BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that Russia is playing a “very dangerous game” with the U.S. and its allies and warned that NATO would not allow Moscow to win in Georgia, destabilize Europe or draw a new Iron Curtain through it. On her way to an emergency NATO foreign ministers meeting on the crisis, Rice said the alliance would punish Russia for its invasion of the Georgia and deny its ambitions by rebuilding and fully backing Georgia and other Eastern European democracies.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) _ John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year. McCain said Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country’s, a theme the Arizona Republican has often repeated. McCain told a friendly convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Obama’s positions have changed as his political ambitions grew.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) _ Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday as the president of Pakistan, avoiding a power struggle with rivals vowing to impeach him that would have deepened the country’s political crisis. His exit, announced in an emotional televised address, leaves the politicians who pushed out the stalwart U.S. ally to face the Islamic militants and economic problems gnawing at this nuclear-armed nation.

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) _ Two years since a hurricane last lashed at Florida, many residents were taking a wait-and-see attitude Monday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Fay bore down on the Florida Keys and Gulf Coast. While tourists caught the last flight out of town and headed out of the storm’s path, residents in the carefree Florida Keys were putting up hurricane shutters and checking their generators, but not doing much more.

BEIJING (AP) _ The American track team was in bad need of a comeback, and Angelo Taylor was the perfect person to provide it. Taylor, a once-troubled 29-year-old who was laying electrical wire 14 months ago, became the first 400-meter hurdler since Edwin Moses to win gold medals eight years apart. He led the first sweep of the event since the U.S. did it in 1960 and lifted sagging American fortunes Monday after a disappointing start to their Beijing Olympics. “We wanted to uplift the track team,” Taylor said, “and bring home the sweep.”

PHOENIX (AP) _ Authorities on Monday evacuated more tourists and residents from a remote offshoot of the Grand Canyon where weekend flooding caused by heavy rains and a breached dam nearly washed away some rafters in the rugged gorge. Rescue crews planned to transport 120 tourists and residents out of Supai Canyon by day’s end, but many people elected to stay, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. Some 400 Havasupai tribe members live in the village of Supai, which is at the bottom of the canyon.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ California’s highest court on Monday barred doctors from invoking their religious beliefs as a reason to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, ruling that state law prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination extends to the medical profession. Justice Joyce Kennard wrote that two Christian fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian have neither a free speech right nor a religious exemption from the state’s law, which “imposes on business establishments certain antidiscrimination obligations.”

CHICAGO (AP) _ When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans. An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors “need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle.” More than half of randomly surveyed adults _ 57 percent _ said God’s intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” has solved the mystery of who will replace departing CBS series star William Petersen: It’s Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne, an Emmy and Tony winner, will be introduced in the ninth episode of the upcoming 10th season, the network told The Associated Press on Monday. He’ll play a forensics scientist with a secret.

HYGIENE, Colo. (AP) _ Residents of a rural Colorado town say a cow named Apple chased off a bear that had climbed into her favorite apple tree. Jack McDonald of Hygiene, about 30 miles northwest of Denver, said the bear had climbed out of the tree when the cow approached it Sunday afternoon. McDonald says the animals touched noses and hung out together for a bit before Apple chased the bear off.