Top Stories - AP

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's decision to fill the nation's top intelligence jobs with two men short on direct experience in intelligence gathering surprised the spy community and signaled the Democrat's intention for a clean break from Bush administration policies.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama plunged into rare pre-inaugural crisis talks with congressional leaders Monday, declaring the national economy was "bad and getting worse" and embracing tax cuts now expected to reach $300 billion. He predicted lawmakers would approve a mammoth revitalization package within two weeks of his taking office.

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats struggled to avert a showdown steeped in race and corruption Monday as a defiant Roland Burris declared, "I'm a United States senator" and flew to the capital to claim President-elect Barack Obama's old seat in Congress.

NEW YORK - A prosecutor on Monday asked that Bernard Madoff be jailed pending trial, saying the disgraced financier violated an agreement with the court by mailing watches, jewelry, cufflinks and mittens worth more than $1 million to relatives and friends.

FREDERICK, Md. - Anthrax mailing suspect Bruce Ivins tormented his wife with rudeness and behaved erratically in the weeks before the Army scientist took his own life by overdosing on Tylenol, according to documents released Monday.

WASHINGTON - Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore.

FREEPORT, Bahamas - Jett Travolta's body shows no sign of head trauma and his death certificate says he was killed by a seizure, an undertaker said Monday, after doctors performed an autopsy on the 16-year-old son of the U.S actor.

WASHINGTON - Spending on health care slowed slightly in 2007 as consumers turned more to generic drugs instead of brand-names to fill their medicine cabinets, the government reported Monday.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Left out of the national title game, Colt McCoy and Texas made the most of their trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

JACKSON, Ohio - Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter. Nathan Beavers, 18, was hospitalized Sunday with minor wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack. Police say another teen was also injured.

CHICAGO - The Chicago Cubs and free agent Milton Bradley reached a preliminary agreement Monday on a $30 million, three-year contract, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The deal is subject to a physical scheduled for Thursday, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the deal had not been finalized.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A Minnesota board on Monday certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state's U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, whose lawyer promised a legal challenge that probably will keep the race in limbo for months.

WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic House members said Monday that the alleged $50 billion fraud involving Wall Street figure Bernard Madoff reflects deep, systemic problems at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Pat Burrell went from one World Series team to the other. The Tampa Bay Rays added a big bat to the middle of their lineup, agreeing Monday on a $16 million, two-year contract with Burrell.

MONTERREY, Mexico - Police say a woman who begged from a wheelchair was caught running from a crime scene on foot in Monterrey, Mexico. Police spokeswoman Sidlayin Robles says 30-year-old Ana Victoria Perez fled on foot after she and her husband allegedly threw a stone through the front window of a furniture store.

MINNEAPOLIS - Carl Pohlad, a billionaire banker whose Minnesota Twins won two World Series titles during nearly his nearly quarter-century as owner, died Monday, a baseball official said. He was 93.

NEW YORK - Kent State once sent a linebacker to the Pittsburgh Steelers who epitomized everything the Steel Curtain was about. That was Jack Lambert. The current version of the hard-hitting, versatile and dynamic former Kent Stater in Steel City is James Harrison, The Associated Press 2008 Defensive Player of the Year.

DETROIT - Chrysler LLC's December U.S. sales plunged by more than half and it sold 30 percent fewer vehicles in 2008, dwarfing the steep declines at the other major automakers as consumers remained uncertain about the economy and their jobs.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Jermaine Taylor poured in 38 points to lead Central Florida to an 89-75 victory over Chicago State and the championship of the UCF Holiday Classic on Tuesday night.

CINCINNATI - A Cincinnati judge said he has seen long criminal records before, but this one was notable. Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Ted Berry gave 41-year-old Norman Holmes a 90-day jail sentence and a lecture Monday after Holmes' 109th misdemeanor conviction.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - A man who police said was shot by his stepfather ended up in the same jail with him after officers discovered outstanding arrest warrants against the victim. Police told The Daily News of Jacksonville that 37-year-old Richard Hayes shot his stepson Thursday night.

WASHINGTON - Two Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to run the CIA. Panetta was a surprise pick for the post, with no experience in the intelligence world. An Obama transition official and another Democrat disclosed his nomination on a condition of anonymity since it was not yet public.

GREELEY, Colo. - A bomb squad took a live mortar shell that a man found among his grandfather's possessions and detonated it at an undisclosed site. The sheriff's department said the grandson, whose name wasn't released, discovered the shell from the Korean War era at a home on Friday.

WASHINGTON - The first family leaving the White House this month will be without one of its longtime members: the Bush family's 18-year-old cat has died.

BEIJING - China warned Google and other popular Web portals Monday that they must do more to block pornographic material from reaching Chinese users, the latest in a series of government crackdowns targeting Internet content.

ATLANTA - Griffin B. Bell, the shrewd Southern lawyer who grew up with Jimmy Carter and later became U.S. attorney general after Carter was elected president, died Monday. He was 90.

DAYTON, Ohio - A man was arrested in the shooting death of a woman whose 4-year son was abducted and left unharmed at a highway rest area, authorities said Monday.

NEW YORK - Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer whose gaunt appearance in the past year has alarmed the Mac and iPod lovers who look to him as an oracle, said Monday he has an easily treated hormone imbalance and will remain in charge of the company.