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• In a phenomenon spreading across the globe, oversize blackboards, painted on buildings and freestanding displays, invite passers-by to complete the sentence: "Before I die I want to..."
• Answers, some profound, some profane, are written on stenciled lines with pieces of sidewalk chalk picked from the ground below.
• "...make my dad proud."
• "...find the yin to my yang."
• ___

• KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Thousands of people are gathered in Kiev's Independence Square, where Orthodox priests chanted prayers at dawn and demonstrators are vowing to keep up their protests.
• President Viktor Yanukovych is out of the country on an official trip to China and the government is showing no signs of yielding, suggesting that the tensions that have gripped the country for two weeks are far from resolution.
• Demonstrators have set up scores of tents on the square, the epicenter of protests against the Ukrainian government, and blocked several streets leading to it with tall barricades of wooden pallets and random material. Large piles of wood dot the square, fuel for fires that keep the demonstrators warm in the freezing temperatures.
• ___

• DETROIT (AP) -- A judge has given Detroit the green light to cut pensions as a way out of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, a decision that puts the case in the laps of thousands of retirees who had hoped that the Michigan Constitution would protect them from getting smaller checks in their golden years.
• Judge Steven Rhodes said the city is eligible to stay in bankruptcy court and scrub $18 billion in debt, about half of that amount linked to underfunded pensions and health care obligations. But he also warned officials that they'll need to justify any deep reductions.
• The case now turns to crunching numbers and trying to strike deals, although unions are pursuing an appeal.

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