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msnbc.msn.com — A $1 billion network of electric car recharging stations will dot San Francisco Bay area highways under a plan that aims to greatly expand the number of electric vehicles on the road. Palo Alto-based Better Place along with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed announced the deal, which sets out to install charging stations in homes, businesses, parking lots and government buildings by 2012. The initiative would make the Bay Area the first region in the U.S. to create an electric car network. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supported the deal, which the company hopes to someday take statewide.

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cnn.com — A new government report paints an alarming picture of an unstable future for international relations defined by waning American influence, a fragmentation of political power and intensifying struggles for increasingly scarce natural resources. The report, "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World," was drafted by the National Intelligence Council to better inform U.S. policymakers — starting with the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama — about the factors most likely to shape major international trends and conflicts through the year 2025. "Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor, the United States' relative strength — even in the military realm — will decline and U.S. leverage will become more constrained," says the report, which is the fourth in a series from the Intelligence Council.

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washingtonpost.com — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they are temporarily suspending foreclosures and evictions during the holiday season in an effort to keep people from losing their homes. The companies said they are taking the step so they can include more people in a newly announced program to change the terms of troubled mortgages to make them more affordable. The mortgage finance giants, seized by the government in early September, have been under pressure by lawmakers and housing advocates to take bolder steps to fight foreclosures. As the owners or backers of trillions of dollars of mortgages, the companies have an unrivaled ability to shape the home loan market and help people with distressed mortgages.

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iht.com — More than 10,000 supporters of the radical anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr gathered in Baghdad's Firdos Square to protest the Iraqi government plan to sign a security agreement which would maintain American troops in the country for up to three years. With powerful symbolism, demonstrators hanged an effigy of President George W. Bush from the plinth that once supported the statue of Saddam Hussein that was toppled after Baghdad to U.S. troops on April 9, 2003.

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cnn.com — President Bush signed a measure to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks in every state, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. The Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill, which also calls for benefits to be extended by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent. The bill was approved by the House in October. Perino said in a statement that Bush will sign the legislation "because of the tight job market." In September, Bush threatened to veto a broader stimulus bill that included the extension of jobless benefits. In most states, unemployment benefits are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks.

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latimes.com — An intensifying panic has gripped the stock market, sending share prices to new depths and leaving investors afraid that they'll never be able to recoup their losses. The latest teeth-gnashing plunge virtually wiped out the remaining gains from the five-year bull market that began in 2002. With the news dominated by grim economic data, including a 16-year high in weekly unemployment claims and the failure of Congress to reach a deal to help U.S. automakers, the Dow Jones industrial average sank almost 450 points — its eighth triple-digit drop in 12 trading days. The descent in recent days, coming after investors had already endured brutal losses over the last year, reflected a sell-at-any-cost negativity pervading the market.

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guardian.co.uk — Hope that a $25 billion rescue deal for America's three carmaking giants might be thrashed out came to nothing as Democrats demanded a business plan from the ailing companies before handing over any money. GM and Ford shares had shot up by more than 25% in midday trading after a deal was proposed in Congress to expedite massive loans to the two companies, as well as privately held Chrysler. But a compromise that would have seen the $25bn, approved last month to help the carmakers turn out more fuel-efficient cars, diverted to prop up their failing businesses, was spurned by Democratic leaders. They instead gave Detroit's "big three" 12 days to submit a business plan.

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hosted.ap.org — The economy will log little, if any, growth this year, and could jolt into reverse, according to various Fed projections. And, the frailty will extend into next year, the Fed said, where the economy could shrink or turn in subpar growth. The economy "would remain very weak next year" and "the subsequent pace of recovery would be quite slow," the Fed said in its new economic projections. "The unemployment rate would increase substantially further." The Fed projected that the national unemployment rate will rise to between 6.3 percent and 6.5 percent this year. That would be up sharply from last year's average rate of 4.6 percent. For 2009, the Fed expects the jobless rate to climb to between 7.1 percent and 7.6 percent.

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hosted.ap.org — With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits. The Senate is expected to take up a bill, already passed by the House, that would extend unemployment insurance checks for up to 13 additional weeks for jobless people whose benefits have run out. The Senate vote would require support from 60 senators to pass. More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent of the labor force.

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nytimes.com — The Chinese government, struggling to contain the fallout from a scandal over contaminated milk and eggs, announced a wide range of food safety measures aimed at reining in abuses in the dairy industry. The State Council, China’s cabinet, issued several new rules it says will govern all aspects of the industry, from cow breeding and animal feed to the packaging and sales of the milk. Since September, when Chinese-made milk powder was found to be adulterated with the industrial chemical melamine, at least four infants who drank the formula have died and more than 50,000 children have fallen ill. The scandal has led to recalls of milk products across the world, embarrassed the Chinese government and devastated domestic dairy farmers and milk producers.

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