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. Millions of layoffs would follow their demise, they said, as damaging effects rippled across an already-faltering economy.

AP - Washington attorney Eric Holder is President-elect Barack Obama's top choice to be the next attorney general and aides have gone so far as to ask senators whether he would be confirmed, an Obama official and people close to the matter said Tuesday.

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 - 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 - An 8-year-old boy accused in the shooting deaths of his father and another man told police he did not fire the first shots at the men but later shot them so they wouldn't suffer. But near the end of an hourlong video of his interview with authorities, the boy admits to the slayings in St. Johns, burying his head in his jacket.

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

AP - A spacewalking astronaut accidentally let go of her tool bag Tuesday after a grease gun inside it exploded, and helplessly watched as the tote and everything inside floated away.

AP - The prostitute at the center of the salacious scandal that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and generated national headlines is going to dish on her life as a pricey escort. ABC says Ashley Alexandra Dupre sat down with Diane Sawyer on the program "20/20."