In a move that signals the extent of President Obama's overhaul of war strategy, the top general in Afghanistan will be replaced. It appears that General David McKiernan's repeated requests for more troops did not line up with Obama's priority of "non-military solutions." Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to announce Monday that Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal will be Mckiernan's successor. He'll also detail the new strategy to win the seven-year war in Afghanistan.

The weight of war was too much for one soldier to handle. At Camp Liberty in Baghdad Monday, a U.S. soldier shot five fellow troops to death at a counseling center. The soldier had been disarmed earlier in the day after he got into a verbal altercation with a person there, a source tells ABC News. After the rampage, the man was taken into custody. According to sources, the the shooter was on his third deployment and had recently been referred to the stress center, though he had never before sought help to combat stress. "Anytime we lose one of our own, it affects us all," a military spokesman said. "Our hearts go out to the families and friends of all the service members involved in this terrible tragedy."

Seven NASA astronauts have set off aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis on a rescue mission—to drastically upgrade the aging Hubble telescope. The wildly ambitious voyage, nearly aborted because of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, calls for the astronauts the make repairs requiring remarkable precision in zero gravity, with all kinds of dangerous “space junk” flying nearby. “Can you imagine taking out 110 tiny screws with massive great gloves, not losing any, then pulling out boards putting new boards in?” the director of the Hubble said, explaining the challenging work ahead. Though many feel that the telescope, which has been in space for 19 years, is old and obsolete, it is near and dear to many scientists’ hearts and is responsible for some amazing discoveries, including the accepted estimate of the age of the universe. A further challenge to the mission: Hubble’s distance from the International Space Station, which could hamper rescue efforts should the repairs go awry.

Yet more grim news from General Motors: CEO Fritz Henderson sounds open to the idea of moving the company’s headquarters out of downtown Detroit to save money. “We’re looking at everything,” he said Monday, though he added there are no plans yet to move from the beleaguered city, which already has an unemployment rate of 21 percent. Execs aren’t only thinking about abandoning the Motor City: Bloomberg reports that six executives sold all their shares in the company as the June 1 deadline for filing bankruptcy or restructuring looms. Fritz said it’s more likely than previously thought that GM will have to file for bankruptcy. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz sold all 81,360 of his shares at $1.61 each, while North America President Troy Clarke unloaded all 21,380 of his at $1.45 a piece.

The Iranians may have released U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi, but they’ve already made a statement—don’t mess with us. When the Iranian authorities arrested Saberi for not having a press pass, they were sending a message to the Iranian media in the run-up to the June presidential election, the BBC reports. But they upgraded her charges to spying as a way to rebuff President Obama’s calls for improved U.S.-Iran relations. Since her arrest was so politically calculated, it’s doubtful her release will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the two countries. So far, Iran has responded icily to Obama’s attempts to talk about the country’s nuclear program.

It seems Hollywood tycoon David Geffen really wants to buy a newspaper: He tried to purchase a 19-percent stake in the ailing New York Times last month but ended up withdrawing his offer when the hedge fund owners at Harbinger Capital Partners wanted more money for the deal. Geffen’s been on the hunt for a paper for a few years—he offered $2 billion for the Los Angeles Times in 2006, and reiterated his request in 2007, when the Tribune Company was $12 billion in debt. Another tidbit: Google was also considering buying the 19-percent stake, but ultimately turned it down.

At a press conference we’re sure Perez Hilton will be watching, Donald Trump will announce Tuesday morning whether controversial beauty queen Carrie Prejean will be able to keep her Miss California crown. The Miss USA runner-up has made news with her vocal opposition to gay marriage and for a recent series of topless photos, which organizers say violate her contract. Prejean also broke her contract by agreeing to be a spokeswoman for the National Organization for Marriage, and pageant organizers say she’s been forgoing scheduled engagements to focus on her new high-profile lifestyle. But don’t worry, California—even if Prejean is stripped of her title, pageant organizers have tapped runner-up Tami Farrell to be the official “ambassador” to the pageant, which sounds a lot like being Miss California.

President Obama’s plan to raise $318 billion to finance his health care overhaul through limiting tax deductions for America’s wealthiest is running a little short—$60 billion short, to be precise. The administration is now scrambling to find new ways to fill the hole in the financing of the sweeping reforms, and is proposing tighter rules for inheritance taxes on the nation’s wealthiest estates. Just three-tenths of 1 percent of estates each year would be affected by the stricter tax rules. But getting the estate tax passed is the least of Obama’s problems: Congress is opposing the deduction limits, which would raise $266.7 billion over 10 years, on the grounds that they would lower charitable donations among the wealthy.

When it comes to his makeup routine, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is something of a diva. He applies an “illuminating foam,” followed by concealer under the eyes, Clinique Superbalanced makeup, and then Guerlain bronzer, according to a sheaf of papers that a (now presumably fired) junior aide mislaid in a cab. The Sun got hold of and then returned the papers, which also include sensitive travel details and a plan of action for dealing with the scandal over members of Parliament charging huge personal sums as expenses. The step-by-step guide to applying the makeup comes at a bad time—Brown is also under fire for expensing thousands of dollars in cleaning services to his brother. “The PM, like everyone on TV, is required to wear make-up,” says a spokesman for Brown.

Though John Demjanjuk and his family did nearly everything in their power to fight his deportation to Germany to face charges related to his alleged past as a brutal Nazi guard, the feds came and hauled him away from his home on Monday. Demjanjuk, 89 and wheelchair-bound, was placed on a plane to Germany Monday night after the Supreme Court denied his appeal to stay in the country last week. He is accused of walking prisoners from train cars to the gas chambers at a Nazi death camp in 1943. He’s being charged as an accomplice in the deaths of 29,000 Jews; Demjanjuk’s family claims he is frail and the victim of mistaken identity. He’s been suspected of having a Nazi past since 1977.

So, who’s on the shortlist to be President Obama’s first pick for the Supreme Court? NBC’s First Read reports the front-runners to replace retiring Justice David Souter are Diane Wood of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Of the five women and one man, one is Hispanic and all are in their late 40s or early 50s except Wood (58) and Garland (56). First Read is betting on Obama naming someone he knows well or trusts personally—narrowing the field to Wood, Kagan, and Napolitano. A key point: The president has “been as impressed with Napolitano as anyone in his cabinet. They click. That matters.”

A case of pilot error: Investigators probing the Continental jet crash in Buffalo that killed 50 people in February have found that the pilot failed several tests and did not have enough to handle the mechanical errors that led to the plane stalling. Investigators have also found that there were “lapses in cockpit discipline” as well as “chronic pilot fatigue.” The pilot, Captain Marvin Renslow, had five unsatisfactory training grades on his record, though he subsequently passed his exams. Renslow also had only 109 hours of experience flying the Buffalo-bound aircraft, which “an unusually limited amount of time by industry standards,” The Wall Street Journal reports. When the plane’s speed slowed dangerously during its approach to Buffalo, the pilot reacted improperly, forcing the crash.

The good news: All channels of government seemed to be communicating with each other Monday when the U.S. Navy requested a flight up and down the Hudson River, next to New York City. The bad news: Someone in the U.S. Navy was foolish enough to request a flight up and down the Hudson, next to New York City, two weeks after an unannounced Boeing 747 flyover sent panicked New Yorkers fleeing from office buildings. A Navy unit based in Brunswick, Maine, was hoping to fly a P-3 Orion reconnaissance plane up and down the river at 3,000 feet, well above the height of the city’s tallest skyscrapers. The FAA, taking no chances, denied the request. Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not oppose the flight, but the mayor of Jersey City made clear his astonishment at the audacity of such a request: “This was a mistake that would have repeated the whole stupid and alarming process that occurred two weeks ago.”

Take a look at the New York Times deal with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and the cliché of "You play with fire, you're going to get burned" seems all too true. The details, reveled in the Times' latest SEC filing, show how Slim set up the $250 million loan over six years much to his advantage. For starters, the loan required the Times to give Slim a cool $4.5 million up front. After that, the Times faces a brutal 14 percent interest rate on the loan that will add up to $210 million over the six years, meaning "the cost of (the) money...is almost as much as the money itself." In addition to this, Slim set up the deal so that the paper did not go deeper in debt by investing in its newsroom—an agreement sure to irk journalists. Overall, the loan comes out looking sweet for Slim, and brutal for the "old gray lady." Does this mean the Ochs-Sulzberger family ownership will be cornered or pushed out?

One would think that landing the ultimate commencement speaker, the president of the United States, would be cause for celebration. Quite to the contrary at Notre Dame, where Barack Obama's invitation to speak has made American Catholics throw a hissy fit, revealing deep divisions in the community itself. The vocal pro-life, anti-stem cell research side has widely publicized its opposition to Obama speaking at Notre Dame's graduation ceremony. Pat Buchanan got his two cents in, expressing his horror that the president's "support for policies and programs that bring death to more than a million unborn children every year is no disqualification to being honored by a university dedicated to Our Lady." Writing in The New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg says that the demagoguery is more of an issue within the religious right than throughout all of America. Polls have revealed that a majority of both Catholics and non-Catholics find stem-cell research and the current laws on abortion acceptable. And Obama's philosophy, which seeks a common ground with those that disagree with him, is the best approach to keep the dialogue "relatively civil" in spite of radicals' hysteria.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to announce his candidacy for the Senate tomorrow, making him one of the GOP's heaviest hitters going into the 2010 elections. As the Republican Party struggles to get back on its feet after a disastrous 2008, Crist, who is widely popular throughout Florida, stands as "the instant front-runner" for the Senate seat. However, his competitors in the primary are certain to call his conservative credentials into question, as he supported Obama's stimulus package. The Hill reports that Crist's entrance into the Senate race will likely attract other Republicans to throw their hats into other closely contested elections throughout the country.

In the lead-up to her "cancer diary" set to air on NBC, Farrah Fawcett spoke publicly for the first time about the media's relentless effort to portray her suffering for the public. Fawcett said in the interview with ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times that she had to set up an actual "sting operation" to ferret out the employee at the UCLA hospital who was leaking details of her condition to the media, and also discussed the pressure forced upon her to open a cancer foundation in her name. Fawcett, who spoke "in a firm voice that betrayed no hint of her terminal illness," said that she was deprived of the decision most cancer victims have of how and when to reveal her illness.

President Obama's policy of engaging our enemies has a hit a roadblock in Syria, as the country has once again become a staging ground for suicide bombers and foreign fighters preparing to strike in Iraq. Last Friday, only two days after the U.S. sent diplomats for the second time to Syria, Obama renewed sanctions against the nation for "supporting terrorism in the Middle East." One would-be suicide bomber who was captured last month confirmed what military officials had suspected: More and more terrorists are setting up operations in Syria and then smuggling fighters across the border when the time is right. U.S. officials are unsure of just how aware the upper echelons of the Syrian government are of the terrorist networks in their backyard. One source estimated that 20 fighters a month are slipping into Iraq from Syria.

Writing Monday in his weekly column in The Washington Post, Howard Kurtz bemoans the end of newsprint, conceding that the future is decidedly bleak. Nevertheless, amid all the gloom and doom is one glimmer of hope: top execs at The Washington Post and Google are in discussions about a possible collaboration. The ideas being batted around involve "creating new Web pages to technological tools for journalists or readers." Of course, the D.C. paper is at a bit of a disadvantage at the negotiating table, as Google makes a pretty penny using the The Post's content without paying for it. A Post executive, referring to the negotiations, said, "On the journalism side of the conversation we've learned a lot."

A human rights organization is investigating claims that the U.S. used white phosphorous in a battle with the Taliban last week in which hundreds of civilians have died. A doctor in a nearby village said that civilians were taken to the hospital after the battle with “highly unusual burns” on their hands and feet. “One of the women who came here told us that 22 members of her family were totally burned. She said a bomb distributed white power that caught fire and then set people's clothes alight,” the doctor said. U.S. forces claim they did not use the chemical and that the reports of 147 civilian deaths were exaggerated. But the forces do not deny dropping bombs after militants had left the battlefield, when civilians were more likely to get hurt.

Its thanks to their legions of hardcore fans that franchises like Twilight, Harry Potter, and Star Trek generate big budget movie adaptations. But are the same fans ruining the films before they even hit the screen? According to Washington Post critic Hank Stuever, directors are increasingly being held hostage by popular series' biggest enthusiasts, who closely track these movies' production and threaten to unleash their fury if every detail of the source material is not perfectly reproduced on the silver screen. The result are movies like Watchmen that satisfy their convention-going, message board-welling base but are more difficult to sell to the average theatergoer.

Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent has turned her into a global phenomenon, but according to the Daily Mail she is still reluctant to embrace the spotlight in full. Case in point: Boyle is said to have turned down an invitation to the White House Correspondents Dinner this week, the glitzy Washington event hosted by President Barack Obama. According to the Mail, Boyle is a big fan of Obama but decided she was too nervous to meet the leader of the free world.

In an effort to secure a seat at the health care reform bargaining table, health care groups are promising to produce $2 trillion in savings over the next decade by scaling back costs. The groups plan to announce this proposal Monday, in a move that will lend momentum to President Obama’s health care overhaul. Democrats are considering legislation to tamp down costs and extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. The health groups pledge to trim the skyrocketing rise in costs by 1.5 percent a year by better coordinating care and streamlining administrative expenses. But this might just be more talk—the groups offer a pledge, but there’s no system in place to make sure they follow up on their goal.

Al Qaeda's notorious attacks on Western targets may be taking a backseat to matters closer to home, according to the New York Times. With terrorist plots against the West increasingly difficult to carry out, the terror group is shifting focus to Pakistan, where it sees an opportunity to expand its power by destabilizing the government. Experts say that a collapsed Pakistan, which possesses nuclear weapons, could be a boon to terrorists, providing a base of operations to plot attacks foreign targets. “They smell blood, and they are intoxicated by the idea of a jihadist takeover in Pakistan,” one former CIA analyst told the Times.

Iraq's economy was just starting to take off last year thanks to soaring oil prices and improved security, but the global recession is taking hold just as the country grapples with new waves of violence. Plummeting oil prices are wreaking havoc on the economy, where 90 percent of income is derived from oil revenues, and sales of autos, electronics, and homes are all in decline as a result. The decline is worsened by the country's inability to find foreign investors, many of whom are scared of Iraq's security situation. "The No. 1 reason is security," the country's finance minister told the Los Angeles Times about Iraq's economic woes. "And what happened in these past weeks didn't help."

Obama the trust buster? According to the New York Times, the president's top antitrust official, Christine A. Varney, is preparing to crack down on monopolies much harder than her predecessors in the Bush administration. In a series of scheduled speeches, Varney is expected to announce a return to 1990s-era efforts to break up dominant corporations, which yielded lawsuits against Microsoft and Intel during that period. These types of cases declined under Bush, whose appointees favored a more laissez faire approach to monopolies.

Mexico's frenzied battle to contain swine flu has produced an unlikely star in its previously obscure health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova. The top health official has won praise for his handling of the epidemic, particularly his detailed public briefings on the virus' spread, which he delivered daily. With the threat of swine flu appearing to recede in recent days, some experts are crediting Cordova's rapid and far-reaching response with preventing a major disaster. "I think we should all shout, 'Gracias, Mexico!' I believe the Mexicans have prevented a true pandemic from happening," a senior fellow in the global health program at the Council on Foreign Relations told the Washington Post.

Under heavy scrutiny after a scandal over the reinstatement of four Holocaust denier priests, Pope Benedict struck a conciliatory tone in his first speech in Israel, emphasizing the importance of memorializing the Jewish people's suffering. "Tragically, the Jewish people have experienced the terrible circumstances of ideologies that deny the fundamental dignity of every human person," the Pope said after arriving in Israel. "I will have the opportunity to honor the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Shoah and to pray that humanity will never again witness a crime of such magnitude." He also addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where he said he hoped for a "climate of greater trust" between the parties that could allow for peace negotiations to take root.

Pressure from President Obama and the international community has paid off for Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist accused of spying by Iran. According to the BBC, an appeals court there has cut her original sentence of eight years down to two years suspended and she has been freed from custody. As part of the court's decision, Saberi will be banned from reporting in Iran for five years but will be allowed to leave the country. Saberi was arrested in January and charged with espionage, but the U.S. strongly denied that she had been a spy and demanded her release.