Tuesday - December 9, 2008 - New Hero Dog in Chile, Christ Born in June, Google Earth Aided Terrorists, Sea Level Rises in Venice

Alan Taylor's Big Picture Blog looks at

the recent flooding in Venice

Luxury brands are cutting back for the first time in 20 years

Pulitzer Prize will consider online news sites this year

Nebraska's infamous "Butt Bandit" has his day in court and is sentenced to 13 months in jail where he ought to be a hit with the Boys in the Cellblock

Four of ten murders end up as "Cold Cases" in the USA? Hard to believe . . . and most of these are gang and drug related

The Last of the Zoroastians . . . one of Earth's oldest religions which influenced Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Peace the Panda chomps on zookeepers leg who was trying to feed him bamboo shoots

The English need to be more curt and impatient?

Eat more nuts to reduce heart risks

Australian and Swedish pilots survive night on an Arctic ice slab after crash of their Cessna

Google Earth accused of aiding terrorists

Police in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, rescue 130 women from brothel kept in "dog cages"

English footballer-actor, Vinnie Jones, gets blindsided by beer mug in Sioux Falls, South Dakota bar brawl . . . gets 48 stictches in his face

The web of Western Islamic militant recruits grows

The Power of Negative Thinking

Balloon launches by South Korean citizens and defectors drop leaflets all over North Korea

Reschedule Christmas for the Summer in Northern Hemisphere? Astronomers say it would be proper.

Death toll in Mexico's drug war just this year exceeds all US troops dead in Iraq

Global hiring plans for next year are tapping on the brakes

Facing its 30th Anniversary of Economic Reform, China worries about its young facing first capitalistic economic hardship

European Union seeks to start a new Nuclear ban on testing of weapons and making fissionable material

Three dead from that F-18 crash in a crowded San Diego neighborhood yesterday

Almost 600 dead from cholera in Zimbabwe

Key West's Cowboy Bill's Blog has been adding dozens of new Fantasy Fest photos

Longing for the Squalor of his youth, Roger Cohen's Op-Ed piece, "Havana vs. Cuba"

International think tank says Taliban is tightening "noose" around Kabul, Afghanistan

Layoffs: Sony chops 5% of its workforce and 10% of its plants, for a total of 8,000 pink slipped electronics workers.

Teen boy shot by Police is to be buried today after three days of riots in Greece

Chile's New Hero: a homeless dog which pulled a lifeless dog off a busy highway after it had been run over. (Must see heartbreaking video)

Two NYC cops are accused of sodomy by body piercing artist