Top News

• What will you tell kids about Britney's sister?
  Parents are struggling with what to tell their children after finding out that Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," is expecting a baby.
  
• House approves $70 billion for wars
  The House of Representatives approved another $70 billion in war spending on Wednesday, capping a year of frustration for Democrats who took control of Congress on pledges to end the war in Iraq.
  
• Torture chamber, mass graves found in Iraq
  Coalition forces have found a bloodstained "torture complex" northeast of Baghdad with chains hanging from walls and ceilings, and a bed connected to an electrical system, the military said Wednesday. "Evidence of murder, torture and intimidation against local villagers was found throughout the area," the military statement said.
  
• Preacher's killer's right to visit kids upheld
  The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to modify or overturn a lower court's ruling allowing Mary Winkler, convicted of killing her minister husband, visitation rights with the couple's three daughters.
  
• Family's twig 'Help' sign leads to rescue
  Stranded in the snowy California woods for three days after losing their way while searching for a Christmas tree, a father and his three children fashioned a "Help" sign out of twigs on a nearby unpaved road, according to the helicopter pilots who found them.
  
• Four dead in chemical plant blast
  Three people are confirmed dead and several are injured after an explosion Wednesday at a plant in Jacksonville, Florida, that manufactures fuel additives. "It was absolutely a hellish inferno," Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department spokesman Tom Francis said.
  
• Fire damages historic building near White House
  Firefighters today battled thick smoke and flames inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building that houses the vice president's ceremonial offices. The building is about 100 feet from the West Wing of the White House. Within an hour, smoke had stopped pouring from the building.
  
• Some say I-35 is Bible's road to salvation
  If you turn to the Bible -- Isaiah Chapter 35, Verse 8 -- you will see a passage that in part says, "A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness."
  
• Congressmen: Iraq lawless like the Wild West
  Government contractors in Iraq face lawlessness reminiscent of America's Wild West of the 1800s, lawmakers said Wednesday at a House hearing into a contractor's rape allegations.
  
• Hamas leader says he's open to talks
  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has said he would be willing to negotiate a cease-fire with Israel -- but Israel is reacting coolly.
  

Business

• A record year for deals winds down
  Mergers and acquisitions climbed to another record this year, but the credit crunch is taking the wind out of the sails of the once-mighty deal-making machine.
  
• Nike profits jump on international sales
  
  
• MTV to break into video games
  
  
• Hovnanian sees rebound, but Street worries
  
  
• Mixed ending for stocks
  Stocks fluctuated Wednesday, ending a volatile session mixed after being briefly supported by news from the Federal Reserve, then slipped as credit concerns dampened enthusiasm.
  
• Mixed ending for stocks
  Stocks fluctuated Wednesday as looming downgrades for bond insurers highlighted credit concerns and results from the Fed's $20 billion auction made for a volatile session.
  
• Barclays sues Bear over hedge fund hype
  
  
• Oracle income jumps on software sales
  
  
• Google, Yahoo, Microsoft pay up in ad suit
  
  
• Ex-Fannie boss fingers White House
  
  
• Last minute holiday shipping
  The deadline for getting your packages mailed out is fast approaching. Here's your survival guide to holiday shipping so you can get that last-minute present to your in-laws.
  
• Stocks stumble near the close
  Stocks fluctuated Wednesday afternoon as looming downgrades for bond insurers highlighted credit concerns and results from the Fed's $20 billion auction made for a volatile session.
  
• Stocks resurface in a choppy session
  Stocks inched higher Wednesday afternoon, as looming downgrades for bond insurers highlighted credit concerns and results from the Fed's $20 billion auction made for a volatile session.
  
• Fed's Lacker: Inflation a big risk in '08
  
  
• One-year AMT fix a done deal
  The storm over the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) hasn't passed, but a final bill providing one year of tax relief for 21 million taxpayers finally has after months of debate.
  
• India's Tata may win bid for Jaguar
  
  
• Wading into Amazon's murky water
  Still haven't finished buying all the gifts you need for the holidays? If so, odds are you may be rushing to Amazon.com for those last minute presents.
  
• Stocks fight credit headwind
  Stocks stalled Wednesday afternoon, after edging higher in morning trade, as downgrades hit bond insurers and markets digest the outcome of the Fed's $20 billion auction.
  
• Lilly's new CEO a drug-biz rarity - a scientist
  Eli Lilly's soon-to-be CEO John Lechleiter is an anomaly. As Lechleiter himself put it in a press conference on Tuesday: "Who would've thought that a kid who joined the company in 1979 as an organic chemist, wearing his whites, would be standing here today?"
  
• Bush signs energy bill
  Following weeks of negotiation, President Bush signed into law Wednesday the first major increase in vehicle fuel efficiency standards in over three decades.
  

Entertainment

• Pregnancy could threaten Jamie Lynn Spears' career
  Now that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears has a bun in the oven, the young actress/singer's budding career may be over before it had a chance to really take off.
  
• Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister pregnant
  
  
• Rock 'n' roll tales of excess
  
  
• Police arrest singer Amy Winehouse
  Singer Amy Winehouse was free on bail Wednesday after London police briefly arrested and questioned her in a case involving her husband, police said.
  
• Jimmy Kimmel returning to air
  
  
• How Johnny Depp was protected
  
  
• What kids have to say about children's books
  What William Goldman once said about Hollywood -- "Nobody knows anything" -- can easily describe the decisions made by children's book publishers.
  
• Peter Jackson to produce 'The Hobbit'
  
  
• Writers to awards shows: Sorry
  
  
• The world according to Katie Holmes
  After Katie Holmes took time out to pose for the January cover of In Style, the busy wife, mom, actress and marathoner (among other things) sat down for a quick word-association game.
  

Sports

• Stewart Mandel: Bowl Pickoff
  The bowl barrage begins Thursday: 32 games in 18 days. But LSU-Ohio St. is not the only juicy battle on the menu. SI.com's Stewart Mandel picks the winners.
  
• New breed of weapons changing the NFL
  It's one of football's most exhilarating plays. A quick and devastating way to change a game. SI.com's Lee Jenkins says a new weapon is revolutionizing the NFL.
  
• Report: Parcells to Miami, not Atlanta
  
  
• Schilling: If guilty, Clemens should return Cys
  
  
• Four suspects in Taylor murder plead not guilty
  
  
• NFL upholds suspension of Cowboys' Williams
  
  
• Gators' Holliday interviews for West Virginia job
  
  
• T.O. to Simpson: Stay away
  
  
• NHL hands Isles' Simon a record ban: 30 games
  
  
• Jayhawks' Mangino named AP Coach of the Year
  
  

Health

• A killer cold?
  A high school varsity athlete, a sturdy guy with a health history blissfully free of blips, 18-year-old Joseph Spencer had little reason to think anything was seriously wrong when he got sick last April. Within hours, his fever was 104 degrees. Within days, he was in the intensive care unit at Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon with full-blown pneumonia. Spencer's doctor was afraid this sturdy teenage boy was going to die.
  
• Respiratory virus life-threatening for some kids
  Born prematurely, Kamryn Campbell spent nearly a month in a neonatal intensive care unit to help her lungs develop. After going home, she was rushed back to the hospital struggling to breathe. The cause: respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. "For you and me it's a really bad head cold," says pulmonologist Burt Lesnick. "But for those children at risk it can be life threatening."
  
• Flu shots mandatory for N.J. preschoolers
  
  
• Deadly bird flu jumps to Pakistan
  
  
• Men urged to consider breast cancer risk
  
  
• Helping 'locked-in' man speak
  It's been described as the closest thing to being buried alive -- complete paralysis of the body, except for controlled movement of the eyes. That's how 24-year-old Erik Ramsey has spent the last eight years of his life. He suffered a brain stem stroke after a car accident when he was 16, leaving him with "locked-in" syndrome
  
• All-nighters may hurt grades
  
  
• Report urges end to stigma of incontinence
  
  

Technology

• Shuttle problem linked to bad connector
  
  
• Study uncovers whale-land animal link
  
  
• PopSci: CO2-free coal power plants
  Coal is almost the perfect fuel. It's cheap and absurdly abundant -- especially in the United States, which has the world's larges reserves. There's just that tiny problem of massive climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions. Or is there?
  
• 'Bully' black hole blasts galaxy
  
  
• Cell phone spending to top land lines
  
  
• At 90, Arthur C. Clarke has three wishes
  
  
• Study: More Americans Googling themselves
  
  
• Transistor's future uncertain on 60th b-day
  
  
• Giant rat found in 'lost world'
  
  
• Digital wanted posters help find fugitives
  
  

Science

• NASA to fill shuttle fuel tank
  
  
• Voyager 2 discovers solar system is bent
  
  
• On-the-fritz sensor grounds Atlantis again
  NASA scrubbed space shuttle Atlantis's planned Sunday launch after a cut-off sensor designed to gauge the fuel level of the external liquid hydrogen tank failed another test, a space agency spokeman said
  
• Universe puts on a show for stargazers
  Geoff Chester was just 7 years old when he picked up his dad's binoculars and aimed them at that familiar luminous object casting its glow over the night sky of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Ever since, he's been hooked on stargazing.
  
• Three rookies, little experience on Atlantis
  
  
• China probe captures lunar image
  
  
• Venus also zapped by lightning
  
  
• China's ambitious plans in space
  When China's lunar orbiter blasted off last month, there was not a cheer or smile or a "whoo-haaa" to be had in mission control.
  
• Spacewalking astronauts hook up module
  
  
• Russia to build new space port