Colbert out of the race

Stephen Colbert won't be running for president after all. He dropped his bid for the White House after the South Carolina Democratic Executive Council voted 13-3 last week to keep the host of "The Colbert Report" off the state's primary ballot, The Associated Press reports. "I want to say to my supporters, this is not over," Colbert said. "While I may accept the decision of the council, the fight goes on! The dream endures!"

Rosie may get show

The New York Times reports that Rosie O'Donnell is in negotiations with MSNBC for her own prime-time cable-news show. The show might even run opposite "Larry King Live" on CNN and "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox.

It's official

Christina Aguilera says she's expecting a baby, finally confirming what has become obvious over the past few months. Aguilera, 26, and music executive Jordan Bratman were married in 2005.

Oprah: I wept

Oprah Winfrey said Monday she wept for half an hour when she heard a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at her school for disadvantaged South African girls. She promised to "clean house" starting with the headmistress at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. Though she said she was not responsible for hiring at the school, she said "the buck always stops with me." She spoke to reporters hours after the accused dormitory matron appeared in court near Johannesburg.

Critters

U.S. panda to China

A male panda born four years ago at the San Diego Zoo left for China on Monday to join that country's breeding program. Mei Sheng, which translates as "Born in the USA," was sent to the Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas as part of a loan agreement requiring all pandas born outside China to be returned there after the animals mature, zoo officials said. Only about 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild; fewer than 180 live in captivity.

Passages

Peter Viertel, the novelist, memoirist and screenwriter best known for his books chronicling episodes in the lives of author Ernest Hemingway and film director John Huston, has died. He was 86. Mr. Viertel died of lymphoma Sunday in the Spanish coastal resort of Marbella, according to a family friend. His death came less than three weeks after his wife of 47 years, actress Deborah Kerr, died in Suffolk, England, also at 86.

Today in History

1860: Former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the presidency: John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.

1928: In a first, the results of Herbert Hoover's election victory over Democrat Alfred E. Smith were flashed onto an electric wraparound sign on The New York Times building.

1977: 39 people were killed when an earthen dam burst, sending a wall of water through Toccoa Falls College in Georgia.

2002: A jury in Beverly Hills, Calif., convicted Winona Ryder of stealing $5,500 worth of high-fashion merchandise from Saks Fifth Avenue.

Today's Birthdays

Country singer Stonewall Jackson, 75. Actress Sally Field, 61. Jazz musician Arturo Sandoval, 58. California's first lady, broadcast journalist Maria Shriver, 52. Actor Peter DeLuise, 41. Actress Kelly Rutherford, 39. Actor Ethan Hawke, 37. Actress Thandie Newton, 35. Model-actress Rebecca Romijn, 35.

Seattle Times news services