In a huge blow, Dominique Straus-Kahn was charged with "aggravated pimping" in French courts Monday. The former managing director of the IMF was questioned earlier in the day by judges in conjunction with a prostitution ring before being charged; he's now free on bail. Although having sex with a prostitute isn’t illegal in France, Strauss-Kahn is thought to have used IMF funds to fund his trysts with women. Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn's legal team is expected to be in court in the Bronx on Wednesday to fend off a lawsuit brought by Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who said he sexually assaulted her last May in New York.

Popular support for the Afghan War has sharply eroded in recent months, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Sixyt-nine percent of those surveyed now think that the U.S. should not be involved in the war in Afghanistan. That is a significant change from four months ago, when only 53 percent said that the U.S. should no longer be fighting in that country. The poll also found that perceptions of the war effort have changed dramatically. Sixyt-eight percent now feel the war is going “somewhat badly,” while only 42 percent of those surveyed felt that way back in November.

Protests sprang up around the country on Monday in support of slain unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin, who was killed last month in Florida. Demonstrations have taken place in Florida and in New York over the last week, but Monday marked the first time multiple events were held. Protesters in cities including San Francisco and Atlanta called for the arrest of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who shot 17-year-old Martin. Trayvon's parents were set to appear at a Sanford, Fla., city council meeting Monday night, which had been moved to a new location to accommodate the anticipated large crowd.

Rick Santorum isn’t backing down from the comment that made headlines on Monday on the GOP campaign trail. After a speech, Santorum told New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny that his reporting was “bullshit” after Zeleny asked Santorum if Romney was the “worst Republican” to take on Obama. Santorum had said that about Romney in his speech, but had noted that he was referring directly to Obamacare. The presidential candidate said he didn’t regret the incident, adding that any conservatives "worth our salt" would take on the New York Times.

The case could end before it gets very far. The Supreme Court began the constitutional review of the sweeping health-care law Monday, but the first arguments heard were about whether the court has the right to make a decision right now. An obscure 19th-century law called the Anti-Injunction Act states that the court cannot rule on a law until its key provisions go into effect, which for the health-care act won’t be until 2014. But both sides—the Obama administration and the states challenging the law—want the court to hear the case now, though the justices might not agree.

After mass outrage erupted over their production of “pink slime,” Beef Products Inc. announced Monday that it was suspending its operations in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa to address concerns about the safety of its processed meat products. The company’s plant in South Dakota will remain open. The low-cost beef product is made from leftover cuts of meat that are heated to remove the fat, packed into blocks, and treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill bacteria. Federal regulators say the product is safe, but a social media campaign has convinced many consumers otherwise.

Madelyn Creedon, an assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs, said Monday that the U.S. might try to build regional missile defense shields in Asia and Middle East, a move that could strain relations with Russia and China. Pentagon officials say the new infrastructure—which would be built in conjunction with Japan, Australia, Japan and South Korea—would defend against attacks from Iran and North Korea. Because the demand for more missile shield technology will grow in the coming decade, the U.S. is looking to develop and deploy mobile capabilities.

A year after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, a fishing boat has drifted across the Pacific and is now 120 miles off the coast of Canada. The ship, a 150-foot squid fishing boat, was found right side up by an aircraft on routine surveillance patrol. The numbers on the hull were traced to Japan, which confirmed that nobody was believed to be on board. It’s the first piece of tsunami garbage to reach North America.

Tim Tebow is very enthusiastic about his new football team. During his introductory news conference with the New York Jets, Tebow said, “I’m so honored and humbled to be a Jet. I’m so thankful that they wanted me. I’m looking forward to my time as a Jet and I’m very, very excited.” He also praised his solid relationship with starting quarterback Mark Sanchez and said he would help the team at every opportunity. “I will give my whole heart and soul to being the best Jet I can possibly be,” he promised.

Bobby Brown was arrested in Los Angeles Monday afternoon on suspicion of driving under the influence. Whitney Houston’s ex-husband was pulled over for driving while talking on a cellphone at 12:20 p.m. and is now being held in a Van Nuys jail. Authorities have not said what substance led to Brown’s arrest. In 1996 Brown pleaded guilty to DUI and served eight days in jail following an arrest in Georgia.

There weren’t any explosions on the ocean floor, so maybe the man who brought us Avatar and The Terminator just got bored. Although the director James Cameron called his record-breaking solo dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench a “heckuva ride,” it didn’t sound that spectacular. “It was bleak. It looked like the moon. I didn’t see a fish,” he said. He also had to surface three hours earlier than planned Monday because hydraulic fluid began leaking. “Next dive. Gotta leave something for the next one,” he said.

Rick Santorum transported his campaign to the front of the Supreme Court Monday to speak to opponents of Obamacare, as the court took its first day of arguments over the controversial legislation. While there Santorum insisted that his competitor Mitt Romney is “uniquely disqualified” to discuss the health-care-reform law. “There’s a reason Mitt Romney isn’t here, and that’s because Mitt Romney basically wrote this piece of legislation,” he said. “He’s not credible on this issue.”

A man was arrested in the San Francisco Monday and booked on murder counts in the investigation of five brutal slayings that police at first thought included a murder-suicide. “This was a complex crime scene,” city Police Chief Greg Suhr said. “We didn’t know what we had.” The 35-year-old suspect, Binh Thai Luc, was taken in by police Sunday. While the exact cause of death in the murders has not yet been determined, police said 40 investigators are working on the case, which began after a woman found the five bodies in a house Friday.

Two newlyweds got a royal treat when her majesty the queen popped in on their wedding day. Frances and John Canning didn’t expect much when they sent an invitation to Queen Elizabeth II after hearing that she was scheduled to be at the Manchester Town Hall the same day they were getting married. But those puckish chaps at Buckingham Palace secretly adjusted the monarch’s schedule so she could meet the couple. “We never dreamt we would be able to meet her,” gushed the new bride.

Now authorities are telling George Zimmerman’s side of the story. Zimmerman told police that Trayvon Martin approached him from the rear and punched him in the nose before repeatedly slamming his head into the sidewalk. Around this time witnesses heard screams for help, and police say that evidence suggests those screams came from Zimmerman, not Martin. At least one witness corroborated this version of events, and Zimmerman had various injuries when police arrived on the scene. It has also emerged that Trayvon had been suspended from his school after officials caught him with an empty baggie that contained marijuana residue.

For the first time since the Second World War, a Jew has been elected mayor of a major German city. In a surprise result, Peter Feldmann, 54, won 57.4 percent of the vote in Frankfurt, upsetting incumbent Boris Rhein. Feldmann said his Jewish identity did not play a role in his campaign. Frankfurt is Germany’s fifth-largest city, with about 1 percent Jewish population out of the 700,000 residents. The city had a Jewish mayor from 1924 to 1933, when Hitler rose to power.

Karilyn Bales, who is married to the Army staff sergeant accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians, told the Today show on Monday that she can’t imagine her husband would do such a thing. The charges, especially those against children, Bales told Matt Lauer, are “unbelievable to me … I have no idea what happened, but he would not … he loves children, and he would not do that.” Bales has been formally charged by the Army with 17 counts of murder; one of the charges is said to be for an unborn child.

There’s one thing that the boys and girls of The Hunger Games aren’t fighting for, and that’s ticket sales. The film, based on a popular series of young-adult novels by Suzanne Collins, scooped up $155 million in its opening weekend, making it the third-biggest debut in history and the all-time record for a nonsequel, falling behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Dark Knight. Box-office analysts called the success “totally unprecedented,” citing a strong marketing campaign and the popularity of the novels as reasons for the film’s record weekend.

Two British soldiers with the international coalition in Afghanistan were killed by a man dressed in an Afghan Army uniform, officials reported Monday. The attack occurred at an Army base in the country’s Helmand province. The attacker was killed by coalition forces. In Paktika province, another soldier was killed by an "alleged member of the Afghan local police" as members of the International Security Assistance Force neared a police checkpoint. No further information about that soldier's nationality was given. 

As the justices take up health-care reform, Rick Santorum will head to the front step of the Supreme Court on Monday to wage war on the law. Santorum, who has positioned himself as more conservative than rival Mitt Romney, claims his health-care bona fides are unimpeachable, arguing that Romney enacted legislation virtually identical to President Obama’s plan while serving as governor of Massachusetts. It’s a link Obama’s team has been eager to point out in recent weeks, with senior White House adviser David Plouffe on Meet the Press Sunday calling Romney “the godfather of our health-care plan.”

President Obama declared in South Korea Monday that the Koreans are “one people,” even as the country braced itself for a threatened missile test by the North. The president is in South Korea as part of a nuclear-nonproliferation summit. While the North has ignored repeated international urgings to quit its nuclear ambitions, the South warned that it will shoot down any test missiles that come into its airspace. Japan has also prepared missile defense systems in preparation for the planned launch, which North Korean leaders have said is part of preparation for a space program.

Stocks rallied early Monday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said that he would continue supportive monetary policies even as more people go back to work. Major indexes rose more than 1 percent. “Further significant improvements in the unemployment rate will likely require a more rapid expansion of production and demand from consumers and businesses,” Bernanke told the National Association for Business Economics Monday morning.

In a case that involves the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, two Roman Catholic priests will go on trial Monday for the alleged 1996 rape of a 14-year-old boy. The Rev. James Brennan is charged with the crime, and Msgr. William Lynn has been charged with endangering children after allegedly ignoring reports of prior abuses. Another defendant, Edward Avery, pleaded guilty at the eleventh hour to sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in a church sacristy in 1999.

Turkey brought a temporary suspension to its diplomatic activities in Syria Monday, closing its embassy in Damascus and recalling its ambassador. Turkish officials said concerns about security in a country wracked by internal conflict were the prime reasons for the closure. Diplomatic relations between Syria and its neighbor to the north have been strained in recent days, with the Turkish prime minister threatening to break ties with the country. Turkey has allowed refugees of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal yearlong crackdown to take shelter behind its borders.

The parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, shot by a neighborhood-watch volunteer a month ago, will return to Sanford, Fla., Monday to speak. The slow-simmering case was brought to a boil in part through celebrities’ efforts, and Martin’s parents will be flanked by Baltimore Ravens player Ray Lewis and basketball legend Patrick Ewing when they speak at a city meeting Monday. Civil-rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson have also spoken in support of the family, and Jackson said Sunday that “we as a nation have become much too violent.”

It was a “fight for his life,” they say. A friend and attorney came forward Monday to say George Zimmerman acted in self-defense when he killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Craig Sonner, appeared on the Today show to say that his client “is absolutely not a racist,” while friend Joe Oliver also put himself before cameras to say that “the bottom line is there was a life and death struggle … someone was going to die.” Meanwhile, a new eyewitness has said she saw Zimmerman pressing Martin down on the ground after shooting him, making no attempt to help the teen.

It’s an ab-omination! Jersey Shore star Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino is banned from turning rehab at Cirque Lodge in Utah into a gun show, according to TMZ. Guidelines at the facility make sleeveless T-shirts taboo and ripped jeans verboten and explicitly state that “abdominal exposure” is a no-no. What this means is that whether or not rehab works, going cold turkey on his uninhibited Shore lifestyle may mean that the Situation will still come out suffering withdrawal.

In a gripping new essay in The New Yorker, historian Robert Caro traces Lyndon Johnson’s movements through the November 1963 day in Dallas that ended with him being sworn in as the nation’s 36th president. Before shots rang out in the clear Texas afternoon, LBJ’s finances were the subject of scrutiny by a team of investigative reporters, and a Senate rules committee probe into a Johnson protégé known as “Little Lyndon” had threatened to contaminate the master of the Senate himself. Newsweek reporter Charles Roberts was one of three journalists to witness Johnson’s swearing-in after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Nothing, as Caro shows, was certain, but when history happened, it happened fast.

Oops! In a comment picked up by live microphones Monday at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, President Obama said he’d be better able to talk with the newly elected Vladimir Putin “after my election.” The remark was made in Seoul, where Obama is attending a nuclear-security summit. Obama told Medvedev that it is important that the Russians give him “space” on missile defense issues, a message Medvedev agreed to relay to Putin. “This is my last election,” Obama said. “After my election I have more flexibility.”

Oh, Canada! A court in Ontario legalized certain brothels and pimps with an eye toward helping prostitutes stay safe, the court said in a decision that was reached unanimously by a panel of five judges. Prostitutes will be allowed to hire bodyguards or other security staff, yet a provision that makes it illegal to advertise one’s self as a prostitute will remain, narrowly, on the books. The judges wrote that prostitutes are safest when working indoors in a familiar environment, striking down the “bawdy house prohibition on prostitutes” as “grossly disproportionate to its legislative objective.”

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Mad Men’s fifth-season premiere received 3.5 million viewers on Sunday night, after a 17-month hiatus from the airwaves. That’s a 21 percent increase from the fourth-season premiere in 2010, which was the show’s previous all-time high. The critically acclaimed show had been delayed for more than a year because of a protracted renewal negotiation between the show’s creator Matthew Weiner, production company Lionsgate, and the channel that houses the show, AMC.

Mitt Romney may not have made it to the steps of the Supreme Court, but he wants to make sure everyone knows he’s against Obamacare. “What’s happening today in Washington is an attack on economic freedom unlike anything we’ve ever seen before,” he said at NuVasive, a company that designs artificial spines. He worked the crowd by arguing that new taxes created by Obamacare could force medical companies like NuVasive to cut 200 jobs. “I just don’t think the president and his people understand that as they burden enterprise with taxation and with regulation, they hurt all of us,” he said.

Troubles at News Corp. just won’t go away. A day after the BBC unveiled new allegations of illegality in the pay-TV wing of Rupert Murdoch’s company, PBS’s Frontline looks into the phone-hacking scandal still roiling his British newspapers. Murdoch’s Scandal, airing Tuesday night, is narrated by Lowell Bergman, the longtime 60 Minutes investigative journalist who was memorably played by Al Pacino in the 1999 film The Insider. Bergman talks to Nick Davies, the Guardian journalist who has broken much of the story; Mark Lewis, the lawyer for dozens of phone-hacking victims; and others directly involved in the complex tale.