American and Afghan officials are aiding anti-Taliban militias to start fighting against insurgents in Afghanistan. The emergence of anti-Taliban leaders has encouraged officials to help grow more like-minded armed groups across southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban has more control, with the hopes of starting a large-scale tribal rebellion against them. The goal is that the militias will quickly boost the number of Afghans fighting against the Taliban, which is especially important while the Afghan army and police forces are being trained. But Americans are trying to avoid repeating past mistakes: militias will stay connected to the Afghan government, will be limited to protecting villages and manning checkpoints, and will stay small. The plan is ambitious and risky because the militias could turn on one another, or against us. There's no need to arm the groups for now, because they already have guns.

A gas explosion just before dawn on Saturday killed 87 people in the state-run Xinxing mine in Heilongjiang, and 21 others are still trapped a third of a mile below ground. Of the 528 working miners, 415 managed to escape, and miners have already been saved by some 300 rescuers, working in the frigid, dark underground, left powerless by the blast. Some miners have been hospitalized with broken bones and carbon monoxide poisoning. One entrance of the mine was cut off by the explosion, caused by a gas build-up, and a nearby building collapsed. Windows were blown out of homes in a city several miles away. The disaster highlights the difficulty China has had with enacting safety standards in the face of heavy demand: the country has said it is cracking down on unregulated mining operations—which comprise 80% of China's mines—and has cut fatalities to an average of six a day in the first half of this year. But accidents still happen: the February deaths of 74 miners in an explosion in Shanxi was the worst in a year.

With little time to spare, Majority Leader Harry Reid garnered the 60 votes he needed to move the Senate's health-care bill into debate. Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a conservative Democrat who had long been on the fence, said she would side with her caucus just hours before the vote. Two other centrists holding out till the last minute were Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and Nebraska Sen. Bill Nelson. While Saturday's vote was good news for Reid, it's not a guarantee that the bill itself will pass. Both Landrieu and Lincoln said they would not vote for a bill containing a public-insurance option, a more liberal measure that Democrats desperately want. Lincoln in particular faces a tough reelection campaign next year, and even mentioned the millions of dollars spent on advertising in her state, urging her to either vote for or against the bill, in her speech on the Senate floor.

Out of the country for an eight-day trip across Asia, President Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday that his travels were meant to secure help for the economy. “As we emerge from the worst recession in generations, there is nothing more important than to do everything we can to get our economy moving again and put Americans back to work, and I will go anywhere to pursue that goal," Obama said in a recorded message from Seoul. He added that increasing America's exports abroad could "help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world." Taking on the role of family budgeter in chief, he called on consumers to be wary during holiday shopping of “more and more debt," and said Americans must “spend less, save more.”

The Environmental Protection Agency is demanding that Texas tighten its pollution laws. The EPA says the state, which is the top carbon-dioxide-emitter in the country, has air-quality regulations that break federal law, and it's studying whether oil refineries emit dangerous levels of toxins. Texas says its simpler regulatory system, which regulates facilities rather than individual smokestacks, is more efficient, but environmentalists say the rules are too lax. Air quality fights are intense in Texas; Houston and Dallas have violated federal air-quality standards for years, and city officials are cheering the EPA's move. But businesses aren't. The EPA has become far more aggressive under the Obama administration, and has said it will regulate carbon-dioxide emissions, set tougher limits on mercury emissions, and has held up dozens of permit applications for Central Appalachian coal mining projects. Business groups say the agency's mandates are too expensive and could drive jobs overseas.

Climate-change skeptics have taken emails (apparently illegally obtained from the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia) to be evidence that scientists are rigging data to make the case that humans are the root cause of global warming. One of the emails reads in part "I've just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series... to hide the decline," the wording of which, according to some, indicates an attempt by the email's author, Phil Jones, to rig his data in favor of the human-cause theory. Jones' defenders say the email is taken out of context. "It's hardly anything you would call a trick," says Michael Mann—the "Mick" referred to in the email—continuing that it simply involves placing proxy temperature records next to a line showing instrument-collected temperatures, with both being clearly marked and differentiated. Reachers say the emails are merely an honest exchange of ideas.

Fox News' wackiest host is taking up a new role: community organizer. Glenn Beck says he hopes to rally his audience by promoting voter-registration drives and conservative conventions all across the country, all culminating in a rally in Washington that will coincide with the release of his new book in August. Beck didn’t say how directly he might back political candidates, The New York Times reports, only saying he wants to help people be more "proactive." He's announcing his new role in a Florida rally on Saturday. Conservative pundits like Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mike Huckabee have a huge effect on politics, especially for the nebulous "tea party" movement, where they stand in as leaders. Beck rejects the title, saying he is just a fed-up citizen.

Italian police arrested two Pakistanis suspected of sending money in aid to the Islamic militant group responsible for the deaths of 166 people in Mumbai a year ago. With the help of Indian authorities and the FBI, Italian authorities were able to identify the two men as owners of a money transfer business in Brescia, in northern Italy. They are said to have transferred money to fund the internet phone calls of individuals "in direct contact with the militants." The police also arrested two Pakistanis they said had ties to illegal human trafficking.

If box office sales were the primary indicator of a film's success, then New Moon would be headed to the Oscars. After bringing in $72.7 million its first day in theaters and breaking the opening day record previously held by The Dark Knight (67.2 million), The Twilight Saga sequel went on to achieve the third most profitable three-day premier in domestic box-office history. At $140.7 million, the flick knocked Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($135.6) out of the third place slot, falling behind only The Dark Knight ($158.4 million) and Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million), and proving that apparently bats, spiders, and vampires are box office gold. New Moon also broke the record for the biggest November opening in history, as well as the second largest non-holiday release (losing again to The Dark Knight). As American Twihard audiences swooned, teenage girls (and their mothers) overseas were enjoying Taylor Lautner's chiseled abs as well and contributing to the film's $258.8 million opening global weekend.

Despite early reassurances that suspected Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Hasan acted as a lone gunman and was not part of a terrorist conspiracy, the Washington Post reports that e-mails between Hasan and a radical Yemeni cleric may make the situation more complicated. According to FBI sources interviewed by the Post, Hasan's interactions online with imam Anwar al-Aulaqi became more radical and frequent in the run up to the attack and included some discussion of transferring money. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has pledged to investigate the 18 or 19 emails and why the Pentgon missed them and recently told reporters that "there are some who are reluctant to call it terrorism, but there is significant evidence that it is." Hasan will have his first court hearing in his hospital room Saturday, his attorney said, where it will be determined whether the Army psychiatrist will be put in pre-trial confinement.

You wouldn't think it, but Sarah Palin might be the Democrats' best friend. The former vice-presidential nominee could be a huge boon to the Democratic National Committee, which just raised a (post-campaign finance reform, non-presidential election year) record $11.5 million for the month of October, placing their funds at $12.9 million on hand with $4.4 million in debts (the RNC has $11.2 million on hand after raising $8.7 million in October). The committee's looking to use the polarizing figure of Palin more in November: Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America—a DNC project spun off from Obama's campaign organization—mentioned the ex-Alaska governor specifically in a fundraising email sent out on Friday. All told, the DNC has raised $66.3 million this year, while the RNC has raised $69.2 million.

Sarah Palin and Robert Pattinson: What do they have in common, besides the letter P? Hair. Lots of gorgeous, flowing hair, styled to perfection, writes Vanessa Friedman in the Financial Times. Big hair is making a big comeback, she says. Usually, short skirts and tall hair are signs of economic boom times, as so gloriously evident in the 1980s. It could be that this holiday season will mark an economic recovery, Friedman writes, or maybe we’ll feel nostalgia for those easier times. But this era's big hair is different from the styles of shoulder-pad times—this hair moves. It's seductive. It's subversively touchable. It advertises a "Samsonian symbolism" that says, "I can grow this—imagine what else I can do." And yet, Palin and Pattinson don't hide all the work that goes into their manes' artistic swoops and flips. It "speaks to our current desire for transparency, fiscal and otherwise."

Looking for another reason to avoid the new Twilight movie? E! Online points out that ever-resourceful scammers and hackers are using the unbelievably popular vampire movie and book series to lure unsuspecting users. Clicking on links to sites claiming to have interviews with series author Stephenie Meyer—despite the fact that the writer's only publicity for the movie was one episode of Oprah—can earn the unwary Team Edward member a hard drive full of viruses and spyware. Other sites claiming to feature the "full movie" are similarly rigged: downloading the "required" movie player loads up a computer with malware. Twilight fans should take a page from Bella's book and be careful with their (computers') purity—it's not like it's hard to find legit Twilight coverage.

American troops may be deployed by the thousands to bolster efforts in Afghanistan if President Obama grants Gen. Stanley McChrystal his request for more soldiers. But will Europe follow the White House's lead? According to The Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration is in talks with NATO to coordinate an increase in forces from other countries as well. Some 3,000 to 7,000 new troop deployments could complement the 10,000 to 40,000 American troops Obama may decide to send out. Germany and Britain, who host the two largest contingents after America, are both looking to raise their troop levels although domestic politics could make such a move difficult for their leaders.

The U.S. has spent $53 billion rebuilding Iraq, and officials increasingly worry that a big chunk of that money will be wasted because Iraq can't maintain its tens of thousands of new facilities—and therefore provide basic services to its citizens—once Americans leave. Over the past two years, the Iraqi government has refused or delayed the transfer of U.S.-built projects because it can't staff or maintain them, The New York Times reports. Schools, hospitals, and prisons built with American cash have been left vacant long after their completion due to the scarcity of trained workers. But even though Baghdad has often managed these facilities poorly, Washington can share some of the blame, because these projects haven't been followed up with adequate training. And thanks to declining oil prices, the Iraqi government needs $400 billion more to help fulfill pledges for rebuilding as its January elections approach. In the meantime, American reconstruction specialists continue to leave the country in large numbers, taking their expertise with them. The withdrawal of of large numbers of American forces begins next year.

It's high noon at 8 p.m. tonight in the Senate—and if Harry Reid can't marshal all 60 members of the Democratic caucus to vote to begin debate on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, healthcare reform may be dead for good. While tonight's vote is only the start to the Senate process, a unanimous Republican opposition means that Reid needs each of the 58 Democrats and the two Senate Independents to vote "yes" to avoid a filibuster. Three moderate Democrats—Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas—have been seen as Reid's biggest obstacle to winning the vote, and with Nelson confirming that he'll vote for debate and Landrieu also saying she will vote yes, Lincoln appears to be the majority leader's biggest obstacle. Reid is betting his reputation on this bill in more ways than one: not only would its failure call into question his leadership in the Senate, and throw into doubt his reelection campaign in Nevada, but since the majority leader's office wrote this bill, Reid owns it. If the bill passes into debate, expect to see Republicans ramp up their rhetoric over the next month; if it doesn't, you might not see much of Harry Reid anymore at all.

Prompted by a 1-0 soccer loss to archrival Algeria and unconfirmed reports of violence against Egyptian fans, a mob burned Algerian flags and injured 35 police officers in Cairo. The riot was sparked by unconfirmed reports that Egyptian fans had been attacked after the game, which was held in Sudan. Rather than an appeal for calm, the riot received at least tacit encouragement from the son of President Hosni Mubarak, Alaa, who phoned into a news program to defend Egypt's anger. “We were being humiliated and we can’t be silent about what happened there,” he said, according to The New York Times. “We have to take a stand. This is enough. That’s it, this is enough. Egypt should be respected. We are Egyptian and we hold our head high, and whoever insults us should be smacked on his head,” he said. The riot has drawn comparisons to similar unrest after bread prices shot up in 1977 and 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI will try to smooth things over with Anglican leader Rowan Williams after a combative speech by Williams in response to efforts by the Catholic Church to absorb disaffected Anglicans. In October, the Vatican announced a new process by which Anglican churches could become Catholic and recognize the pope as their leader while still maintaining Anglican rituals, a move that was seen as a bullying power play by some in the Anglican community. While the two churches have much in common, Anglican priests can marry and have children and women can be ordained as priests.

Following weeks of intense media speculation, Levi Johnston's first set of Playgirl pics, featuring the Hockey player and Palin scourge posing on a Manhattan rooftop and getting sudsy in the shower, hit the online publication's website early this morning. According to Gawker, 14 of the 20 photos are in black and white, and while several exhibit the bare backside of "Ricky Hollywood," none—as expected—are full-frontal. "He looks very sexy," writes Brian Moylan, "though his body doesn't look as worked out as you might think."

Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, Dr. Devi Shetty, keeps a photo of her on his desk that says "Hands that serve are more sacred than lips that pray." Shetty has kept that in mind, offering heart surgeries to those who couldn't afford them, but he's doing it with a business model that would make Henry Ford proud. The doctor has transformed Indian health care by opening huge hospitals (1,000 beds, compared to 160 on average in the U.S.) that offer procedures at sharply reduced prices. At his flagship hospital, an open-heart surgery costs about $2,000, while in the U.S., the surgery would cost between $20,000 and $100,000. And counterintuitively, the quality of care has increased, in part because doctors get more practice and specialize in just one or two types of surgery. Shetty plans to open four more "health cities" around India, and one in the Cayman Islands. More than 6 million Americans are expected to go overseas for affordable health care next year.

Sarah Palin disappointed fans in Noblesville, Indiana, when she abruptly quit her book signing. The large crowd had heartily cheered the former vice-presidential candidate when she arrived holding youngest child Trig at 5:30 p.m. at a Borders bookstore. The store handed out wristbands so that the first 1,000 customers could get their books signed, but the event ended promptly at 9 p.m., leaving several wristbanded attendees' books without an autograph. One fan said, "We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying... I feel like I don't want to support Sarah." Others were far less diplomatic: Video shows hecklers shouting, "Quittin' on the job!"

Some two dozen Lincoln University seniors may not receive their degrees this spring, thanks to a graduation requirement stipulating that students who enter college with a BMI over 30 must either prove to the school that they've lost weight, or take a one-semester class called "Fitness for Life." Lincoln, a historically black university in Oxford, Pennsylvania, enacted the requirement in 2006, meaning that this year's graduating class is the first to feel its effects. Despite student protests, James DeBoy, chairman of the health, physical education, and recreation department, doesn't see a problem with the requirement. "We test for written, oral communication skills, and I don't see this as any different," he says. "We want our students to have a sound mind, but also a sound body."

Harry Reid just unclenched a little more: Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln said she will vote to allow debate on the health-care reform bill. One potential hitch: Lincoln said she would not vote for a health-care bill if the public option stays. Lincoln was the last moderate Democratic holdout after Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, who also opposes a public option, said she would vote to allow debate Saturday. The Democrats need all 60 members of their caucus to vote for debate, since Republicans are unanimous in their opposition. Lincoln, Landrieu, and Ben Nelson (D-NE) were the three key centrist senators wavering on the legislation. Landrieu is thought to have been swayed in part by a generous package for relief for states that have been hit by disasters in the past seven years--huge for post-Katrina Louisiana. Nelson won antitrust exemptions for the insurance industry, which were going to be revoked. The vote is scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight.