WASHINGTON -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will visit the White House Monday as President Barack Obama begins a week during which he will announce his war strategy in Afghanistan and appeal to allies such as Australia for more help.

The White House announced the meeting yesterday, saying the two men would "confer on a range of issues, including Afghanistan and climate change in the run-up to Copenhagen."

Obama administration officials said that much of the discussion would focus on whether Australia would contribute more troops to the Afghan mission, and indicated that Mr. Rudd would be the first of several allied leaders that Mr. Obama intends to meet with on the issue in the coming weeks.

Mr. Rudd announced in April that he would send 450 additional troops to Afghanistan, bringing the Australian deployment to more than 1,500 soldiers. Some 100,000 international forces operate in Afghanistan under Gen. Stanley McChrystal, 68,000 of them U.S. soldiers and marines

NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent at least $102 million to narrowly win a third term, breaking his previous records for the most expensive self-financed political bid in U.S. history, according to a report released yesterday by his campaign.

The report shows $18.6 million was spent from Oct. 20 through Thursday, including millions on last-minute television advertising.

Mr. Bloomberg, the wealthiest man in New York, has a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine to be $17.5 billion. He did not take donations and was allowed by law to spend whatever he wanted as long as he filed expense reports.

By contrast, his challenger William Thompson Jr. will probably have spent $9 million on his first mayoral bid when all the bills have been paid. Mr, Thompson relied on donations and matching funds. His filing is expected Monday.

WASHINGTON -- After a Northwest Airlines plane flew past Minneapolis last month, air traffic controllers asked the pilots repeatedly for explanations about why they didn't heed radio calls, according to transcripts released on Friday.

The Oct. 21 flight had been out of contact for 77 minutes before the pilots responded. The pilots told controllers right away that they had been distracted, but didn't give details, according to the transcript of their radio conversations released by the Federal Aviation Administration.

NEW YORK -- Members of one of America's oldest Protestant churches officially apologized yesterday -- for the first time -- for massacring and displacing Native Americans 400 years ago.

"We consumed your resources, dehumanized your people and disregarded your culture, along with your dreams, hopes and great love for this land," the Rev. Robert Chase told descendants from both sides. "With pain, we the Collegiate Church, remember our part in these events."

The minister spoke on Native American Heritage Day at a reconciliation ceremony of the Lenape tribe with the Collegiate Church, started in 1628 in then-New Amsterdam as the Reformed Dutch Church.

In New York City, the Collegiate churches are composed of four congregations including the landmark Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue led by the late Rev. Norman Vincent Peale.

-- Compiled from news services

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.