As the old-school press mocks Sarah Palin for her swaggering reality-show antics and chatty tweets, she may be beating them at their own game. Howard Kurtz on why Palin's unfiltered message may be the perfect setup for her 2012 run.

Two separate explosions killed a nuclear scientist and injured another in the Iranian capital Monday morning, official news outlets reported.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks and no arrests have been made, Iranian officials said. But they prompted a stern warning by the normally cool-headed head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, who described Shahriari as a former student.

Picasso's electrician reveals artist's 'treasure trove'

The works include a portrait of the late artist's first wife, Olga

A retired electrician in southern France who worked for Pablo Picasso says he has hundreds of previously unknown works by the artist.

The treasure trove of 271 pieces includes lithographs, cubist paintings, notebooks and a watercolour and is said to be worth about 60m euros (£50.6m).

Pierre Le Guennec, 71, reportedly says Picasso gave him the works as gifts.

But the estate's administrators have filed a case for alleged illegal receipt of the works of art.

According to French newspaper Liberation, the lost Picassos include a watercolour from his Blue Period. Experts say the nine cubist works in Mr Le Guennec's possession are worth 40m euros alone.

Legal battle

The electrician installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's numerous houses in France, including his villa in Cannes, during the three years before the artist died in 1973.

In September, Mr Le Guennec approached the artist's estate in an attempt to get the canvases authenticated by Picasso's son, Claude.

But Claude Picasso dismissed Mr Le Guennec's explanation about how he came into possession of the art works.

He said his father would never have given so many works to a single person.

"To give away such a large quantity, that's unheard of. It doesn't add up," he told Liberation. "It was a part of his life."
 

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The filmmakers spent 15 months embedded with a platoon of U.S. soldiers station in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, with the tour of duty yielding "Restrepo," Junger's "War" and an upcoming collection of photographs from Hetherington.

"Restrepo" is intentionally devoid of context. We're told through opening titles that the Korengal is considered one of the most dangerous outposts in Afghanistan, but no effort is made to explain the area's strategic value  in our larger war effort or to lay out the specific mission entrusted to these young men. They're plunked down in inhospitable terrain and asked to hold a nearly imaginary line. When they advance said imaginary line and set up a new outpost -- named, like the film itself, after their medic, an early casualty -- it's a point of pride, but not a triumph that could ever be celebrated by cuing the strings section for a melodic swell. For these soldiers, completing the tour will be a victory.

"Dancing With the Stars," which finished its 11th season last week, is not exactly the first place you would go for political prognostication. Yet this season provided a veritable model of how our political system operates.

This wasn't just because Bristol Palin, a daughter of GOP tea party spitfire Sarah Palin, was a contestant and millions of viewers, presumably Sarah Palin supporters, kept voting for the young woman week after week -- in spite of her obvious grace deficits and dancing inferiority compared with many of her celebrity competitors.

It was because the dynamics of that vote on America's most popular TV show are so like the dynamics of contemporary politics.

In a rare interview, Assange tells Forbes that the release of Pentagon and State Department documents are just the beginning. His next target: big business.

Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts
WARNING: This story contains graphic photographs of items on display in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.

[excerpt] Within 30 days, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will criminalize the possession and sale of "fake pot" products and the chemicals they contain for at least a year while it considers whether to ban them permanently.

The DEA announced Wednesday that it will temporarily control five chemicals used in products such as "K2″ and "Spice," as well as the products themselves, according to a press release from the agency.

In 30 days the agency will publish a final notice making the products illegal for at least one year, with the possibility of a six-month extension while the Department of Health and Human Services studies whether the chemicals should be permanently controlled, according to the release.