TEWKESBURY, England — Emergency workers rescued hundreds of trapped people Monday as water swallowed swaths of central England in the worst flooding to hit the country for 60 years. Officials said some rivers were still rising, with the western section of the rain-swollen River Thames on the verge of bursting its banks.

Roads and parking lots were submerged, trains suspended, buses canceled. Hundreds of thousands of people were without electricity or drinking water, and farmers saw their summer crops destroyed.

Torrential rains have plagued Britain over the past month — nearly 5 inches fell in some areas on Friday alone — and more downpours were predicted this week.

"This emergency is far from over and further flooding is extremely likely," Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

On the outskirts of Oxford, 60 miles west of London, about 50 elderly people were evacuated to a stadium from a retirement community overlooking the swollen River Ock.

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Injured Iraq war veterans sue government over delays in disability pay, healthcare

WASHINGTON — Frustrated by delays in healthcare, injured Iraq war veterans accused VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in a lawsuit of breaking the law by denying them disability pay and mental health treatment.

The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks broad changes in the agency as it struggles to meet growing demands from veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Suing on behalf of hundreds of thousands of veterans, it charges that the VA has failed warriors on numerous fronts. It contends the VA failed to provide prompt disability benefits, failed to add staff to reduce wait times for medical care and failed to boost services for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The lawsuit also accuses the VA of deliberately cheating some veterans by allegedly working with the Pentagon to misclassify PTSD claims as pre-existing personality disorders to avoid paying benefits. The VA and Pentagon have generally denied such charges.

"When one of our combat veterans walks into a VA hospital, then they must see a doctor that day," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, which filed the lawsuit. "When a war veteran needs disability benefits because he or she can't work, then they must get a disability check in a few weeks."

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Tony Blair arrives in Israel on his first trip as Mideast envoy

JERUSALEM — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair opened his mission Monday to help Palestinians build solid foundations for their future state, offering ideas to Israeli leaders designed to stabilize the shaky government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni said the Blair mission on behalf of the "Quartet" of Mideast mediators comes at a "critical time when it is possible to create a change of direction" after years of stalemate in peacemaking.

Blair's limited mandate from the four powers — the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia — was to help the Palestinians develop their economy, build governing institutions and to lay the groundwork for statehood.

But he was instructed to leave aside the underlying issues of the 60-year-old Mideast conflict, such as borders, Palestinian refugees and the governance of Jerusalem, raising questions about how effective he can be.

Israel says the importance of Blair's task should not be underestimated. "Anyone who believes that nation-building is a peripheral issue doesn't understand the process," said Livni's spokesman, Mark Regev, after Blair's first meeting with her.

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Gonzales vows to fix Justice Department's 'troubling' hiring practices

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says he's staying at the Justice Department to try to repair its broken image, telling Congress in a statement released Monday he's troubled that politics may have played a part in hiring career federal prosecutors.

Senators already skeptical of Gonzales' ability to lead the department were preparing to hammer him about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and conflicts between his earlier statements and the testimony of a former aide.

The attorney general's comments were included in 26 pages of prepared testimony released on the eve of his scheduled appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hearing comes during an escalating executive-privilege standoff with the White House over the firings.

Across the Capitol, the House Judiciary Committee was readying votes on contempt citations for White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers for disregarding subpoenas to testify and provide documents on the firings. The White House has said that any such materials are covered by executive privilege and that the president's current and former immediate advisers are immune from congressional subpoenas.

After months of critics calling for his resignation, Gonzales appears to have weathered the political furor that began with the prosecutors' purge last year and subsequently revealed a Justice Department hiring process that favored Republican loyalists.

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Study: Diet soda associated with same heart risks as regular soda

BOSTON — People who drank more than one diet soda each day developed the same risks for heart disease as those who downed sugary regular soda, suggests a large but inconclusive study.

The results surprised the researchers who expected to see a difference between regular and diet soda drinkers. It could be, they suggest, that even no-calorie sweet drinks increase the craving for more sweets, and that people who indulge in sodas probably have less healthy diets overall.

The study's senior author, Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, emphasized the findings don't show diet sodas are a cause of increased heart disease risks. But he said they show a surprising link that must be studied.

"It's intriguing and it begs an explanation by people who are qualified to do studies to understand this better," said Vasan, of Boston University School of Medicine.

However, a nutrition expert dismissed the study's findings on diet soda drinkers.

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Comic Drew Carey to replace Bob Barker on 'The Price is Right'

NEW YORK — Genial comic Drew Carey was tapped Monday to replace silver-haired legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game show "The Price is Right." Carey confirmed the deal during a taping of the "Late Show" with David Letterman.

The selection attracted more attention than usual for a daytime show because of the prospect of replacing Barker, 83. Barker retired after 35 years in the job last month following taping of his 6,586th episode.

The opening attracted widespread interest, including from comic Rosie O'Donnell after she left "The View."

Carey, 49, spent a decade on his own ABC sitcom and also was host of the game show "Whose Line is It Anyway?," a comic improvisational show.