SPB News for Monday

Verizon: Termination fees 'help the poor'

Woody Harrelson honors dead soldiers

Iran: 'Smoking gun' is fake

EFF: Bush admin. spied illegally

Lawsuit: Government used monitoring techniques considered unlawful.

Diane Sawyer told nuclear bomb trigger docs a US scheme.

Beer is now cheaper than water in UK

Experts worry low cost of booze may disguise high cost of drinking.

Obama Ordered U.S. Military Strike on Yemen Terrorists --Cruise Missiles Launched Thursday Hit Two Suspected al Qaeda Sites; Major Escalation of US Efforts Against 'Terrorists' On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News. One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said "an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned."

Drug giant General Electric uses libel law to gag doctor General Electric, one of the world’s biggest corporations, is using the London libel courts to gag a senior radiologist after he raised the alarm over the potentially fatal risks of one of its drugs. The multinational [GE Healthcare, a British subsidiary of General Electric] is suing Henrik Thomsen, a Danish academic, after he described his experiences of one of the company’s drugs as a medical "nightmare". He said some kidney patients at his hospital contracted a potentially deadly condition after being administered the drug Omniscan.

Last week's poll had asked:

What are the chances of a global deal on climate change? Readers answered very good chance. Weekly poll will take a hiatus and resume back on the blog on January 4, 2010.