AP - The maternal grandparents of Josh Powell's two sons say the boys were playing happily Sunday and didn't want to visit their father.

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 - The Rev. Ian Paisley, once the loud voice of Protestant opposition to compromise with Catholics in Northern Ireland, has been taken to a hospital, his wife said Monday.

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?

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?

AP - Doctors in Panama say former dictator Manuel Noriega is "stable" after being hospitalized for extreme hypertension.

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 - Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says his consulting group never lobbied for clients. But his business hired state and federal lobbyists to work with clients, and some staff left to take lobbying jobs, according to lobbying disclosures and corporate reports.

Reuters - Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National Council opposition group said.

AP - President Barack Obama levied tough new sanctions on Iran's Central Bank Monday amid increased tensions over Tehran's nuclear program and the specter of an Israeli attack on the Islamic republic.

AP - After losing Saturday's Nevada caucus race, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich sought solace in what he called an encouraging statistic: that his supporters were turning out to vote more enthusiastically than those of his chief rival, Mitt Romney.

AP - Dan Conne says he and his wife and son thought they were going to die after getting lost while picking mushrooms and spending nearly a week in the rugged forest of southwest Oregon.

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.

Reuters - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece on Monday to make up its mind fast on accepting the painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout, but the country's political leaders responded by delaying their decision for yet another day.

AP - It was a blue Christmas for Hasbro. The No. 2 toy maker said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit slipped 1 percent, pinched by softer-than-expected demand in the U.S. and Canada and slow sales of games and puzzles during the key holiday season.

AP - Greece's coalition government on Monday 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.

Reuters - Survivors and relatives of those killed in a Norwegian mass-murder rampage wept and ridiculed the smiling attacker in court Monday as he defended his acts by issuing a tirade against immigration.

AP - Mitt Romney's remark that he's not worried about the very poor, the latest gaffe in a campaign rich with blunders, joins a long list of wait-let-me-explain episodes in presidential election history.

Reuters - Stocks edged lower on Monday as investors found little reason to extend a five-week rally on lingering uncertainty over whether Greece would accept the terms of a bailout.