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CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama picked a national security team headed by former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bush administration holdover Robert Gates on Monday, and said he wants to consult with military commanders before settling on a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy has been in a recession since December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday. The NBER — a private, nonprofit research organization — said its group of academic economists who determine business cycles met and decided that the U.S. recession began last December.

MUMBAI, India - India demanded Monday that Pakistan take "strong action" against those behind the deadly Mumbai attacks, and Washington pressured Islamabad to cooperate with the investigation.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush says history will judge him, but he is getting his own crack first. Bush is using his final 50 days in office to tout his legacy, hoping to leave a lasting impression of overshadowed progress. On Monday, World AIDS Day, Bush was heralded for his leadership in fighting the disease, a point that even his Democratic critics readily concede.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The parents of the television anchorwoman who was beaten to death said Monday there is evidence their daughter also was sexually assaulted, and that she broke her hand fighting her attacker. Five days after a suspect was arrested in the Oct. 20 beating of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly, Guy and Patti Cannady said on NBC's "Today" that the family still has many questions about the killing.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Georgia voters to back Sen. Saxby Chambliss in Tuesday's runoff in an election eve appeal that underscored her popularity within the Republican Party and the GOP's efforts to stave off erosion of its shrinking Senate numbers.

CHICAGO - Almost one in five young American adults has a personality disorder that interferes with everyday life, and even more abuse alcohol or drugs, researchers reported Monday in the most extensive study of its kind.

SAN ANTONIO - A man who rammed his truck into a woman's vehicle on a highway early Friday told authorities he crashed into her while going more than 100 mph because God told him "she needed to be taken off the road."

NEW YORK - Plaxico Burress was led out of a police precinct in handcuffs Monday after surrendering on a weapons possession charge, and authorities said that teammate Antonio Pierce is being investigated over his role in an accidental shooting at a Manhattan nightclub.

LONDON - Happily contemplating another woman as the top U.S. diplomat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she will offer advice, privately, and then get out of the way.

NEW YORK - Ivana Trump has issued a statement confirming reports of marital discord with Italian entrepreneur Rossano Rubicondi. Trump, who married Rubicondi in April, says she filed a legal separation agreement three months ago. Trump says she kept quiet about it because she didn't want to ruin Rubicondi's chances as a contestant on the Italian edition of the reality TV show "Survivor."

CHICAGO - Older people who are depressed are much more likely to develop a dangerous type of internal body fat — the kind that can lead to diabetes and heart disease — than people who are not depressed, a disturbing new study found.

WASHINGTON - Last warning: Asthma inhalers go "green" on Dec. 31, forcing patients still using the old-fashioned kind to make a pricey and even confusing switch. The medicine inside these rescue inhalers — the albuterol that quickly opens airways during an asthma attack — isn't changing. But the chemicals used to puff that drug into your lungs are.

CHICAGO - Barack Obama says the U.S.-Iraq security agreement approved by Iraq's parliament puts the U.S. on a "glide path" toward reducing forces there.

WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that further interest-rate cuts are "certainly feasible," but he warned there are limits to how much such action would revive an economy likely to stay weak well into next year.

MIAMI - An armored truck guard was shot to death at a suburban Miami mall Monday, and police were searching for two gunmen.

NEW YORK - Retailers who saw Thanksgiving holiday sales drop off as the weekend progressed stepped up online promotions on the day known as "Cyber Monday" to try to get consumers tired of the crowds at stores to keep shopping.

JERUSALEM - Israel has gotten fed up with spam. Anyone who sends out messages without receiving the recipient's consent can now be slapped with a big fine.

NEW YORK - Tina Fey's husband is talking about something the "30 Rock" actress would rather not discuss: the scar on her left cheek.

WASHINGTON - Facing severe cutbacks in state services as the recession deepens, the nation's governors pressed their case on Capitol Hill Monday, asking for at least $40 billion to help pay for health care for the poor and disabled.

LOS ANGELES - Thanksgiving weekend movie crowds gobbled up the Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn holiday comedy "Four Christmases," which debuted at No. 1 with $31.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

WASHINGTON - A gauge of U.S. manufacturing activity that fell to a 26-year low Monday followed similarly weak readings in Europe and China, fueling fears of a deepening global downturn.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The mayor of Alabama's largest city, Larry Langford, was arrested Monday on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than $230,000 in bribes that paid his debts for flashy clothes, jewelry and Rolex watches.

BAGHDAD - A suicide bombing tore through a line of recruits waiting to enter a police academy as multiple blasts struck Iraqi security forces Monday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens including four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi general.

DETROIT - Stoic and publicly silent through months of a sex scandal, the woman whose relationship with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick led to his downfall broke her silence Monday, shedding tears as she pleaded guilty.

LONDON - The United States has told Pakistan it expects complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday, saying the civilized world must unite against this menace.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Laptop, cell phone and iPod owners tired of having their devices run out of charge after a few hours have been patiently waiting for the next portable power source to arrive.