The world - Dec. 24, 2009

THURSDAY

The Senate Banking Committee votes 16-7 to approve the nomination of Ben Bernanke to head the Federal Reserve for another four years.

Mexican soldiers kill Arturo Beltran Levya, one of Mexico’s top drug kingpins, in a two-hour gun battle in his upscale Cuernavaca apartment complex.

Hundreds of jobseekers lined up Wednesday to apply for positions in a new Olive Garden restaurant in Bend, Ore. Applicants began lining up outside the restaurant as soon as 8 p.m. Tuesday.

A Washington State Patrol trooper and his drug-sniffing dog turn up 132 pounds of cocaine, estimated at a street value...