Admit Strong: Former international cycling champion Lance Armstrong will admit to doping in an interview with Oprah Winfrey to be taped Monday, according to USA Today.

World: American troops will be finished as the front line defense for Afghanistan by the end of 2014, an accelerated schedule, President Obama and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan announced. Afghan forces will shoulder full responsibility for defense of the country by the end of next year, they said. Obama did not say how long US forces would remain in support and training of the Afghans.

 Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sri Lankan housemaid accused of killing a 4-month-old child in her care in 2005 when she was 17. An autopsy to determine cause of death of the child was never performed and the housemaid was not granted a lawyer until after she was sentenced to death.

National: Deaths caused by the flu have reached what the Centers for Disease Control describes as epidemic levels, but may have peaked. The flu has struck early this year and there are reported shortages of vaccines.

Offshoot:  A primary target in the gun violence debate may be violent video games, which The White House, some gun defenders and even the National Rifle Association seem to agree may be contributing to the problem of gun violence, despite the lack of scientific evidence that video games actually do teach people to kill in real life.

Say Cheese: British art critics are savaging the first official portrait of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, which portrays her in a casual pose, 31-year-old wrinkles and all, and plainer than the beauty she actually is. It’s Elvis on Velvet according to one wag. Another critic said, “It is perfectly adequate for the boardroom of a supermarket.” The Earl of Grantham said such a monstrosity would never hang on the wall at Downton Abbey.  

Snakes: Nearly five hundred people signed up for a month-long python hunt starting in the Florida Everglades today. The 2013 Python Challenge offers rewards of $1000 for the longest snake and $1500 for the most. The contest is part of an effort to rid the swamps of Burmese pythons, a non-native species that threatens wildlife in the Everglades. They eat big birds, alligators and deer. The biggest caught in the Everglades so far was 17 feet. That’s a lot of belts and shoes.

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