Syria’s embattled President Bashar al-Assad will make a rare public address on Tuesday amid ongoing bloodshed—despite the presence of Arab League observers. State media declined to give details other than that Assad will address “international issues and international and regional developments." The speech comes two days after the Arab League stopped short of asking the U.N. to help end the nearly yearlong crackdown. While 165 Arab League observers have been in Syria to oversee a peace plan and monitor the government’s actions for two weeks now, hundreds of protesters have allegedly died since they arrived. Last month, the U.N. said more than 5,000 civilians had been killed since protests began last January.

Nothing says “vote for me” like talking to the 99 percent. Mitt Romney took a break from campaigning in New Hampshire to engage with Occupy Wall Street protesters, and emphasized his support for a federal public-financing program for campaigns. When a protester complained about money in politics, Romney responded with an attack on President Obama, saying, “This president has been the first one to throw aside the public-funding program to break all those barriers and to spend massively more than any president in history.” Earlier in the day, Romney took heat for saying he likes to “fire people.” Last week, he responded to a protester by saying, “You had your turn, now it’s my turn.” Meanwhile, Gingrich skipped out on an appearance at his N.H. campaign headquarters, after his security team declared the front and back entrances unsafe.

There goes another chief of staff. Bill Daley, who has directed Barack Obama's White House since January 2011, handed in his resignation last week, senior administration officials tell The Chicago Tribune. Daley's stated reason is to spend more time in his hometown of Chicago. Current budget director Jack Lew is set to take over the role at the end of the month. (Lew also served as budget director under Bill Clinton.) Though the administration was heading into a tough election year, the sources say Daley wasn't pushed out and that his resignation caught the president by surprise. Daley replaced original chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who left for a successful run at Chicago's mayorship.

"Merkozy" united again: at a summit today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to cut off bailout funds for Greece unless the cash-strapped nation is able to restructure its debt. Both leaders explicitly rejected calls to alleviate the losses of private investors who stand to lose billions if Greece defaults and vowed to move ahead with a tax on financial transactions, despite opposition from Britain. Whether Greece can get private bondholders to agree on a settlement remains an open question. Chief among the concerns is whether the investors would be protected by credit-default insurance if a writedown of Greece’s debt takes place.

The U.S. has shot back at Iran, saying the enrichment of uranium has escalated the nation's violations of U.N. resolutions. Earlier, diplomats confirmed Iran's claim that it's begun the enrichment at a secure underground bunker. Iran's state media claimed that enrichment has begun at the country's Fordo site near the holy city of Qum. The Fordo centrifuges are reportedly producing uranium enriched to 20 percent, far higher than the 3.5 percent made at Iran's primary plant. The new uranium can more easily be made into warhead material, and the bunker—underground and protected by air defenses—is difficult to attack. If Iran is using the uranium for a weapon, American officials estimate they would have six months to a year to react before Iran finished enriching weapons-grade uranium. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad met in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez—and the joked about the bomb.

Voting for the 2012 Republican presidential primaries began at midnight in Dixville Notch, N.H., ending in a tie between Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who each scored two votes. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich got one vote each, as nine registered residents of the first precinct to report returns cast their ballots. Given the small number of voters in the tiny resort town—three registered Republicans, four undeclared voters eligible to vote for either party, and two registered Democrats—the results took only moments to report. In the past, Dixville Notch has been the forerunner for the rest of the state. Primary voters in 2008 selected then-senator Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, who went on to win their party’s nominations.

For those trying to kick their smoking habit with nicotine patches and gum, a new, long-term study suggests the expensive products are a waste of money. Released Monday by Harvard’s Center for Global Tobacco Control, the study followed a sample of almost 2,000 smokers and recent quitters, interviewing them three times between 2001 and 2006 about their use of gum, patches, periods of abstinence, and relapses. During each interview period, the study found that roughly one third of the people trying to quit had relapsed, and the use of nicotine-replacement products had no effects on their results.

Note to employers: a compensation package like this will most likely keep your employee happy. Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, will receive $378 million worth of compensation for last year, the majority of which is from restricted shares. Cook’s salary in 2011 was only $900,000, but he’s set to get $376.2 million in shares that will be cashed in over the next 10 years. The stocks were given to him so he wouldn’t pursue another job. Though Steve Jobs had 5.5 million shares of the company when he died, his annual compensation was only $1.

The D-O double G was arrested on Saturday for possession of a small amount of “weed” on his tour bus. Rapper Snoop Dogg was stopped at a Texas checkpoint when border agents thought they smelled marijuana. Snoop admitted to the pot and now faces a court date in January. It’s not his first arrest—he’s been busted several times over the last 10 years. Meanwhile, Dr. Dre, who was featured in the collaboration “Smoke Weed Everyday” with Snoop, will headline the Coachella music festival in April with Snoop, the Black Keys, Radiohead, and Florence and the Machine as well.

Lindsay Lohan’s back again—this time with her clothes on. After posing nude as Marilyn Monroe in Playboy, the actress is reportedly in talks to emulate another screen legend, Elizabeth Taylor, in a Lifetime original movie. Deadline Hollywood first reported the news that Lohan would play the lead in Elizabeth & Richard: A Love Story, which chronicles the star’s epic romance with Richard Burton, a notoriously tempestuous relationship that was the most publicized of its time. The project has allegedly been in the works since last May and is set to be produced by Larry Thompson, who did Lifetime’s Amish Grace. Like Taylor, Lohan has seen plenty of ups and downs in her career, from her starring roles in successful films like The Parent Trap and Mean Girls to stints in rehab and jail. At the end of her life, Liz Taylor’s career achievements made her one of the most admired movie stars ever. Whether Lohan can make a Hollywood comeback remains to be seen.

No black backdrop for Charlie Rose? No problem—the spiffy new CBS This Morning studio, with brick walls and a mural of video screens, served just as well, although it was a little distracting. The network’s revamped morning news program, anchored by Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill, went off to a good start on its Monday debut. Unlike previous half-hearted versions, the new show seems a huge improvement and presented itself as a serious contender with other networks. It began with a 90-second montage of news clips called “Eye Opener,” then went on to feature a 60 Minutes followup, an introduction to its new studio on 57th Street in New York, and talk segments with Newt Gingrich, Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer and other correspondents. Rose dominated those interviews, something he probably could do in his sleep—and there were concerns whether he’d be too tired in the morning slot, although that hasn’t been an issue yet.

Here’s one option for when your nation’s economy seems on the verge of collapse: run for the hills and start a farm. With jobs increasingly hard to come by, Greeks are fleeing the city to start agricultural projects such as raising edible snails for export or growing mastic trees. Unemployment in Greece is at 18 percent, but it’s at 35 percent for people between the ages of 15 and 29. But many Greeks are more-heavily invested in real estate than financial markets, so they’ve retreated to their land as a last line of economic defense. The agricultural sector added 32,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010, one of the only sectors to show growth.

Newsweek and The Daily Beast are gearing up for the 2012 election by joining forces with NBC News. Under the collaboration announced today, the magazine and Web site will have access to NBC News’ deep bench of political reporters and video content, as well as opportunities to work with NBC at national debates. There will also be weekly exclusive video content commissioned by Newsweek and The Daily Beast and utilizing the video player of MSNBC—the No. 1 video news site on the Web. The deal will combine “the vast resources of NBC News with the reach of Newsweek & The Daily Beast,” said Mark Miller, Director of Editorial Operations for Newsweek & The Daily Beast.

Though the Pittsburgh Steelers were badly bruised—quarterback Ben Roethlisberger limped at times with a bum ankle, running back Rashard Mendenhall was out—and some sportswriters predicted the Broncos would win, Tim Tebow pulled out another “miracle” victory in Sunday night’s NFL playoff game. The Broncos won 29-23 in overtime after Tebow threw a touchdown pass on his first toss of the extra period. Tebow knelt, or “Tebowed,” in the endzone. The Broncos notched their ninth win of the season and will now take on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim is not guilty of sodomy. A judge threw out the two-year case Sunday, saying that the prosecution’s DNA evidence was not reliable. Anwar was accused of having a sexual relationship with a male aide. The 64-year-old could have faced 20 years in prison in Malaysia, where sodomy is illegal. Anwar said that the government was trying to derail his political campaign. Thousands of supporters waited outside the courtroom, where a blast rang out shortly after the verdict.

Japanese camera maker Olympus is trying to put an end to the accounting scandal plaguing the company by suing its current president and three ex-directors, sources tell Reuters. The lawsuit charges the four executives with engineering and covering up a 13-year, $1.7 billion fraud, and calls for millions of dollars in compensation. President Shuichi Takayama is expected to resign over the suit. An investigatory panel recently determined that the president and executives conspired to hide the company's losses from investors. The company has lost nearly 60 percent of its value since the scandal broke in October.

One year ago on Jan. 8, Jared Loughner stormed into a crowd in Tucson, Ariz., and opened fire, killing six people and shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head. Giffords, who has since partially recovered in remarkable fashion, and her husband Mark Kelly visited the Safeway market which was where the shooting took place and the hospital she was rushed to for treatment. At 10:11 a.m. (the exact time Giffords was shot in the head), bells were rung 19 times, symbolizing the 19 people who were killed or wounded by the attack. Giffords then attended a candlelight vigil at the University of Arizona on Sunday night, where she led a crowd of 1,000 people in the Pledge of Allegiance.

A Wall Street Journal investigation into Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital has something for everyone. For his opponents, the report finds that 22 percent of the 77 businesses the Journal looked at went bankrupt by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, and an additional 8 percent ran into so much economic trouble that they lost all the money Bain put in. However, the report also gives evidence for Romney's business skill, finding that he reaped tremendous returns for his investors. But yet another point for his critics, a majority of those gains came from deals with a mere 10 businesses—four of which later landed in bankruptcy court. The fact that Bain's biggest winners later went under “is potentially damning evidence" that the firm left its companies in bad shape, says Per Stromberg, an academic who studies buyouts.

Mitt Romney may have New Hampshire in the bag, but a Newt Gingrich group is waiting for him in South Carolina with a $5 million ad attacking Romney as a predatory capitalist. Wealthy casino owner Sheldon Adelson gave the money to a Gingrich-supporting PAC for an ad composed partly of emotional interviews with people who lost jobs at companies Bain bought. Talking Points Memo calls the preview a “swift-boat-style” ad. Gingrich is getting help from other third parties as well, with Joseph McQuaid, the publisher of New Hampshire's Union Leader ripping into Romney in a front-age editorial, and Tea Party figure Carl Paladino telling Ron Paul to “get on the mother-ship” and urge voters to support Gingrich.

It seems to have gone better than Fast and Furious. Documents disclosed by the Mexican Foreign Ministry— in a case against a Colombian cocaine supplier, Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, also known as “The Rabbit”—reveal an elaborate operation by the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. agents posed as money launderers, sometimes moving millions of dollars in drug money around the world, in an effort to gain the trust of Ortega's cartel. The document describes one part of the operation in which DEA agents in Texas posed as pilots and transported cocaine around the world for $1,000 per kilo. At another point, undercover Ecuadorean agents helped transport 330 kilos of cocaine from Ecuador to Spain, where it was seized.

New Hampshire's primary is still a day away, but candidates—and some journalists—are already leaving for South Carolina. Rick Perry went straight to the state after Iowa, and calls it his “Alamo.” The journalists normally cramming New Hampshire hotels this time of year have packed their bags: Tom Brokaw and Gail Collins have both gone south. The exodus is largely thanks to Mitt Romney's commanding lead. After being seemingly stuck at 25 percent of likely voters, Romney now gets 35 percent, with Ron Paul coming in second with 18. His lead is even stronger in South Carolina, with 37 percent according to a recent CNN poll, double digits ahead of the second-place Rick Santorum, who came in at 19 percent.

Malam Bacai Sanha, the president of the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau, died Monday in a hospital in Paris, France. Sanha had been hospitalized for about a month for an unspecified illness, according to an official at Guinea-Bissau’s embassy in Paris. The 64-year-old had been president for two years after the previous leader was assassinated. The head of the country’s National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, will take over until new elections can be arranged. The tiny country of 1.6 million had been through many coups since its independence from Portugal in 1974, and Sanha’s election victory in 2009 was a rare bright spot for the nation, though he became known for his frequent checkups abroad.

Settling into her role as Queen-to-be, Kate Middleton is having a “low-key” and “private” 30th birthday party, according to palace officials. She began her birthday with a brief public appearance, attending a gala film premiere for Steven Spielberg's War Horse, where she wore a full-length lacy evening gown by Alice Alice Temperley. Prince William also attended, holding an umbrella for his wife. The Duchess of Cambridge has a busy year cut out for her: Just last week, she became a patron of four organizations: Action on Addiction, East Anglia Children’s Hospices, The Art Room and the National Portrait Gallery.

Uh oh. The reports you’ve heard about Wall Street’s dismal year are about to get real—for Wall Street workers, that is. As fourth-quarter results come in and banks decide on final bonuses for the past year, The Wall Street Journal reports that compensation is likely to fall to its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs will see 2010 paychecks cut in half, while fixed-income trading businesses may get smaller by 60 percent. Morgan Stanley will reportedly cut bonuses by 40 percent. Goldman employees received about $431,000 on average in 2010—that number will fall to $385,000 in 2011. (In 2007, employees received an average of $661,000 each.) The pay worries were only increased in the last months with stocks rising and falling and anxiety over global markets.

Now that Bill Keller is no longer the New York Times executive editor, he should be Hillary Clinton’s agent—he sure is very concerned about her career path. Should she retire? No, Keller says in a column. Dictate her memoirs? Nag Chelsea to give her a grandchild? Be the next Brown University president? Establish Clinton Global Initiative 2.0? Supreme Court justice? Run for president against Obama? No, Keller says to all of those. She should be Obama’s vice presidential running mate, he believes, because replacing Obama is absurd, but she does enjoy the highest approval rating (64 percent) of all political figures in the U.S. “It does more to guarantee Obama’s re-election than anything else the Democrats can do,” he writes, and “it makes Hillary the party’s heir apparent in 2016.” I wonder if Joe Biden is canceling his Times subscription as we speak.

Mo’ money, mo’ problems. The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a ban on contributions to political campaigns by foreign nationals living temporarily in the U.S. The controversial ruling was praised by reform advocates who say the regulation will help keep electoral contributions in check. However, critics assailed the court’s logic, saying that in the wake of the Citizens United decision, it didn’t make sense that companies had more rights than foreigners who live in this country.

Erin Langworthy—who survived a 360-foot fall into the crocodile-infested Zambezi River at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on New Year’s Eve—says she would consider jumping again. Langworthy fell when her bungee cord snapped, and she narrowly avoided drowning in the raging rapids. But she escaped, with her only serious injury being damage to her lungs. The video of her ordeal has since gone viral. Shearwater Victoria Falls, the operating company, says the accident was the first in its history of more than 150,000 jumps. Of any future jumps, Langworthy says: “That was my first and most likely my last time. Maybe in the future, sometime.”

If Mitt Romney is trying to rebuff accusations that he was a job-killing CEO at Bain Capital, declaring that he likes “being able to fire people” probably isn’t the best move. Romney made the statement Monday to a group of business executives from the Nashua Greater Chamber of Commerce in New Hampshire when questioned on what type of health-care system he’d implement as president. The former Massachusetts governor argued that people should be able to choose their own insurance plans apart from their employers and be able to fire them. Just a day earlier he attempted to prove he’s not the ruthless executive Democrats and fellow Republicans are making him out to be by telling New Hampshire voters that he understands fearing a “pink slip.” Romney has since urged people not to take his "I like to be able to fire people" comment out of context. "In politics, people are going to grasp at anything," he said about the instant attention attracted by his quote.

They are kidding, right? Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez pledged that they would “unite” forever—after hugging and holding hands in a ceremony at the presidential palace in Venezuela that welcomed Iran’s president. Unfortunately, the fun did not end there. Chávez made a quip about having a bomb by his palace steps. "That hill will open up and a big atomic bomb will come out," he said, while Ahmadinejad laughed. “The imperialist spokesmen say ... Ahmadinejad and I are going into the Miraflores basement now to set our sights on Washington and launch cannons and missiles ... It's laughable."

As if relations between the U.S. and Iran could get worse, Iran announced that it is sentencing American Amir Mirzaei Hekmati to death for espionage. Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested while visiting his grandmother in Iran in August. After leaving the Marines in 2005, he ran his own linguistics company, working for the military and civilian businesses. Iran claims he was being sent by the CIA to deliver information to Iran that would later be used to link it to terrorist activities. Hekmati’s family denies the charges. Hekmati has 20 days to appeal.

Did you see that? Yes, and so did everyone else. Twitter users tweeted Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s game-winning overtime pass (a real Hail Mary for the devout Tebow) against the Pittsburgh Steelers 9,420 times per second. That’s a new record—no, it wasn’t bin Laden's death (5,106), Steve Jobs (6,049), or the royal wedding (3,966) that topped the feeds. Tebowing is a force to be reckoned with.

Rick Perry is slightly trailing Buddy Roemer in New Hampshire, according to the latest Suffolk University tracking poll out of the state. Roemer was the governor of Louisiana in the late 1980s and early '90s. He announced the start of his 2012 presidential campaign back in July and has been virtually ignored ever since. He hasn’t been invited to a single debate, and ahead of this past weekend’s New Hampshire debates Roemer attempted to tweet his way to relevancy, saying, “I’m at a loss to know why I can’t get a fair hearing.” Perhaps his pleas for attention worked, because he’s nabbed 2 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, just ahead of Perry’s 1 percent. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s standing in the state fell 2 points overnight, to 33 percent.