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WASHINGTON - Failure is not an option on health care, a leading Democratic senator said Monday, even as Republicans turned up the heat on moderates who hold the fate of the legislation in their hands.

Economists expect the joblessness that has weighed down the nation's economic recovery will start to slowly abate in 2010, but they predict consumers will continue to keep a tight rein on spending, according to a new survey.

HEGANG, China - The coal mine that exploded in northern China, killing 104, had too many workers underground in an effort to increase output, a government official said Monday, exposing the risks often taken to meet the country's insatiable energy demands.

LAREDO, Texas - A U.S. program that offers trusted trucking companies speedy passage across American borders has begun attracting just the sort of customers who place a premium on avoiding inspections: Mexican drug smugglers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks snapped a three-day losing streak on Monday as stronger-than-expected home sales data fueled optimism while a weaker dollar boosted commodity-linked stocks.

(Reuters) - Several U.S. policy makers consider JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon as a potential successor to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the New York Post said, citing sources.

WASHINGTON - Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2 1/2 years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit.

ARTOIS, Calif. - An oil boom is under way in California's agricultural heartland, as evolving tastes and a trend toward healthy fare have transformed a profession as old as civilization: olive production for the extra virgin market.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Radioactive dust unexpectedly blew out of a pipe being cut by workers during weekend maintenance at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and officials on Monday were trying to determine exactly how and why it happened.

NEW YORK - Television retailer QVC has made aggressive plans to keep shoppers watching — instead of mall-hopping — on Black Friday, an event it has traditionally ignored.

Oil prices rose above $78 a barrel Monday as Iran's war games, aimed at protecting its nuclear plants, deepened tensions in the oil-rich region.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Leading Indian outsourcers such as Tata Consultancy , Infosys and Wipro stand to gain contracts worth about $1 billion in the next one or two years as U.S. banks emerge from the troubled asset relief program, the Economic Times reported on Monday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gold scaled a record high on a weak dollar and global stocks jumped on Monday after better-than-expected U.S. home sales data and rosy economic news in the euro zone bolstered appetite for riskier assets.

PARK FALLS, Wis. - Forests are a treasure trove of limbs and bark that can be made into alternative fuels and some worry the increasing trend of using that logging debris will make those materials too scarce, harming the woodlands.

LONDON (Reuters) - Speculation about a bid battle for Cadbury among Kraft Foods and other rivals lifted shares in the British confectioner to a new high on Monday but analysts doubt whether a competing bid will emerge.

WASHINGTON - As if small businesses needed another reason not to hire, consider their latest financial burden: The cost of rising unemployment itself.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York Times editorial slammed Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis and said that instead of paying big bonuses to its employees it should make a multibillion-dollar gift to help reduce the U.S. national debt.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer says majority Democrats will push through a bill overhauling the health care system with or without Republican support.

From the marbled corridors of Congress to the tony salons of Georgetown, liberal lawmakers are abuzz with ideas on how to rein in U.S. corporations. Yet over in the courts, two conservative lawyers are mounting a serious challenge to a law, enacted earlier in the decade, that imposed tough restrictions on American businesses. A ruling in their favor could deal a serious blow to the pro-regulatory movement in Washington.

About a year ago, observers of the UK commercial property market would not have been shocked to see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding around the corner.

It's been a hard year to work at General Electric . Salary freezes have hit its famously performance-driven employees, with some managers taking pay cuts. The price of GE stock, which once made millionaires out of even hourly workers, has gone nowhere as the rest of the market has risen. A 68% dividend cut -- the first in 71 years -- has stung execs who rely on a heavy dose of restricted shares.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Gov. Don Carcieri's administration has failed for months to spend $20 million meant to insulate poor people's homes against the winter chill and put unemployed people to work during one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression.

NEW YORK - Artist Nate Giorgio recalls the last time he saw Michael Jackson, just days before the singer's death.

LONDON (AFP) - The dollar slid against the euro on Monday on concerns that US authorities may prolong emergency stimulus measures, helping push the price of gold to a record high above 1,170 dollars, analysts said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks could sputter this week as volumes dry up in holiday-shortened trading and with a slew of economic reports likely to illustrate the recovery is still fragile.

LOS ANGELES - The vampire romance "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" put the box office into orbit with a $142.8 million opening weekend. The sequel took in twice as much as "Twilight" in its first three days a year ago.

WASHINGTON - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday that the world must press Pakistan to stop supporting terrorists who continue to target India.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - When the U.S. holiday shopping season kicks off on the day after Thanksgiving, retailers can expect to see millions of less frightened, but even more bargain-hungry customers cross their thresholds.

MILWAUKEE - Tyson Foods Inc. said it made strides in the meat business this year and predicts more improvements next year, but analysts worry the company's all-important chicken business is lagging others in the industry.