Today's Details

-The White House emphatically renewed President' Bush's threat to veto a bill heading toward Senate passage that would authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a practice Bush loathes. DETAILS

-The Bush administration says it plans sweeping changes in Medicare payments to hospitals that could cut payments by 20 percent to 30 percent for many complex treatments and new technologies. The changes, the biggest since the current payment system was adopted in 1983, are meant to improve the accuracy of payment rates. But doctors, hospitals and patient groups say the effects could be devastating. DETAILS

.-A commercial ship escorted by a U.S. destroyer will start evacuating some Americans from war-torn Lebanon on Tuesday and more military helicopters will be used to fly others direct to Cyprus, a U.S. official said Monday. DETAILS

-Dan Quayle attended a John Mellencamp concert only to run into a political statement. He then made a statement of his own by walking out during Mellencamp's rendition of ``Walk Tall.'' Before launching into the song, Mellencamp told the Harveys casino crowd, in effect, that it was dedicated to everyone hurt by policies of the current Bush administration. Quayle, who served as vice president for President Bush's father in 1989-93 walked out of the venue before Mellencamp finished the song. (If Quayle can't listen to musicians critical of the Bush administration then there's an awful lot of music he can't listen to these days.) DETAILS

-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday the fighting in Lebanon would end when the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas were freed, rocket attacks on Israel were stopped, and the Lebanese army was deployed along the border. Delivering an impassioned speech to parliament after six days of fighting with Lebanon, Olmert said Israel would have no mercy on militants who attack its cities with rockets, and he pledged to destroy terrorist infrastructure. (At least SOMEONE is talking about a way for this to come to an end.) DETAILS

-An earthquake sent a tsunami crashing into beach resorts on Java island Monday, killing at least 86 people, leaving scores missing and sending thousands fleeing in an area spared by the devastating Asian tsunami of 2004, officials, witnesses and media reports said. DETAILS

-Dozens of heavily armed attackers raided an open air market Monday in a tense town south of Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 42, police and hospital officials said. (How about those schools that are open? ) DETAILS

-Temperatures in the 90s gripped parts of the country on Monday, prompting heat advisories, altered routines and calls for electricity conservation. DETAILS