Less than two hours after a massive vehicle bomb was detonated near the Norwegian Prime Minister's office in Oslo, a guy disguised as a police officer opened fire at a youth camp the Prime Minister was supposed to be visiting. [Updated]

The Senate has rejected House Republicans' favorite deficit-reduction plan, "Cut, Cap and Balance," on a 51-46 vote. Now, at least, the worst of the many bad pieces of legislation currently under consideration is gone.

For the time in 20 years the execution of a prison inmate in the U.S. was videotaped, when Georgia executed Andrew DeYoung last night by lethal injection for killing his parents and sister in 1993. A legal fight between the state's prosecutors and the Georgia Supreme Court delayed DeYoung's execution by a day, but last night the camera rolled.

Despite threats from the U.S. State Department last summer that Kim Jong-il would no longer be able to buy jet skis and Iranian caviar, he's still shelling out millions of dollars on everything from Rolex watches to Gucci handbags for his top officials and he's even having McDonald's delivered by airplane from China, according to the Korea Herald.

Some Arizonans are incensed that the dust storms that have been plaguing them all month are being called "haboobs" by the media. They object to the term because it contains the word "boobs," something they are deathly afraid of. [NYT]

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to hand out its first subpoenas in connection with their investigation into News Corp.'s alleged hacking of 9-11 victims. In their report, the Wall Street Journal quotes an anonymous "person close to News Corp." who dismisses the subpoenas as being "a fishing expedition with no evidence to support it." (Gee, I wonder how they managed to track down that Deep Throat? "Hey Bob, I'm going for a Starbucks run. Want anything? Oh, and could you give me a damage-control quote for this thing I'm writing? Sweet.") The subpoenas, which would give federal investigators broad access to News Corp. records and information, need approval by a senior Justice Department official before they can be issued. Shouldn't be long now. [Photo: AP]

Hitler's right-hand brah Rudolf Hess was dug up, cremated, and scattered in a lake. Neo-Nazis have been flocking to his grave in Wunsiedel, Germany since his 1987 suicide. Mayor Karl-Willi Beck called the move "the right thing to do." [NYT]

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have responded to Larry Summers, the former Harvard president who earlier this week said of his first encounter with the litigious dyad (famously dramatized in The Social Network), "One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole. This was the latter case."

Whenever the thermometer creeps north of 90 degrees in NYC, you can be sure an intrepid wire photographer is going to head out and start snapping pictures of kids playing in fountains and people lounging in their underwear on park benches. Since it's so damn hot, here are some of the best "damn, it's hot" photos we could find.

Word has been trickling in from a variety of sources all day about the basic outline of a deficit-reduction deal that President Obama and Speaker John Boehner are nearing. While both sides are denying it in their preferred arenas — the White House through its spokesperson at a press conference, John Boehner with a telephone call to Rush Limbaugh — it still seems like we've got our hands on the latest trial balloon! Summary: It sucks for Democrats.

Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, is the guy who makes most Republican members of Congress sign a pledge never to raise taxes, making him one of the more powerful people in Washington. But today he's confirmed that there's a loophole in his pledge — one that's potentially worth $4 trillion in new tax revenue! Washington is too weird.

Al Sharpton will almost certainly be the host for MSNBC's recently opened-up 6 p.m. time slot, reports The New York Times, which describes the hiring as "imminent." He's actually been "guest-hosting" in that slot for the last three weeks, if you are among the apparent millions who tune in; previously, the spot was occupied by Cenk Uygur, who left claiming he'd been told by MSNBC president Phil Griffin that "people in Washington... did not like [his] tone." (Griffin says he told Uygur to adjust his body language.) Our choice for the 6 p.m. slot would have been a constant replay of Mark Halperin saying the word "dick," but we're not in charge. [NYT, photo via AP]

Rep. Allen West says he's apologized to DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for his totally hilarious email rant in which he called her "the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member" of the House. But does he lie?

Judge Pat Murdoch (pictured)—Albuquerque, New Mexico's top criminal judge—was arrested yesterday and charged with raping a prostitute, which is frowned upon in judicial circles. But this isn't just your boring, run-of-the-mill judicial hooker rape case!

Rick Santorum has long struggled with his "Google problem," in which the first result of a "rick santorum" search defines "Santorum" as a filthy anal sex byproduct. This has been the case since gay activist and columnist Dan Savage coordinated a successful Google bomb in 2003. But Santorum finally appears to have accepted his fate as a search engine joke, and is now trying to raise cash off of it.

While some hedge funders appear to be sticking by President Obama, mostly because he ate a fancy meal with them, others are still desperately searching for a viable Republican alternative who won't even occasionally use semi-mean language in public about the lords of high finance. That's why they're still trying to convince New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to run, because he only says mean things about all middle class people, all the time.

In your sultry Wednesday media column: HuffPo's scapegoat gets her job back, WSJ reporters mildly defend themselves, Tablet magazine redesigns, a military reporter reflects on death, and Jim Romenesko is the new Yelp.

The Tennessee-based Tea Party Nation, a group which even some Tea Party warriors consider a bit "scammy," was forced to cancel its National Tea Party Unity Convention in Las Vegas last year over a lack of demand. But it appears that it may not have canceled promptly enough to avoid paying! So the Las Vegas resort that TPN had booked out is suing the group for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills.

Michele Bachmann addressed the anonymous sniping from former aides about her "incapacitating" weekly migraines at a campaign event in South Carolina yesterday, trying to put it to rest. And then some of her goons roughed up ABC News' Brian Ross. Hooray! And to think, it's not even August.

A leopard snuck into a a village in India yesterday and mauled 11 people before being killed. Looking at the terrifying pictures makes us feel pretty stupid for complaining about subway construction.