Joe Lieberman is up to his old tricks again. The Connecticut senator threatened Sunday to oppose the health-care bill if it allows uninsured people as young as 55 to purchase Medicare. Democratic aides also said that Lieberman told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that he would join a Republican-led filibuster against the bill. Lieberman could provide the 60th crucial vote needed to end debate on the measure, and Reid has been counting on his support. Appearing on CBS, Lieberman said, “Though I don’t know exactly what’s in it, from what I hear, I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did.” Lieberman says he opposes the added costs to taxpayers and increase to the deficit, though the CBO is expected to announce that the Medicare buy-in would be deficit neutral.

Citigroup may soon become the last big Wall Street bank to return bailout funds to the government. The bank's executives plan to announce their program to pay back billions in TARP funds as early as Monday, after negotiating with senior government officials. As of now, bank officials plan to raise approximately $18 billion by selling stock this week, which will contribute to the $136 billion already returned by bailed-out banks. This big-ticket payback comes just in time for President Obama's meeting with chiefs of the nation's biggest banks on Monday, where he will encourage the banks to help speed up economic recovery by providing more loans to homeowners and small banks. “We have to get them off the sidelines and get them to play a more active role in our economic recovery,” said the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Two of President Obama’s major economic advisers made the rounds of Sunday talk shows to discuss unemployment, but they didn’t exactly present a united front. Larry Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council, predicted job growth by spring, and responded to concerns over the budget deficit, saying, "For next year or two, priority No. 1—certainly this year—priority No. 1 has be to job creation." Christina Romer, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was more skeptical about growth and said that unemployment rates “certainly do bounce around. I would anticipate some bumps in the road as we go ahead.” Summers also discussed the state of post-bailout banks, saying that they have “obligations to the country” and that the president was “going to have a serious talk” with bankers.

A man threw a statuette of the Duomo at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the end of a rally Sunday, leaving Berlusconi with a “small fracture” of the nose, two broken teeth, a bloodied lip, and bruises. Following the incident, the scandal-plagued Berlusconi was swiftly ushered into a car, but he quickly got out to show the crowd that he wasn’t badly injured. Berlusconi was “very shaken and demoralized,” a spokesperson said. “He didn’t understand very well what happened to him.” The attacker, Massimo Tartaglia, was immediately taken into police custody, but not before getting off a few autographs.

The Senate approved a $447 billion omnibus spending bill Sunday by a vote of 57 to 35. The funds, which are part of the package of six appropriations bills, will be distributed among federal agencies, the District of Columbia, and to programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Republican senators, with the exception of three, voted against what they say is a wasteful spending initiative, though some conceded that the omnibus bill would bring a much-needed boost to the economy. Democrats successfully ended a Republican filibuster of the measure Saturday. President Barack Obama is expected to give his seal of approval, leaving only one defense bill to be passed later this week.

Exhausted insurgents who were lured away from the Taliban by promises of jobs are coming up empty handed. Offering incentives to those who surrender—and programs to reintegrate former fighters into Afghan society—is at the core of the Obama administration and Gen. Stanley McChrystal's new strategy to end the eight-year war, but the program has fallen short due to lack of funding. Some insurgents are finding themselves unemployed and without a place to live. Unable to return to the Taliban and afraid of the U.S. military, they end up in hiding. The U.S. and its allies are planning renewed investments into these programs. The envisioned program will focus on a “cash-for-work” approach to compensate former Taliban fighters, who are used to a decent paycheck.

In the midst of a prolonged battle over the legalization of gay marriage, one U.S. city just held a groundbreaking vote, electing its first-ever gay mayor. After yesterday’s election in Houston, openly gay politician Annise Parker was elected Houston’s mayor with 53 percent of the vote. Houston is not the first U.S. city to elect a gay mayor, but with a population of 2.2 million, it is the largest, and the leadup to Saturday’s vote was marred with fierce debate and anti-gay publicity, which Parker spoke out against.

The nearly year-long debate over expansion of the CIA search-and-destroy program using unmanned drone aircrafts has reached a new bump in the road: President Obama. Although Obama and his top aides initially took to the idea of expanding the drone program, the president is now siding with advisers who say expansion is risky and could lead to civilian causalities, especially in urban areas like Quetta, where intelligence reports say Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar may be hiding. Thus far, the program has proved to be successful, as seen by the deaths of several top leaders of Al Qaeda, including Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban and the man behind Benazir Bhutto's murder. But Obama remains hesitant. Officials say the debate will likely continue, but a White House spokesperson had no comment.

When asked how she was, Amanda Knox's first response was that she was "OK," but she was quick to confess to a reporter from the Associated Press that she is "scared because I don't know what is going on." Knox has been in jail two years since her arrest for murdering roommate Meredith Kercher, but it was only eight days ago that that she was found guilty and sentenced to 26 years in prison. In the visit set up by Fondazione Italia USA—an organization promoting close relations between Italy and the U.S.—Knox said she is "waiting and always hoping," and although she doesn't understand many things, she has to accept them even if they "don't always seem very fair." Many Americans, including Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), have become invested in Knox's case, though her future is still unclear.

The first American Nobel laureate in economics, Paul A. Samuelson, died Sunday at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts, at the age of 94. Samuelson was the foremost academic economist of the 20th century and was instrumental in making the Massachusetts Institute of Technology into one of the great centers for graduate education in economics by bringing scores of brilliant thinkers to the school. He won his Nobel in 1970, and was recognized for moving the discipline from being concerned mostly with abstract questions into one that solves problems with mathematical clarity. Samuelson gave a 40-minute lesson to John F. Kennedy after he won the 1960 presidential election, and advised him throughout his presidency. But he refused to be Kennedy’s pick to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, because he did not want to have to censor his writing.

Seventy heavily armed Islamic militants broke through the concrete wall of a jail with a sledgehammer to free several Muslim guerillas, releasing other inmates, on Sunday in the Philippines. Two people were killed in the ensuing gun battle. Of the 31 inmates who escaped, five were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an Islamic rebel group in talks with the government, and 12 belonged to Abu Sayyaf, a smaller and more violent group that has been linked to al Qaeda. One of the escapees was Dan Asnawi, accused of beheading 10 marines two years ago. A government spokesman said they were all “high-risk” prisoners

Global consulting firm Accenture Ltd. announced they will no longer be sponsoring Tiger Woods, saying he is not "the right representative" for their firm. The company becomes the first to fully cut off ties with Woods, though Gillette said Saturday it won't air ads featuring Woods for an unspecified amount of time. (Gillette's slogan is, unfortunately, "the best a man can get.") Nike Inc. said Friday that Woods has their "full support," and that they look forward to his return to golf. "Tiger has been part of Nike for more than a decade. He is the best golfer in the world and one of the greatest athletes of his era," a spokesman said.

"Puppets just aren't what they used to be," according to The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, who filed her column from Kirkuk, Iraq, on Sunday. Dowd says Afghan president Hamid Karzai and other leaders are calling America's bluff. “For another 15 to 20 years, Afghanistan will not be able to sustain a force of that nature and capability with its own resources," Karzai said. The U.S. will have to teach people to read and write before Afghans can establish security forces and the rule of law, Dowd writes. In Iraq, things weren't any better for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was stood up for a meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki on Thursday. Gates remains optimistic, though. He told Dowd, “Anybody who reads history has to approach these things with some humility because you can’t know. Nobody knows what the last chapter ever looks like.”

The paparazzi will have to get creative now that that Elin Nordegren Woods has paid $2.3 million for an estate on a Swedish island surrounded by miles of ice. Last week, Tiger Woods’ wife closed the deal on the 258,000-square-foot property, featuring an old farmhouse on a cape. The house is accessible from Stockholm by a two-hour ferry that runs only once or twice a day, and only three times a week in winter. Nearby is the small town where Elin grew up, which can be reached in emergencies by a 30-minute taxi boat ride when there’s no ice. There are no stores on the island and indoor plumbing works only from May to October. Neighbors say the house needs fixing up, and that life on the island “is very old fashioned and sometimes uncomfortable but also very cozy and cool.”

Break out the party hats: After a two-hour pageant and beneath a deluge of glitter, Gibraltar’s Kaiane Aldorino was crowned the new Miss World. “I have no words,” said Aldorino after winning. “I am really happy.” The competition was held in South Africa and showcased traditional dance routines, and the second runner-up Tatum Keshwar hailed from the pageant’s host country. Aldorino formerly worked as an administrative clerk, and said, “I will try to do the best that I can now that I have the opportunity and advantage.”

Countless images have been shown on Iranian television of anonymous hands of student protesters burning a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini, and now students in Iran are protesting further, saying that the image was faked by government agents as an excuse to prosecute protesters. Under Iranian law, insult to Khomeini is punishable with a two-year prison sentence, and following the Dec. 7 protests a statement from the nation’s Revolutionary Guard said, “The Revolutionary Guard... won't tolerate any silence or hesitation in the immediate identification, trial, and punishment of those carrying out this ugly insult and the agents behind them.” Reformists, who say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election this summer was fraudulent, maintain that no protesters took part in the burning of the picture, though many have spoken out against Khomeini.

In yet another twist to the Tiger Woods story, Robin Givhan has come to the defense of the golf star’s many mistresses. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Givhan slams treatment of Woods’ paramours as sexist because the women have been mocked based on their occupations as waitresses, models, or bartenders, and that “their fairly mundane 9-to-5 gigs serve as a smoking gun of bad behavior.” Givhan writes that the women are treated worse than Woods himself: “While Woods is being portrayed as complicated and troubled, the women are merely types,” she writes, pointing out the massive power imbalance between the billionaire sports star and most of the women he cheated with. “Adultery is indefensible,” says Givhan. “But so is turning these women into interchangeable commodities.”

Though it has earned endless buzz as the first Disney film to feature an African-American princess, The Princess and the Frog had a slightly slow start to its box-office run this weekend, taking in $25 million. The studio opened the film a couple of weeks before prime moviegoing time in hopes of building longevity and word of mouth for its first hand-drawn animated feature in six years. The Blind Side continued its successful streak, taking in $15.5 million. Invictus, the inspirational sports story starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman, had a lackluster start at $9 million, while Paramount’s The Lovely Bones opened in limited release to moderate success, averaging around $39,000 per theater.

It may have seemed like Warren Buffett was going soft, but the legendary investor said his reluctance toward big deals during "the economy's big belly flop" gave him the gusto to strike his biggest deal yet: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s $26.3 billion purchase of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Straying from the cycle of rejecting deal after deal was not easy, Buffett told The Wall Street Journal in a series of interviews about his negotiations over the past year. Buffett says he may have missed huge opportunities by staying so cautious, but he was being asked for money from some of the most ailing institutions on Wall Street during the run-up to the financial crisis. In March 2008, Buffett was propositioned by Lehman Brothers Holding Inc., and after analyzing the company's annual financial report, chose not to invest. He did, however, agree to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs and $3 billion in General Electric Co. "I made plenty of mistakes," he says. "I didn't maximize the opportunities offered by the chaos. But in the end, it worked out OK."

Britain is readying its new king. New documents obtained by The Daily Mail reveal that Queen Elizabeth is preparing to hand over a significant part of her portfolio to her 27-year-old grandson, Prince William. The disclosures from government financial documents hint that Prince Charles, the queen's son, is being passed over as William is groomed as the face of the monarchy. Royal sources discount the report, saying Charles won't be skipped over. The reports also raise questions, the paper says, about whether William will become engaged to his girlfriend Kate Middleton in the near future.

Thai officials have stopped a plane carrying 35 tons of weapons from North Korea after being tipped off by the United States. The crew members are from Kazakhstan and Belarus. They say they didn't know they were carrying the rocket-propelled grenades, missile and rocket launchers, and other weapons they happened to be hauling. The plane made an emergency landing in Bangkok, having planned to stop in Sri Lanka. "We were approached by the United States, seeking our cooperation to examine the suspected plane. It came from North Korea and was heading for somewhere in South Asia, probably Pakistan," an air force official told Reuters.

Nine months after Natasha Richardson died unexpectedly from a skiing accident, Ralph Fiennes has penned a column for The Guardian as a tribute to his friend and colleague, who he describes as having “a high-wire vitality that took you in its arms, shook you, seduced you and cajoled you into living life without regrets.” The actor describes Richardson’s “superb” acting ability, along with a wide range of other talents: “She mixed lethal cocktails (she loved lychee martinis), cooked extraordinary food, was a spontaneously good nurse, laughed and delighted in stories and anecdotes, and had a mischievous ear for a good scandal,” writes Fiennes.

Russia, the U.S., and a U.N. arms-control committee are in talks to limit the military use of cyberspace and to strengthen Internet security. The fact that Americans are participating is a major shift after years of rejecting requests to talk to Russia, which wants an international treaty to control cyberwarfare similar to treaties that limit the spread of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. Officials say that the Obama administration has recognized the need for a new approach to stem the international arms race now that more countries are developing e-weapons. Though Russian and American interpretations of the talks differ, both sides agree there is forward momentum. There are now thousands of Internet attacks on government and corporate computers each day.

Hundreds of protesters arrested during climate demonstrations in Copenhagen have been released from detention following accusations of police overreaction to the event, which drew an estimated 40,000 people. The demonstrators were detained after a rally during this week’s U.N. climate talks. Nearly 200 of the 968 people arrested remain in custody, and activists are already crying foul over the arrests: “[Protesters] weren’t able to have any medical attention, any water, and weren’t allowed to have any toilet facilities,” said a spokesperson for Climate Justice Action. “People were there in freezing conditions urinating on themselves and being held in lines like, essentially like animals.” Danish authorities have not issued a public comment on the accusations.

Time to crack down on your privacy settings. The voyage of five Muslim men from Northern Virginia to al Qaeda's home base in Pakistan this month points to the growing sophistication of online recruiters. Investigators say the five men who were apprehended in Lahore on Tuesday were recruited by the Taliban through YouTube and email exchanges. But their apprehension also points to the limits of Web recruiting, The Washington Post says, as Osama bin Laden's organization turned them away in the end, fearing they were spies, and saying they needed someone beyond a Web contact to vouch for them. "Online recruiting has exponentially increased, with Facebook, YouTube and the increasing sophistication of people online," said a Homeland Security official.

Bye-bye, middleman. Google is planning on releasing a cellphone that it will sell directly to consumers as early as next year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Unlike other versions, Google designed almost the entire software experience for the new phones. The decision is a break from past practice: Rather than offering the phone through a wireless carrier, as most phones are sold, Google will sell the device itself, through its Web site, and users will have to buy separate cellular service on their own. According to the Journal, the move marks a ratcheting up of Google's attack on the mobile-phone industry.