Cheat Sheet

Following a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza, Israeli PM issued a warning to terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stand down or face a military response. "I'm telling them now. It may be the last minute. I'm telling them. Stop it. We are stronger. There will be more blood there. Who wants it? We don't want it," Olmert said in an interview with an Arab television station. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but have been plagued by A six month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended recently.

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Federal prosecutors are feeling generous this holiday. At a time when fraud in the stock market is on everyone's mind, reports the New York Times, the feds are on pace to bring the fewest prosecutions for securities fraud since 1991. The research, by a group at Syracuse University, shows only 133 cases of fraud were brought through November of this year, a 70% decline in activity since 2001. “I think the SEC has completely fallen down on the job,” said Jacob H. Zamansky, a New York lawyer who specializes in representing investors who have lost money in fraud cases. “They’re more interested in protecting Wall Street than protecting investors. The new administration has to do a complete overhaul of the SEC” Part of the problem is a shift in FBI priorities after 9/11 from financial crimes towards terrorism. At the SEC, however, critics point towards a "revolving door" that saw agents leave their posts as watchdogs to take high paid positions in the industry they were supposed to protect.

Everyone loves snow on Christmas, but airlines are now dealing with thousands of frustrated customers thanks to a series of delays and even some accidents caused by the nasty weather. The situation has been especially bad at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport where one plane even skidded off an icy runway and into the grass yesterday. Fortunately nobody was hurt .

Eartha Kitt, whose seductive voice propelled her to fame, died of cancer on Christmas Day at age 81. Appropriately enough, one of Kitt's biggest hits was a Christmas song, her 1953 tune "Santa Baby." Kitt was perhaps best known for her TV career, where she played Catwoman in the cheeky 1960s Batman series.She was nominated for Tony, Emmy, and Grammy awards during her long career.

Bush giveth, and Bush taketh away. In an unprecedented move the president yanked his pardon of Isaac Toussie, a Brooklyn real estate developer who ran a scam that cost the government $6 million in defaulted loans. Perhaps more damning, reports the NY Post, was the fact that his father, Robert Toussie, had given the legal maximum of $28,500 to the Republican National Committee this year. White House press secretary Dana Perino said that the discovery of new information about the extent of Toussie's crimes and the appearance of impropriety created by his father's donations led the administration to believe rescinding the pardon was "the prudent thing to do". Normally pardons only apply to people who have waited five years since their conviction or release. But Toussie's pardon was fast-tracked past the Justice Department straight to the White House. The case has now been returned to Ronald Rogers, the Justice Department's official pardon attorney.

Holiday stress begat tragedy in Covina, California, where a man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas party, killing at least sixand setting the house on fire. Three others were wounded, one an 8-year old girl, and more bodies may be in the house. The suspected attacker, Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, killed himself shortly afterwards.

In his annual "Urbi et Orbi" address, Pope Benedict XVI laid out his personal Christmas wish list: peace between Israelis and Palestinians, an end to war in Iraq, and freedom in Zimbabwe." If people look only to their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart," he said.

Al Behrman/AP

Forget the coal in your stocking, low gas prices have helped bring about a bit of good economic news this holiday season. The Commerce Department is reporting that consumer spending increased last month for the first time since the spring along with disposable income. The $4 a gallon gas prices that hit this summer are long gone, but experts warn that fuel prices are not likely to fall much further, meaning consumers will have to look elsewhere for relief. "Much of the declines are behind us and won't be a significant event as we go into 2009," said an economist at California State University. 70% of economic activity in the U.S. is powered by consumer spending, so the gains are crucial, especially in this holiday season. The increase indicates that the deep discounts being offered by many retailers are working, at least for now.

Seth Wenig/AP

There will be an alternative Christmas message on Britain's Channel 4 tonight, delivered by none other than Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "“If Christ was on Earth today undoubtedly he would stand with the people in opposition to bullying, ill-tempered and expansionist powers,” Mr. Ahmadinejad will say, in a holiday message aimed at the United States. The program has courted controversy before, most recently in 2006 when it aired a message from a British born Muslim woman attacking the government for their criticism of the traditional Muslim veil. A Channel 4 exec said the choice was made to give viewers a picture of how those outside the West feel. But not everyone feels he deserves a place in the public eye: the director of Britain's Holocaust Centre was troubled by Mr. Ahmadinejad's assertions that the Holocaust was a myth. "Many of his political and historical views are very dangerous and do not uphold the views in his message," he said. "I think this benign message is deception. People need to be alert to the fact that this is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

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Chrysler could just have taken the bailout money and run, but the company's chronic politeness is setting off fierce criticism. The company purchased full page ads this week in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and USA Today thanking Americans for "investing" (their words) in Chrysler, prompting a swift and devastating response from billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. On his personal blog, Cuban called the move "idiotic" and asked, "How does it make the next unemployed Chrysler worker feel that their entire year's salary just went for a single, ridiculous ad?" We asked Chrysler for a response and a spokesperson sent over a statement: "With the recent announcement by the White House, Chrysler LLC has the initial injection of working capital necessary to help bridge the liquidity crisis the industry is facing and help return the Company to profitability. The ad thanks America for this investment in Chrysler. As the process evolves, many individuals will have opinions. The Company has no higher priority than to satisfy the loan conditions laid out last Friday by the Government. As a result, Chrysler will not comment on individual opinion." The spokesperson added that "the overall purpose of the ad was to reinforce our long-term commitment to America."

The president-elect is adapting to the hectic schedule of high office by cutting back on many of his hobbies like novel-reading and sports-watching, but he still has time for the gym. Pictures of a chiseled Obama made the rounds this week and the Washington Post reports today that his devotion to working out has intensified since the election. "He does it every day like clockwork," said a pal. "It's his break. He feels better and more revved up after he gets in his workout." His only health vice is smoking (three or four a day), a habit he can't quite seem to shake.

The Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter died yesterday of cancer at the age of 78. He was the foremost British dramatist for the last half of the 20th century and a politically active spokesman for human rights around the world. In 2003 he was a loud voice opposing the Iraq invasion. In addition to the stage, Pinter wrote for television and movies and tried his hand as an actor and director. He was born to a Jewish family in London began his career as a political activist in 1948 when he became a conscientious objector. He was best know for his plays, including  The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter and The Birthday Party.

One country won't be witnessing bat signals anytime soon. Warner Bros. has decided not to release The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, in China due to "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities,” reports Variety. Scenes shot in Hong Kong, including one in which Batman catches a gangster, were deemed particularly offensive to censors, and the studio declined to even submit it for approval. Bootleg copies have been available in the country for months, and foreign grosses of the film have reached $465 million.

In need of a classic Christmas miracle story? Donna Molnar left her rural home outside of Ontario to get some groceries in the middle of a blizzard and ended up buried under ice and snow. When three days passed, most presumed her dead. Until-thanks to a rescue dog-they found her alive under three feet of snow. "There was Donna, her face was almost totally covered except for one eye staring back at me!" her rescuer said. "She was lucid, and said, 'Wow. I've been here a long time!' and then she apologized and said, 'I just wanted to take a walk, I'm sorry to have caused you any trouble.'"

The early reports on Christmas shopping are in, and the news is as brutal as we'd feared: The Great Recession is making Americans frugal. Retail store traffic fell 24 percent on the last weekend before Christmas Day, making for the worst holiday shopping season in four decades. Sales were off 5.3 percent, according to the Chicago-based research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp., despite jaw-dropping discounts of 70 percent at such heavy hitters as Macy's and Saks. “The week after Christmas is going to be more crucial for retailers than ever,” a spokesman for the National Retail Federation told Bloomberg. “The Friday after Christmas, with the discounts we’re hearing about, is going to be like another Black Friday.”

Kamran Jebreili/AP

Well, this would make for an awkward Christmas get-together. In a post on her MySpace blog titled Random Thoughts (how deep!), actress Lindsay Lohan reveals that she has a heretofore unknown half-sibling: “My father just let my family and [me] know, amongst other [things] that he had another child after my little sister Aliana.” Her father, Michael Lohan, denied the claim to People magazine, and says Lindsay's girlfriend, Samantha Ronson, who was recently hospitalized due to exhaustion and stress, likely wrote the post instead. Lindsay also blogged: "I think that people go through a lot in life. And the things that we go through, whatever they may be, simply just make us stronger in the long run. That is, if we actually take what it is we have learned from our mistakes and teach ourselves what NOT to do in the future."

Russia announced yesterday that it will be building itself some shiny new toys, including 70 intercontinental nuclear missiles, as part of an increasingly aggresive stance towards the United States. The Guardian reports that Russia is preparing a 28% increase in military spending for the 2009-2011 period. The move is intended to strengthen the Kremlin's bargaining position with Washington, especially because the current nuclear treaty, Start I, expires next year. "The Kremlin knows that if it doesn't increase production of ICBMs rapidly now then it will have no chance of getting a new arms reduction treaty out of the US, which has much greater quantities of missiles," said Ruben Sergeev, an expert on disarmament issues. Russia has also provoked the U.S. by stating that it will supply weapons to Iran in spite of American opposition.

Matt Sayles/AP

Adam Goldstein, best known under the name DJ AM and as Nicole Richie’s former paramour, has filed multiple lawsuits for his injuries sustained from a deadly plane crash this fall. The plane charter companies, Learjet, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and the estates of the two pilots are named in the suits. Four people, including both pilots and former Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker’s assistant were killed. Barker was injured.