Private security guards working for the defense contractor Blackwater Worldwide took part in secret CIA raids—"snatch and grab" operations for capturing or killing suspected insurgents that occurred on an almost nightly basis in Iraq from 2004 to 2006. One Blackwater employee interviewed by The New York Times said that the two entities had "a very brotherly relationship," and that "there was a feeling that Blackwater almost became an extension of the agency." Blackwater's involvement in the raids seems to have grown out of contracts to provide perimeter security for some stations operated by the intelligence agency, with the private guards oftentimes being recruited to accompany case officers on missions. The CIA refused to comment on Blackwater, but did point out that "just as American law permits," the agency employs contractors. New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt, who chairs the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, called the use of contractors in intelligence operations "a scandal waiting to be examined."

The White House is eyeing the possibility of using bailout money for loans to small businesses in the hopes that they will hire and lower unemployment. The proposal, the details of which are still up in the air, would create a new entity under the Troubled Asset Relief Program aimed at allowing banks to access TARP funds without restrictions, so long as that money was used for small-business loans. The administration hopes that not only would the loans allow small businesses to hire more workers and combat rising unemployment, but also ease criticism that the TARP bailouts helped big Wall Street firms at the expense of small business. Arguing for the easing of restrictions on TARP money, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told a congressional oversight panel that banks are afraid that "they will be stigmatized" if they "do business with the government."

Cash bonuses are so last year for the leaders of Goldman Sachs. The investment firm announced Thursday that its top 30 executives won’t get cash bonuses for 2009—instead, discretionary compensation will come in the form of restricted stock—and must then be kept for a holding period of five years during which Goldman can rescind the shares. The company has been under scrutiny for its excess in the midst of the recession. Even with the new changes, the average Goldman employee will receive a $700,000 bonus—the highest in company history. “We believe our compensation policies are the strongest in our industry and ensure that compensation accurately reflects the firm's performance and incentivize behavior that is in the public's and our shareholders' best interests," Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein said.

An unnamed top al Qaeda leader was killed Thursday in northwest Pakistan by a Predator drone attack, according to U.S. officials. If confirmed, the killing would be the first of a high-ranking al Qaeda figure by the U.S. since Abu Laith al Libi was killed by a drone in January 2008. The dead leader is not Osama bin Laden, say officials, who credit the killing to recently intensified operations against al Qaeda leaders. Pakistan denied the report, which claims that at least four were killed and four injured in the Ladha area of South Waziristan. The CIA’s drone program, which targets al Qaeda operatives in rural Pakistan with unmanned planes, has been controversial in both the U.S. and Pakistan.

North Korea announced Friday that it is ready to resume nuclear talks, following a visit from special U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth. Bosworth was sent to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries and discuss the need for reopening six-party talks with China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia. Last April, North Korea withdrew from a de-nuclearization deal made in 2005 when the U.N. Security Council condemned the country for a rocket launch. However, “It remains to be seen when and how [North Korea] will return to the six-party talks,” Bosworth said.

Surprise, surprise: Joe Lieberman is dragging his feet again. The Connecticut independent, along with fellow moderate Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE), expressed further anxiety over the health-care legislation under debate—this time, over a proposed expansion of Medicare, part of a deal struck by Harry Reid on Tuesday in exchange for the removal of the public option that had previously been the Democrats' stumbling block to peel off moderate votes. Snowe, who met with the president Wednesday, says that she "can't see" herself voting for the bill, while Lieberman openly expressed unease about the impact of the proposal on the "fiscal viability" of Medicare. Nelson conveyed his anxiety that the expansion would eventually lead to a government-run health-care system. Harry Reid would not say whether he has the 60 votes necessary to avoid a filibuster, but did tell reporters that he was "feeling pretty confident."

One of the perks of being in Congress? If you can’t follow the law, you can change it. Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she would package a measure to raise the national-debt ceiling in a must-pass defense-spending bill that will hit the House floor next week. The ceiling is currently $12.1 trillion, but it’s set to hit nearly $14 trillion this year. Treasury officials told Congress they must raise the limit before New Year's Eve or risk not being able to make Social Security and veterans' payments in early January. The House leadership calculates it's better to raise the ceiling now than right before elections in 2010, when they fear a backlash.

According to "Hollywood madam" Michelle Braun, who recently pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges, Tiger Woods was a frequent customer, spending some $60,000 on six dates with four different escorts. "He liked girl-on-girl," claims Braun. "He had sex with them together." Braun says the embattled golfer spent as much as $15,000 on a Manhattan woman named Loredana, and that Holly Sampson and Jamie Jungers, both of whom have already come forward as former Woods flames, were employees. According to Braun, her escorts said Tiger "was just wild and a lot of fun," but "tough to keep up with."

President Obama, with the first lady at his side, accepted his Nobel medal and $1.4 million winnings in Oslo Thursday "with deep gratitude and humility." He added the "hard truth" is that war can be necessary to achieve peace. He also acknowledged the controversy surrounding his win, with critics saying a wartime president just months into his administration doesn't deserve the medal, by modestly pointing out that his accomplishments are "slight" compared to other prize recipients. Obama said that that the most "profound" issue surrounding his win is that he's the head of a country in the midst of two wars, adding that because of this "I come here with an acute sense of the cost of armed conflict—filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace." He cited his closure of Guantanamo Bay prison and his prohibition of torture, arguing that the U.S. "must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war" because "we lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals we fight to defend." The ceremony has created a host of problems for Obama, who offended his Norwegian hosts by blowing off events planned in his honor, although he will attend an awards banquet this evening.

What’s the early word on Avatar, James Cameron’s first feature film since Titanic? The Guardian has seen the movie and while it is obligated to not review the film before Monday, it goes ahead and says “ Avatar was really much, much better than expected, that it looked amazing and that the story was gripping—if cheesy in many places.” The film’s 3-D effects worked, “though, a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is needed when watching Avatar” due to its out-there plot. The other journalists in attendance, The Guardian writes, agreed that it was good. Avatar hits theaters next Friday.

Can Brian Kelly clean up the mess that Charlie Weis made? After leading Cincinnati to a 12-0 season and a spot at the Sugar Bowl, the school’s head football coach will leave to coach Notre Dame next season, ESPN reports. Neither Notre Dame nor Cincinnati has confirmed the news, but two sources have confirmed the news to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen. In three seasons with Cincinnati, Kelly is 34-6.

The five young American Muslims picked up in Pakistan on Wednesday met with representatives of a group linked to al Qaeda, but were turned down because they lacked references from other militants, according to a Pakistani law-enforcement official. The men disappeared from the Washington, D.C., area in November. The police chief of the city where they were picked up tells the Associated Press that they are “directly connected” to al Qaeda and “they are proudly saying they are here for jihad.”

Writing for Newsweek on Human Rights Day, actress and activist Angelina Jolie exhorts the Obama administration to bring justice to Sudanese leaders who are responsible for the country's ongoing genocide. "Even if justice is delayed," the Oscar winner writes, "it must never be denied." Though Jolie says she supports the White House's "willingness to engage diplomatically, even with regimes we abhor," she criticizes the vagueness of its statements, and implores the administration to "explore ways to bring [Sudanese President Omar] al-Bashir to justice, even as it encourages stability in Darfur." For Jolie, who co-chairs the Jolie-Pitt Foundation with boyfriend Brad Pitt, "holding perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable is the best way to ensure justice today and peace in the future. Sudan is the place to start."

Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman gave Barack Obama a boost Thursday by proposing a compromise climate bill, suggesting the country cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 17 percent by 2020. The goal parallels legislation previously passed in the House and what Obama will present at the international climate talks in Copenhagen next week on America’s behalf. Kerry—who said the Senate is dedicated to addressing the climate crisis—and the other two senators' roughly established “framework” also plans for more expansive offshore oil-and-gas drilling and support of nuclear power on the federal level. Obama, according to the White House press secretary, sees the effort as a significant move toward an agreement in the Senate. While Lieberman said the three senators don’t have the 60 votes needed to advance the bill at this point, he says he believes there will be a deal in the future.

Is Elin Nordegren going to give her husband Tiger Woods a mulligan? People magazine will report Friday that Tiger Woods’ wife may have decided to stay married for the sake of their children—Sam, 2, and Charlie, 10 months. Apparently, Nordegren is herself a “child of divorce,” and a close friend says “that’s not something she’s likely going to want to do to Sam and Charlie.” People also says that the couple’s marriage has been rocky for two years, and that Nordegren already knew about Tiger’s liaisons. “Nothing that’s coming out now is a surprise,” a source says.

Roman Polanski's lawyer, Chad S. Hummel, asked a California appeals court panel to dismiss the director's 1977 rape case due to an "astonishing record of misconduct" by the district attorney who prosecuted Polanski and the judge who sentenced him. "It sends chills up your spine what this judge was doing," said Hummel, describing the way the case's original judge, Laurence J. Rittenbrand, spoke with a prosecutor regarding Polanski's sentencing. The appeals court is unlikely to make a decision on the case, and will probably make a ruling on the ability of a trial judge to consider the request while Polanski remains in Switzerland. Justices suggested Polanski might be 32 years late in his request. The DA's office says that the director should not be able to ask for a dismissal until he returns from his self-imposed exile.

A police officer in plainclothes fatally shot a 25-year-old man in Times Square Thursday morning. The shooting occurred outside the parking garage of the Marriott Marquis Hotel on 46th Street and Broadway, where police were cracking down on street vendors hawking counterfeit CDs, according to The New York Times. One official explained that police were seeking peddlers who were scamming tourists; when one fled, firing at the hotel's windows, the officer returned fire. The man was taken from the scene by the city's fire department to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition before dying. The location of the shooting warranted what the paper described as a "massive" police response.

"I think it's a good idea to tie Peter Mandelson to a van," wrote columnist Jeremy Clarkson in a Nov. 8 editorial for the Times of London, which Internet fans claimed was censored by the Times before eventually being put back up on their site. Clarkson, the host of popular car show Top Gear, isn't pleased with the First Secretary of State's approach to governing, saying that he hates Lord Mandelson's "pale blue jeans" and "preposterous mustache." Mandelson's "one-man war on the bright and the witty," writes Clarkson, means that a large portion of his friends are trying to "get out of this stupid, fair-trade... equal-opportunities, multicultural, carbon-neutral, trendily left... hellhole." But where will they move to? Not the U.S., says Clarkson. "We can't go to America because if you ever catch a cold over there, the health system is designed in such a way that you end up without a house. Or dead."

Can Nancy Pelosi deliver the nation a Christmas gift? House Democrats “would do almost anything to pass a health-care bill,” Pelosi said Thursday, and she thinks they can do so this year: If the Senate passes its bill before next Thursday, then the House and Senate could confer over the weekend and pass the legislation before New Year’s Day. Pelosi dismissed reports, however, that the House will simply pass the Senate version of the bill, saying “we would like to see a full conference.” She also backed off earlier claims that the House would not pass a bill without a public option.

Tiger Woods was angry at the media, early on, for violating his privacy, but perhaps he should be angry at his loose-lipped mistresses instead? Jamie Jungers, the blond lingerie model, tells The Sun about her “crazy sex” with Tiger. The two met in June 2005. “We ended up having crazy sex,” Jungers said. “I remember him picking me up and putting me against the wall.” Meanwhile, Tiger’s other Jaimee, Jamiee Grubbs, apologizes to his wife Elin, saying “I couldn’t describe how remorseful that I am to have hurt her family and her emotionally.” But, she adds, “If it wasn’t me, it was going to be other girls.”

The day after Britain announced a one-time 50 percent tax on bank bonuses over $40,000, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to follow suit. The French government is still working on the specifics, but the Financial Times says Sarkozy “intends to bring Paris in line with London.” Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are planning to urge the rest of the E.U. to adopt similar measures on Thursday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted Germany would soon follow suit, saying “We have committed ourselves to a transaction tax in the financial markets.”

After the Wednesday morning 6-1 state house vote against removing him from office, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford tells his local newspaper he is happy to get back to work free from the worry of impeachment. He also commented that he will work on his relationship with state lawmakers, but will not be "walking on eggshells" for the 13-month remainder of his term. The governor still faces 37 ethics charges, and a state ethics commission panel will meet early next year to decide whether to fine Sanford up to $74,000 for misusing funds, using state planes for personal trips, and other charges. As for relations with his estranged wife, Sanford says, "There are hopes to reconcile," but Jenny Sanford's move to Sullivan Island this summer indicates otherwise.

That mysterious and beautiful blue spiral that appeared over skies Wednesday? It was probably the fallout from a failed Russian test of a new submarine-based intercontinental missile, the Bulava. Russia acknowledged Thursday that there was a malfunction during the missile’s flight. It was the 13th test for the Bulava, and the missile failed in at least six of the first 11 tests. The missile launched from a submarine in the White Sea.

After Diane Sawyer’s job went to George Stephanopolous, Good Morning America news anchor Chris Cuomo announced he is leaving the show to co-host the news magazine show 20/20 with current anchor Elizabeth Vargas. Cuomo said on ABC's morning show that he has "been blessed to be at GMA," but his new position "is a dream job for a journalist like me." Cuomo’s last day is Friday.

When it comes to the economy, President Obama is stuck between a rock and a hard place: unemployment on the one side, then national debt on the other. “The entire town is more schizophrenic than I’ve ever seen,” a senior administration official tells The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber. “Everyone cares about jobs, and everyone cares about fiscal discipline. The weight shifts week by week, unemployment report by unemployment report.” Obama needs to find some way to signal to U.S. bondholders that he takes the deficit seriously while at the same time reining in unemployment to under 10 percent. Scheiber, writes, “The basic problem is that any additional stimulus adds to the deficit, while deficit reduction steps on a weak economy. And so Democrats now find themselves having to pull off a balancing act that would seem to defy the laws of economics: taking on both tasks simultaneously.”

Tom Hoving, the former leader of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died on Thursday morning. Michael Gross writes that Hoving “revolutionized museums around the world in the decade from 1966 to 1976.” Hoving was also, Gross writes, “a scholar, curator, commissioner of parks in New York City, bestselling author, magazine editor, raconteur, and perennial thorn in the side of the museum mafia. … It will be fascinating to see how he is mourned after decades as the target of ‘official’ disdain.”

How do westerners misunderstand China? Evan Osnos at the New Yorker takes aim at 10 misconceptions about China that were commonly heard in 2009. Was President Obama’s visit really a disappointment? In the days that followed, China set its first targets for greenhouse-gas emissions control; joined a U.S.-backed statement in condemning Iran; and indicated flexibility in reforming the exchange rate. Also, is China really doing nothing to combat climate change? “China has concluded unmistakably that climate change is a security and stability threat,” Osnos writes. In 2006, when the Bush administration was trying to muzzle calls for emissions cuts, China published its first report on climate change, concluding that output of major crops could fall by up to 37 percent in the second half of the century if no steps are taken.

The early version of the proposed Copenhagen Agreement that produced such a furor among developing nations need not have done so. The draft text of the agreement, leaked to environmentalists and reporters on Tuesday, asks developing countries to commit to reducing emissions and to accept a reduced role in U.N. climate policy. The text produced a wave of global press coverage as poor nations and advocacy groups held press conferences decrying the draft provisions as elitist, non-transparent, and benefiting wealthy nations at the expense of poorer ones. But an unnamed insider told the Los Angeles Times that many developing nations, including China, India, Brazil, Algeria, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh actually helped draft the text and were aware of these provisions well before the summit began. One of the chief-challenges for wealthy nations at the Copenhagen summit is to persuade developing countries to accept emissions reduction targets in a formal way, and the "Danish Text," is an early attempt at compromise language.

Although Senate Democrats say they are not positive what will be in the health-care reform plan that brings them all together, they are expressing optimism that they will come together. A preliminary agreement was hatched by five centrist and five liberal Democrats which would solve differences over the public option and how to pay for reform, according to The New York Times. “Any big agreement is progress,” Sen. Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, told the paper. “Even if we do not know any of the details.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein seemed to express the mood after the agreement was announced. “There was no explanation. It was sort of go team, go," the senator said.

After acquiring the online music-streaming service Lala, tech giant Apple is rethinking its online music strategy. Apple is considering using a model similar to Lala and allow iTunes users to buy music straight from the Web, wherever they are, The Wall Street Journal reports. The change could come as soon as next year. Apple generated $2 billion in revenues from its sales on iTunes this year. It purchased Lala for $85 million.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Baghdad on Thursday. He arrived in Iraq after spending several days in Kabul, where he briefed top commanders on President Obama's new plan to flood Afghanistan with 30,000 new troops, and met with Afghan generals and other military officials to reassure them that although the U.S. will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2011, "a large number" of troops would remain for "some period beyond that." Gates' trip was planned before Tuesday's spate of bombings in Baghdad, which killed at least 127 people and wounded more than 500. Al Qaeda's umbrella organization in Iraq claimed credit for the attacks. While in Baghdad, Gates will meet with top Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, offer condolences to victims of the violence, and urge Iraqi political leaders to swiftly form a new government after parliamentary elections on March 7 to limit the potential for instability.

The week continues to get worse for Tiger Woods as more purported texts he sent to alleged mistresses Rachel Uchitel and Jaimee Grubbs surfaced. To New York party girl Uchitel, Woods wrote the hubristic message: "I know it's brutal on you that you can't be with me all the time" and "I get it. It f-----g kills me, too. I finally found someone I connect with." In a stab at his wife, the grammatically impaired Woods told Uchitel that she is "someone I have never found like this. Not even at home." To Los Angeles cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs, Woods wrote the jealous-sounding "Who is your new boy toy?"

Several hundred women, many holding pictures of murdered relatives, took to the streets of Kabul to demand that President Hamid Karzai purge anyone connected to corruption, war crimes, or the Taliban from his government. Face hidden by a burka, the protest leader called the women "very brave" because "to be a woman in Afghanistan and an activist can mean death." The leader, who called herself Lakifa, said that many women were afraid to demand that the authorities account for the disappearances and deaths of family members during the 30 years of war that have plagued the country. In a rare display of men allowing women to lead, about 500 men followed the protest group in support. President Karzai, whose reelection was marred by ballot-stuffing, is under increasing pressure to remove anyone linked to corruption from his cabinet, which he is due to announce next week.

London's bankers are threatening to quit the city following the British government's announcement that it will be taxing bonuses at 50 percent this year. “I can’t tell you how many people have called me from London asking to move,” one Wall Street banker told the Financial Times. “The question all the banks have now is: who the hell wants to be in the U.K.? Some businesses will definitely leave.” The new government plan, announced Wednesday, would leave the first $40,800 in bonus money tax-exempt. Added a British banking official, “Viewed from abroad, London may well look now like a significantly less attractive place to build a business.”

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder paid a visit to the New York City courthouse and jail cells, which will hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorist suspects. The Department of Justice has yet to announce when exactly the Sept. 11. mastermind will arrive in Manhattan. "We're ready," the New York police chief told the New York Post. A U.S. Marshal gave a 45 minute presentation to Holder on how the suspects will be moved from the Metropolitan Correctional Center to the courthouse.

Georgia May Jagger, whose papa is a Rolling Stone, was voted the Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards Wednesday. The face of Hudson Jeans is only 17. At that age, Jagger's father Mick was still playing seedy clubs free, London's Independent newspaper points out. Jagger, whose mother is Texan supermodel Jerry Hall, was up against other rock and roll heavies including guitarist Gavin Rossdale's daughter.

As everyone knows, the best parties result in subpoenas, and the Obama administration's first State Dinner is no exception. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, the budding reality-TV show stars whose party crash of last month's State Dinner became a national news story, will be subpoenaed by the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Secret Service. Even though they will have invitations to the January 20 hearing, the Salahis won't exactly be the life of the party; their lawyer has said that the couple will invoke their Fifth Amendment rights. Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, will not be subpoenaed; despite encouragement by the ranking Republican, Peter King (R-NY), the committee voted 17-12 not to subpoena the embattled party planner.

Suspected bandits seized about 75 people, including schoolchildren, teachers, and parents from the remote hamlet of San Martin in the southern Philippines on Thursday after clashing with police in a nearby village on the previous day. Social welfare officer Josefina Bajade said she had negotiated the release of 15 children, leaving 60 people, including some children, as hostages. The gunman, believed to be former government-armed militiamen who turned to banditry and extortion, apparently took hostages to use as human shields as they attempted to escape authorities. Authorities are still negotiating with the armed group, and Bajade said that winning the children's release is her priority. The southern Philippines is known as a volatile region plagued by banditry, loosely supervised militias, and communist and Muslim insurgents.

Ladies, start your engines. After months of speculation about a rumored relationship with Twilight costar Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson has finally confessed his relationship status: He's single. In an interview with Italian Vanity Fair, the teen heart throb said, "I am single... almost everything that came out about my private life was false." Why the rampant false rumors? "I think it happens because, really, there is not much to say about what I'm doing. While I am filming, I live practically [like a] recluse in [a] hotel. I come out only to work, and sometimes to go for dinner." The burden of being a megawatt wallflower, he claims, is dealing with idle speculation.

David Letterman and John Stamos aren’t the only ones. The Wall Street Journal reports a boom in blackmail and extortion, which many blame on the economic downturn. Private investigators find themselves overwhelmed with high-end clients terrified about personal secrets being revealed. His clients are primarily men hiding extramarital affairs, often being extorted with digital evidence of their dalliances. In one cut-and-dry case, a 55-year-old Connecticut man said women he met on a Web site catering to wealthy men in want of girlfriends threatened to tell his wife he was a member. During the last recession, federal extortion prosecutions spiked by some 30 percent. Though the statistics aren’t yet out for this recession, the Journal's sources say that a second extortion crime wave is under way.

Call off the repo men: Bank of America reported today that it has now repaid its TARP loans in full, having cut a check to the government for the full $45 billion owed. The bank, which is the United States' biggest lender, said that it funded the repayment in part by selling almost $20 billion in securities, an action still subject to stockholder approval. Once the loan has been repaid, BofA will no longer be under the close scrutiny of the federal government—in particular, the watchful eye of "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg, whose oversight has prevented the company from offering extravagant bonuses to its executives, a factor, some have said, that contributes to the bank's struggle to find a successor to departing CEO Ken Lewis. It's not all good news, though: The payment, according to the company, will cut $4.1 billion off its fourth-quarter net result.

Move over, Kevin Bacon—there's a new game in town. With so many alleged mistresses, Tiger Woods was bound to find himself a scant one degree away from other stars. According to Us Weekly, 24-year-old Los Angeles cocktail waitress Jaimee Grubbs, who claimed she had a 31-month affair with the golfer, has also been linked to actor George Clooney. An unnamed source says the two slept together, although Grubbs would only say of Clooney "I know him," and Clooney's rep declined to comment. On Monday, Grubbs also told Us that Woods never used a condom with her and didn't ask if she was on birth control. "It wasn't even discussed," she said.

Despite Harry Reid's moderate-wooing compromise on the public option, John Thune predicts that the Senate Majority Leader won't be able to peel off any Republican votes to beat the filibuster. "This is like Groundhog Day," the South Dakota senator said. "It is déjà vu all over again where we wake up every day and there is a new idea to try and figure out how to get 60 votes." Thune said he thought that the expansion of Medicare coverage might be an attempt to win holdout Sen. Joe Lieberman's support, but that he was skeptical of the compromise's ability to help "with moderates on their side who have expressed concern about government-run health care." Reid seems to believe that the most recent compromise has sealed the 60 votes he needs to avoid being filibustered, and is quickly moving the legislation ahead to a vote.

Obama's getting mixed reviews from Republicans and Democrats. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, in the wake of Obama's speech last week about his plan to send additional troops to Afghanistan, his public approval on the Afghan war rose from 38 percent last month to 48 percent this month. While two thirds of Republicans surveyed rallied to support Obama's troop escalation, about half of Democrats oppose the plan. Conversely, Democrats support and Republicans oppose Obama's pullout date. Obama's overall approval rating slid to 50 percent from its 68 percent peak in April--the lowest it's been in the history of the poll, while his approval numbers on the economy dropped to 47 percent this month from his 54 percent October approval rating.

Marching on interminably as an actual game of golf, the Tiger Woods scandal continues into its third week. Jamie Jungers, the so-called fourth mistress, will appear Friday on the Today show, where she will talk about her relationship with the pro golfer, according to Radar Online. Jungers, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress who claims to have dated Woods between 2005 and 2007, has no proof of the affair, but her representative says, "She has quite a story to tell."