Rescue teams are searching through the rubble of a supermarket collapse in Latvia – There’s new hope Russia might free the Aussie Greenpeace protester – Cops finally wake up to the pain of austerity cuts – And Monty Python is back.

Authorities launched a criminal investigation after the roof of a supermarket in Riga, Latvia collapsed, killing at least twelve people and injuring 35 more.  Workers were reportedly installing a roof garden when it happened.  It happened at 6 o’clock in the evening, when the Maxima store was crowded with shopper on their way home after work.

Greenpeace activist Colin Russell could be freed from a Russian jail within a month, after the Australian Ambassador to Russia spoke with authorities in Moscow on Russell’s behalf.  The Tasmanian is the only member of the Arctic Sunrise crew not to be granted bail.  Australian permanent resident Alexandra Harris and New Zealand-born Jonathan Beauchamp have been granted bail.  Russia charged the Arctic 30 with hooliganism for attempting to board an oilrig off the northern coast.

The global climate talks in Warsaw are a bust.  Hundreds of environmental activists from eight groups walked out as industrialized nations, Oz included, backed away from past commitments and watered down goals for cutting carbon emissions.  The divisions between rich and poor nations got worse.  Corporations lobbied to weaken emission standards.  Oil companies passed out goody bags to delegates.  So, I guess we’ll just have to use the back-up planet.

Well, that was depressing.  How about some Baby Turtles, Baby Tigers, a Baby Panda?  Well, that was adorable.

Cops versus cops in Lisbon!  Several thousand off-duty Portuguese police officers protesting against austerity measures busted through a line of riot police protecting the country's Parliament.  They’re angry about ongoing pay and pension cuts, part of the massive budget slashing measures taken in return for a big, giant EU bailout that doesn’t seem to be trickling down to working folks. 

Bolivia President Evo Morales says every salaried worker in his country will get an extra month’s salary for a Christmas bonus.  Evo says the economy in South America’s poorest country is improving and the people who worked to make it so ought to get a boost.  Bolivian law already says that salaried workers get a month's pay as a December bonus, so they will now get triple their pay for that month.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou says he’s in no hurry to enter into substantive political talks with mainland China, dismissing calls to do so from Chinese leader Xi Jinping.  China considers Taiwan to be a renegade province after the split in 1949.  China is pushing for a treaty that would put Taiwan on a path for reunification, something opposed by most people in Taiwan who don’t want to give up their hard-won democratic freedoms.

Japan has a new island.  An undersea volcano created a small island in the Ogasawara chain 970 kilometers south of Tokyo.  It’s uncertain if the island will actually last, or if it will be reclaimed by the sea.  But if it does hang around, Tokyo will give it a name.

And now for something completely different.  The surviving members of Monty Python made it official; they’re reuniting for the first time in 30 years.  The one-off show will take place at the O2 Arena in London on 1 July.  Terry Gilliam said he believes the “planets were in the right position,” while John Cleese has admitted he needs to “fill in the rather large hole” in his finances.  Eric Idle will direct; he says the audience should expect “comedy, pathos, music and a tiny piece of ancient sex.”  Python wasn’t dead, they were just resting.