Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Tuesday described the economy as being in "sharp decline," the closest he has come yet to conceding an election-year recession has set in.

AP - Sean "Diddy" Combs has denied a report by the Los Angeles Times that his associates were responsible for the 1994 robbery and shooting of Tupac Shakur at a New York recording studio, and that he knew about the attack in advance.

AP - North Carolina was the only school among the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA men's tournament to graduate at least 50 percent of its players. A report released Monday found 86 percent of Tar Heels men's players earned diplomas during a six-year period. The other top seeds were far worse: 45 percent at Kansas and 40 percent at UCLA and Memphis.

AP - China vowed to defend its sovereignty in Tibet, and a deadline issued for protesters involved in violent anti-government riots to turn themselves in or face severe punishment passed without any apparent surrenders or arrests Tuesday.

AP - Gov. David Paterson, who took over the state's top job Monday after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a prostitution scandal, has admitted he and his wife Michelle had affairs during a rough patch in their marriage several years ago, a newspaper reported.

AP - Democrat Barack Obama on Monday promised Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans help with their grievances — save one. "I know it drives you nuts. But I'm not going to lower the drinking age," the presidential candidate said.

Reuters - A deadline for Tibetan rioters to hand themselves in passed on Tuesday, but attention switched to China's premier, who was due to address the media after days of violence marring the run-up to Beijing's Olympic Games.

AP - Researchers say they have shown for the first time that humpback whale calves make sounds. The nonprofit Cetos Research Organization, which studied humpbacks off Maui and Kauai, say the grunts and squeals emitted by the young whales are messages for their mothers.

AP - The man at the center of a ricin scare at a Las Vegas motel says he never had any intention of hurting anyone with the deadly biological agent, his brother told The Associated Press.

AP - Former President Clinton on Monday called the notion that he unfairly criticized his wife's rival, Barack Obama, "a total myth and a mugging." Clinton had compared Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988.

AP - Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote and threw the delegate dispute into the lap of the national party.

Reuters - Florida's Democratic Party said on Monday it would no longer push for a rerun of the state's invalid primary election to pick a presidential nominee, leaving a decision on what to do with the state's delegates entirely to the national party.

Reuters - A spreading economic malaise seeped into U.S. factories in February and March as waning demand more than offset the export benefits of a cheaper dollar, a series of reports showed on Monday.

AFP - China faced mounting global pressure over Tibet on Monday amid exiles' claims that hundreds of people may have died in a crackdown on protesters, even though Beijing denied using deadly force.

Reuters - Russia and the United States expressed optimism on Monday they could improve ties, and Pentagon chief Robert Gates said a deal might be reached on a U.S. missile shield before the end of the Bush administration.

Reuters - A fire sale of Bear Stearns Cos Inc stunned Wall Street and pummeled global financial stocks on the eve of an expected U.S. interest rate cut aimed at preventing a meltdown of the financial system.

Reuters - The Dow industrials ended slightly higher, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell on Monday after JPMorgan Chase & Co's deal to buy struggling brokerage Bear Stearns at a rock bottom price failed to dispel fears of deeper fallout from the escalating credit crisis.

Reuters - New York Gov. David Paterson was sworn in on Monday following the sex scandal that forced predecessor Eliot Spitzer to resign, and he confronted a state budget shortfall worsened by a faltering U.S. economy.

AFP - A bomb blast near a Shiite shrine in the central Iraq city of Karbala killed at least 43 people on Monday, the city's police chief said.

Reuters - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor" in a visit to Iraq that was overshadowed by a suicide bombing that killed at least 25 people.

Reuters - Tibetan protesters who committed serious crimes will be dealt with harshly but those who show remorse can expect leniency, Tibet's governor said on Monday ahead of a midnight deadline for rioters to hand themselves in.

AP - The Federal Reserve, in an extraordinarily rare weekend move, took bold action Sunday evening to provide cash to financially squeezed Wall Street investment houses, a fresh effort to prevent a spreading credit crisis from sinking the U.S. economy.

AP - Just four days after Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz assured Wall Street that his company was not in trouble, he was forced on Sunday to sell the investment bank to competitor JPMorgan Chase for a bargain-basement price of $2 a share, or $236.2 million.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Sunday announced fresh emergency measures to stem a fast-spreading global financial crisis, using tools it has not used since the Great Depression.

AP - Sen. John McCain's trip to Iraq, which began Sunday in Baghdad, coincides with a number of milestones.

AP - Protests spread from Tibet into three neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown, while the Dalai Lama decried what he called the "cultural genocide" taking place in his homeland.

Reuters - JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Sunday it would buy stricken rival Bear Stearns for just $2 a share in an all-stock deal that values the fifth largest investment bank at about $236 million.

AP - When Jason Taylor takes the stage to face network TV cameras and dance the fox trot, he figures his jitters will be Super Bowl-size.