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WASHINGTON (AP) A senior administration official says former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel is President Barack Obama's pick to be the next defense secretary. But his path to Senate confirmation might not be smooth. Former colleagues say he'll face tough questions about his stands on Israel and Iran, among other issues.

WASHINGTON (AP) Nearly $10 billion dollars will be going to pay flood insurance claims from Superstorm Sandy. President Barack Obama has signed a bill that increases the borrowing authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But a more comprehensive $51 billion Sandy aid package is still pending. The House is expected to vote on it Jan. 15 with a Senate vote the following week.

WASHINGTON (AP) The State Department says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will return to work Monday, a little over a week after she was hospitalized with a blood clot in her head. Clinton is scheduled to meet with assistant secretaries Monday morning. The most significant items on her agenda are meetings in Washington on Thursday and Friday with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Clinton is expected to resign from the State Department soon.

WASHINGTON (AP) Besieged Syrian President Bashar Assad is proposing a new peace initiative that includes a national reconciliation conference and a new constitution. But in a speech Sunday, he ignored international demands to step down and pledged to continue fighting what he described as the religious extremists and "murderous criminals" behind the bloody uprising. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Assad's latest plan to stay in power is "detached from reality."

NORTH BEND, Wash. (AP) The ground search for a Florida skydiver who vanished during a jump above Washington's Cascade foothills on Thursday has ended without a sign of the man. The King County sheriff's office says crews combed roughly 9 miles of an area near Mount Si for 29-year-old Kurt Ruppert on Sunday but found nothing. Authorities say the air search will continue.