Washington Post Top Online Stories: Mon 11/22/10

The Washington Post lead headline online early Monday morning says "Near-bankrupt Ireland gains international support for emergency bailout." The paper says moving to contain fears of a debt crisis in Europe, the International Monetary Fund and European Union agreed Sunday to support an emergency bailout for near-bankrupt Ireland after the desperate government here abruptly requested a lifeline following days of denying it needed help.

The paper tells the story of two guns that killed police officers.

It says President Obama's trip to Europe this past weekend has revealed a growing alarm among U.S. allies over the possible failure of a U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty, with many warning that it would hurt the West's efforts to deal with Iran and with Russian weapons near Eastern Europe.

The paper says signaling the growing seriousness of the Obama administration's commitment this year to ending the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the Defense Department said Sunday that it will release a long-awaited report on the matter earlier than planned because senators are eager to vote on whether to repeal the policy.

It says after an election dominated by vague demands for less debt and smaller government, the sacrifices necessary to achieve those goals are coming into sharp focus. Big cuts at the Pentagon. Higher taxes, including those on home ownership and health care. Smaller Social Security checks and higher Medicare premiums.

And the most popular story says Lawrencia "Bambi'' Bembenek, a onetime Playboy Club waitress who inspired national headlines and a television miniseries when she escaped from a prison where she was serving a life sentence for murder, died Nov. 20 of liver failure at a hospice care center in Portland, Ore. She was 52.