Following the opening statements of John Edwards’s trial, in which the prosecution said Edwards "made a choice to break the law," a former aide of the two-time Democratic presidential candidate delivered crucial testimony that prosecutors hope will work in their favor. Andrew Young, who falsely claimed paternity of Edwards’s child with his mistress during his 2007 presidential campaign, spoke for nearly two hours on Monday about the cover-up. Edwards is accused of spending nearly a million dollars of federal-campaign money to hide the pregnancy. Edwards, 58, has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts, with his lawyers insisting that the bribe money came from friends, not his campaign.

Immigration to the U.S. from Mexico has virtually stopped, the Pew Research Center says in a new study released Monday. Citing data from Mexican and U.S. government sources, the study says that a weakened American economy, fewer employment opportunities, and stricter immigration enforcement have combined to keep many would-be migrants south of the border. The numbers have been on the decline for years—1 million immigrants were caught trying to cross the border in 2005, but six years later that number had dropped to 286,000. Constituting the largest influx of immigrants from a single country that the United States has ever seen, about 12 million Mexicans came to the country over the past 40 years.

On the same day that Trayvon Martin shooter George Zimmerman was released on bail, Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee Jr. attempted to leave his job—but was stopped. The police chief submitted a proposal for resignation on Monday but was denied an exit by the Sanford City Commission, who voted to reject the proposal. Lee stepped back from his post temporarily last month as outrage grew over the way he handled the Martin shooting. Some commissioners were said to have faulted city manager Norton N. Bonaparte Jr. for not standing up for the chief as the scandal grew into a national story.

Both remaining candidates in the French presidential election are now pursuing the voters of Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader who took 20 percent of last Saturday's first-round presidential vote. Le Pen was a spoiler for center-right incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy, but challenger Francois Hollande also believes he can pursuade Le Pen's supporters to join him. Campaigning Tuesday, Sarkozy told Front National voters, "I have heard you," while Hollande urged them to express their "social anger" by voting for his socialist party. Hollande said that the Front National's support comes from left-wingers disillusioned with the mainstream parties' collaboration on European economic policy they oppose.

Somewhere, Mitt Romney is smiling. While speaking to a crowd at the Delaware GOP headquarters Monday, Newt Gingrich said that he would have to “reassess” his campaign if he does poorly in the primary there Tuesday, hinting he may drop out of the race for the party’s presidential nomination. He has spent recent weeks actively campaigning in the winner-take-all state, but if he scores low in Delaware, he said, “I think we need to take a deep look at what we are doing.” But he also warned Mitt Romney not to become too complacent. “Governor Romney is clearly the frontrunner, but that doesn’t mean he is inevitable,” Gingrich added.

The federal government revealed Monday that Social Security is on its way to drying up in the year 2033, three years earlier than previously believed. The weak economy is partnering with a massive group of aging baby boomers in sucking up the fund, which lawmakers have not made a move to try and fix. Medicare is said to be insolvent by the year 2024, unchanged from its previous expiration date. Higher energy costs and fewer hours worked are also contributing to Social Security’s path towards insolvency, and government officials said that Congress must act drastically to save both it and Medicare.

Burmese President Thein Sein said Monday that he will not change the current parliamentary loyalty oath for MPs at the request of Democratic leader Aung Sung Suu Kyi. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Thein Sein said he welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize winner but that she should “work for the people, rather than her own party.” Suu Kyi refused to take her seat during parliament’s reopening on Monday in the first sign of tension between Thein Sein’s reformist government and Suu Kyi since her National League for Democracy party’s victory at the polls on April 1. Suu Kyi has repeatedly cited amending the constitution as one of her political goals.

The NYPD and FBI search for the remains of America’s best-known missing child is over. After reopening the 33-year-old case of Etan Patz, who went missing in 1979 at the age of 6, officials said that no human remains were uncovered. Furthermore, the stain found on a concrete block tested negative for blood. Police were searching a basement located a block from Patz’s home that was the workshop of a handyman who had allegedly given the boy a dollar the day before he vanished.

“None of us wanted her to marry him,” Oscar-winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson said in court on Monday, choking back tears as she testified about the man accused of killing her mother, brother, and nephew in 2008. Early during her testimony, Hudson pointed at her sister Julia’s former husband, William Balfour, after a prosecutor asked her to identify the defendant. Julia Hudson also testified about Balfour’s jealous tendencies, claiming he threatened to kill her family if she left him. Prosecutors say Balfour, who has pleaded not guilty, shot Hudson’s mother and brother in their house before killing her nephew, whose body was found in an abandoned car, though there are no known witnesses and little physical evidence.

Deion Sanders took to Twitter on Monday afternoon with tweets claiming that his estranged wife, Pilar, attacked him in his Dallas-area home. Sanders says he was in his bedroom when Pilar and her friend burst in and started “kicking, biting, and scratching” him. His wife ended up being transported to the hospital for medical attention, but Sanders claims he was just defending himself. “Pray for me and my kids now! They just witnessed their mother and a friend jump me in my room. She’s going to jail n [sic] I’m pressing charges,” he tweeted. Sanders also sent out a photo of him and his two sons filling out police reports about the incident.

Here comes Lindsay! Lindsay Lohan will play movie star Elizabeth Taylor in the new movie Liz & Dick, Lifetime announced Monday. The made-for-TV movie is based on the romance between Taylor and Richard Burton. Lohan, who was recently released from five years of probation, had been talking about the role for weeks and even posted a photo of herself dressed like the actress on Twitter, but this was the first time that the role has been confirmed. Lohan said in a statement that she is “honored” to portray the late Taylor in the new movie.

At least seven states will have their gaze fixed on the Supreme Court beginning Wednesday as oral arguments will be presented over an immigration law that took root in Arizona two years ago. The law, which gave the right to state officials to question anyone they stop about immigration status, led to similar measures in Alabama, Indiana, South Carolina, and Utah. If the court endorses the law, it would be seen as a blow to immigrants’ rights. The Obama administration fought against the measure, which, it said, “focuses solely on maximum enforcement and pays no heed to the multifaceted judgments.”

Former Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman returned to the podium to mourn the current state of his party on Sunday night at the 92nd Street Y in New York. He spoke of being disappointed when he was uninvited from a Florida fundraiser for suggesting a third-party run, saying, “This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script.” He noted that even Ronald Reagan wouldn’t have a shot at the nomination in this climate. Huntsman added that he doesn’t regret sticking by his principles, but does wish he hadn’t opposed a 10-to-1 spending-cuts-to-tax-increase deal at the Iowa debate.

Stargazers got an big grand finale to the predawn Lyrid meteor shower when a giant fireball streaked across the sky, startling people across California and Nevada. Law-enforcement agencies in Nevada and California were flooded with calls Sunday morning after a loud explosion rattled homes and set off car alarms across the states. Some residents reported seeing a giant fireball with a green body and red head streaking across the sky. Astronomers say it was likely a rare meteor that burned up five miles above the earth and unrelated to the Lyrid shower. Most meteors disintegrate much higher in the atmosphere.

The lavish Vegas party thrown by General Services Administration official Jeff Neely may be the highest-profile scandal at the agency, but it’s far from the first. According to reports by the agency’s inspector general, GSA employees have skimmed millions of dollars off their agency’s budget. Between 2008 and 2010, a government contractor and her husband netted almost $300,000 by taking GSA credit cards from the motor pool and using them to sell fuel at a discount. Several other GSA employees awarded government contracts in return for kickbacks. In the biggest case, inflated technology contracts cost the government tens of millions of dollars.

The first traceable debris from last year’s tsunami has turned up in Alaska—a soccer ball owned by a Japanese teenager. The ball—along with a volleyball—was discovered by David Baxter, a technician working at a radar station on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska. The owner’s name was written on the ball, and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employee posted about it on his blog. Misaki Murakami from Rikuzentakata saw the reports and recognized it. It’s the first of his family’s belongings that he’s found since the tsunami destroyed his home. The ball was a gift from his former homeroom teacher and his 13 classmates when he had to change schools seven years ago.

In a profile in New York magazine, Colin Myler, former editor of Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct tabloid, News of the World, implies that Murdoch tarred his reputation and let him take the blame for the phone-hacking scandal to protect Murdoch’s son, James. Now editor of the New York Daily News, Myler is competing with the empire he once worked for. During the investigation, James put the blame on Myler, telling the court that he was just following advice. “The Post will have a much tougher competitor than it’s ever had in the Daily News,” an editor said of the New York papers, now that Myler has been put in charge of the Daily News.

With Congress deadlocked, President Obama is increasingly resorting to executive orders and recess appointments to achieve his objectives. Last fall, after the summer’s debt-deal negotiations, Obama told aides they needed to do be more aggressive about executive power and coined the slogan “We can’t wait.” Since then Obama has pushed through dozens of new policies aimed at things like jobs for veterans, preventing drug shortages, and easing the terms on student loans. Obama is set to unveil another such executive order—aimed at foreign nationals’ use of cellphone tracking and Internet monitoring to carry out human-rights abuses—later today. But the strategy opens Obama up to charges that he’s concentrating too much power in the executive branch and deprives him of the ability to blame Congress when he issues an order unpopular with his base, like overruling the EPA’s anti-smog rules.

After the warmest March on record, winter is getting in one last hurrah, hitting the Northeast with rain and snow. Western Pennsylvania is predicted to get up to 12 inches of snow, while snow advisories are posted in West Virginia, western New York, and northeastern Ohio. Heavy rain is expected from Maine to Washington, and flood advisories are in effect. The storm—rare for late April—could snarl traffic and delay flights.

Mitt Romney kicked off his week with a Monday-morning endorsement from Rudy Giuliani. “When I look at where we are as a nation and the challenges we face, I am convinced that Mitt Romney will provide a clear contrast to President Obama,” said the former New York City mayor, who ran against Romney in the 2008 Republican primary. The Romney campaign boasted of the endorsement, proclaiming, “Rudy’s successes in turning around New York City are well known, and his name is synonymous with leadership, uniting a city in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history.”

George Zimmerman walked out of the Seminole County jail just after midnight Monday morning after posting $150,000 bail. Zimmerman put up $15,000 (10 percent) of the bail total to be released and was headed to an undisclosed location that could be outside of Florida. The neighborhood-watch volunteer did not make any statement before entering a white BMW outside the jail. Zimmerman has been ordered to adhere to an evening curfew and was stripped of his passport. He also is not allowed to possess a gun. Legal experts say it is not uncommon for a person charged with second-degree murder to go free before his or her trial.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his cabinet tendered their resignations Monday as budget talks in the Netherlands fell through. Rutte and the Dutch Parliament will meet Tuesday to schedule new elections. Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters that the government would succeed in making the necessary cuts, saying that “for decades the Netherlands have shown a solid fiscal budgetary policy, and this will not change.” Budget talks between the government and the right-wing party led by controversial politician Geert Wilders went on for seven weeks before falling to pieces Saturday.

North Korea’s rhetoric is becoming increasingly violent following its failed rocket launch. The country’s military threatened Monday to turn parts of Seoul to ashes using “special actions.” The actions, according to the military, “will reduce all ... to ashes in three or four minutes ... by unprecedented peculiar means and methods of our own style.” On Friday tens of thousands rallied in Pyongyang, calling for the death of South Korean President Lee Myoung-bak. Lee had criticized the North for spending enough on its dud rocket to buy 2.5 million tons of corn for its starving populace.

Facebook is shelling out the big bucks these days in attempts to remain the world’s social-media leader. Exactly two weeks after acquiring Instagram for $1 billion, Mark Zuckerberg’s social behemoth signed a $550 million deal—its second-largest transaction ever—with Microsoft on Monday to buy hundreds of former AOL patents. The deal may give Facebook the upper hand in its legal battle for intellectual property with Yahoo. Microsoft, which owns roughly a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, sold 650 of the 925 patents it bought from AOL with a license to use the patents Facebook is buying.  

It’s been a while since Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace showed his rough side, but it came out last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder. World Peace, a.k.a. Ron Artest, was celebrating a left-handed dunk when he bumped into Thunder guard James Harden. World Peace immediately elbowed Harden hard in the head, sending him to the ground. World Peace was quickly ejected. The hit happened so fast, it seems World Peace didn’t know it was Harden he was hitting, but simply bumped into someone and immediately lashed out. Harden didn’t return to the game—and with the NBA playoffs starting this weekend, the news is not great for the young Thunder.

Sudan reportedly directed airstrikes against villages in South Sudan Monday as the two countries feud over an oil-rich border region. South Sudan recently pulled its forces out of the border area of Heglig after the United Nations stepped in. The bombing Monday reportedly targeted the towns of Bentiu and Rubkona in South Sudan, which gained its independence from Sudan last July. The African Union has planned talks for later in the week to attempt some reconciliation between the predominantly animist and Christian South Sudan and largely Muslim Sudan.

You’ve gotta go! That’s what an Israeli judge told a group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank Monday. Judge Ram Winograd told the settlers that their claims that they had legally purchased a house in the city of Hebron didn’t add up, according to court documents. His ruling also said that the settlers produced forged documents to try and bolster their claims. Winograd’s decision to rule in favor of the Palestinian plaintiffs and order the Jewish settlers out by May has incensed settlers in the Hebron settler community. About 800 Israeli settlers live in the city of Hebron, home to 190,000 Palestinians.

New Orleans Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis used an electronic device to listen in on rival coaches, sources told ESPN Monday. The allegations against Loomis were reportedly made to the U.S. attorney’s office in the eastern district of Louisiana on Friday. Loomis was suspended from the NFL for eight games after it was revealed earlier this year that the Saints offered bounties to players who targeted members of opposing teams for injury. Loomis allegedly used an eavesdropping device to listen in on coaches from 2002 to 2004, anonymous sources told ESPN. Saints vice president of communications Greg Bensel denied the allegations Monday, saying that they are “1,000 percent inaccurate.”

Walmart’s stock fell 4.7 percent in Monday trading after a weekend New York Times article uncovered an internal investigation into bribery at the retailer’s Mexican operations. The alleged bribes are reported to have been made as the company pursued rapid growth in what has become one of its largest foreign markets, and analysts say the allegations may hamper the retail giant’s plans for expansion. If the allegations against Walmart prove to be true, they could put the company in violation of U.S. law. Shares of Walmart de Mexico were down 6.56 pesos Monday.

President Obama showed his bark is backed by “byte” Monday when he unrolled a new set of cybersanctions against Syria and Iran. The president specifically took aim at the “digital guns for hire,” who he said help nations use technology to conduct human-rights abuses against their own citizens. In a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Obama explained that his executive order authorizing the new sanctions should warn errant nations that “these technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them.” Obama signed the executive order Saturday, and the sanctions’ targets include Iran’s elite military forces and the head of Syrian intelligence.