The stock market may have dipped and soared this year but in the end it landed less than a point away from where it did in 2010. This is the smallest annual change ever. With economic volatility across the globe—from the Middle East to Japan and, of course, Europe, investors are relieved to be done with 2011—and grateful for the uneventful finish, which had the potential to be much worse.

Taking a page from Hillary's playbook? While campaigning in Iowa on Friday, Newt Gingrich started crying when asked to describe a memory of his late mother, Kit Gingrich. "I get teary-eyed every time we sing Christmas carols,” he explained. “My mother sang in the choir and loved singing in the choir. And I don't know if I should admit this, but when I was very young, she made me sing in the choir and we had pictures of me at a very young age singing in the choir." Kit raised Gingrich alone for the first five years of his life before she remarried; she also suffered from bipolar disorder. She died in 2003.

Germany has summoned Egypt’s ambassador in Berlin to protest against raids on pro-civil-rights groups in Cairo on Thursday, including Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation and two pro-democracy U.S. groups. Egypt’s military rulers stormed the offices of 17 civil-society groups in the country’s capital. Germany’s Foreign Ministry called the raids “unacceptable,” while human-rights leaders in Egypt compared them to Mubarak-era tactics used to silence anti-government protesters. The United Nations also condemned the attacks as “unnecessarily heavy-handed” and “clearly designed to intimidate human rights defenders.” The raids were part of an Egyptian investigation into foreign funding of its pro-democracy groups.

An estimated half a million people reportedly protested across Syria on Friday against President Bashar al-Assad. There were reports that the government's security forces killed 32 people by shooting at the crowd, and one human-rights group said nail bombs were fired at the protesters. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that protesters "hurled stones" at the security forces as the troops fired on the crowd. Activists say at least 40 people were killed in clashes with security forces Thursday, despite the presence of Arab League monitors. The U.S. State Department said it was concerned by the continuing violence. Meanwhile leaders in the anti-Assad army say they're holding their fire and want to meet with the monitoring team. The government claims it has released over 700 prisoners this week, but according to activists and Human Rights Watch hundreds of other protesters were actually just moved to secret detention facilities, and journalists are still banned from travel within the country.

Turns out Verizon really does value its customers. The company has backed off its plan, which just went public yesterday, to institute a $2 fee for single payments made online or by phone. President and CEO Dan Mead made the announcement in a statement on Friday, saying the company made its final decision based on negative customer feedback about the fee, which was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 15. “Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage to take advantage of the best and most efficient options,” said Mead. His announcement followed reports that the FCC said it would investigate the proposed fee.

Ron Paul is currently just behind Mitt Romney in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses, but the congressman is already saying that he may not support any of his rivals for the nomination. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Paul says that he could not back them unless they adopted some of his priorities as their own. He added that the other candidates represent the “status quo.” However, Paul did say that Romney’s business experience would make him a better choice than Newt Gingrich. Meanwhile, Herman Cain is trying to grip tightly to his last bit of relevancy before he drifts off into the land of forgotten candidates by holding out on his endorsement until after the Iowa caucuses start Tuesday. In fact, Cain's campaign manager suggested to the AP that the former hopeful doesn't think any of the GOP candidates have proven themselves worthy of his endorsement.

Los Angeles authorities said Friday that arson was the cause of some 19 fires to cars, houses, and other buildings in Hollywood and West Hollywood. Police issued a citywide alert early Friday morning as firefighters scrambled overnight to put out the fires. The fires come just one day after police arrested Samuel Arrington, 22, in connection with three arsons that occurred on a five-block stretch of Sunset Boulevard Thursday morning—but police are not sure if Friday’s blazes were the work of a copycat or if there was a mistaken arrest. One of the homes set ablaze Friday was the former home of late rock legend Jim Morrison.

Fox Latin America is in hot water after an employee posted a Facebook poll asking readers who they thought killed Jesus. The options were (a) Pontius Pilate; (b) the Jewish people; or (c) the high priests. The poll was meant to promote National Geographic Channel's Christmas special. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Buenos Aires protested the poll, accusing Fox of perpetuating a defamatory idea that has "resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews for two millennia." A Fox spokeswoman apologized, and said the poll was removed immediately.

Filene’s Basement closed its doors around the country on Wednesday, but hosted one last blowout sale to mark the occasion. All merchandise was 80 to 90 percent off—a pair of Calvin Klein jeans cost $2—and a company spokesperson said they expected to sell all of the merchandise. Other items around the stores were up for sale too, including shelves, mirrors, and mannequins. The company’s chief executive said in a statement, “I want to express my appreciation to our employees, many of whom have devoted their careers to Syms and Filene’s Basement, for their loyalty and hard work. I also want to thank our educated consumers and bargain hunters for their dedicated support over many years.’’

Is this because Katy Perry sang that she kissed a girl and liked it? The pop singer and her husband, comedian Russell Brand, are getting divorced, Brand confirmed Friday. “Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage,” he said. “I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll always remain friends.” The announcement came one day after both were photographed without their wedding bands and after reports that the pair spent Christmas apart after a “massive fight.”

China released plans for its space program this week, and the agenda includes building space stations and eventually putting a man on the moon within the next several years. China launched its space program in 2003, and is now the third country to put a man in space. One professor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Beijing University said, “With economic progress also comes the need for scientific development and exploration. By investing in space exploration, China wants to contribute and be a major player in the world on more than one level.”

It was Garbriella Sicard’s dream to be a worldwide trend on Twitter, according to friends of the late Penn State student, who died on Wednesday at age 19 after a car crash. By early Friday morning, #FlyHighGaby was the No. 1 global trend. Sicard’s friends started tweeting the hashtag in her honor on Thursday to celebrities like Snooki and Taylor Swift, and the trend immediately went viral in the U.S. and then around the world. Sicard, who died in the hospital following the crash, was a liberal-arts major and played club lacrosse at Penn State.

As city revenues around the country continue to decline, some governments are literally turning off the lights. Highland Park, Mich., scrapped two thirds of its street lights. Cities in California, Oregon, Minnesota, and Illinois have taken similar measures. Unlike other recent cuts to city services, the outtages are obvious to everyone, and citizens are unhappy. Some are complaining about being afraid to walk around at night and being surprised by cars. Drivers complain they can't see pedestrians. “It’s just too dark,” said a Highland Park resident. “I come out of the church and I can’t see what’s in front of me.

Thank God it's ... Saturday? Samoa skipped Friday and moved ahead to Saturday today when it decided to cross over to the other side of the international dateline, coming into line with Australia and New Zealand. Samoa will now be the first country to see the sun rise instead of the last to see it set. The move was made for business reasons. “In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we're losing out on two working days a week,” said Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi. “While it's Friday here, it's Saturday in New Zealand and when we're at church Sunday, they're already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane.”

It might have been too soon to stop that hunger strike. After India's anti-corruption bill was cleared by the country's lower house earlier this week, it stalled in the upper house on Thursday after 13 hours of debate. Parliament will reconvene early next year, though it's unclear exactly when. The bill finally came up to a vote after months of demonstrations by Anna Hazare and his followers. Hazare aborted a hunger strike on Wednesday, citing poor health, though he says he will continue his campaign to strengthen the proposed corruption ombudsman.

Today in Iowa Mitt Romney sought to project the image many have of him—a wealthy man out of touch with everyday Americans—onto Obama. He quipped to a Huffington Post reporter on his campaign bus today, "When the president's characterization of our economy was, 'It could be worse,' it reminded me of Marie Antoinette: 'Let them eat cake.' " Romney was referring to a speech Obama made at a Wisconsin town-hall meeting in 2010 when he said, "It's hard to argue sometimes, things would have been a lot worse" without his stimulus plan. Romney seems focused on digging into the president as the Iowa caucuses approach.

The Obama administration is considering transferring Mohammed Fazl to Afghan custody in an effort to further a peace deal with the Afghan government. Fazl, a senior Taliban official who is currently being held at Guantanamo Bay for suspected human rights abuses, is considered a "high-risk detainee." His potential transfer from the military prison (where he's been since 2002) has sparked concern from many in Congress and U.S. intelligence, although it has been assured that he—and five others—would not be set free but moved to a different form of custody. Fazi is believed to have been behind thousands of Afghan Shi'ite deaths from 1998 to 2001.

It was the equivalent of telling the world community to talk to the hand. A day after Kim Jong-un was named Supreme Leader of North Korea, the country’s leadership announced there would be no changes in its approach to domestic or international issues. How the younger Kim would rule has been the subject of much debate since his father, Kim Jong-il, died, but it appears as though North Korean officials are coalescing around Kim Jong-un as a leader. The National Defense Commission issued a statement taunting both the United States and South Korea, calling the latter a puppet regime.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff is stepping up his fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission over its regulation of Wall Street. After accusing the regulator of negotiating a weak settlement with Citigroup, Rakoff said the SEC withheld important information that prevented him from doing his job. The SEC isn’t taking Rakoff's attacks sitting down: the regulator asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to overrule Rakoff's decision by declaring Rakoff to have overstepped his bounds. Rakoff is angry that the SEC allows banks to settle without admitting wrongdoing.

The fire on the Russian nuclear submarine that broke out yesterday is finally out, according to Russian authorities. The sub was doused with water and partially submerged—with crewmembers still inside—but the fire continued to burn through the night. Officials say there have been no radiation leaks and that the sub's nuclear missiles were not onboard, but seven workers have been hospitalized after breathing toxic fumes. The sub was built in 1984 and was in dry dock when a wooden scaffolding reportedly caught fire. President Dmitry Medvedev summoned cabinet officials and demanded anyone found responsible be punished. 

More evidence that Iowa is now a two-man race—and that the Newt Gingrich bubble has definitively burst. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are neck and neck, with Romney getting 23 percent of the likely caucusgoers and Paul getting 21 percent. Rick Santorum follows with 15 percent, Rick Perry with 14 percent, and Gingrich comes in fifth with 13 percent. The leveled field partly comes from a splintering of the Tea Party vote: Santorum gets 20 percent of their vote, Romney and Paul 17 percent, and Gingrich 16 percent.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd can't put the Jodie Fisher scandal behind him just yet. A letter by Fisher's lawyer, Gloria Allred, has been obtained by Reuters, and it details several years of alleged sexual advances. Hurd allegedly wined and dined Fisher, an HP contractor, and repeatedly sought sexual favors in exchange for further employment, according to the letter. Hurd was ousted by HP when the claims came to light, but an internal probe later cleared him of sexual harassment. In the letter, Allred accuses Hurd of using HP funds to pursue Fisher.

Michele Bachmann is sticking to her guns that her former Iowa chair was bribed by Ron Paul’s campaign to endorse him. Bachmann’s aide, Kent Sorenson, initially denied that he was bribed and then quit her campaign. “He told me that he was offered money, he was offered a lot of money by the Ron Paul campaign,” Bachmann told reporters in Iowa on Friday. “No one else knows about the conversation other than Kent Sorenson and myself.” Bachmann said he told her about the bribe money during a phone call on Dec. 27, though she wouldn’t say how much money was involved. Sorenson, an Iowa state senator, decided yesterday to endorse Ron Paul, who is currently one of the top contenders to win Iowa’s January caucuses.

With the latest polls showing Ron Paul neck and neck with Mitt Romney in Iowa, Paul has strangely decided to take a breather days before the caucuses. Paul told PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff that he'd be spending the weekend in Texas, and his campaign confirms the decision. There are precedents for such a move, but they aren't good ones—The Washington Post points out that Newt Gingrich took a weekend off earlier this month, and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley took a week off just before losing to Scott Brown.

A lawyer and a Tea Party activist filed a lawsuit on Thursday to get Newt Gingrich on the Virginia ballot for the Super Tuesday primary; Gingrich will most likely have to win the state to get the Republican nomination. The lawsuit, which is not affiliated with the Gingrich campaign, contends that Gingrich filed the required 10,000 signatures, but that many of them were improperly excluded—and also takes issue with how the Republican Party of Virginia determined the signatures were invalid. Gingrich has claimed he submitted 11,100 signatures, but “fraud” by a campaign worker caused a large number of the signatures to be declared invalid. Despite the fraud allegation, a Gingrich spokesman said the campaign has decided not to pursue a lawsuit. Rick Perry, who was also denied a spot on the Virginia ballot, is challenging his exclusion in court.