AP - People rarely pick a fight with Dirty Harry. But Chrysler's "Halftime in America" ad featuring quintessential tough guy Clint Eastwood has generated fierce debate about whether it accurately portrays the country's most economically distressed city or amounts to a campaign ad for President Barack Obama and the auto bailouts.

AP - Josh Powell's boys were coming for a visit, and he had preparations to make.

AP - Mexico's conservative ruling party is gambling that this country known for machismo is ready for a female president and have chosen a devout Roman Catholic and popular former congresswoman who says she sympathizes with the causes of the poor.

AP - Many children stayed home Monday while parents demanded more protection at an elementary school where two teachers are suspected of molesting students in class.

AP - After months of wavering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took a decisive step Monday toward reconciliation with the Islamic militant group Hamas, a move Israel promptly warned would close the door to any future peace talks.

AP - A Missouri teenager who admitted stabbing, strangling and slitting the throat of a young neighbor girl wrote in her journal on the night of the killing that it was an "ahmazing" and "pretty enjoyable" experience — then headed off to church with a laugh.

AP - Long skeptical of Mitt Romney, tea party activists are either warming up to the GOP presidential front-runner or reluctantly backing him after abandoning hope of finding a nominee they like better.

AP - A former Marine already accused of killing four homeless men was charged Monday with two new counts of murder in the stabbing deaths of his high school friend's mother and older brother.

AP - Alexis McKenzie's mother had mild dementia, but things sounded OK when she phoned home: Dad was with her, finishing his wife's sentences as they talked about puttering through the day and a drive to the store.

AP - Former police detective Stephanie Lazarus was either a heartbroken, jilted lover driven to kill her romantic rival, or she was an innocent woman snared in a web of mishandled scientific evidence.

AP - The court martial for a Marine sergeant accused of hazing a fellow Marine who committed suicide in Afghanistan was delayed Monday after the prosecution asked to expand the details of the charges.

AP - A federal judge ruled Monday that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage that wounded former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will spend four more months at a federal prison facility where officials are forcibly medicating him.

AP - Romania's government has collapsed following weeks of protests against austerity measures, the latest debt-stricken government in Europe to fall in the face of raising public anger over biting cuts.

AP - Yum Brands Inc., owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC fast-food chains, said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit rose 30 percent with a recipe of strong overseas growth mixed with a sales turnaround at Pizza Hut in the U.S.

AP - Greece's coalition government caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.

AP - Criticism of a Senate campaign ad featuring a young Asian woman talking in broken English about China taking away American jobs grew Monday as some warned it could revive discrimination against Asian-Americans.

AP - Criticism of a Senate campaign ad featuring a young Asian woman talking in broken English about China taking away American jobs grew Monday as some warned it could revive discrimination against Asian-Americans.

AP - For decades, tourists visiting this popular Adirondack village could gape at the skeletons of soldiers from nearby French and Indian War sites. Then in 1993, a somber reburial ceremony was held to finally put the remains to rest.

AP - A tent city that's among the longest-lived Occupy protest encampments is coming down as part of a new wave of eviction orders against demonstrators aligned with the movement in communities including Miami, Washington and Pittsburgh.

Reuters - Nearly 1 million U.S. homeowners have won permanent reductions on mortgage payments since the Obama administration launched its foreclosure prevention program in 2009, the U.S. Treasury said on Monday, only a fraction of the total it aimed to reach.

AP - Tax reform sounds like a good idea to lots of people, but where to start? Eliminate the popular deduction for home mortgages? End the write-off for charitable contributions? How about expanding the Social Security payroll tax?