National News from NPR

As most of the headlines we're seeing say: "Aww, man!"

A newspaper in Iran says the authorities there have banned dolls of characters from The Simpsons because they supposedly promote Western culture.

So that means Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and, of course, Bart, join Barbie on the list of toys deemed to be too hot for Iranian children to handle.

The New England Patriots weren't the only losers on Super Bowl weekend in Indiana.

With much of the world focused on Indianapolis hosting the big game, a local jury on Saturday convicted Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White on six felony counts, including theft and voter fraud — a crime he was supposed to prevent as the state's top election official.

Citgroup announced today that China had approved its plans to issue credit cards in the country. That will make it the first U.S.-based bank to be able to issue credit cards under its own brand.

Citigroup said it plans to issue its first cards this year. The AP reports:

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals plans to release its ruling on the constitutionality of Calfornia's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in the state, at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday (10 a.m. in California), the court just announced.

Sitting in a car with a smoker is about as close to lighting up as a nonsmoker can get.

And quite a few schoolchildren get exposed to secondhand smoke this way, according to an estimate by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 1 in 5 nonsmoking kids in middle and high school reported sharing a car with a smoker who had lit up within a week of answering a survey in 2009. The researcher say the survey, which included responses from thousands of students, give an accurate snapshot of what's happening across the country.

There was a little humor in The Boston Globe's special Super Bowl section this morning. It featured an all-caps headline delivering the bad news to Patriot fans that its team had repeated its 2008 defeat. It also featured a photo of a dejected Tom Brady.

But if you looked at the upper right-hand corner (click on the photo to get a closer look), where the throw-away forecast goes, it offered a bit of consolation to its readers:

"But Weather's Nice"

Indeed, they're expecting a high of about 50.

"I'm sorry, goodbye," Josh Powell wrote in an email to his attorney just before he apparently ignited an explosive fire Sunday that took not just his life but those of his 5- and 7-year-old sons, authorities say.

The tragic events at Powell's home in Graham, Wash., came nearly three years after the disappearance of Powell's wife Susan and the emergence of Powell as the only "person of interest" in the case. Throughout, he maintained his innocence.

Sport's highest court has stripped Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador of his 2010 Tour de France title.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the Spanish Cycling Federation's decision that said Contador had accidentally ingested clenbuterol, a performance enhancing drug, by eating a contaminated steak.

The CAS was deciding on an appeal launched by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI).

President Obama has signed an executive order blocking the movement of "all property and interests in property of the government of Iran, including the Central Bank of Iran," if the assets are in the U.S. or are controlled by an American or U.S. entity at foreign branches of U.S. institutions.