Hell hath no fury like a Newt scorned. Tuesday, Republican candidate Newt Gingrich—who’s slid in recent polls—went after Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. On CNN, Gingrich accused Paul of being a hypocrite about his allegedly racist newsletters, and said that he would never vote for Paul if he were the Republican nominee. “I think Ron Paul’s views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent American,” he said. Gingrich also blasted Romney for laughing off his challenge for a one-on-one unmoderated debate, saying that Romney—who he labeled the Massachusetts moderate—should be a man.

The secrecy continues. North Korea will begin a two-day funeral on Wednesday for Kim Jong-il. Though few concrete details are known, many believe it will echo the services held for Kim’s father, Kim Il-sung in 1994. Hundreds of thousands are expected to line the streets of Pyongyang, as the military salutes and marches in remembrance. Kim’s son, Kim Jong-un, will reportedly be a pivotal player in the procession, further cementing his status as the nation’s “Supreme Commander.” On Thursday, the national memorial service will be held.

Treasury Department officials said Tuesday that the White House will formally request that Congress increase the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion—which they say will satisfy U.S. debts until the end of the year. This latest request is the third one authorized by the dramatic debt-ceiling deal this summer, and if Congress does not want to approve the increase, it has 15 days to pass a joint resolution disapproving the measure—but President Obama can veto that. The request is expected to come on Dec. 30, the day the debt is projected to fall within $100 billion of the current $15.194 trillion debt.

Vladislav Surkov, nicknamed the “gray cardinal,” will be reassigned to a new post after more than 10 years heading Russia’s domestic political agenda. The move shows Prime Minister Vladimir Putin may be open to political reform—at least while tens of thousands of protesters claim he rigged elections. Surkov designed the system of “sovereign democracy” that Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev governed under. He’s been blasted recently by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov as a “puppetmaster” who privatized politics. Surkov will be in charge of “modernization and innovation” but will not have a hand in domestic politics. Meanwhile, Putin said protesters have every right to “fly their flag” and exist, though they lack a clear agenda and organization.

Rick Perry’s chances of winning the White House—or even the primary—are slim, but it’s not for lack of exposure. The Texas governor has spent $2.86 million in December alone on TV ads in Iowa. In fact all of the Republican candidates have outspent their predecessors in advertising during this campaign. Together, each of the GOP presidential hopefuls and the political action committees that love them have shelled out more than $10 million in radio and TV advertisements in Iowa this month. After Rick Perry, Mitt Romney’s super PAC has spent the second most on ads—$2.85 million. As the candidates get ready for the caucuses this week, ads are expected to get heavier—and nastier.

As Arab peace monitors arrived on Tuesday to monitor Homs, about 70,000 protesters stormed the volatile Syrian city, resisting Army efforts to keep them at bay. Tuesday’s protests followed the withdrawal of Army tanks after bloody battles that resulted in 34 deaths in 24 hours. The monitors are in town to see if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is holding up his promise to end the nine-month-long military crackdown on civilians and implement a legitimate peace plan. Despite clashes in the street, the head of the Arab peace mission said the first visit was “very good.” According to reports, security forces were firing tear gas and live rounds at the protesters attempting to march on the center of Homs, but armored troops have since been removed from the city.

It took 42 years, but India might get its anticorruption bill after all. The country's lower house of Parliament passed the bill more than four decades after one was demanded—it now awaits the upper house's approval. India's middle class has rallied around activist Anna Hazare in a collective effort to get an anticorruption law passed. Hazare started fasting today in hopes of drawing support for the creation of a new anticorruption agency, which would keep an eye on politicians and bureaucrats. Whether the bill that made it through the lower house meets Hazare's demands remains to be seen.

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said Wednesday any disruption of traffic in Strait of Hormuz—one of the world's most important oil routes—"will not be tolerated." A senior Iranian official threatened on Tuesday to cut off its oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. moved forward with its plans to impose economic sanctions on the country in an attempt to thwart its nuclear ambitions. As President Obama prepared to sign in new sanctions that could substantially reduce Iran's oil revenue, Iran's first vice president, Mohammed-Reza Rahimi, vowed to block all oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could stir military conflict among countries dependent on its supply. A White House spokesman said the president, who is currently vacationing in Hawaii, would not be commenting on Rahimi's threat. Meanwhile, oil prices fell on Wednesday for the first time in seven days, on worries over the European debt crisis continued.

Indiana authorities have charged Michael Plumadore, 39, with the murder of 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon, whose dismembered body was found Monday after a three-day search. Plumadore, a family friend, had been baby-sitting Aliahna and her two sisters while their mother recovered from the flu. He was arrested Monday night and, according to a court affidavit, confessed to beating Aliahna to death with a brick, then dismembering her body with a chainsaw and hiding her head, hands, and feet at his home while dumping the rest of her remains. The affidavit gives no reasons why Plumadore would murder Aliahna. He told a local newspaper on Friday that she disappeared from his home that morning while he was sleeping and that the younger girls said their mother had picked Aliahna up.

An orphaned Danish polar bear cub named Siku has become a viral sensation after videos went up on YouTube of the one month old fluff ball. Born on November 22 at Denmark's Scandinavian Wildlife Park, Siku was taken in by the zoo when his mother couldn't produce enough milk to feed him. Having made a brief appearance on the Today show, Siku already has 12,000 fans on Facebook and has been dubbed the "new Knut," Germany's biggest tourist attraction until he died of epileptic shock in March. While some cooed over the new cute cub in town, Knut-lovers remain devoted to building a bronze memorial statue in his honor.

It’s shorter than a Kardashian marriage. Sinead O’Connor announced Tuesday that she was ending her marriage—18 days after it started. O’Connor wed singer Barry Herridge in Las Vegas on Dec. 8, and O’Connor said that “within three hours” the marriage was “kyboshed by the behavior of certain people in my husband’s life.” O’Connor wrote that Herridge was “enormously wounded” by the comments, and she said it “became apparent” to her that she had to end the marriage because it had “become too much for him to bear.” O’Connor has been married three times before and has four children from previous relationships.

A flash mob involving an estimated 200 young people turned violent at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., on Monday—turning one of the busiest shopping days of the year at the nation’s largest mall into chaos. At least 10 juveniles have been arrested in the incident on suspicion of disorderly conduct, but there were no weapons involved and no theft has been reported. A mall spokeswoman said the riot started around 4:20 p.m. with a single incident in the food court and then quickly spread and officials put the mall on lockdown, although they later called that a premature move. More than 30 Bloomington police, as well as Metro Transit and Richfield officers, responded to the call, and order was restored by 5:30 p.m. Mall officials said they will review security measures to determine how the situation descended so quickly into chaos.

Journalist Anna Lenzer takes the Huffington Post to task over several glaring omissions from an article published on the site last week by Fiji’s self-appointed prime minister, Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama. The Fijian leader, head of the country’s military junta, announced his government’s support of the “Occupy” movement; the Huffington Post billed the piece as “A Win for the 99 Percent.” What Lenzer points out, however, is that Fiji is a police state ruled by an unelected dictator who has outlawed free speech and press as well as the rights to assemble and associate freely. In fact, Lenzer argues, the HuffPost piece is not so much a victory for the 99 percent as it is for Qorvis Communications, a D.C. PR firm that represents several repressive Arab governments.

The saddest story from Christmas keeps getting worse: Lomer Johnson, the man who played Santa Claus at Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store on Christmas Eve, died while apparently trying to save one of his granddaughters in the Connecticut house fire that killed five people. His body was found on the roof outside of a granddaughter’s bedroom; Johnson's wife and three granddaughters died in the blaze, while his daughter survived. The house has since been razed. Though there have been reports that the fire was caused by embers from a fireplace, the fire department still is not commenting on its cause except to say it wasn’t arson.

The White House has agreed in principle to allow Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh to come to the U.S. to receive medical treatment over injuries sustained after a bombing at his presidential complex. Obama administration officials had previously said that the only way Saleh would be allowed into the country would be for “legitimate medical treatment.” But an anonymous official said, “The main goal is to remove him physically from Yemen so there’s no way he can meddle in the political process there. Getting him medical treatment seemed a logical way to do this.”

Need another reason to be angry at Washington? The average net worth of members of Congress has grown 15 percent since 2004, even as the average American’s net worth has dropped 8 percent. Nearly half of all members of Congress are millionaires. The median net worth for a member of Congress, according to The New York Times, is $913,000; in the House it’s $725,000 excluding home equity, says The Washington Post. One reason that both the Times and Post cite for the growing wealth of politicians is the enormous cost of running a campaign: since 1976 the average amount that winning House candidates spend has quadrupled to $1.4 million.

The gunman in Texas who murdered six people Christmas morning before killing himself was wearing a Santa suit during the rampage. Police still haven’t released any identities except to say the victims, who appear to be part of the same family, were aged 15 to 59 and that the shooter was one of the older men among the dead. The group had just opened presents when the shooting took place in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, which the state Senate had recently named the “Christmas Capital of Texas.”

You can thank your regulators for a change: the FDA expressed concern about defective French implants in 2000, a full 10 years before European regulators began to worry. The FDA sent an inspector to the implants’ manufacturer, Poly Implant Prothese, and then sent its founder a letter saying the implants were “adulterated” and listing at least 11 problems with the manufacturing process. PIP, it turns out, was using computer-grade silicone in the implants. Thousands of European women have received them, and the French government has recommended that its citizens have them removed due to their high rupture rate.

The Iranian woman whose sentence of stoning for adultery provoked an international outcry could be hanged instead. The head of the judiciary in East Azerbaijan has said the prison does not have the facilities to stone Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. So he is investigating whether it is legally and religiously permissible to hang her. Her sentence was originally postponed last year after international protests.

A new CNN report based on court documents indicates that Newt Gingrich’s first wife, Jackie Battley, did not want a divorce, which goes against his campaign’s earlier claim that she sought the divorce. The court papers read, “Defendant shows that she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce, but that she does not desire one at this time.” In 1985, Battley told a newspaper that the divorce, “came as a complete surprise.” But on Gingrich’s campaign website claims, “It was (Jackie Battley) that requested the divorce, not Newt.” CNN also interviewed a former associate of Gingrich, who claimed that Gingrich said of Battley, “You know and I know that she’s not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a president.”

Fifty monitors from the Arab League have entered Syria to evaluate whether the country is complying with a regional plan to end violence. They entered the country Monday—the same day activists say the government killed at least 30 people. Their first stop was the city of Homs, which has been the seat of much of the violence. Activists say government tanks began pulling out early Tuesday. The Syrian government has promised the monitors freedom of movement but is also responsible for their security and transport.

The Duke of Edinburgh smiled and waved Tuesday as he left the hospital where he had undergone heart surgery. Prince Philip, the 90-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 23 with chest pains. Doctors say he had a blocked artery, which they treated with a stent.

Ron Paul has new accusations to deal with: Eric Dondero, a former longtime aide to the representative, has written a post at Rightwing News defending Ron Paul against charges of racism and anti-Semitism but also acknowledging that the congressman is “personally uncomfortable” around gay people. “Is Ron Paul a ‘racist.’ In short, No,” Dondero writes. “Is Ron Paul a homo-phobe? Well, yes and no.” Dondero says that Paul supports gay people’s right to do as they please in private but also that he is “personally uncomfortable” around them. Dondero recalls a time Paul made him leave a campaign stop at a gay supporter’s home so he could use the bathroom at a fast-food restaurant. Dondero tells another story, which he did not personally witness, of Paul refusing to shake a gay supporter’s hand.

Al Qaeda’s Iraqi branch has claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings that killed 70 people in Iraq last week. The Baghdad explosions represented the worst outbreak in violence since August, and came just as American troops were pulling out for good. An al Qaeda website claimed that the attacks were orchestrated to “support the weak Sunnis in the prisons of the apostates.” Sunnis, which are a minority in Iraq, held power in the era of Saddam Hussein.

Sears Holding announced on Tuesday that they are being forced to shut down up to 120 Sears and Kmart stores due to a drop in holiday sales. The stores to be closed have yet to be identified. Sears Holding said that stores open for up to a year were down 5.2 percent for sales in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas Day, and shares of the company have tumbled almost 50 percent in the past year. Analysts said the company is suffering from a combined weakness in the economy and growth on online sales.

Well, this is awkward. A 2006 memo has surfaced in which Newt Gingrich praises Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health-care initiative—but Gingrich's team later claimed the candidate did not write the memo, which was titled "Newt Note." Gingrich has repeatedly denounced Romney's universal health-care initiative on the campaign trail. In 2006 Gingrich wrote: “We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans.” The former speaker also made a case for the so-called individual mandate—one of the key parts of President Obama’s health-care plan that conservatives have taken issue with. Gingrich spokesman R. C. Hammond said the "Newt Notes" essay wasn't penned by Gingrich himself but didn't identify the author of the memo.

An Egyptian court on Tuesday banned virginity tests for female detainees, months after women arrested in a March rally on Tahrir Square alleged they were forced to take the examinations. Samira Ibrahim, 25, took the military-led government to court in August, alleging that she was forcibly subjected to a virginity test in March—and since then she claims she has received death threats after bringing the case. “I will not give up my rights as a woman or a human being,” Ibrahim said. Although Egyptian authorities originally denied issuing the tests, at least one senior official has admitted the practice exists.

Republican strategists are perking up with today’s news from Sen. Ben Nelson, who will officially announce that he is retiring after two terms. Nelson, a Democrat, rebuffed a quiet campaign from his party’s elders to persuade him to stay and help prevent his seat from falling into Republican hands—highly likely in the Cornhusker State. Nelson quits with $3 million in his campaign coffers and a solid approval rating. Former senator Bob Kerrey has reportedly been flirting with a run once the post opens up. In 2012, 23 Democratic-controlled seats will be up for grabs in the Senate, while the GOP will need to defend only 10.

With Ron Paul named the newly minted frontrunner in Iowa polls, Newt Gingrich has already launched an aggressive attack against his chief rivals, Paul and Mitt Romney. A new advertisement released by the pro-Gingrich Super PAC Winning Our Future is urging voters not to let “the liberal Republican establishment” choose the GOP presidential candidate. The ad will air in Iowa on Wednesday, and run on broadcast and cable TV until the Jan. 2, a day before the Iowa caucuses. The voiceover in the 30-second spot points out Gingrich’s successes as speaker of the House and blasts his Republican adversaries for “attacking him with falsehoods.” In another combative move, Gingrich closed a speech in Iowa on Tuesday by challenging Romney to a 90-minute debate and pointing out his reputation as a “Massachusetts moderate.”

Former SNL writer Joe Bodolai was found dead Monday at an L.A. hotel. Though an autopsy has not been completed, police and the Los Angeles coroner believe his death was a suicide. Bodolai, who co-wrote the first draft of Wayne’s World with Mike Myers, had posted what seems like a suicide note on his blog, titled “If This Were Your Last Day Alive, What Would You Do?” in which he lists things he regrets and things he’s proud of and concludes, “May you all have the happy lives you deserve. Thank you all for being in my life.”