USA - President Barack Obama and lawmakers are launching a last-chance round of budget talks days before a New Year's deadline to reach a deal or watch the economy go off a "fiscal cliff." [Mr] Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Friday at 3 pm EST (2000 GMT) to try to revive negotiations to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts - together worth $600 billion - that will begin to take effect on January 1. "This January 1 deadline is a little artificial. We can do everything retroactively. We have to get it right, not get it quickly," said Republican Representative Andy Harris.

USA - CNN host Piers Morgan has said he believes the Bible and the US Constitution are 'inherently flawed' and that the Bible needs an amendment changing its stance on same-sex marriage. The bold statements come days after the British journalist divided America with his strict stance on gun laws following the Sandy Hook massacre, even sparking e-petitions to deport him.

USA - Washington has issued a blistering attack on China for persistent breaches of world trade rules and abuse of industrial secrets, accusing Beijing of failing to abide by treaty obligations.

IRAN/STRAIT of HORMUZ - Iran will begin six days of naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz at the end of this week, an Iranian naval commander said on Tuesday, an exercise meant to showcase its military capabilities in what is a vital oil and gas shipping route. The "Velayat 91" drills will be held from Friday to Wednesday across an area of about 1 million square kilometres in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and northern parts of the Indian Ocean, said Habibollah Sayyari, according to Iranian media. Iranian officials have often said that Iran could block the strait - through which 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil exports pass - if it came under military attack over its disputed nuclear programme.

UK - Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, has signalled that the Government might be prepared to use the Parliament Act to get its planned “equal marriage” legislation on to the statute book if it is rejected in the Lords. The Act, which has been used only seven times in the past century, is sometimes described as the “nuclear” option of parliamentary process to break stalemates between the Commons and the Lords. It asserts the superiority of the House of Commons by allowing Bills that cannot clear the Lords to become law, but is intended to be used only in exceptional circumstances.

USA - Three and a half years after the worst recession since the Great Depression, the earnings and employment gap between those in the under-35 population and their parents (generation X) and grandparents threatens to unravel the American dream of each generation doing better than the last. Only one-fifth of those who graduated college since 2006 expect greater success than their parents, a Rutgers survey found earlier this year. Little more than half were working full time. Just one in five said their job put them on a career path.

UK - At the moment it is a faint object, visible only in sophisticated telescopes as a point of light moving slowly against the background stars. It doesn't seem much – a frozen chunk of rock and ice – one of many moving in the depths of space. But this one is being tracked with eager anticipation by astronomers from around the world, and in a year everyone could know its name.

NICARAGUA - Nicaraguan authorities have ordered the evacuation of several hundred people living near San Cristobal volcano. Officials also declared an amber alert for five sq km ( two sq miles) around the volcano, which began spewing ash and gas on Tuesday. However, some 1,500 farmers are refusing to leave the area, the French news agency AFP reports. San Cristobal, Nicaragua's highest volcano, is located about 135 km north-west of Managua. It is considered the country's most active. It last erupted in September, killing some farm animals.

USA - Nicole Hawkins’ three daughters have matching glittery boots, but none has the same father. Each has uniquely colored ties in her hair, but none has a dad present in her life. As another single mother on Sumner Road decked her row-house stoop with Christmas lights and a plastic Santa, Ms Hawkins recalled that her middle child’s father has never spent a holiday or birthday with her.

SYRIA - On December 5, the first American, Dutch and German Patriot missiles landed in Turkey. Within hours, three Russian warships had put into Syria’s Tartus port – the Novocherkasskand Saratov landing craft and the MB-304 supply vessel. Aboard were 300 marines.

VATICAN - The Pope has offered blessings to the Communist leadership in China despite a worsening standoff over religious freedom in the country. In his annual Christmas address in St Peter’s Square in Rome, Benedict XVI spoke of the new leadership’s “high task” of leading a “noble people”, while issuing a plea for the Church to be given “esteem”.

USA - President Barack Obama is cutting short his Hawaiian holiday to leave for Washington on Wednesday to address the unfinished "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Congress, the White House said on Tuesday. As the clock ticks toward a January 1 deadline, efforts to avert a sharp rise in taxes and deep spending cuts have stalled, worrying world financial markets. [Mr] Obama and congressional lawmakers left Washington on Friday for the Christmas holidays with talks to avert the fiscal disaster in limbo.

EUROPE - Massive protests have been shaking Europe all year with tens of thousands of people hitting the streets. RT has been looking closely at what’s happening in the crisis-gripped European Union. With people protesting against austerity cuts and reduced budgets, the world has seen severe clashes, clouds of tear gas and violence raging all across Europe.

USA - A strong storm system that moved across Texas on Christmas Day spawned at least three tornadoes, severe thunderstorms and brisk winds that knocked down trees, killing one person near Houston. The severe storms are resulting from a meeting between a cold front and warmer Gulf air. Parts of North Texas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, could get snow later Tuesday. The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore warns this could be the worst tornado outbreak on Christmas Day to strike the US. “I know you are busy (with) friends & family, but please be vigilant to what may be the worst tornado outbreak on Christmas Day in history,” Cantore said on Twitter.

UK/EUROPE - Britain's role in the European Union should be reduced to participation in a single market or free-trade zone, George Osborne has said. The Chancellor backed backbench Conservative calls to reduce significantly Britain’s involvement with the EU. His comments came as a senior German minister warned Britain not to “blackmail” its EU partners as it attempts to renegotiate its membership terms. In a US television interview, Mr Osborne said that Britain is “happy to be part of a single market” but will not be part of an ever more closely integrated EU core. “Britons want to be in Europe, not run by Europe,” Mr Osborne said in an interview recorded last week on a visit to New York.