesome lawyers.

Washington - Colombian officials are mounting a full-court diplomatic press in the United States this week as they seek to stave off a fall from the high-flying status their country achieved in Washington as a favored ally of the Bush administration.

Johannesburg, South Africa; and Cairo - With an arrest warrant looming over him for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is on a last-minute bid to win friends and influence people.

BERLIN - President Bush was hardly out of the White House before his European opponents to the invasion of Iraq began lining up for what are expected to be lucrative contracts to rebuild the oil-rich country.

Chicago - Scot Roskelley wanted a Saab his entire life.

Rome - Until recently, Italians overwhelmingly ate Italian food, but a decade or more of immigration has seen a surge of new foreign food eateries.

Beijing - General Motors is doing it. The world's second-largest mining group is doing it. Russia, Brazil, and Venezuela are doing it. And China is loving it.

Anwar Hassan, in limbo after seven years of imprisonment at Guantánamo, has a glimmer of hope. A group of churches in Toronto has applied to the Canadian government to sponsor him as a refugee.

Los Angeles - Perhaps more than any state in America, California represents the end of the rainbow. Generations of fortune-seekers have seen it as a place of almost magical light and color where they could obtain, if not a big pot of gold, at least a good living in a climate where oleander bushes and innovation thrive equally as well.

Baghdad - Was it an act of rudeness or bravery? While Muntadhar al-Zeidi appeared before a Baghdad judge Thursday for hurling shoes at President Bush, the court of public opinion is still split over whether he's a hero or an embarrassment.

Massachusetts voters made history by approving a sweeping marijuana decriminalization law on Election Day, but campaign debates are reigniting as communities start to enforce the new rule.

U.S. NAVAL STATION, GUANTaNAMO BAY, CUBA - Seventeen Chinese Muslims being held at the Guantánamo prison camp for suspected terrorists have lost a bid to live temporarily in the United States pending their resettlement in a third country.

US NAVAL STATION, GuantAnamo BAY, CUBA - Military officials are vigorously defending their treatment of detainees at the controversial terror prison camp here, rejecting charges by the prisoners and their lawyers that conditions are harsh, illegal, and inhumane.

Ramallah, West Bank - Israel on Wednesday increased pressure on Hamas to free Gilad Shalit, the soldier held by the Gaza militants, by saying it would not agree to a long-term cease-fire deal, open borders into the coastal strip, or release the 1,000 prisoners that Hamas wants freed until they know he is coming home.

Washington - President Obama's decision to deploy 17,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan may be a defining move that will either reverse the deteriorating situation there or mire the new administration in a war with no foreseeable end.

Blakely, Ga. - Dressed in spotless Wranglers, pint-sized cowboy boots, and pearl-buttoned farm shirts, the boys and girls of Blakely, Ga., could hardly look happier as they brush down their hogs in hopes of a blue ribbon.

Johannesburg, South Africa - Sudan's government has inked a deal with the strongest, most active rebel group in Darfur.

Maydan Shahr, Afghanistan - The 3,000 new American troops who arrived in recent weeks in Logar and Wardak provinces, both of which border Kabul, face a formidable challenge: establishing control in areas with little government presence and where insurgents operate freely.

Washington - Turkey is likely to play a prominent role as the US begins to remove thousands of tons of equipment and supplies from Iraq over the next year or so.