"An Australian man was arrested in Oldham County [Ky.] on Monday in connection with a fake bomb that authorities said was placed around the neck of a teenager halfway around the world as part of an alleged extortion plot," the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

According to the newspaper:

WEIRTON, W.Va. (AP) - Union workers at 12 Kroger Co. grocery stores in West Virginia and eastern Ohio have rejected a three-year contract offer.

Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 also voted to authorize a strike if an agreement isn't reached by Aug. 28.

Union spokesman Richard Granger said Monday that 99 percent of those voting Sunday in Weirton rejected the contract offer, while 97 percent favored the possible strike.

Granger says the offer called for no wage increases and would have shifted health care costs to individual employees.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) - General Dynamics Corp.'s land systems unit has been awarded two contracts to provide tank work for Saudi Arabia with a combined value of $42.4 million.

The contracts were awarded by the U.S. Army on behalf of the Royal Saudi Land Forces. This work is part of a plan by Saudi Arabia to upgrade its fleet of 314 Abrams tanks.

The work will be performed at the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, Ohio.

The contract continues work started in 2008.  General Dynamics' shares rose 67 cents to $61.85 in midday trading.

CINCINNATI (AP) - Federal customs officials say over $600,000 in U.S. money was hidden in tortilla press machines being shipped from someone in Mexico to Bogota, Colombia, through a freight hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its Cincinnati agents working with the DHL hub at the airport in nearby Hebron, Ky., found the currency Saturday at the shipping facility.

Good morning.

President Obama continues his Midwest bus tour. Today's focus will be a "White House Rural Economic Forum" being held at Northeast Iowa Community Colllege in Peosta, Iowa.

CINCINNATI(AP) - Cincinnati doesn't have streetcars or streetcar stations - but it does have station signs.

The city said it would unveil and post temporary signs Tuesday at station sites along the 3.1-mile initial route planned from downtown north to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports a spokesman for Mayor Mark Mallory declined to say what the signs cost or why they're going up now but promised more would be revealed on Tuesday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Ohio officials plan to outline the job-creation duties of a new nonprofit entity during a series of meetings around the state that begin Tuesday.

The semiprivate JobsOhio corporation was created by the Gov. John Kasich earlier this year to lead the state's economic development efforts. As a result, the state Department of Development is to report to the legislature by Thursday what functions should move from the state agency to JobsOhio.

COLUMBUS, Ohio(AP) - State officials say Ohioans looking to cash in on the high price of gold should take their jewelry or other gold items to dealers licensed by the state.

The Ohio Department of Commerce also is encouraging people to find out from several businesses what they'd be willing to pay.

Commerce Director David Goodman says in a statement that shopping around helps ensure you'll get a "reasonable price" for your gold.

Four years ago, Russian researchers made a bold, if unseen, move. From a submarine, deep beneath the icy waters of the North Pole, they planted a Russian flag on the ocean floor.

Russia has the world's longest Arctic border, which stretches more than 10,000 miles. And for Russia, that 2007 research mission was only the beginning of a major drive to claim ownership of vast portions of the Arctic, as well as the oil and gas deposits that are beneath.

Authorities in San Francisco had to shut down several city subway stations Monday after demonstrators tried to stop a train from leaving a downtown station.

The protesters were upset that the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency last week shut down cellphone access in the subway to prevent a protest.

BART police have been the target of protests over alleged brutality. Most recently, two BART officers shot Charles Hill, a transient man they said threatened them with a knife.

That shooting is one of the reasons that Jevon Cochran has come to this and other protests.