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• Many retail analysts have forecast a ho-hum sales gain of around 2 percent this year; others predict an increase of up to 3.9 percent. But steadily cheaper gas could send holiday sales shooting above 5.4 percent, analysts say.
• "Every little thing moves the needle at this point," said Carl Riccadonna, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. "The benefit at this time of the year certainly helps retailers, since it is not spread evenly throughout the year."
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• MOSCOW (AP) -- Anyone who switched on Russian TV recently might have been forgiven for thinking the Kremlin was relaxing its hard line on gays: Images of rainbow flags and a happy same-sex couple looking adoringly at their child flashed across the screen.
• But the show, with its horror film music and juddering camera work, was another swipe at the gay community -- not a gust of tolerance. The force behind it is one of Russia's top propagandists, whose programs have helped to bring criminal charges against others on President Vladimir Putin's unofficial black list.
• The primetime broadcast on state television points to the double-game the Kremlin is playing on gay rights.
• To the West, Russia has sought to extend reassurances as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics that a law passed this summer banning homosexual "propaganda" does not discriminate against gays. To its domestic audience, the government has ramped up the anti-gay rhetoric, unifying its fraying electoral base with a popular refrain of traditional values.
• The TV show by Arkady Mamontov -- who made his name by taking a hatchet to punk rock group Pussy Riot and other opposition activists -- is the latest example of Russia's unwillingness to back down from its legislative crackdown on gays. Champions of the law melted away when Western outrage reached a peak over the summer -- but they are now back in force on national airwaves.
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• DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- The Syrian government said Wednesday it will participate in U.N.-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the country's civil war, but

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