TOP NEWS STORIES (dec 8, 2011)

1. Jon Corzine will tell a House committee that he doesn't know the location of client money that went missing when MF Global failed, and that he inherited a company doomed by the risks his predecessors took.

2. The Republican nomination race has heated up in recent weeks, as Newt Gingrich has surged into the lead in many key early voting states.

3. Three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols has agreed to a 10-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels worth about $250 million to $260 million, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Thursday Morning

1. On Wednesday November 30th an unmanned United States military drone was shot down over Iranian airspace, about 140 miles from the border of Afghanistan. The fallen drone, packed with guarded US military secrets, highlights the Obama administrations growing reliance on unmanned aircraft to fight its wars.

2. The cost of fat is rising faster than your paycheck, about five times as fast. And it's not only the price of butter and oil at the supermarket that are making your pay increases -- if you are getting any at all -- look slim.

3. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin strongly criticized U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday, accusing her of encouraging and funding Russians protesting election fraud, and warned of a wider Russian crackdown on dissent.