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"The news that the [country's] Supreme Court had called for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf ran through Pakistan like an electric current Tuesday afternoon," The Christian Science Monitor writes from Islamabad.

Saying that "hiring a veteran can be one of the best business decisions you make," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon confirmed this morning that the retail giant is launching a plan to hire more than 100,000 recently discharged veterans over the next five years.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Lance Armstrong Admits Doping, Oprah Winfrey Confirms.

-- White House Plan On Guns To Include 19 Executive Actions, Lawmakers Say.

Retail sales rose 0.5 percent in December from November, the Census Bureau says. That may be a sign that as 2012 ended consumers were still in a shopping mood even as lawmakers in Washington struggled to keep the federal government from going over the so-called fiscal cliff.

"Well — he did not --"

Just four words.

No one's sure what he meant.

But just the fact that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was heard saying them Monday is news. After all, the famously silent justice has not asked a question from the High Court's bench since Feb. 22, 2006.

Britain's Observer newspaper ran a 2012 investment challenge pitting stockbrokers and wealth managers against Orlando. The calculating kitty chose stocks by batting a toy mouse onto a grid of options. The cat's portfolio came out ahead.

Thomas had gone seven years without saying a word in oral arguments. Then, on Monday, Justice Thomas made a remark. Several justices were talking at once, leaving his exact words unclear. But a detailed contextual analysis by The New York Times suggests he told a joke.