Briefly

Lott announces he'll resign by year's end

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced Monday he will leave a 35-year career in Congress. Lott, R-Miss., said he wanted to leave on a "positive note" after winning re-election last year to a leadership post and fostering legislation for rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. He was first elected to Congress in 1972 with 78 percent of the vote in Mississippi. He won election to the Senate in 1988, succeeding veteran Democrat John Stennis upon his retirement. His decision to retire by year's end occurred five years after he was bounced as the leader of his party in the Senate over remarks praising a Senate colleague that were interpreted as endorsing segregation.

Violence continues for second day near Paris

VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France -- Rampaging youths threw Molotov cocktails and torched cars in a troubled neighborhood outside Paris in a second night of street violence Monday after two teenagers on a motorbike were killed in a crash with a police car. Anger focused on police, with residents claiming that officers left the scene of Sunday's crash without helping the boys, a claim officials cast doubt on but which the police were investigating. President Nicolas Sarkozy appealed for calm, while police braced for more problems. Investigators were still trying to piece together what happened in the Sunday afternoon crash in Villiers-le-Bel, a town of public housing blocks that is home to a mix of Arab, black and white residents in the French capital's northern suburbs.

Gunmen kill relatives of Iraqi journalist

BAGHDAD -- Masked gunmen stormed the family home of a journalist who was associated with Saddam Hussein's party and critical of the Iraqi government, killing 11 relatives as they ate breakfast in a neighborhood known as a Shiite militia stronghold, colleagues said Monday. Dhia al-Kawaz, editor of the Jordan-based Asawat al-Iraq news agency, was in Jordan when his sisters, their husbands and children were reportedly killed Sunday in north Baghdad's Shaab district. According to the news agency's Web site, witnesses said more than five masked men broke into the home and opened fire, then planted a bomb inside."Sectarian militias killed 11 family members of Dhia al-Kawaz," the agency's statement said, apparently referring to Shiite death squads that frequently target minority Sunnis and their supporters.

Al-Qaida: Message coming from bin Laden

CAIRO, Egypt -- Al-Qaida's media wing said Monday it will soon release a new message from Osama bin Laden addressed to European countries. The announcement by al-Qaida's as-Sahab media production wing was posted on an Islamic Web site that commonly airs militant videos. The statement did not say when the message would be released or whether it would be a video or audio tape. But the U.S.-based IntelCenter, which monitors terrorist Web sites, said the message would be a video and would be released within 72 hours.

San Diego panda cub gets 'precious' name

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Zoo's panda cub finally has a name: Zhen Zhen, or Precious. Following Chinese tradition, the zoo waited until the cub, which was born Aug. 3, was 100 days old before giving her a name Monday. According to zoo officials, Zhen Zhen (pronounced shen shen) won out of 2,400 names submitted by zoo visitors. Thirty-six percent of voters chose the name from among the four finalists.

-- From wire reports