Today's Details

-In a chilly summit prelude, President Bush blocked Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization on Saturday and President Vladimir Putin mockingly said Moscow doesn't want the kind of violence-plagued democracy the United States has fostered in Iraq. DETAILS

-This election year, Rick Santorum, is widely regarded as the most vulnerable incumbent. By double digits, polls show him trailing rival Bob Casey, the state treasurer, namesake son of a popular governor and a conservative Democrat. DETAILS

-The first half of the year was the warmest on record for the USA.The government reported Friday that the average temperature for the 48 contiguous United States from January through June was 51.8°F, or 3.4°F above average for the 20th century. That made it the warmest such period since recordkeeping began in 1895, the National Climatic Data Center reported. DETAILS

-Gunmen kidnapped the head of Iraq's Olympic committee and more than a dozen employees Saturday after storming a sports conference in Baghdad, police said. The kidnappers wore camouflage Iraqi police uniforms and security guards outside the meeting said they did not interfere because they thought the gunmen were legitimate law enforcement, police said. DETAILS

-Witnesses said Israeli aircraft attacked central Beirut Saturday for the first time in a four-day offensive, striking a lighthouse and the capital's seaport. DETAILS

-Firefighters battling a newly merged pair of wildfires feared the blaze could create disastrous weather Saturday and hinder progress in blocking the fire from reaching the populated San Bernardino Mountains. DETAILS