RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Towering waves pounded the California coast Monday as authorities searched for a young man swept into the ocean the previous evening.

From Santa Barbara south to Orange County, several others were swept into the surf but were rescued.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An Austrian tourist died Monday after being bitten by a shark while diving near the Bahamas in waters that had been baited with bloody fish parts to attract the predators.

Markus Groh, 49, a Vienna lawyer and diving enthusiast, was on a commercial dive trip Sunday when he was bitten about 50 miles off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, said Karlick Arthur, Austrian counsel general in Miami.

WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps has asked the Pentagon's inspector general to examine allegations that a nearly two-year delay in the fielding of blast-resistant vehicles led to hundreds of combat casualties in Iraq.

The system for rapidly shipping needed gear to troops on the front lines has been examined by auditors before and continues to improve, Col. David Lapan, a Marine Corps spokesman, said Monday night. Due to the seriousness of the allegations, however, "the Marine Corps has taken the additional step" of requesting the IG investigation, Lapan said in an e-mailed statement.

WASHINGTON — President Bush predicted Monday that voters will replace him with a Republican president who will "keep up the fight" in Iraq. "I'm confident we'll hold the White House in 2008," Bush told donors at the Republican Governors Association annual dinner, which raised a record $10.6 million for GOP gubernatorial candidates.

"And I don't want the next Republican president to be lonely," Bush said. "And that is why we got to take the House, retake the Senate, and make sure our states are governed by Republican governors."

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton characterized rival Barack Obama on Monday as rash and inconsistent on foreign policy issues. Shifting to foreign policy after two days of hammering the Illinois senator over their differences on health care, Clinton paired two of Obama's campaign statements to support her conclusion.

"He wavers from seeming to believe that mediation and meetings without preconditions can solve some of the world's most intractable problems to advocating rash, unilateral military action without the cooperation of our allies in the most sensitive part of the world," Clinton said in a speech at The George Washington University.

WASHINGTON — A photograph circulating on the Internet of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama dressed in traditional local garments during a visit to Kenya in 2006 is causing a dustup in the presidential campaign over what constitutes a smear.

The Associated Press photograph portrays Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound white robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, in northeastern Kenya. Obama's estranged late father was Kenyan and Obama visited the country in 2006, attracting thousands of well-wishers.

TRENTON, N.J. — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has agreed to appear at a federal hearing looking into no-bid contracts he and others received to monitor out-of-court corporate settlements.

A House Judiciary Committee subcommittee announced the agreement with Ashcroft in Washington, D.C., on Monday, the day before the committee was to consider authorizing its chairman to issue him a subpoena.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department's longest-serving general counsel, who has been criticized for his role in crafting Bush administration policies for detaining and trying suspected terrorists, is resigning to return to private life next month, the Pentagon said Monday.

William J. Haynes II was confirmed as general counsel by the Senate in May 2001. He had discussed leaving the administration some months ago and has decided to accept an offer to work in the private sector, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith said.

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Investigators interviewed a wounded 14-year-old boy Monday and then returned to the scene where five members of his family were fatally shot in what police have said was an apparent murder-suicide carried out by the teen's stepfather.

Detectives talked to Ian Mercado at a hospital as he recovered from a gunshot wound to the lower torso and then obtained a second search warrant for the family's condominium, said Lt. Jack Conklin of the Brea Police Department. The department serves Yorba Linda, a bedroom community 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama has taken clear leads over Hillary Rodham Clinton among white men, middle-income earners and liberals, allowing him to catch his faltering rival in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination, a national poll showed Monday.

The Associated Press-Ipsos survey highlights how the bottom is falling out among some supporters of Clinton, the New York senator, since the last survey was taken two weeks ago. Since that poll, Obama has gained momentum by winning 11 consecutive primaries and caucuses while taking a small lead among delegates to the party's convention this summer.

WASHINGTON — History shows the folly of counting out a Clinton. If Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is looking more and more like the Titanic, she may yet prove to be the unsinkable Molly Brown.

Ask Mike McCurry about the Clintons' resilience. McCurry worked for Bob Kerrey, one of Bill Clinton's chief rivals in the 1992 presidential campaign. He remembers the day details broke about Clinton's efforts to avoid the Vietnam draft, just weeks after allegations had surfaced of an affair with Gennifer Flowers.

ROCKY RIVER, Ohio — John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," the Republican said.

He quickly backed off that remark.

PHOENIX — An Arizona congressman vowed Monday to remain in office through the end of his term as he fights corruption charges, saying he will not "take on the cloak of guilt."

An indictment unsealed Friday contends that Rick Renzi, a three-term Republican congressman, engineered a swap of federally owned mining land to benefit himself and a former business partner.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton was speaking at a fundraiser Monday on the campus of The George Washington University when Ellen DeGeneres popped up.

"Sorry to interrupt, but how's everybody doing?" quipped the talk show host, who was beamed into the auditorium by satellite from her studio in New York, prompting loud cheers from the audience.

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign told federal regulators Monday that he does not need their approval to withdraw from the public finance system for the primaries.

The campaign, in a letter to Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, also said McCain did not encumber his potential share of public matching funds as collateral for a crucial $4 million loan he obtained late last year.

WASHINGTON — The war in Iraq is returning to the airwaves.

A coalition of anti-war groups that was influential in last year's political debate on Iraq says it plans to spend more than $20 million this year to convince voters that Sen. John McCain and the Republican Party's support for the war is bad for the economy.

ROCHESTER, Wis. — Divers found the body of a backhoe operator whose machine fell through the ice Monday, leaving the cab under water in a quarry pond.

The 25- to 30-ton piece of equipment fell into the pond at the Park View Sand and Gravel Pit and settled at a sharp angle with the cab submerged, according to the Racine County Sheriff's Department.

NEWPORT, Tenn. — Three inmates who overpowered a guard and escaped from a Tennessee jail are back behind bars.

Officials say 23-year-old Mark Allen Capanyola, 34-year-old James L. Reed and 29-year-old Joshua Lynn Parker escaped from the Cocke County Jail Sunday night.

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — A girl whose twin brother and older brother were among four children killed in a bus crash turned 10 at their funeral Monday, with 1,400 mourners in a school gym pausing to sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

The service for Jesse Javens, 13, and Hunter Javens, 9, included some painful smiles meant for Hunter's twin, Sasha.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A family accused of keeping a Haitian teen as a slave and abusing her are the victims of an opportunist looking to get residency in this country, defense attorneys said Monday in opening statements.

Maude Paulin and her mother, Evelyn Theodore, face federal charges that they illegally brought Simone Celestin into the U.S., kept her in involuntary servitude and conspired to violate her civil rights until the girl escaped in 2005.

DEKALB, Ill. — Students carried backpacks stuffed with books, headed in and out of class, grabbed something to eat and plopped down in the library just like always.

But there was nothing normal about Northern Illinois University on Monday. Not with white crosses on a small knoll and television news trucks parked around campus. And not with crime scene tape strung in front of the auditorium where 11 days earlier a gunman wordlessly pumped bullets and buckshot into a crowded class, ending the lives of five students before taking his own.

CINCINNATI — Colleen Munninghoff challenged Sen. Barack Obama politely Monday to win her vote in next week's Ohio primary. And he did.

"At the age of 50, I never thought I'd be back living paycheck to paycheck," Munninghoff said at a campaign discussion the Democratic presidential contender held with a handful of women to stress his plans for making retirements more secure.

ATLANTA — An iron worker and his wife said their days of living paycheck-to-paycheck were behind them after presenting the winning ticket Monday for a $275 million Mega Millions jackpot.

Robert and Tonya Harris said they also plan to replace their trailer home with a new house, and buy a new four-wheel-drive truck first thing Tuesday morning.

CANTON, Ohio — A former police officer sobbed and apologized for killing his pregnant lover and their unborn child as he appealed Monday to the jury that convicted him to spare his life.

"I accept responsibility," Bobby Cutts Jr., 30, said from the witness stand. Cutts was convicted Feb. 15 of aggravated murder in the death of the nearly full-term fetus and of murder in the death of Jessie Davis, 26.

WASHINGTON — Park rangers, retirees and conservation groups are protesting a plan by the Interior Department to reconsider regulations restricting loaded guns in national parks.

The groups say current regulations requiring that visitors to national parks render their weapons inaccessible were working and have made national parks among the safest places in America.