AP - The morning after the Nov. 4 election, Norm Coleman stood before TV cameras, declared victory in Minnesota's U.S. Senate election and said that if he were opponent Al Franken he'd 'step aside.'

AP - A table piled with donated clothes is being eyed as the potential origin of a fire that killed five people at a Texas homeless shelter, forcing some residents to flee into the cold streets barefoot and coatless.

AP - Sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban accused Attorney General Jerry Brown on Monday of advancing a far-fetched legal theory to justify overturning it.

AP - Members of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's impeachment panel say they will move forward despite the possibility that they might not get to hear federal wiretaps of the governor's conversations with aides and others.

AP - Despite a state budget crisis and a crumbling national economy, Iowa legislators will nonetheless take on one of the most expensive problems in state history — flood recovery.

LONDON (Reuters) - Dire economic data underlined the severity of recession in Europe on Tuesday, while Toyota Motor Corp said it would halt all production in Japan in response to plunging demand.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's worsening gas dispute with Ukraine cut supplies on Tuesday to Turkey and a swathe of European countries, threatening disruption as far west as Italy and Germany.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused Pakistan on Tuesday of acting irresponsibly, saying November's Mumbai attacks must have had support from some of its nuclear-armed neighbor's official agencies.

AP - A cross-dressing dermatologist serving life in prison for killing his estranged wife, who was shot in front of witnesses, has been found hanged in his cell, a prisons spokeswoman said Tuesday.

AP - Nearly a year after headlines revealed a City Hall sex scandal, the former top aide to ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sent to jail Tuesday to serve the same punishment as her boss: 120 days with time shaved for good behavior.

AP - An all-out search for a missing Alabama organized crime specialist led to Las Vegas, where the decorated officer was arrested and accused of staging his disappearance to cover up the theft of $2,500 from his department, authorities said Tuesday.

AP - No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman was headed to court Tuesday, seeking to overturn a state board's certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.

AP - A union representing Chicago workers whose recent factory sit-in drew national attention are taking new action against the now-bankrupt company.

AP - Having missed his bus, a 6-year-old Virginia boy tried to drive to school in his family's sedan — and crashed.

AP - Prosecutors in eastern Arizona have agreed not to use statements made by a 9-year-old boy as they pursue murder charges against him.

AP - The green thumbs who keep lawns lush and flora flourishing in the city have found a new foe among the aphids, white flies and other yard pests — the water police.

AP - Federal prosecutors intend to charge a former security contractor for Blackwater USA in the killing of an Iraqi guard in 2006, his lawyer said Tuesday.

AP - Federal regulators are proposing a $65,000 fine against the operator of a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant where security guards routinely napped on the job.

AP - Police searched garbage dumps in New Jersey and Pennsylvania on Tuesday for the body of a baby apparently thrown out with the trash at a Jersey City hospital sometime in the past two weeks.

AP - A 6-year-old Virginia boy who missed his bus tried to drive to school in his family's sedan — and crashed. His parents were charged with child endangerment. State police said the boy suffered only minor injuries and authorities drove him to school after he was evaluated at a local hospital for a bump on his head. He arrived shortly after lunch, Sgt. Tom Cunningham said.

AP - A Philadelphia judge has been suspended for three months without pay because he issued a phony protective order as a favor to a Romanian diplomat worried about someone who was talking to his teenage daughter.

AP - Eleven Old Order Amish families sued a northern New York community Tuesday, claiming that its refusal to grant permits for their traditionally built homes is religious discrimination.

AP - In the largest marine conservation effort in history, President George W. Bush on Tuesday designated what he called 'three beautiful and biologically diverse areas of the Pacific Ocean' as national marine monuments.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians on Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc said on Tuesday it will curtail metal production by about 18 percent and cut some 15,200 jobs to save cash and reduce costs as it seeks to counter the impact of the global economic downturn.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats celebrated their increased clout in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, swearing in new members who are expected to help President-elect Barack Obama enact a massive economic stimulus package.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates estimates the Pentagon will need about $70 billion more to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, on top of the $65.9 billion already approved by Congress.

AP - When Anh 'Joseph' Cao was 8 and Saigon was about to fall, his mother asked if he wanted to take a trip to the beach.

AP - A prosecutor said Tuesday six former jail inmates and drug defendants will testify an Oklahoma sheriff used his influence to demand sex from them, while a defense attorney told jurors at the sheriff's trial that those women were lying or consented.

AP - An Ohio man accused of killing a mother and abandoning her 4-year-old son on a highway has been charged with aggravated murder, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition involving a child under 13.

AP - The former top aide and ex-lover of disgraced ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick followed her old boss to jail Tuesday, the last step in a criminal case that shook up Detroit politics for a year after romantic text messages between the pair made headlines.

AP - Profoundly disabled Edwin Rivera was left alone on a school bus in the bitter cold of New Year's Eve and wasn't found until 17 hours later, curled up but still alive.

AP - The nation's largest government-run utility ignored two small leaks that could have provided a warning years before a coal ash pond collapsed, flooding a neighborhood with a billion gallons of sludge, a former federal regulator contends.

AP - Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday that President-elect Barack Obama apologized to her for not notifying her ahead of time that Leon Panetta was his pick for CIA director.

AP - Roland Burris failed to capture President-elect Barack Obama's old Senate seat Tuesday in a wild piece of political theater, but the Democrats' opposition cracked when a key chairwoman said seating him was simply the legal thing to do.

AP - Former eBay executive Meg Whitman brings intrigue and a big bank account to California's beleaguered Republican Party.

AP - The first race card of the Obama era is now in play. In an apparent bid to save his political life — or perhaps just irritate and confound his enemies — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is trying to wedge a black man into the all-white Senate. On Tuesday, Blagojevich's choice, Roland Burris, was turned away on Capitol Hill when he tried to take his seat.

AP - Millions of children and adults have seizures in the United States, but dying from one is rare. That only adds to the confusion and mystery surrounding the life and death of Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of actors John Travolta and Kelly Preston.

AP - Electronic unemployment filing systems have crashed in at least three states in recent days amid an unprecedented crush of thousands of newly jobless Americans seeking benefits, and other states were adjusting their systems to avoid being next.

AP - A former Orange County sheriff gave power to a millionaire businessman who laundered money to help him win his first election, then continued accepting bribes and kickbacks in exchange for the influence of his office, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday in closing arguments.

AP - Police on Tuesday cleared out two New Orleans Catholic churches occupied by former parishioners opposed to the archdiocese's decision to close them, breaking down a door at one.

AP - It wasn't until the nurse in the emergency room lifted up a phone and said, 'We've got a gunshot victim,' that Sandra Howell understood why her arm hurt so much.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed an $18 billion deficit-cutting package Tuesday that legislative Democrats characterized as the only 'game in town.'

AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich's official calendar shows he met with a top union official in his Chicago office the day before Barack Obama was elected president — just as federal prosecutors say the governor was scheming to trade Obama's Senate seat, possibly for a cushy union job.

AP - Barack and Michelle Obama are known for nights out on the town in Chicago, dining at some of its poshest restaurants with the smartest chefs. But who knew the president-elect was a food critic?

AP - Lawyers for more than a dozen victims in a deadly commuter rail crash accused the engineer's employer of ignoring complaints that he regularly used his cell phone while operating trains.

AP - Two men and a teenager were charged Tuesday in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian in the San Francisco Bay area.