USA

Seeking to unify Democrats, Barack Obama said that Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival in earning the party's presidential nomination, will be the featured speaker Aug. 16 on the second night of the four-night Democratic convention in Denver. The date marks the 88th anniversary of US women's right to vote.

In a sign of improved US-India relations, India's military pilots Monday began two weeks' worth of Air Force combat exercises over the Nevada desert with US, French, and South Korean pilots.

Verizon Communications Inc. averted a possible strike by 65,000 union workers Sunday by signing a three-year agreement that provides 10.5 percent wage increases and changes in retirement benefits. The pact heads off possible delays in installations and repairs of telephone and broadband lines.

Technology to render people and objects invisible by redirecting light around them has been discovered by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, according to findings to appear later this week in the journals Nature and Science.

The cleanup of the oil spilled from a Mississippi River barge after a July 23 collision moved into its final stages as crews removed part of the barge in the largest river salvage operation in New Orleans' history.

Explaining its cancellation of 41 flights, Alaska Airlines said Monday, "if there's an ash plume in the way, we won't fly." The carrier grounded flights because of a 40,000-foot-high ash plume created by last week's eruption of the Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian Islands.

Emory University in Atlanta has begun a $250,000 initiative to encourage students to use bicycles by providing bike lanes and expanding a bike-share program like those found on an increasing number of college campuses.

The cost of repatriation flights for 64,000 illegal immigrants to Mexico City reached $51 million over the past four years, according to US government expenditures.

Irish golfer Padraig Harrington won the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills outside Detroit Sunday, overcoming a three-shot deficit to become the first European to win the British Open and PGA titles consecutively and the first since 1930 to win the season's last major championship.