AP - Authorities called off evacuation orders for the Florida Keys on Monday as a ferocious Hurricane Ike shifted south over Cuba and appeared on track to miss the low-lying U.S. island chain.

AP - Uncle Sam has just become the 800 pound gorilla in the U.S. mortgage market. The Bush administration is seizing troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a bid to help reverse a prolonged housing and credit crisis.

AP - Stocks mostly advanced Monday as investors rushed to lay bets on a recovery in the financial and housing sectors following the weekend announcement that the U.S. government will bail out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Dow Jones industrials gained more than 100 points but the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index declined.

AP - Deadly Hurricane Ike roared across Cuba on Monday, blowing homes to rubble and sending waves crashing over apartment buildings. Some 900,000 Cubans evacuated, and forecasters said it could hit Louisiana or Texas later this week.

Reuters - U.S. presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama are dead even at 48 percent in the race for the White House, according to a CNN/Time poll released on Monday.