Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan will become the first female solicitor general. Other key jobs go to Bush torture policy critic Dawn Johnsen and transition team members David Ogden and Tom Perrelli. President-elect Barack Obama has named four former Clinton administration officials as part of his new team at the Justice Department, tapping Harvard Law School's dean, Elena Kagan, to become the first female solicitor general and Dawn Johnsen, a critic of Bush administration torture

Leon Panetta, a former congressman and Clinton chief of staff, would give Obama a political ally at the helm of the troubled spy agency. In choosing Leon E. Panetta to be the next CIA director, President-elect Barack Obama appears to have concluded that a spy chief who understands politics may be better equipped to carry out the incoming administration's national security agenda than one who understands espionage.

The ruling comes after a Newport Beach parish split from the U.S. Episcopal church over the ordination of a gay bishop. Other denominations could be affected. Rebellious congregations that part ways with their denominations may lose their church buildings and property as a result, the California Supreme Court said Monday in a unanimous ruling.

Coleman, the incumbent, does not concede, however, and plans a legal challenge that could delay the final outcome for months. Former comedian Al Franken was declared the top vote-getter Monday in Minnesota's long-disputed U.S. Senate race, but incumbent Republican Norm Coleman pledged an immediate legal challenge that could delay the final outcome for months.

Washington -- President Bush will create three new marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said today, designated areas that will span 195,280 square miles and protect some of the most ecologically rich areas of the world's oceans.

'They must be executed,' says a man who was injured in the incident that left 17 unarmed Iraqis dead. Five guards are to be arraigned in the shootings they say were sparked when they were fired upon. Ask attorney Hassan Jabbar Salman what should happen to five Blackwater Worldwide guards accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqis and wounding 20 others, including himself, and his answer is simple: They should be hanged.

Airstrikes, shelling and artillery fire are said to kill 16 children. Israel rejects calls for a cease-fire, and Hamas vows to keep fighting as the conflict enters its 11th day. Israeli ground forces backed by air and naval power fought their way into urban areas deep inside the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday, striking at the Palestinian group's hideouts and rocket-launching sites but also inflicting a heavy toll in civilian lives.

In the face of mounting international calls for a cease-fire, the Strip's largest city is isolated amid fierce clashes with militants. At least 35 Palestinians are killed, medical sources say. Israeli soldiers and tank columns bisected the Gaza Strip on Sunday, isolating its largest city amid fierce clashes on multiple fronts with militant fighters.

Democrats are opposed to Roland Burris getting Obama's Senate seat because he was appointed by scandal-plagued Blagojevich. But the Senate majority leader says, 'There's always room to negotiate.' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opened the possibility Sunday that former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris might serve in the Senate despite the aggressive opposition of Democratic leaders to his appointment by a scandal-tarnished governor.

The explosion comes at a crowded checkpoint where Shiite Muslim pilgrims were en route to a shrine. As Shiite Muslim pilgrims made their way to a shrine in Baghdad today to mark one of the sect's most important religious holiday, a female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a crowded checkpoint, killing as many as 38 people and wounding 72, police said.

Police look into several potential suspects in the $2-million heist as the socialite cooperates with investigators. LAPD investigators believe the $2-million jewelry heist at Paris Hilton's Mulholland Estates mansion last month was probably done by someone familiar with the home's layout and who knew how to access the socialite's collection of rings, watches and necklaces.

Lilly's company, which makes the open-source Firefox software, depends for its success on thousands of devoted volunteers. The gig: Chief executive of Mozilla Corp., maker of the Firefox Web browser, which broke Microsoft Corp.'s hold on the market so that it couldn't dominate the Internet the way it does computer operating systems. About 95% of Web surfers used Microsoft's Internet Explorer in 2004; now 20% use Firefox, and other companies are offering browsers that are

With a limited amount of money, officials across the U.S. are zeroing in on the neediest areas. Los Angeles is expected to get nearly $33 million. Terry Ware, head of Denver's housing and neighborhood development office, is a man under siege. The city is due to receive $6 million under an unusual federal program to help cities and counties deal with abandoned properties. Not surprisingly, there are many people in town who want help.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershocks in West Papua province knock out power, damage buildings and leave at least 19 injured. A series of powerful earthquakes in remote eastern Indonesia killed at least three people today as it cut power lines, flattened a hotel and damaged other buildings, officials and witnesses said.

Out-of-state and international students could help the public university system cushion cuts in funding, but could also keep out qualified local applicants. UCLA sophomore Ying Chen could have stayed at home in New Jersey for college, but instead she traveled cross-country, where she willingly pays about $20,000 a year more for her education than most of her classmates.

At Kelly Ingram Park, the statues of ferocious police dogs, defiant children and frightened protesters recall the 1963 demonstrations that ignited the civil rights movement. Kelly Ingram Park sits on the fringe of downtown Birmingham, flanked by a high-rise and a museum, a one-block square of magnolias and pines and wooden benches that, these commonplace trappings aside, is like no other municipal green in America.

A massive earth-moving project is transforming Smuggler's Gulch near San Diego from a narrow canyon used by cattle thieves, bandits and illegal immigrants into a plugged breach. Smuggler's Gulch lived up to its infamous name.

Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel, and its supporters hold a funeral for a slain leader. Thousands of Israeli troops remain massed on the Gaza border. Israeli airstrikes Friday killed at least eight Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid mounting speculation that a long-threatened land invasion of the coastal territory would begin soon.

Young men with ties to a hard-line political group shout slogans and vandalize the Tehran building where the human rights lawyer lives and works. Scores of young men gathered around the Tehran home-office of Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, shouted slogans against her and vandalized her home in the latest episode by hard-line political groups close to the government to intimidate the human rights lawyer.

The crucial land route for supplies to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan is reopened three days after being closed because of a Pakistani offensive against Islamic militants in the region. A crucial land route for military supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan was reopened Friday by Pakistani authorities, three days after being closed because of fighting between the Pakistani army and Islamic militants.

After two Mexican federal agents and two others were arrested in July on drug-related charges, little has emerged about the case and residents are puzzled. The residents of North Monte Verde Drive, a stretch of oak-shaded suburban calm in the Covina area, normally would feel safe knowing that two off-duty police officers were visiting the neighborhood.

There are fewer of them, but Democrats may need them to break potential GOP filibusters. Congress has so few moderate Republicans that at least in the Senate they could squeeze into a Volkswagen Beetle.

Helen Suzman, an anti-apartheid activist and former longtime opposition leader in South Africa's parliament who was one of the few white elected officials to win the trust and respect of the country's black majority, died Thursday. She was 91.

The Treasury Department inspector general's examination of funding for the 'bank to the stars' reflects growing concern in Washington about whether the banking rescue is working. Can a $400-million injection of federal bailout money to the "bank to the stars" in Beverly Hills really help revive the troubled U.S. economy?

In a time of turmoil, the annual Pasadena procession seeks to reassure with an injection of optimism and celebration. The 120-year-old Rose Parade ushered in the new year on a sun-kissed morning in Pasadena with a much-needed injection of optimism and celebration, a powerful antidote in a time of economic turmoil.