EXCLUSIVE: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to “Homeland”  —  President Barack Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the US, Newsweek has learned.

U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes  —  The Obama administration's $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.

Somali shot in attack on cartoonist  —  Danish police have shot and wounded a man at the home of Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad sparked an international row.  —  Mr Westergaard scrambled into a panic room at his home in Aarhus after a man wielding an axe and a knife broke in.

LIMBAUGH DIAGNOSES HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.... On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh went to a Hawaii hospital with chest pains, and was released yesterday, with no apparent ailments.  The right-wing radio host said doctors found nothing wrong with his heart or arteries, and it's still unclear what caused his pains.

For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk  —  TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit “capsule” hotels.  —  “It's just a place to crawl …

Flashback: GOP blamed Clinton for 9/11 - Obama got regularly scheduled Dec. 22 briefing on holiday threats, but there was no warning of an attack — Tebow: ‘redemption instead of perfection’  —  Mayor Bloomberg yesterday, in his third inaugural address: “We have adopted bold education reforms …

U.S. Lawyers Knew About Legal Pitfalls in Blackwater Case  —  WASHINGTON — The sudden blow to the case against the former Blackwater security guards over a shooting that killed 17 Iraqis and wounded at least 20 may have come as a surprise to the public in Iraq and the United States …

Charles Johnson Denounces the “Right-Wing Racism” of a Picture Forwarded by . . . a Democrat  —  Charles Johnson denounces the “right-wing racism” of the photo.  —  Just one problem: the worker is a registered Democrat: … Reacting to the news of the woman's party affiliation, Johnson says in comments:

Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers  —  For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households.  But since 2000, the story is starkly different.  —  The past decade was the worst …

Biblical scholar's date for rapture: May 21, 2011  —  Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.  —  “That date has not one stitch of biblical authority,” Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio …

Customs official confirms report of 2nd man held from Flight 253  —  Detroit — A federal customs and border protection official reversed himself today, admitting a passenger from Northwest Flight 253 was placed in handcuffs, searched and released after a canine alerted officers to his carry-on luggage.

Democrats Join Calls for Napolitano to Step Down Following Failed Attack  —  Democrats have joined the ranks of those calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down following the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight a week ago.

Irish atheists test blasphemy laws  —  Secular campaigners publish series of anti-religious quotes and say they will challenge law if charged with blasphemy  —  Secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law which came into force today by publishing a series …

Hundreds of cars torched in France at New Year  —  PARIS (Reuters) - Youths burned 1,137 cars across France overnight as New Year's Eve celebrations once again turned violent, the French Interior Ministry said on Friday.  —  Car burnings are regular occurrences in poor suburbs that ring France's big cities …

How Cheney Made America A Torture Nation  —  The comparison with Richard Reid is, of course, instructive.  The Bush administration treated the shoe-bomber exactly as the Obama administration has treated the pantie-bomber - and convicted him the way no one has yet convicted anyone directly connected to 9/11.

Minnesota State Senate candidate removes racist comments from his Twitter feed.  —  Local bloggers are reporting that Minnesota State Senate candidate Mike Parry removed more than 43 racist and homophobic tweets from his Twitter feed after progressives began researching and responding to him.