AP - Detroit's Big Three automakers pleaded with a reluctant Congress Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, pointedly warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse.

AP - President-elect Barack Obama's top choice for attorney general is Eric Holder, a former No. 2 Justice Department official in the Clinton administration and Obama campaign aide who would become the first African American to serve as the nation's chief lawyer.

AP - Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens dropped further behind Democrat Mark Begich in his re-election bid Tuesday as the convicted felon's 85th birthday became a grueling wait that could determine whether his decades-long hold on power is over.

AP - Sen. John McCain, whose presidential bid was snuffed out two weeks ago by President-elect Barack Obama, is setting up a political action committee as a first step in running for a fifth term in the Senate.

AP - A new witness has come forward in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, and prosecutors said Tuesday they are seeking more evidence against the only remaining suspect.

AP - The Santa Barbara County sheriff says a weekend wildfire that destroyed 210 homes was caused accidentally by a bonfire built by a group of young adults. Sheriff Bill Brown said Tuesday that the 10 young people thought they put out the bonfire before they left. The destructive wildfire erupted about 13 hours after the group left the tea garden where the bonfire was built.

AP - An 8-year-old boy accused in the shooting deaths of his father and another man said in a police interview released Tuesday that he did not fire the first shots at the men but later shot them so they wouldn't suffer.

AP - Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs. "This technique has great promise," said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

AP - Dustin Pedroia could easily be mistaken for a mechanic, carpenter or plumber, most anything except a major leaguer. "I'm not the biggest guy in the world. I don't have that many tools," he said. "If you saw me walking down the street, you wouldn't think I'm a baseball player." Well, not unless he was carrying his AL MVP award.

AP - The knuckleball — the fluttering, hard-to-hit pitch that's rare in the major leagues — is propelling a 16-year-old girl to the pros in Japan.

AP - Eleven-year-old Protegee carried her sobbing niece on her back as they searched for relatives in a sea of people in eastern Congo.

AP - A major Norwegian shipping group on Tuesday ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after Somali pirates seized a Saudi supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

AP - It seems inconceivable: Somali pirates in speedboats foil warships from the world's most powerful navies to prey on shipping lanes crucial to the oil supply.

AP - Rebels were pulling back their forces from the frontlines to allow talks with the army, their spokesman said Tuesday, as retreating army soldiers battled mobs of spear-wielding militiamen.

AP - Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

AP - As of Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, at least 4,200 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - A senior commander of international peacekeepers in Darfur said Tuesday the mission is encouraging rebel groups to accept a government cease-fire offer — a task made difficult by recent violence.

AFP - John Key took power as New Zealand's 38th prime minister Wednesday when his new government was sworn in following the victory of his centre-right National Party in an election earlier this month.

AP - Australia's navy gets a big Christmas gift this year: two months paid vacation for most sailors that will ease the effects of a recruiting slump but make the service Down Under look something like a part-time operation.

Reuters - A young Nepali climber is seeking to popularize a toilet fashioned from a plastic bucket with a lid to promote eco-friendly climbing on Mount Everest.

Reuters - "I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it."

Reuters - An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude "anything goes" party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday.

AP - State officials on Tuesday took into protective custody 21 children associated with an evangelical group whose founder faces federal child sex charges.

AP - Nebraska lawmakers gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a new 30-day age limit for children who can be legally abandoned under the state's safe-haven law.

AP - An 8-year-old boy accused in the shooting deaths of his father and another man said in a police interview released Tuesday that he did not fire the first shots at the men but later shot them so they wouldn't suffer.

AP - The Santa Barbara County sheriff says a weekend wildfire that destroyed 210 homes was caused accidentally by a bonfire built by a group of young adults. Sheriff Bill Brown said Tuesday that the 10 young people thought they put out the bonfire before they left. The destructive wildfire erupted about 13 hours after the group left the tea garden where the bonfire was built.

AP - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his international climate change summit on Tuesday by upstaging himself with an even bigger political star — President-elect Barack Obama.

AP - The setting could pass for a high-tech trading floor: men in dark suits, sitting at tiered banks of desks, studying a steady stream of video and data on floor-to-ceiling monitors.

AP - The wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday she'll create a refuge for wild horses, after the federal agency that manages the animals said it may have to kill some to control the herds and protect the Western range.