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The Washington Times reports:
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he would attack Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons or to respond to aggression against Israel.
Asked if he agreed with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton’s contention that the “only realistic alternative … is to use force preemptively against Iran’s nuclear weapons program” since diplomacy   more

The Washington Post reports:
The White House formally threatened Monday to veto a Republican measure requiring congressional approval of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution before the nation’s debt ceiling can be raised.
House Republicans scheduled a vote Tuesday on the proposal, which would impose strict new spending caps and require that Congress give the balanced-budget amendment   more

Politico reports:
It’s official: Buddy Roemer will formally announce his presidential campaign Thursday from New Hampshire.
While the former Louisiana governor’s campaign has not set a location for the announcement, he’s scheduled to speak at Dartmouth College that afternoon as part of a national politics series.
“We’re ready to move forward,” said Roemer’s newly-minted campaign director, Carlos Sierra.   more

Politico reports:
Another major bond rating firm on Monday reiterated its threat to downgrade the U.S. government to a B-plus rating if the debt ceiling isn’t raised by August 2 and the government defaults on its debts.
The warning from Fitch Ratings comes after Moody’s and S&P warned last week that they would lower the U.S. rating   more

Politico reports:
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Monday the Senate will remain in session every day – including weekends – until Congress approves an increase to the nation’s debt ceiling.
“The Senate has no more important task than making sure the United States does not fail to pay our bills for pre-existing obligations like Social   more

Reuters reports:
Fighting between government forces and opposition supporters erupted in Yemen’s capital Sanaa Monday, killing six people, opposition sources said.
The fighting was the first to break out in Sanaa since President Ali Abdullah Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia for treatment after sustaining severe burn wounds when an attempt to assassinate him was made in June.  more

The Guardian reports:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for   more

Politico reports:
President Barack Obama and the two top House Republican leaders held an unannounced meeting at the White House Sunday, trying to get debt talks back on track with just two weeks left before the threat of default.
Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor were both part of the discussions which come even   more

The Times reports:
Syria has accelerated its supply of weapons, including advanced ballistic missiles, to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon in a move that could further inflame an already destabilised region.
According to intelligence sources in the West and the Middle East, the unrest facing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has not halted its build-up of   more

Reuters reports:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday called on European leaders to do more to contain the escalating debt crisis in Europe.
“What Europe obviously needs to do is to act more forcefully to contain the risk of an escalating crisis in Europe,” Geithner told CNBC television. “They have the capacity to manage this in a   more

The Associated Press reports:
NATO says its warplanes destroyed radar antennas at Tripoli International Airport that were being used by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime for military purposes.
A NATO statement Monday claimed the civilian air traffic control radar was tracking NATO jets and the information was used to coordinate an air defense early-warning system.
NATO, which has bombed dozens   more

The New York Times reports:
Britain’s phone hacking scandal claimed another high-profile casualty on Monday when John Yates, the deputy commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, resigned a day after the country’s top police officer quit and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, was arrested on suspicion of illegally intercepting phone calls   more

The Huffington Post reports:
Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News International who was arrested on Sunday, will be testifying before a Parliamentary committee on Tuesday, her spokesman announced Monday. The announcement brought an end to pervasive doubts that Brooks would appear before Parliament in the wake of her arrest.
The session of the Culture, Media and   more

The New York Times reports:
Taliban insurgents have released a video showing them killing 16 Pakistani men who were captured in a raid in a restive northwestern province last month, a spokesman for the Pakistani military said on Monday.
The graphic video shows the 16 men, most of whom appear to be Pakistani policemen, standing in a   more

Politico reports:
Now in its 18th day, Minnesota’s state government shutdown continues as Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has yet to formalize his announced deal with GOP legislative and a special session planned for Monday is likely to be delayed.
Dayton and the Republican leaders released a joint statement Sunday declaring “considerable progress has been made” but Minnesota   more

Politico reports:
The United States should do away with the debt ceiling altogether to bring greater certainty to investors in U.S. Treasury bonds, Moody’s suggested Monday.
With the August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling barely more than two weeks away, the bond-rating agency issued a report Monday noting that the U.S. is one of just   more

The Associated Press reports:
A conservative group linked with Republican strategist Karl Rove has launched an ad campaign targeting 10 vulnerable House Democrats up for reelection in 2012.
Crossroads GPS will run ads for the next two weeks targeting Reps. Mike Ross of Arkansas, Jim Matheson of Utah, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Heath Shuler of North Carolina,   more

Reuters reports:
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that Congress would raise the debt ceiling and said on Monday that top Republicans had taken “default off the table.”
“Despite what you hear, people are moving closer together,” Geithner told CNBC television. “You have seen the leadership of the Republican party … take default off the table. That’s   more

The Associated Press reports:
The discovery of three mutilated corpses set off a wave of sectarian bloodshed that killed up to 30 people over the weekend in central Syria, a dangerous escalation in violence stemming from the country’s four-month-old uprising, activists said Monday.
The killings were a troubling sign that the revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime   more