The European Union should help teach bloggers living under oppressive regimes how to communicate freely and avoid detection, and develop technology to help them, the bloc's digital affairs commissioner said Friday.

Speaking at an online free speech conference, Neelie Kroes said digital dissidents need tools that are "simple and ready-made."

The Facebook group was titled "No More West Indian Day Detail," referring to the police patrol for a raucous annual Brooklyn parade.

Sprinkled among the frustrations aired about regulating the crowded, loud, often-violent event were comments that were more offensive. Some called the parade, held in a predominantly black neighborhood, "ghetto training," and a "scheduled riot." Others referred to participants as savages.

"The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" flew away with the game of the year trophy at the Spike Video Game Awards.

The dragon-slaying epic also won as best role-playing game, and "Skyrim" developer Bethesda Softworks was selected as the studio of the year at Saturday's ninth annual Spike Video Game Awards, which honors outstanding achievements within the gaming industry over the past year.

Meryl Streep may be considered one of the finest actresses around, yet she says she believed her career was over 20 years ago.

Streep, now 62, tells Vogue magazine she was offered three different roles to play a witch after turning 40. She believed it meant women in her age group were "grotesque on some level," and told her husband "It's over."

Karen Jackson and Kiki Stafford were moved to tears as they walked among the items that surrounded Michael Jackson in his final days: The Victorian baby grand piano, the wooden armoire where Jackson had written a note to himself on the mirror, the kitchen chalkboard where his children inscribed the message, "I love daddy."

Jackson, 57, and Stafford, 47, were among dozens of Michael Jackson fans who got an early look at items that will be sold at auction from the singer's final home — and left behind tributes to the King of Pop.

Syrian troops battled army defectors Sunday in clashes that left several military vehicles in flames. The fighting and other violence around the nation killed at least 20 people, the Local Coordination Committees said.

Six people were killed in the central province of Hama, another six in the central province of Homs, three in the northwestern province of Idlib, three in the Damascus suburbs of al-Mleiha and Douma, and two in the southern province of Daraa, the Committees said.

Lady Gaga was in the Christmas spirit at Z100's annual Jingle Ball concert, but her version of "White Christmas" would have made Bing Crosby blush.

Gaga performed a slightly naughty rendition of the holiday classic Friday night as part of her mini-concert at the radio station's event at Madison Square Garden. Gaga — sporting tight studded leather pants, matching top and a bare midriff — gyrated on a set that included antlers, Christmas trees and holiday lights as she performed "White Christmas."

Japan is extending tax breaks for low-polluting vehicles by another three years to help support the nation's mainstay auto industry.

The tax breaks, initially set to end in April, will continue until April 2015, according to a plan approved by the Cabinet on Saturday.

China's exports slowed in November, data released Saturday showed, raising the likelihood of further measures from Beijing to help prop up faltering growth and offset slack demand in the U.S. and European markets.

Exports rose 13.8 percent to $174.5 billion in November, a decline from 15.9 percent growth in October, while China's overall trade surplus plunged 35 percent from a year earlier, to $14.5 billion, Customs statistics said. Imports gained 22.1 percent to $159.9 billion, down from the previous month's 28.7 percent rise.

Authorities say a U.S. man published a fake obituary for his living mother in a ploy to get paid bereavement time off from work.

Relatives called The Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper in Pennsylvania after the obit appeared to say the woman was actually alive and well. The woman herself then visited the paper.