Briefing

NEW YORK CITY

Santacon revelers celebrate holiday anarchy

WASHINGTON

Fire damages Cheney's office near White House

HARARE

Zimbabwe's Mugabe seeks sixth term

NANJING, CHINA

Locals recall the 1937 massacre

QLATOOKA, IRAQ

Turkey bombs Kurdish rebels

ARAFAT, SAUDI ARABIA

Pilgrims to Mecca stand in vigil during the hajj

THE MAP

Front-Loading the Presidential Primaries Iowa always kicks off election season, but it moved its 2008 caucuses to Jan. 3 as other states leapfrogged into primary prominence. Here's who will be voting when and where [This article contains a complex diagram. Please see hardcopy of magazine.] OPEN People can vote regardless of whether they are registered with a specific party CLOSED Voting in a party primary or caucus is limited to those registered with that party OTHER This category includes states where only one party's primary is open and the other closed as well as states where voters can change party affiliation at the polls

EXPLAINER

Rudolph, the Red-Toned Cat Clone

Black felines may have to start sharing their supernatural street cred. Scientists in South Korea--whose reputation as a cloning powerhouse took a hit in 2005 after one of its most prominent researchers was shown to have faked data on cloning human stem cells--announced in a peer-reviewed journal that they have cloned genetically modified cats that glow red under certain lights.

HOW THEY DID IT

Researchers inserted a gene for a red fluorescent protein into the nuclei of a cat's skin cells, which were transplanted into eggs that gave rise to the modified clones.

WHY THEY DID IT

The significance lies not in making mammals glow (scientists have been doing that since the 1990s) but in cloning genetically modified cats--which one day could help treat humans with genetic diseases.

LEXICON

Google zeitgeist

DEFINITION goo-gul zeyt-geyst n. Year-end report on the fastest-rising and most popular searches on Google. The popularity of some search terms was seasonal--the Tour de France saw a surge in June--but users consistently sought out ratatouille recipes as well as information about the iPhone. Some of life's bigger questions were also search-engine staples. The top hits by category include:

GOOGLE NEWS American Idol

CAMPAIGN Ron Paul

RIP Anna Nicole Smith

RECIPES Master cleanse

MOVIES Transformers

LYRICS Rihanna's Umbrella

WHO IS ... God

WHAT IS ... Love

HOW TO ... Kiss

ARTIFACT

Captain Kidd's Long-Lost Boat

Indiana University archaeologists identified remnants of the ship that British privateer turned pirate William Kidd abandoned in the Caribbean in 1699 when he went to New York City to clear his name. The Quedagh Merchant had long eluded treasure hunters.

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT? The undisturbed wreck is 70 ft. (21 m) off an island in the Dominican Republic under 10 ft. (3 m) of clear water.

HUMANITARIAN NOTE

Discrimination in Disasters

A new report by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies notes the frequent--and often unintentional--discrimination against women, the elderly and the disabled when natural disasters strike.

IMPROVING AID Some problems, such as sexual violence in poorly designed camps, can be fixed with better disaster-preparedness programs.