Facebook, the hot technology company that is earning more than $1 billion in revenue, won't pay any taxes on its income this year and instead probably will get a major refund from federal taxpayers, according to Sen. Tom Coburn's annual roundup of wasteful spending.

Among the nearly $30 billion of unnecessary spending that the Oklahoma Republican identified in this year's "Wastebook" were taxpayer dollars going to buy human urine, to purchase crystal goblets at the State Department, and to pay $18,000 apiece to "pillownauts" - people whom NASA recruited to lie on a bed for two straight months.

The book was released Tuesday morning, minutes before Mr. Coburn and fellow senators took a key test vote on a budget agreement that will boost spending in 2014, going back on a 2011 deal that was supposed to limit discretionary spending to less than $1 trillion.

About one-fourth of Americans say they're not religious at all, a figure that has nearly doubled in six years, but that is still fewer than the number of people who believe in witches and alien spacecraft.

A new Harris Poll found that 74 percent of U.S. adults believe in God, but that percentage has dropped from 82 percent who claimed religious faith in previous polls conducted over the past eight years.

Absolute certainty in God's existence dropped to 54 percent, nine percentage points fewer than in 2003, and just 19 percent of those polled described themselves as very religious.

Four in 10 respondents said they were somewhat religious, down from 49 percent in 2007, while 23 percent of Americans claimed no religious faith at all, up from 12 percent in 2007.

Belief in Darwin's theory of evolution rose from 42 percent to 47 percent over that same period - more than those who believe in ghosts (42 percent), creationism and UFOs (36 percent), astrology (29 percent), witches (26 percent) and reincarnation (24 percent).

Ethan Couch's troubles aren't over yet.

On Dec. 10, the Texas 16-year-old was sentenced to a decade of probation after killing four people while driving drunk. During his trial, a psychologist called by the defense testified that Couch suffers from "affluenza," meaning that on the night of the crash he did not understand the consequences of his actions because of his privileged upbringing. Prosecutors had sought a maximum sentence of 20 years.

Couch is facing five lawsuits brought by families of the crash victims. The suits also target Couch's father, Fred Couch, as well as Fred's company, Cleburne Metal Works, which owned the pickup Couch was driving during the fatal wreck.

Today I am beginning a series of articles about what I believe is the extremely deep crisis taking place in Europe and about the potential of this crisis to result in some cataclysmic events. I will begin by taking a look at what has been going on in France, probably the country in Europe I know best, and also one which I think has be biggest potential to generate an explosion with far reaching consequences.

One could look at France's economic and financial situation (catastrophic) or at the many social problems plaguing an already very frustrated population, but I want to focus on one specific aspect of the current French crisis: the complete alienation of the majority of the people from the ruling elites which I will illustrate by one very telling example: the growing hysteria of the French elites about a brilliant philosopher - Alain Soral - and one stand-up comedian - Dieudonne M'bala M'bala.

I have already written about these two remarkable people (here, here and here) and I urge you to read these past articles to get a better picture of what is taking place now. For those who are really not willing to read a few background pages, I will begin by the following mini-introduction.

Dieudonne M'bala M'bala is a French-Cameroonian comedian which was by far the most popular comic in France until he made one short sketch about a religious Israeli Settler on French TV. The sketch was not particularly funny, but it really enraged the French equivalent of the US AIPAC - called CRIF in France - which began a systematic campaign to smear, ban and silence "Dieudo" as he is known in France. Dieudo refused to roll over and retaliated by making fun of those persecuting him which made him the darling of many of those who hated the financial elites running France since 1969. Now completely banned from any public media, Dieudo is still the most popular comic in France.

Alain Soral is a French author and philosopher whose political career included a membership in the French Communist Party and the National Front. He is credited with developing the concept of "gauche du travail - droite des valeurs" (literally "left of labor - right of values") which can be summarized as the simultaneous advocacy of socialist/social ideas and measures in economic and social issues combined with conservative moral, ethical and religious values in ideological, ethical and cultural issues. He is the founder of an extremely interesting movement called "Egalite et Reconciliation" which aims at reconciling native French people (called "Francais de souche" or "root French") with those French people who recently immigrated to France (called "Francais de branche" or "branch French") and to make them co-exist in complete equality. Because of his numerous "politically incorrect" ideas and very overt statements, Soral is absolutely hated and feared by the French ruling class. Even though Soral has also been completely banned from any public media, He remains immensely popular with the general public and his books are all best-sellers.

For the past few months we at Disabled People Against Cuts have been receiving emails daily from disabled people and disabled parents with children who are being left without any food or any money for heating. They have had their benefits sanctioned and all money taken away from them for a period of between 2 weeks and 3 months. Disabled people who have never committed any crimes in their lives are being forced into shoplifting simply to be able to eat themselves or to feed their children.

The reasons they are being sanctioned are pathetic, looking for too many jobs, being late to sign on because they were at an interview for a job, having to help a pregnant partner before coming out and being 5 minutes late. Imagine being left utterly destitute in this way by a gang of uncaring, heartless millionaire politicians who think being starved will 'encourage' you to find one of the non-existent jobs. It is hard to believe that in a country which is still one of the richest in the world people are being deliberately and callously left to starve and freeze.

Surely democracy, if it exists, depends on government of the people by consensus rather than by the use of force or fear which is tyranny. Yet this week's appearances by government ministers in front of the DWP select committee only highlights that no such consensus exists in the UK today.

And what of our own minister for disabled people - Mike Penning aka Machine Gun Mike and that DWP henchman Iain Duncan Smith. When the mere thought of being in the same room as a small group of disabled people exercising their democratic right to attend a select committee hearing drives DWP ministers to resort to mass protection by police guards heavily armed with machine guns pointed towards disabled spectators while they waited in the corridor to go into the rooms and after they came out of the meeting I think it is fair for all citizens to ask just what has this government become. Certainly they really cannot be viewed as democratic or legitimate in any way. Neither can they use the excuse that such 'vulnerable' people as us are in any way a threat to them - or are we? We are large in numbers and most of us are allowed to vote in elections.

A Harvard student trying to get out of a final exam admitted to the FBI that he sent a bomb threat that forced the university to evacuate multiple buildings and rattled the campus, federal officials said Tuesday.

Instead of going home for winter break, 20-year-old Eldo Kim was arrested Tuesday and held overnight on federal bomb hoax charges. He is scheduled to appear in US District Court Wednesday, said US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz's office.

The FBI said Kim sent an anonymous e-mail to Harvard officials, campus police, and others at about 8:30 a.m. Monday warning of "shrapnel bombs" in four buildings.

"[Be] quick for they will go off soon," the message warned, according to the FBI, which said Kim admitted to adding the word "shrapnel" because it sounded more dangerous.

Russia passes amnesty law with amendment extending scope to include those arrested on Greenpeace ship

The Greenpeace Arctic 30 could be home for Christmas, and the two jailed members of the punk group Pussy Riot will be released as early as Thursday, after a wide-ranging amnesty law was passed by the Russian parliament on Wednesday.

The Pussy Riot pair are serving a two-year jail sentence, while the Greenpeace activists are charged with hooliganism and are on bail in St Petersburg.

The amnesty, backed by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Russia's constitution, and is being seen as a move to boost the country's image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which are due to start in less than two months.

An amendment to the amnesty law passed on Wednesday extended the pardon to suspects in cases of hooliganism, which includes the 30 people arrested on board the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise in September. The activists expressed relief, though ship's captain, Peter Willcox, said: "There is no amnesty for the Arctic."

He added: "I might soon be going home to my family, but I should never have been charged and jailed in the first place."

The average price for a pound of ground beef hit its all-time in the United States in November, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In January 1980, when BLS started tracking the average price of 100-percent beef ground chuck, a pound cost $1.82. By this November, the same pound of ground beef cost $3.61 per pound. That was up from $3.49 per pound in October.

A decade ago, in November 2003, a pound of ground chuck cost $2.49. Since then, the price has gone up 45 percent.

A Pennsylvania community is asking questions after a government contractor, with help from the local police, pulled drivers off the road and into a parking lot to ask about their driving and - most notably - pressure them into providing a DNA sample.

Residents in Reading, Pennsylvania said they were forced off the road by employees of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, a contractor hired by the National Highway traffic Safety Administration and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. But the Reading city police were also at the scene with the lights in their patrol cars flashing, which drivers said gave the experiment a level of legitimacy it should not have had.

"I feel this incident is a gross abuse of power on many levels," Ricardo Nieves, a Reading resident who was stopped in the search, told the City Council, as quoted by the Reading Eagle.

Police officials have maintained that the search was only meant to poll drivers on their habits behind the wheel and that the DNA collection was intended to detect prescription drug use. That explanation has failed to satisfy many, with Mr. Nieves complaining that he had to refuse several times before he was released.

The number of Scottish people using food banks and soup kitchens has increased by five times in a year, a new report reveals.

According to the overview of food aid provision by the Scottish government's social research unit, food bank charity The Trussell Trust handed out food support to 23,073 Scots between April and September, compared with 5,726 recorded in 2011-12.

Speaking during a visit to the Edinburgh South East food bank on Tuesday, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond described as "absolutely unacceptable" the increase in the number of people ending up using food banks.

Charities blamed the rise on the UK government's welfare reforms, falling incomes and benefit delays.

British MPs are expected to face a critical debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday about the rise of food bank use and the increase in the country's hunger levels.