USA

Hoping to bring more diversity to the early presidential primary season, the Democrats' rules committee recommended squeezing in a Nevada caucus after Iowa's leadoff race and moving South Carolina's primary to the week after New Hampshire's. Almost a quarter of Nevada's population is Hispanic and more than a quarter of South Carolina's is black. Iowa and New Hampshire are predominantly white. The full committee will vote on the proposed shuffle during the Democrats' August meeting in Chicago.

After weeks of internal debate over potential troop withdrawals from Iraq, the Pentagon will deploy replacement soldiers to the country next month as originally scheduled. This decision comes as thousands more troops move to reinforce Baghdad and fight the escalating violence there.

Con Edison crews in the New York City borough of Queens scrambled over the weekend to repair overheated power circuits that failed July 17, leaving some 80,000 residents without power.

The Bush administration rejected an AFL-CIO petition contending the Chinese are violating international labor standards. US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Friday that China's labor conditions are improving thanks to relations with America, and the sanctions that might arise from an investigation could hinder this progress.

Californians sweated out the weekend as thermometers throughout the state hit record highs. The often triple-digit heat led to many localized outages.