POLITICS

Chinese New Year 2012 is Jan. 23, and the world's communities are preparing massive festivities to ring in the Year of the Dragon.

Earlier today, music legend Etta James died after a long struggle with terminal cancer. Just a day earlier, freestyle skier Sarah Burke passed away after suffering horrific injuries during a training accident last week. We've lost some of music, politics and sports' brightest and best in just the first weeks of 2012. But take a moment to relive their inspirational lives: those of Etta James, Sarah Burke, Johnny Otis, Tony Blankley, Bob Weston and Bob Anderson.

With the searing success of Apple's iPhone line helping to spur sales of nearly 580 million smartphones in 2011, consumers are lining up to buy them. Meanwhile, the mobile industry is dying to serve them, lured by prospects of subscriber growth and terabytes of new revenue.

Richard Sheirer, the man in charge of New York's massive rescue and clean-up effort in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, died Thursday morning while driving to work.

There have been an increased number of shark attacks in Australia this year with three attacks occurring in the past three weeks of 2012. David Pickering, a 26-year-old snorkeling guide, was the latest victim of a shark attack on Thursday.

Vanessa Bryant, the wife of Lakers NBA star Kobe Bryant, reportedly scored a huge victory in the divorce settlement. She gets $75 million and the couple's three Newport Beach mansions, TMZ reported.

Firefighters in Washoe County are still battling a fast-moving brush fire near Reno, Nevada. The fire of unknown origin began on Thursday afternoon and was 50 percent contained as of 4 a.m. Friday. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Kim Schmitz, founder of Megaupload and otherwise known by his alias Kim Dotcom, was arrested by the Department of Justice Thursday for content piracy and losses to copyright owners that amount to $500 million. Schmitz was found by police in his New Zealand mansion's safe room, with what looked like a sawed-off shotgun Detective Inspector Grant Wormald said.

If you were commuting from New Jersey, you may have experienced intense delays on the PATH train. What is usually a normal commuting for thousands working in New York City, turned into a massive human traffic jam at World Trade Center this morning.

Popular file-sharing sites, Megaupload and Megavideo were shut down by federal prosecutors on Thursday and hackers from Anonymous retaliated by launching an attack on federal and public Web sites: The online battle over Internet piracy just got personal.

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory for the Northeast on Friday, and the first snowfall of the season for the area is bringing with it up to five inches of snow

A wind-fueled brush fire that has been raging south of Reno since Thursday is now 50 percent contained but at least 20 homes have been destroyed, authorities said.

Megaupload.com was shut down on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted seven owners of the file-sharing site for content piracy and losses of half a billion dollars to those with copyrights. Contrary to rumors, music producer Swizz Beatz is not the CEO of Megaupload and does not own a stake in the company, according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice.

Casey Anthony, the Orlando mother who was acquitted in the murder of her 2-year-old daughter, might be living in a church complex in Palm City, Fla., and getting help from a pastor there, the Daily Beast reported.

A fast-moving, wind-driven brush fire south of Reno burned several homes on Thursday, and led to the evacuation of 10,000 people. Wind gusts of up to 82 mph continue to push the fire out of control, threatening dozens more homes.

With his cruise ship sinking, the captain wanted food, said a cook from the ship in an interview with a Filipino television station on Thursday. Cook Rogelio Barista told the GMA Network that Schettino ordered the dinner amid the deadly chaos that killed at least 11 people with some 21 still missing.

Authorities announced at a press conference on Thursday the indictments of 43 gang members associated with warring gangs from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.

According to federal authorities and a revised indictment, a New York City man is accused of planning one of the most devious terror plots since Sept. 11.

In the United States, there is a significant population of Iranians who emigrated from their native country to various cities across the United States. Many, if not most, of these individuals still have ties to Iran: their family and their culture.

Thursday is National Popcorn Day in America.

There is a looming environmental disaster since the Costa Concordia ran aground on Friday. Officials are worried that the 2,400-tons of diesel fuel may leak into Italy's west coast.

The Garden-Webb University student collapsed in class on Jan. 17 and died on her 21st birthday, only a few hours after tweeting, Thank you God for another year of life. A Facebook memorial has already been erected for Patterson, as a spokeswoman reveals the reason for her tragic death during a religion class at the Boiling Springs remains a complete mystery.

Priceline, the travel bargain site, is killing off their iconic Priceline Negotiator, played by William Shatner for the last 5 years, by sending him off a cliff.

Residents liken the gruesome discovery to a scene from 'The Sopranos'

Deaver has been charged with felonious assault.

Celebration of the Chinese New Year will begin Monday, marking the start of the year of the dragon. The holiday is the most important in China and will be met with scores of fireworks and festivities in China, Taiwan, and elsewhere.

Yesterday, Internet titans like Wikipedia, Reddit and Boing Boing launched a coordinated blackout to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). But what is the SOPA bill? How would it affect the way the Internet works now? Who supports and opposes the bill, and is it even likely to pass?

A new audiotape released Thursday, details the first contact between the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship that ran aground by the Tuscan island of Giglio, and the port of Livorno, the Associated Press reported. On the tape, Capt. Francesco Schettino is heard telling the port that the Costa Concordia was only suffering from a blackout - 30 minutes after his ship hit a reef.

Rather than sending back the RQ-170 Sentinel drone that crashed into Iran last year, Tehran-based Aaye Art Group says it plans to send President Obama miniature fake versions of the spycraft... and rumor has it the $4 toys are likely to be pink. Though the Iranian government is still insisting that the spy drone was over Iran when it crashed and that Iranian spies brought it down, the U.S. claims the aircraft was in Afghanistan, and suffered a technical malfunction.