Strong winds, frigid weather and blowing snow will help celebrators from around the world usher in 2009 Wednesday night in New York's Times Square.

At least 59 people were killed in a fire that broke out in a nightclub in Bangkok during New Year's Eve celebrations, Thai police said. The fire, at a club called Zantika, started at about 12:35 a.m., police told CNN. Most victims were Thai, but foreigners have been identified from Australia, the Netherlands, Nepal and Japan.

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts renewed his call for higher judicial pay on Wednesday, warning of long-term damage to the fabric of the courts.

A national poll suggests that three-quarters of the public thinks President-elect Barack Obama is a strong and decisive leader, the highest marks for a president-elect on that characteristic in nearly three decades. Seventy-six percent of Americans questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey said Obama is a strong and decisive leader.

The man appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat says his appointment to the position is legal, despite the charges against the governor. Former Illinois Attorney Gen. Roland Burris also says Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty, even though his behavior "is reprehensible."

Baffled consumers are griping about a mysterious glitch that appeared to cause thousands of Zune music players to simultaneously stop working late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

Wiping tears from his cheeks, a man who survived avalanches in Canada that killed eight snowmobilers said today that he and two others tried to save their friends but eventually left the mountain due to the threat of more slides. Jeffrey Adams said he and the other survivors "did everything we could to try to save" the eight Sunday.

Israel has taken its barrage of airstrikes in Gaza to the Web, creating a YouTube channel this week to post footage of its air force dropping bombs on Hamas targets.

Mexican authorities said they have arrested the leader of a drug cartel that set off two grenades during a public celebration in September, killing eight people and wounding more than 100.