AP - President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush's Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

AP - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is promising Congress will try to have a huge economic recovery bill ready for President-elect Barack Obama as soon as he takes office.

AP - The Thanksgiving shopping weekend doesn't appear to have been the disaster some had feared, but tempered buying and unprecedented deep discounts likely resulted in soft sales. Now, online retailers are ramping up heavy-duty deals to turn skittish shoppers into "Cyber Monday" spenders.

AP - Soldiers removed the last bodies from the shattered Taj Mahal hotel Monday as India formally demanded Pakistan take "strong action" against those behind the 60-hour seige that left at least 172 people dead.

AP - The mayor of Alabama's largest city, a player in a multibillion dollar sewer bond deal that drove the surrounding county to the brink of bankruptcy, was arrested on Monday on federal criminal charges, an FBI spokesman said.

AP - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin implored Georgia Republicans to back Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his hotly contested Senate runoff, telling a cheering crowd Monday that the first step in rebuilding the GOP begins with the Southern state.

AP - 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.

AP - Plaxico Burress arrived at a police station early Monday, where he was expected to be charged after accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh at a Manhattan nightclub.

Reuters - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Monday announced his national security team, nominating former rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stay on in that role.

Reuters - India said on Monday it had called Pakistan's envoy and informed him that deadly attacks in Mumbai were carried out by militants from Pakistan and demanded swift action against those responsible.

Reuters - Thai protesters prepared to end their three-month occupation of the Prime Minister's office on Monday to consolidate their grip on the main airport ahead of a court verdict that could dissolve the elected government.

Reuters - European and Chinese industry activity slumped in November, Japanese officials said their economy was slowing rapidly and euro zone finance ministers gathered on Monday to discuss plans to curb recession.

Reuters - Federal investigators arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday on charges of receiving illegal payments, the Birmingham News newspaper reported on its website.

Reuters - Key retail stocks fell on Monday as investors feared that deep discounts offered by stores during the year's first holiday shopping weekend could sap profits and would not save a bleak season.

Reuters - A suicide car-bomber killed eight people on Monday in an attack aimed at a military checkpost in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, military officials said.

Reuters - Blasts at Baghdad's police academy and in the northern city of Mosul killed 30 people and wounded dozens more on Monday, hours after a roadside bomb wounded a senior Iraqi official, police said.

AFP - India on Monday formally accused "elements" in Pakistan of being behind the Islamic militant attacks in Mumbai and demanded that Islamabad take "strong action", the foreign ministry said.

AFP - President-elect Barack Obama on Monday nominated his former rival Hillary Clinton to be the next US secretary of state, as he unveiled a raft of cabinet picks.