LOS ANGELES -- Charles "Sid" Heal stands excitedly in the parking lot of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's station in San Dimas, tinkering with a prototype for the ominously named "Active Denial System."

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin named a new government Monday, tapping new economics and health ministers and retaining his current foreign and defense ministers as part of an expected shuffle before crucial parliamentary and presidential elections.

SACRAMENTO -- When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger traveled to Europe in June to visit his hometown and meet with the leaders of France and Britain, a little-known group led by two of the state's most influential business leaders picked up the tab.

WASHINGTON -- A senior California lawmaker on Monday said the administration was trying to "stack the deck" against his state's proposal to impose tough standards on motor vehicle emissions, and urged the White House to repudiate what he called a questionable lobbying effort.

UNITED NATIONS -- With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global-warming emissions.

WASHINGTON -- Violent crime rose nearly 2 percent last year, the FBI reported Monday in nationwide data that show a slightly higher increase than expected.

WASHINGTON -- This week's votes on a children's health program go to a key issue in next year's elections: How much should the government spend to insure families with modest but not poverty-level incomes?

NEW YORK -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended Holocaust revisionists and raised questions about who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in a tense showdown Monday at Columbia University, where the school's head introduced the hard-line leader by calling him a "petty and cruel dictator."