As president, Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama says he will cut taxes on the middle class, raise them on the wealthy, put billions of dollars into green energy and require employers to establish retirement savings plans for workers.

The cost of raiding a west Texas polygamist compound in April is expected to top $14 million, with more than one-third of it in lawyers fees, said a published analysis of state records.

The undefeated Utes, ineligible for the title, are this year's poster team for a playoff system. But one school has an even better claim.

The confrontation in Gaza could see a dangerous escalation in the coming days as Iran threatens to break the Israeli blockade and deliver urgently needed medical supplies and other aid to the coastal strip.

Most emblematic of what might come in 2009 are the popular and violent uprisings in Greece. And the place, Athens, says much about the ailing state of our democracies.

Farming would seem to be a horizontal occupation. Iowa corn or Kansas wheat pokes up from flat fields that stretch to the horizon. That's why the idea of "vertical farms" seems ripe for humor. When its biggest advocate appeared on the faux news show "The Colbert Report" earlier this year, comedian Stephen Colbert prefaced the interview by guessing it would have something to do with corn that grows sideways or perhaps "Chia blimps" that float overhead.

The government of Vietnam will decide on December 22 whether to penalize parents who have more than two children, reinitiating a coercive population policy it abandoned in 2003. "We are considering an adjustment to our policy appropriate to the circumstances of the country," Truong Thi Mai, chair of Vietnam's Parliamentary Committee of Social Affairs, confirmed on Saturday. "The Parliament Standing Committee will decide the week after next."