News Headlines - 16 December 2010

▽Snow and ice White Christmas 'to stop Santa in his tracks in Scotland' - Metro
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/850673-white-christmas-to-stop-santa-in-his-tracks
Scottish children waiting on Santa could be left disappointed this year after the director of a leading delivery company warned 'Father Christmas won't be coming to Scotland and the north east' because of widespread snow and ice.

▽BP faces billion-dollar legal battle over Gulf oil disaster - Scotsman
http://news.scotsman.com/news/World-News-BP-faces-billiondollar.6662590.jp
THE US government is to sue BP for costs and damages in a bid to recoup billions of dollars after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The British oil firm was among eight companies named in a lawsuit filed at a New Orleans court yesterday.

▽Drone attack 'kills two Britons' in Pakistan - BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12009685
Two white British al-Qaeda members have died in a suspected US drone raid in north-west Pakistan, officials say.

▽WikiLeaks: Anonymous hierarchy emerges - The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/16/wikileaks-anonymous-hierarchy-emerges
But inside Anonymous, the Guardian has found that the organisation is more hierarchical – with a hidden cabal of around a dozen highly skilled hackers co-ordinating attacks across the web.

▽Cultural Evolution Could Be Studied in Google Books Database - Wired News
http://news.google.co.jp/news/section?cf=all&ned=uk&topic=t&ict=ln
Google’s massive trove of scanned books could be useful for researchers studying the evolution of culture.