At The Apothecarium, a quaintly upscale medical marijuana club in San Francisco's Castro District, the vibe is even jollier than usual this month. To boost holiday spirits, the dispensary is giving a storewide 15 percent discount to patrons who donate to its canned food drive, making year-end contributions to local charities and raffling off a seriously spiked "ganja-bread" house made with a whopping 80 "doses" of pot-infused butter.

"We have a whole bunch of decorations up, holiday music playing. It's pretty festive here right now," said Ryan Hudson, The Apothecarium's executive director. "Why not? We are just like any other business, in that regard."

Lionel Messi scored twice and Barcelona beat Brazil's Santos 4-0 on Sunday to win its second Club World Cup in three years.

Messi, Xavi and Cesc Fabregas scored in the first half as the European champions won its 13th trophy under coach Pep Guardiola, solidifying its stature as the best club team in the world.

Hope was running out Monday for scores of oil workers missing for more than a day in remote, freezing waters off Russia's east coast after their floating platform capsized and sank during a severe storm.

Maria Dubrovskya, spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry in Russia's Far East, said rescue workers have pulled out seven bodies from the Sea of Okhotsk. Russian news agencies are reporting that more bodies have been seen in the water, but the rescue team has not been able to retrieve them.

Twenty civilians and six regime soldiers were killed in violence in Syria on Sunday as clashes raged between deserters and regular army troops in centers of protest against the regime, human rights activists said.

Security forces shot dead 20 civilians across the country, the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, reported.

Troops and protesters clashed Sunday in Cairo for the third straight day, pelting each other with rocks in skirmishes near parliament in the heart of the Egyptian capital.

At least 10 protesters have been killed and 441 others wounded in the three days of violence, according to the Health Ministry. Activists say most of the 10 fatalities died of gunshot wounds.

The killing of Osama bin Laden during a raid by Navy SEALs on his hideout in Pakistan was the top news story of 2011, followed by Japan's earthquake/tsunami disaster, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The death of bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, received 128 first-place votes out of 247 ballots cast for the top 10 stories. The Japan disaster was next, with 60 first-place votes. Placing third were the Arab Spring uprisings that rocked North Africa and the Middle East, while the European Union's financial turmoil was No. 4.

The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border to neighboring Kuwait at daybreak Sunday, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered, with troubling questions lingering over whether the Arab nation will remain a steadfast U.S. ally.

The mission cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The question of whether it was worth it all is yet unanswered.

A small comet survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.

Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived.

Snoop Dogg remembered watching all of the Cheech and Chong movies growing up, idolizing their ability to always escape from danger in their comedy films.

Wiz Khalifa revered Snoop Dogg for his marijuana-smoking, ultra-smooth West Coast swagger shown extensively throughout his rap career.

Fifth-grader Jolie Leach says she "was gonna explode" with excitement when Justin Bieber performed a concert at her Las Vegas school, and vowed she'd never wash her hand after he gave her a high-five.

Leach was one of hundreds who showed clear symptoms of Bieber fever after the 17-year-old teen pop sensation staged a private show Friday at low-income Whitney Elementary School. The concert was filmed for an episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and came two months after Bieber promised the school's 650 students a $100,000 donation.