Dust causes 14-vehicle pileup in Colo.

The Nation

Killer dust: Blowing dust created a "black wall" on Interstate 70 east of Denver, Colo., on Monday, causing a 14-vehicle pileup that left two dead and at least six injured.

Twins separated: Nearly 3-month-old girls believed to be the first known American Indian conjoined twins were separated Monday during a three-hour surgery at Children's Hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City, where they have been cared for since their birth Oct. 25.

Montana avalanche kills 3: Rescuers with a search dog have found the body of a man buried by an avalanche, one of three men killed by snow slides in Montana during the weekend. The man's body was found Sunday under 3 feet of snow, his rescue beacon accidentally turned off, the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center reported. The site was near Cooke City in south-central Montana.

Navajo gas deal: A long fight over a natural-gas pipeline right of way has been settled with a deal that will pay the Navajo Nation about $350 million over 20 years. That's more than 10 times what the tribe earned from El Paso Natural Gas Co. under its previous lease, which expired in 2005. The company operates 900 miles of pipeline on the reservation to deliver gas from Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma to western markets.

The World

Russian lawyer killed: A prominent Russian lawyer who spent the better part of a decade pursuing contentious human-rights and social-justice cases was killed on Monday along with a journalist in a brazen daylight assassination in central Moscow, officials said. Stanislav Markelov had just left a news conference to oppose the early release from jail of a former Russian tank commander imprisoned for murdering a young Chechen woman.

Court faults U.S.: The International Court of Justice ruled Monday that the United States violated its order last year when Texas proceeded with the execution of a Mexican national convicted of murder and rape. The court, based in The Hague, said the United States remained bound by a 2004 ruling to review the cases of 51 Mexican citizens on death row. That earlier decision said the United States violated the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations by not advising the Mexican arrestees of their right to seek help from their nation's consular officials.

Korea shake-up: President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea replaced his top economic aides on Monday in an effort to restore public trust in his year-old government's handling of the economy during the global financial crisis. The president also fired his top policymaker on North Korea, amid increasingly militant rhetoric from the Communist North.

Odds & Ends

Hot in L.A. : The National Weather Service says Monday was the ninth straight day with temperatures in the 80s in Los Angeles — a record for January.

U2's latest: The first song from the Irish band U2's first album in five years is ready. U2 began broadcasting the up-tempo single "Get On Your Boots" Monday — first on RTE, Ireland's state broadcasters, then for free on the group's Web site.

Artifact damaged: Heavy rains have damaged part of the famed Nazca lines, one of Peru's top tourist destinations, depositing clay and sand on mysterious figures etched in the desert sand by indigenous groups centuries ago, an archaeologist said Monday. Fully visible only from the sky, the lines were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1994.

Passages

Susanna Foster, 84, a singer and 1940s leading lady whose most famous role was the terrorized prima donna in the 1943 Academy Award-winning talking remake of the 1925 silent-screen version of "The Phantom of the Opera," died Saturday of heart failure at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J.

Today in history

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.

1981: Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

Birthdays

Country singer Slim Whitman, 85. Actress Patricia Neal, 83. Comedian Arte Johnson, 80. Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, 79. Comedian Bill Maher, 53. TV personality Melissa Rivers, 41. Rap musician ?uestlove

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