The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 8 Feb.

It's the end of the world as we know it...

• Former Playboy Playmate and billionaire's widow Anna Nicole Smith has died at the age of 39 after apparently collapsing in a Florida hotel room, her lawyer said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Full coverage from: Access Hollywood, TMZ, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The Sun-Sentinel.

• There have been strange reports about flying objects in the skies -- and some people think they're UFOs.
  
  WXII 12's Nicole Ducouer spoke to a Kernersville man who said he captured an object on his cell phone.

• Nearly a decade after the highly publicized ‘Phoenix Light Phenomenon’, more strange lights have appeared in the night sky over downtown Phoenix, reports cbs4.com.
  
  Tuesday night, mysterious lights lit up the western skies over Phoenix and soon after, phones began ringing off the hook at radio, television and police stations from witnesses wondering what the lights were.

• While record cold temperatures freeze the nation, there seems to be more than enough hot air spewing from global warming alarmists to thaw their arguments.
  
  Media mogul Ted Turner says global warming is 'single greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced.'
  
  

  "What we need is a moratorium on all new coal plants, on all new carbon-producing energy power technologies, and work on replacing them with renewable alternatives," the billionaire founder of CNN said Wednesday.

  Ted couldn't elaborate on working strategies, however.
  
  On the other hand, Al Gore gave a free pass to pollute saying emerging economies such as China are justified in holding back on fighting greenhouse gas emissions until richer polluters like the United States do more to solve the problem, former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday, according to AP.
  
  Ignoring current efforts to curb emissions in the U.S., Chinese officials said they would act after industrial countries such as the United States and others make changes themselves, Gore said, addressing a conference in Madrid on global warming.

• AP reports things are staring to unravel for Democrat John Edwards, who has made an anti-poverty message the theme of his 2008 presidential campaign. Edwards is taking heat for the lavish home he has constructed in Orange County, N.C.
  
  AP is also reporting that Edwards apologized Thursday for the provocative messages two of his campaign bloggers wrote criticizing the Catholic church, but stated he's not going to fire them.

The Edwards Estate: Clear-cut like an atomic blast.

• Visitors to Palm Beach are being advised not to go in the water because of hundreds of shark sightings, reports Local6.com. Perhaps they just knew Rush Limbaugh was on the left coast for the weekend.

• Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have successfully test-fired a new Russian-made air defence missile system, whose delivery last month sparked bitter US criticism, reports AFP.
  
  Reuters reports that a commander said the missiles could sink "big warships" in the Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean, the state broadcaster said.

• Tour de France winner Floyd Landis will not take part in this year's race so he can concentrate on fighting doping charges on one front rather than two, according to Reuters.

• And finally, wcbstv.com reports five college students have been stripped of residence hall jobs and are facing campus hearings for making a video that mimics a hostage taking, university officials said Thursday.
  
  

  In the video, five figures in ski masks speak in crude Middle Eastern accents as they threaten their captive, a rubber duck that serves as the mascot of a residence hall at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Newsday reported that the video was posted on the Web sites Google and YouTube, but it has since been removed.

  Newsday reports Muslim leaders have condemned the video.

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