Houston makes its choice; Parker makes history  —  Nation watches as city becomes the largest in U.S. to choose an openly gay leader  —  Annise Danette Parker was elected mayor of Houston on Saturday, winning her seventh consecutive city election and becoming both the first contender …

Paul A. Samuelson, Groundbreaking Economist, Dies at 94  —  Paul A. Samuelson, the first American Nobel laureate in economics and the foremost academic economist of the 20th century, died Sunday at his home in Belmont, Mass. He was 94.  —  His death was announced by the Massachusetts Institute …

Senate passes $1.1 trillion spending measure, 57-35  —  The Senate passed a huge end-of-the-year $1.1 trillion omnibus spending measure Sunday afternoon by a vote of 57-35.  —  The chamber was forced to work for the second consecutive weekend after talks broke down late Thursday to move …

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Climate change emails row deepens as Russians admit they DID come from their Siberian server  —  The claim was both simple and terrifying: that temperatures on planet Earth are now ‘likely the highest in at least the past 1,300 years’.

Ask Ashley  —  Spitzer's babe answers all your love-life questions!  —  Sure, she's made some mistakes.  But now Ashley Dupre, the former escort who brought down Gov. Eliot Spitzer, is sharing what she's learned in her new sex, love and relationship column — exclusively in the New York Post.

Lieberman, Nelson: Public-option compromise still not good enough  —  Two key senators criticized the most recent healthcare compromise Sunday, saying the policies replacing the public option are still unacceptable.  —  Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) both said a Medicare …

Summers Predicts Job Growth by Spring  —  Lawrence H. Summers, President Obama's top economic advisor, predicted on Sunday that by the spring the ranks of working Americans will start to grow once again.  —  “Most professional forecasters are looking for a return to job growth by the spring …

WMD not point of Iraq war, Tony Blair says  —  Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the staunchest ally of President Bush, says that absent the WMD claims, he still would have found an argument for invading Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein.  —  Tony Blair, seen here at the United Nations …

MOTIVATION.... Post-election governing tends to feature a familiar pattern.  Presidents take office with high hopes, governing proves difficult, the policymaking process gets bogged down, and supporters get discouraged and start to walk away.  It can be pretty disheartening.

Blagojevich's lawyers seek FBI interview with Obama  —  Rod Blagojevich's lawyers want the FBI to give up details of interviews conducted last year of President Obama, his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and others as part of the investigation into the former governor.

Drug money ‘saved banks from crisis’  —  Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions  —  Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.

Berlusconi is bloodied by attack  —  Mr Berlusconi was whisked away with blood on his face following the incident  —  Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy is recovering in hospital after an assault left his face covered in blood following a rally in Milan.

Hollywood's Brilliant Coda to America's Dark Year  —  ON Christmas Day, Hollywood will blanket America with a most unlikely holiday entertainment.  That's when “Up in the Air,” the acclaimed new movie starring George Clooney, will spread from its big-city engagements to more than 2,000 screens.

Fight.  —  “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival.