Not only did top bankers have to put up with pared-down bonuses on Friday, but now there’s this: The House of Representatives passed the most sweeping financial reform since the Great Depression without a single Republican vote, 223 to 202. The bill’s most important measures give federal regulators the power to break up banks without resorting to taxpayer bailouts, create a new agency to oversee consumer-banking transactions, and open up complex financial markets like the one for derivatives to regulation. “The party is over," Nancy Pelosi told Wall Street in a press conference. "Never again will the reckless behavior [of] a few threaten the fiscal stability of our people."

Five young American Muslims reported missing by their families in the Washington D.C. area and detained in Pakistan this week are likely to be deported back to the states, according to a local police chief. The men allegedly told investigators that they attempted to connect to militant groups in Pakistan linked to al Qaeda and intended to head into Afghanistan to fight U.S. troops. They had used Facebook and YouTube to try to connect with extremist groups in Pakistan. Their families reported them missing after one of them left behind a video saying that Muslims must be defended.

Tiger Woods used to appear on the home page of consulting company Accenture PLC, but the rotating image of him among cacti disappeared, Bloomberg reports, on the same day Woods announced an indefinite break from professional golf on his Web site. “What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing,” he wrote. This was Woods' first admission of infidelity since more than a dozen women have claimed affairs with him. Additionally, links to Woods-related content on the site lead to messages saying the page requested cannot be found. Woods’ ranking among celebrity endorsers plunged from 6th to 24th, and David Martin, president of Interbrand Corp.’s New York division, says the pro golfer’s recent publicity will affect Accenture more than other sponsors because the ads tie him so closely to its values. “His qualities they’re using as a metaphor for their qualities,” said Martin. The Daily Beast’s Gerald Posner reported earlier that Accenture executives were in “emergency discussions” about the Tiger deal. Nike and Gillette have said they aren’t changing their media plans with Woods.

Tiger Woods, one of the highest earning athletes ever, posted a statement on his Web site today saying he is “profoundly sorry” for the hurt his infidelity has caused, and will be taking an “indefinite break” from professional golf. “What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing,” he wrote. This was Woods' first admission of infidelity since more than a dozen women, including some prostitutes, have claimed to have slept with him. ABCNews reports Woods may go to Sweden with his wife to hash out their problems. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports one of Woods' sponsors has removed his photo from its Web site’s homepage.

Compared to Europe, where countries are taxing half of all bankers' bonuses, the Americans are getting off easy: The Obama administration's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, is limiting bonuses for top executives at bailed-out companies—Citigroup, GMAC, American International Group, and General Motors—to $500,000. However, 12 senior employees were exempted from the cap because they were necessary for the companies to "thrive, be able compete, and not lose key people," Feinberg said. The new rules will only apply to the second half of December and will not affect what employees have already earned this year. Still, they will affect year-end bonuses and stock grants.

European Union leaders took the reins of the global-warming issue in Brussels on Friday by agreeing to pay poor countries $10.5 billion over the span of three years to help them reduce emissions. The push came after a six-page informal outline of a new climate agreement was issued by the United Nations, calling for wealthy nations to make sharp reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions in the next decade, and for national elimination of emissions by 2050. Boosters hope the aid will encourage an international climate agreement at a conference next week in Copenhagen.

Sarah Palin does it again, that maverick. The former Alaska governor made a surprise appearance on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show to do a dramatic reading of actor William Shatner’s autobiography, Up Till Now. Her short performance was a retort to Shatner’s readings of her own autobiography, Going Rogue. Both readings were accompanied by bongos. Dressed in her signature red, Palin shared passages from Shatner’s T.J. Hooker past and nights with Johnny Carson—specifically one when he said the host looked like Mr. Spock on a Star Trek episode (when Spock’s brain fell out). The audience, of course, was “stunned and delighted.”

What’s the early word on Avatar, James Cameron’s first film since Titanic? The critics at the trade publications loved it. At The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt writes, “Cameron has coolly thought things through. With every visual tool he can muster, he takes viewers through the battle like a master tactician, demonstrating how every turn in the fight, every valiant death or cowardly act, changes its course.” At Variety, Todd McCarthy calls it “a film of universal appeal that just about everyone who ever goes to the movies will need to see.” The Associated Press isn’t jumping on the bandwagon, however. Its critic writes, “It nevertheless feels unsatisfying and somehow lacks the pulse of a truly alive film.”

Jenny Sanford has had enough of the Appalachian Trail jokes. On Friday morning she released a statement stating that she is filing for a divorce from disgraced South Carolina love-guv Mark Sanford, who cheated on her with an Argentine woman in one of the year's most publicized scandals. She cited "unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation" in her decision. She wrote that although divorce is a "very personal and private" matter, because the couple are public figures, "We have naturally had less privacy with which to deal with our difficulties than do other couples." She added that "the boys and I are doing well and blessed with the incredible support of friends and family and bolstered by our faith and the unfailing love of our God above."

It's no luxury apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, but prisoners who served time with Bernie Madoff say the Ponzi schemer is doing well adjusting to prison life. According to the Wall Street Journal, some prisoners have tried to get close to him in the hopes that he'll reveal some previously unknown stash of money that they could acquire. Others are just impressed with the audacity of his crimes. "To every con artist, he is the godfather, the don," one recently released inmate told the WSJ. "All things considered, he's OK," Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, told the Journal. "He still suffers deeply for what he did."

What’s the reward for hour upon hour of copy-editing Republican Party talking points for little or no compensation? A funny photo with Michael Steele! Wonkette has uncovered several professional photos that the Republican National Committee chairman took with his organization’s interns, dropping to one knee to propose or offering a fist bump to his eager young Republican helpers. Considering what other Republicans have done with interns, this is actually kind of sweet.

Yawn. More Tiger Woods sex revelations: A Hollywood madam named Michelle Braun is claiming that Woods spent $60,000 on high-end prostitutes—and, usually, he wanted more than one at a time. "He was rarely with just one girl. He usually wanted more. He liked three-ways," she said. One of his favorites, apparently, was Loredana Jolie, a Playboy model from Sicily. Braun says Tiger took Jolie out four or five times and probably paid $15,000 each time.

Iran may be in for "some significant additional sanctions" imposed by the U.S. and its allies, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, because the country hadn't followed through on its October promise to open its nuclear program to international inspection. President Obama set an end-of-year deadline for Iran to improve its engagement with the West with regard to limiting its nuclear capabilities. Gates' comments were the first by a senior administration official to suggest that tougher sanctions were likely forthcoming.

Facebook made changes to its privacy settings this week, and privacy groups aren’t writing compliments on founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wall. The changes let users apply specific privacy settings to the content they post, but if users don't follow prompts to update their settings, most of their information ends up being shared with the Internet at large. Privacy groups said Facebook was pushing users to share more information about themselves, while Facebook says it's not trying to trick anyone. According to Facebook's vice president of public policy, "as a result of providing more control, there will be more sharing." That's certainly true for at least one person: Zuckerberg himself, who used to have one public photo but now offers a cache of 290 shots of himself, as Gawker put it, "shirtless , romantic, clutching a teddy bear, and looking plastered." It's unclear whether Zuckerberg is trying to mitigate the PR debacle by putting tagged pictures where his mouth is, or whether the new default system fooled him too.

TLC will have to rename its largest multiple-children show for the third time since its premiere now that Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar of 18 Kids and Counting had their 19th baby Thursday night. Newborn Josie Brooklyn Duggar was born via emergency C-section prematurely—she was reportedly due on March 18—and, according to TMZ, weighed in at 1 lb., 6 ounces. Last weekend, Michelle was airlifted to a Little Rock, Arkansas, hospital after suffering from gallstones. TMZ reports that a rep for the Duggar family says the mom of 19 is resting and that the newborn is “stable,” but in neonatal intensive care. The Duggars' most recent addition to their family before Josie was daughter Jordyn-Grace, who was born in December 2008. They also welcomed a granddaughter in October, when son Josh’s wife had their baby Mackynzie.

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."

Michael Zammit Cutajar, chair of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative action, has boiled down 180 pages of climate negotiation into a pithy six-page document that sets out the key issues the Copenhagen summit must address in its final agreement. The document presents multiple options on the table for each key issue, looks at how industrialized and developing countries would address climate change, and outlines how richer countries could finance climate actions of poorer countries. The Cutajar draft establishes a global temperature ceiling of 2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels, and offers several emission reduction target options for developed countries. The war of the drafts is on, though, with the 43 small island states issuing a plan including an increased temperature target of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and a Danish group possibly unveiling their proposal on Saturday.

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."

Yale has another missing lab technician. John DiNello, 47, has not show up for work in four days and his family hasn't seen him since he left their West Haven home for work on Monday. DiNello did not take the medication he requires daily with him, and the police are investigating the disappearance. According to a West Haven police spokesman, there is no reason to suspect that DiNello's case is connected to the tragic murder of Annie Le, another Yale lab worker whose body was stashed in the research facility in the research facility where she worked just days before her planned wedding three months ago. Her fellow lab technician Raymond Clark III was charged with her murder in September.

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."

Adolf Hitler has no grave. Fearing that his burial site could become a sacred site to fascists, Soviet KGB agents dug up his bones in 1970, burnt them, ground them to ashes, and threw them into a river in Germany under orders from the agency, a top Russian security official told CNN this week. With prior consent from the Soviet Communist Party leadership, KGB chief Yuri Andropov ordered a secret operation to destroy Hitler's remains, along with those of wife Eva Braun, top Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and Goebbels' entire family. The bodies had been secretly buried on the ground of a Soviet military facility on February 21, 1946, and were destroyed when the Soviets decided to turn the garrison over to East German civilian authorities. All that remains of Hitler are fragments of his jawbone and skull, which are kept in Russia as documented evidence of his death. However, U.S. researchers have not been able to obtain DNA samples from the items and doubt their authenticity.

Oft-criticized by cultural conservatives like Lou Dobbs, but little studied, Hispanic youths are one of the fastest growing segments of American society. Now a broad survey by the Pew Hispanic Center provides a glimpse into the demographic that accounts for one out of four newborns in the nation and 40 percent or more of millennial children in New Mexico, California, and Texas. Among the findings: only 41 percent of second generation Hispanic immigrants used "American" as the first term to describe themselves, with 21 percent using "Latino" or "Hispanic," and one-third their parents' country of origin. Addressing one fear of some anti-immigration activists, the study found that virtually all second-generation Hipanic immigrants speak English fluently. There was also a gap between the generation's aspirations and outcomes: while nearly all consider a college degree important, fewer than half planned to obtain one, and while 75 percent were against teen motherhood, one in four Hispanic girls become mothers while still under 19.

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.

In an effort to silence their critics, wealthy parties from around the world have turned to British courts to try and prove libel claims in order to make use of its relatively low bar for proving legal damage. But now British lawmakers are looking to overturn the nation's 19th century libel laws, which some believe have turned Britain into a hot spot for those seeking to quell freedom of speech around the world. In the U.S., a number of states, such as New York, have passed laws making British court decisions on libel difficult to uphold in response to a lawsuit in England by the late Saudi billionaire Khalid Bin Mafouz against American author Rachel Ehrenfeld, whose book "Funding Evil" accused him of sending money to al Qaeda. Despite selling only 23 copies of her book in England, courts there decided that Mahfouz was allowed to bring his case forward there and ordered Ehrenfeld, who refused to participate in the trial, to pay over $225,000. The practice, known as "libel tourism," has prompted hearings in the House of Commons in which critics have denounced the law as unfair.

You knew this would happen them sooner or later. According to a report in Extra, Playboy is trying to book alleged Tiger Woods mistress Rachel Uchitel for a spread. Playboy refused comment, but Extra says their sources say Uchitel "wants a lot of money" and has yet to reach a deal with the magazine, which has published photo shoots of women at the center of other sex scandals such as Paula Jones, who settled a sexual harassment case with President Clinton. Uchitel, the first woman to be linked to Woods, has denied any connection to the golfer but recently cancelled a press conference with lawyer Gloria Allred to tell her story. Allred's daughter, Lisa Bloom, a legal analyst for CBS, has said she believes that Woods struck a deal to buy Uchitel's silence for "at least a million dollars."