Snowpocalypse 2010: Mayor McGinn admits the city's ass was whupped by winter, freaky cold weather continues.

Brink of War: As North Korea blames South Korea for North Korea's attack on a South Korean island, U.S. warships are headed to the Yellow Sea "for planned military exercises with South Korea in a show of force designed to deter a further escalation of hostilities with North Korea," reports CNN.

Kiwi Tragedy: All 29 miners trapped underground in a New Zealand mine are dead.

It Ain't Easy Being Green: Financially destitute Ireland unveils harsh austerity measures, harsher tax hikes.

Meanwhile in Texas: " A Roman Catholic priest has been arrested on charges that he solicited a hit man to kill a teenager who had accused him of sexual abuse."

Who Won Dancing with the Stars?: Not Bristol Palin!

And finally, today we commemorate Freddie Mercury, the peerlessly flamboyant, freakishly talented rock performer who died of complications from AIDS on this day in 1991. Mercury wrote and performed a buttload of classics, but here's my current favorite, where Mercury, having written and performed a buttload of rock classics, has the skill and confidence to go cubist. The structure of this song is insane, his scat singing is from outer space, and it all adds up to something extraordinary.