As the worst floods to hit the Philippines in over 40 years continue to take their toll, officials in Manila estimate some 240 dead, $30 million in damages, and sweeping concerns about typhoid, disease, sanitation, and hidden costs—like the one-third of the Filipino population who work “off the books” and risk falling into financial peril the longer the nation remains in flux. At the peak of Typhoon Ketsana, 80 percent of capital city Manila was underwater, with waves of water crashing over the roofs of cars and filling the ground floors of buildings. The Wall Street Journal reports that rescue delays in Manila have prompted criticism of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose anointed successor in next year’s election—Gilbert Teodoro—is current secretary of defense, and has also fallen under criticism for the disaster response. Some 8,000 people were rescued and 69,000 evacuated to emergency centers in Manila; the Philippines is home to 90 million, with one-third of the population living on less than $2 a day.

The ongoing Colorado investigation into Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi’s alleged plot to build bombs from chemicals purchased at a beauty supply store took a chilling turn Monday when investigators identified three possible accomplices, the Associated Press reports. Investigators reportedly know the three people’s identities; they hail from New York City and are accused of helping Zazi make his purchases in Aurora, Colorado. Zazi maintains his innocence, even as officials claim they found in his possession notes on how to turn 18 bottles of peroxide-based hair bleach into explosives. Zazi’s father and imam face charges for lying to investigators.

The slow trickle out of Gitmo continues: Seventy-five detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay have been cleared for release by the Obama administration. The detainees likely learned of the news by reading a document posted by the military around the dreaded prison in Cuba, which lists the names of those cleared for release. A task force is examining the cases of the 223 prisoners remaining at Gitmo one by one to determine whether they should be tried or released to other countries. Some of the latest prisoners to have been cleared are two Uzbeks sent to Ireland, a Yemeni man sent back his home country, and 13 Uighurs awaiting release to the island of Palau. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently expressed skepticism about meeting President Obama's January 22 deadline for closing the prison.

Four teens have been arrested for the brutal murder of Chicago honor student Derrion Albert, CNN reports, following the release of a digital video recording of Albert’s death. Nineteen-year-old Silvanus Shannon admitted during police questioning on Monday night that authorities correctly identified him as the man in the video who jumps on Albert’s head while he is lying on the ground, cracking his skull. Prosecutors say that Shannon and his alleged accomplices—16-year-old Eric Carson, 18-year-old Eugene Riley, and 17-year-old Eugene Bailey—have been charged with murder, and at least three are being held without bail. Prosecutors say Albert was an “innocent bystander” on his way to the bus stop when a street fight broke out near his school in Chicago’s South Side. The video, shot by a witness, has appeared on national television and YouTube, and was also turned over to the police. It depicts Riley hitting Albert on the head with a railroad tie, Shannon stomping on his head, and others kicking him while he lays in varying states of consciousness. In the background, a female voice says “Derrion, get up!” as several teens struggle to help Albert as his attackers dissipate.

If Roman Polanski goes down, he's going down swinging. The director's lawyer told the BBC that Polanski is "in fighting mood" and is determined to fight his extradition to the U.S. to face sentencing for sex with a minor in 1977. Polanski's lawyer also said that he was "shocked and dumbfounded" by the arrest because he has frequented Switzerland for 12 years. Meanwhile, a group of actors and directors have a signed a petition protesting the arrest, and French and Polish diplomats have said they are keeping a close eye on the matter. A Swiss official explained that when the U.S. filed the request to arrest Polanski, they had to obey the order. "When Mr. Polanski arrived we had no choice from a legal point of view but to arrest him," the official said.

It’s not the first time former Gov. Sarah Palin has finished early. A mere four months after embarking on her memoir, Palin is done, and consequently the release date for Going Rogue: An American Life has been bumped up to November 17, after originally being slated for a spring release. The book clocks in at 400 pages, and the publisher of Harper said Palin had thrown herself into writing it with great enthusiasm: "Gov. Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project. It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail." The book will have a first printing of 1.5 million copies, equal to the first printing of Ted Kennedy's memoir.

In a creepier-than-usual case of social networking gone awry, a user-created poll on Facebook was recently discovered posing the question “Should Obama be killed?” Blog Political Carnival discovered the poll and alerted the Secret Service to its existence; Facebook has since removed the poll as well as the application that enabled its creation. Political Carnival took a screenshot of the poll before it went down. It featured four answers to the question: Yes, No, Maybe, and “Yes if he cuts my health care.” The Secret Service has said that it is investigating the issue with the help of Facebook. “We take these things seriously,” said a spokesman for the Secret Service.

The fresh new face of Saturday Night Live dropped a big “F” bomb on the sketch-comedy show’s live season premiere on Saturday night, but she won’t be fired, according to US Magazine. Hosted by Megan Fox, the episode featured the newbie, Jenny Slate, 27, expressing herself through pseudo-swear words like “freakin’.” Later in the sketch, however, things got more serious: "You know what? You stood up for yourself, and I fucking love you for that," Slate said. Although the original word was projected straight to TV screens on the East Coast, the network had time to replace it with another “freakin’” by the time the show made it to the West Coast. Executives apparently called a meeting after the show to discuss the slip-up, NBC spokeswoman Sharon Pannozzo said, "[There is] no truth to firing conjecture. … She will not be fired." Slate’s f-word dropped after prime time at 12:40 a.m., which means neither the show nor the network will have to pay FCC fines.

Talk about cold, dead hands. Dean Allen, who is running for South Carolina adjutant general (an office that governs the state’s National Guard, among other things) hosted a “Machine Gun Social” fundraiser Saturday. Allen’s event drew 500 people and featured the giveaway of a $700 AK-47 semiautomatic rifle, reports Talking Points Memo. “I like to tell people I’m not the country-club conservative. I’m the machine-gun one,” Allen said. He explained that the event aimed to “celebrate” the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.

Lucy Vodden, the inspiration for the classic Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" has passed away at the age of 46. A childhood classmate of John Lennon’s son Julian, Vodden had been battling lupus for over a decade prior to succumbing. The song came about after Julian came home from school and showed his father a drawing of Vodden with stars around her head, declaring her to be “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” The song later became a key track on the seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, though Vodden herself said, “I can't stand the song. I don't feel I can relate to it. I just don't like it.” The schoolmates had been back in touch in recent years, and Lennon sent Vodden flowers after learning of her illness. Lennon and his mother Cynthia are said to be “shocked and saddened” by the news of Vodden’s death.

Life for the Madoffs just got worse. The trustee winding down the Madoff firm said that Bernard Madoff's two sons, brother, and a niece will be slapped with a $198 million suit this week, Reuters reports. The suit alleges that the family members, who held executive positions within the firm, should have known about the world-wide, decades-long, multibillion-dollar Ponzi fraud perpetrated by Bernie, and accuses them of negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, and making tens of millions of dollars from the scheme. Furthermore, the trustee, Irving Picard, and his chief counsel, David Sheehan said investigators are looking for hidden funds that could be worth up to $18 billion.

The apologists are lining up for Roman Polanski. Want to read a satisfying rebuttal? Kate Harding has one at Salon. One apologist, Anne Applebaum at The Washington Post, writes that “there is evidence of judicial misconduct at the original trial.” Harding points out, “There is also evidence that Polanski raped a child.” Harding also makes quick work of Applebaum’s excuse that Polanski’s parents’ experiences in the Holocaust may have led to “an understandable fear of irrational punishment.” Harding writes “being sentenced for pleading guilty to child rape is basically the definition of rational punishment.”

Iran is apparently not cowed by the disclosure of its secret nuclear site: Tehran tested its most advanced missiles on Monday to cap off two days of war games. The medium-range shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles can travel up to 1,200 miles, putting Israel, U.S. bases in the Middle East, and parts of Europe within striking distance. "Iranian missiles are able to target any place that threatens Iran," said Abdollah Araqi, a top Revolutionary Guard commander.

Barack Obama wants his hometown to host the 2016 summer games badly enough that he'll join his wife in Copenhagen later this week to make a final pitch for Chicago to the International Olympic Committee. White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that Obama "decided over the weekend that he wanted to be a part of the final push as we enter the home stretch... he did not want to leave any stone unturned," Politico reports. Chicago has stiff competition from the other finalist cities, which include Madrid, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro, which is considered the favorite. The announcement is due out Friday.

Larry King says he'll probably "fall over right on the set one night," but with just 18 months left on the 75-year-old’s contract, CNN has started planning for contingences, according to Page Six. The network’s top choices to fill King's shoes if he steps down are currently tied up in other ventures. Ryan Seacrest's deal with American Idol makes him too expensive, although Katie Couric's deal with CBS expires in 2011. Executives will also watch Joy Behar, who has a new show on sister-network Headline News. A final option is replacing a King with a King: CNN's "video wall guy" John King is reportedly a possibility.

Forget Microsoft, Google, the NFL, and Goldman Sachs: Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, best symbolizes America, according to a new 60 Minutes-Vanity Fair poll. Also not likely to go over well with Vanity Fair’s readers: Half of the poll's respondents thought that taxing the U.S.'s richest people by at least 50 percent was a great idea. Likewise, during these tough economic times, according to the poll, dining out was the luxury that people most hate to sacrifice, although respondents had some strange ideas about fighting the obesity epidemic. Five percent thought the best way to fight fast-food-fueled obesity was to place scales in restaurants so patrons could weigh themselves.

The Obama administration is considering a wide range of sanctions against Iran as punishment for its nuclear program, according to The New York Times. Options include cutting off investments to Iran’s oil and gas industry, the blacklisting of more Iranian banks, and the targeting of energy equipment and technology. The push for new sanctions comes just four days before a face-to-face meeting between the United States and Iran, in which the U.S. is expected to demand blueprints to the newly discovered nuclear site.

Perhaps this can be the subject for Dan Brown’s next novel: “The extended [Cheney] brood all live within about 15 minutes of one another in northern Virginia,” according to a new New York Times profile of Liz Cheney. “They gather for Sunday night dinners, usually at Liz’s house, and travel to family homes in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.” Liz Cheney recently spoke at a meeting of conservative women in Nashville, a meeting that included a “hey, sister!” and an “air kiss” from Michelle Malkin. Liz is also the one who persuaded her father to write his memoirs and is collaborating closely with him on them.

Nothing like a slice of the softer side of Americana to decompress from a lengthy G-20 Summit. Making up for last week’s business-heavy workweek in Pittsburgh, Michelle and Barack Obama managed to squeeze in some family time Sunday evening by taking their daughters and extended family members on an evening tour of notable Washington monuments. The first family’s nine-person, tennis shoe-clad entourage included Barack, Michelle, their daughters Sasha and Malia, Michelle’s mother Marian Robinson, Barack’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, her husband Konrad Ng, and their daughters Suhaila and Savita. The family, which was laughing, hugging, and having a good time, spent around 10 minutes at the Jefferson Memorial before moving on to the Washington Monument. A National Park Service official told the Daily Mail that it was probably the first time a president had visited the Jefferson Memorial for personal reasons since Franklin Roosevelt.

Roman Polanski’s surprise arrest at the Zurich airport could lead to a happy ending for the Polish filmmaker, The Washington Post reports. Polanski’s legal team has filed a motion to dismiss the charges that have followed him for 31 years, since he fled the United States after pleading guilty to sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old. "I think he will finally get his day in court," criminal defense attorney Steve Cron said, "and there's a good chance his case will be dismissed or the sentence will be commuted to time served." Poland and France are making a joint appeal to the United States to have Polanski released from detention. A HBO documentary raised questions over judicial misconduct in Polanski’s 1977 case, and his victim, Samantha Geimer, has joined the filmmaker’s bid for dismissal after Polanski and she reached a settlement outside of court. The Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby director won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2002 and was in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award when he was detained by Swiss police at the request of U.S. authorities. Extradition could take months.

Conservatives didn't much care for Obama's U.N. premiere, during which he urged global cooperation on the issues of nuclear proliferation and climate change, but in The Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria writes that Obama's foreign-policy tack is worth defending. Zakaria argues that the right's rancor--Michelle Malkin dubbed Obama "the great appeaser," while Limbaugh called the speech "basically a coup against America"--reflects the way conservatives confuse machismo with diplomacy. Zakaria writes, "Denouncing, demeaning, and insulting other countries was a cheap and easy way to seem strong," but ultimately America's hostility "had become an easy excuse to reject even modest concessions to U.S. requests." Although nations do have priorities that often conflict, there are some issues in the global interest. Obama's approach builds on common ground and has already managed to convince Russia and China to agree to a toughening of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and Russia to consider supporting tougher sanctions against Iran.

Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren are at it again. The two actresses, who helped the prudish 50s loosen up, were born a little over a week apart, and this year, Bardot celebrated her birthday by asking "Sophia Loren, my splendid twin," to "stop wearing fur—that is the best gift she could offer me," according to the Telegraph. Bardot abandoned her film career in 1973 at age 39 and sold off everything she owned to fund her animal rights foundation. It's not the first time Bardot has asked Loren to change her ways. In the mid-1990s Bardot blasted the iconic Italian model for "wearing a cemetery on [her] back" in a line of fur-coat ads. Loren never responded.

The body of Anne Morell Petrino, the heiress who jumped to her death on Thursday, has been found in the Hudson River, state police say. Petrillo was the daughter of newspaper heiress Anne Scripps Douglas, who was murdered by her husband before he fatally jumped off the Tappan Zee Bridge in suburban New York in 1994. Petrino jumped from the same bridge as her stepfather did 15 years earlier. The family founded the Detroit News. Friends say Petrino was struggling financially and had an alcohol problem. She left a note, but police won't disclose its contents. The examiner's office will make the official identification.

President Obama and his top education official want to increase the amount of time students are in classrooms, which might mean—gasp!—shortening summer vacations. "Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," Obama said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom." Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the current school calendar is based on "the agrarian economy," but kids today aren't working in the fields. "Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan says. "I want to just level the playing field." But the Associated Press reports that kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school than many students in Asian countries like Singapore,Taiwan, and Japan, who outscore American students on math and science tests. Charter schools report academic gains from lengthening the school day.

Italy's scandal-prone prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is stepping on the toes of Barack and Michelle Obama...again. "I bring you greetings from a person who is called ... a person who is sun-tanned ... Barack Obama," the politician told a cheering crowd in Milan on Sunday. "You wouldn't believe it, but they go sunbathing at the beach together—his wife is also sun-tanned." Michelle Obama pointedly shook Berlusconi's hand at the G-20 meeting last week after hugging and kissing the cheeks of every other world leader. The 72-year-old Berlusconi sparked outrage last November when he called Obama "sun-tanned." He said anyone who found the comment racist was an "imbecile."

Donald Fisher, who co-founded Gap Inc. with his wife Doris 40 years ago, died on Sunday at age 81. Their international brand—which includes 3,100 Gaps, plus countless other Old Navies, Banana Republics, Piperlimes, and Athletas—began with a single store in San Francisco in 1969, named for the generation gap between boomers and their parents. It sold Levi’s jeans, tapes, and records at the time, but in 1983 president Millard Drexler overhauled the company and turned it into one of the most successful private-label apparel brands in American history.

Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi has found a new place to pitch his tent: He and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez have become fast friends. The Associated Press reports that the duo led a weekend summit between South American and African leaders, with an eye to forming a "NATO for the South," called SATO. "We're going to have our treaty too," Qaddafi said. Chavez said that the U.S. posed the greatest threat to Venezuela. The two men also connected over their desire to challenge the "imperialism" of wealthy countries. On Monday, they will sign a series of accords deepening the relationship between their two countries.

Two of America’s most unpopular organizations have, sadly, decided to go the tough road ahead alone: According to a statement, Bank of America has "suspended current commitments" to ACORN, an affiliated group, and "will not enter into any further agreements with ACORN or any of its affiliates," pending assessments by the bank of the organization's operations. BofA and America had worked together since the 1990s, with ACORN counseling first-time homebuyers on how to handle mortgage debt.

To win the war in Afghanistan, we must send the 40,000 troops that General McChrystal has requested from Obama—or so argue Frederick and Kimberly Kagan in The Weekly Standard. The Kagans write that the U.S. must fight the Quetta Sura Taliban and the Haqqani Network as well as al Qaeda because al Qaeda is not an isolated group with a discrete goal, but a network-of-networks bent on ruling the world's 1.5 billion Muslims and reducing "non-Muslim peoples to subservience." The winning strategy, the Kagans say, is to put pressure on al Qaeda by isolating it from the Afghan population and "eliminate bad guys faster than they can be replaced." In order to generate necessary intelligence and turn the population against the local groups, American forces need to be able to protect the Afghan population from the various terrorist networks and build the Afghan Army. Targeting mid-level terrorists would both disrupt the organization and eliminate replacements for senior officials who were killed.