His portrait has been torn down in anger in schools and offices across the country in a rapidly evolving scandal that has cast a shadow over this weekend's presidential election and tainted the post which, while largely ceremonial from the grandeur of Prague Castle, is seen to carry moral weight. It could also swing the outcome of the runoff vote that began Friday.

To mark the country's 20th anniversary of independence on Jan. 1, Klaus used a traditional tool of Czech presidents and ordered the release of more than 6,000 inmates serving short prison terms. But what really infuriated many Czechs was that the decree also halted court proceedings in several high-profile fraud cases and financial scams on the grounds he wanted to stop "endless criminal proceedings."

The opposition suspects his main motive may be to protect people close to his inner circle, a claim he vehemently denies.

The controversy has touched a raw nerve in a nation that threw off communism in 1989 and has become increasingly angered by widespread corruption. Czechs, voting Friday and Saturday to elect a new president to replace Klaus, are waking up every day to new names of pardoned felons and shocking tales of people who ripped off thousands.

Bronislava Kupkova, now 86, took out a loan of 2 million koruna ($104,000) from a bank in 1995 to buy a house she never got. She had to work till she was 82 to pay the money back. And the culprits are among those pardoned.

"It's injustice ... it's not right. But tell me: what can an ordinary person who has never stolen anything and had to work all the time do about it?" Kupkova told the AP. The amnesty means her chance to seek any compensation is "close to zero," she said.

The frustration at Klaus, who polarized the public with his strident views on Brussels, gays and global warming, has mushroomed.

And his legacy as the economics professor who oversaw the transition to free markets in the 1990s will now most likely be rewritten.

A businessman supported by 17 non-governmental organizations called on the Senate on Wednesday to file impeachment charges against Klaus in order to "renew the confidence of citizens in the rule of law."

Almost 35,000 people backed the call online in less than two days. And a group of 30 senators has challenged Klaus' decree at the Constitutional Court.

Only the Senate has the power to file treason charges at the Constitutional Court. The senators plan to discuss next month what steps to take. Klaus' final term ends in March.

"We need to know the view of the highest legal authority in the country whether this amnesty, its content, is in line with the Constitution," said Alena Gajduskova, deputy speaker of the Senate who filed the challenge and called Klaus' move "unacceptable."

Both candidates in this weekend's election runoff have distanced themselves from the amnesty.

Karel Schwarzenberg, a bow tie-wearing aristocrat, is a sworn enemy of Klaus and has been at odds with the current prime minister, Petr Necas, who co-signed the decree. Schwarzenberg accused Necas of failing to warn the government about what was coming. Left-winger Milos Zeman, the other candidate, is supported by Klaus but has said the amnesty should only have applied to people for humanitarian reasons.

The prisoner release has come as a major blow for tens of thousands of fraud victims who have been seeking compensation for damages, including Kupkova.

"It's terrible," said Hana Marvanova, a lawyer who represents about a hundred people who lost their money in a bogus housing scheme. "They have a feeling of total lawlessness."

Three managers in that case have already been cleared. They promised to build homes for a thousand people but made off with the funds worth about $100 million.

"It took years to investigate what it was all about and this is the result: the perpetrators have support at the top levels in the country. It's impossible to explain that to them," said Maranova, a former anti-communist dissident.

Klaus has dismissed the criticism, calling it a "wave of hysteria" and an attack on him by his enemies.

That has not helped.

"Vaclav Klaus is leaving his office in the worst possible way," said an editorial in the Lidove Noviny daily.

The deputy leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Lubomir Zaoralek, said the amnesty is a sign that "the state stands behind organized crime." Zaoralek, who says several presidential advisers have links to some of those covered by the pardon, asked Klaus to reveal who drafted the document for him. His request was rejected.

As the Czech president occupies a largely ceremonial post, the right to grant amnesty seems inappropriate to many. But there are precedents.

During his presidency, Vaclav Havel, a much-loved dissident playwright who helped topple communism, used it three times. In 1990, he ordered the release of some 23,000 prisoners in an attempt criticized by the public then to draw a line under more than 40 years of communism that ended in the 1989 peaceful Velvet Revolution.

But to free those charged with corruption is the last straw in a country that has taken an increasingly hard line against graft.

Many Czechs have been showing their indignation with corruption in unusual ways. CorruptTour, a travel agency established last year that organizes trips to places linked to corruption, has been doing a roaring trade under its slogan: "the best of the worst."

Some 40 people joined the tour Thursday, braving piercing cold, frost and snow. They burst into laughter when Eva Cechova, a tour guide, quipped in front of the presidential office that the amnesty was "the biggest achievement of Klaus' presidency."

Vanda Koleckova, a 23-year-old student, was among them. She said she hopes the constitutional court overturns the decree.

"It's very Czech to make fun of the unbelievable scope of corruption," she said. "Humor is a way for us Czechs to deal with that."

The Serbian world number one broke through for his first grand slam title in 2008 and has won three of his five major titles on the blue Plexicushion surface at Melbourne Park.

And a day before his potential entry into the record books as the first man to win three successive Australian Open titles in the professional era, he began the PR battle to win the hearts and minds of the Australian fans as well.

"Well, happy Australia Day, first of all, to everybody who is Australian in the house," said Djokovic, who was wearing a small koala lapel badge before he went on to answer why he though he played so well at the year's first grand slam.

"It's my most successful grand slam (and) conditions in general I like, especially in Rod Laver Arena.

"I just think that also a big reason is it's the first big tournament of the year.

"Now we had a little bit longer off season which gave us more time to recharge our batteries, to work on some things, to get ready, you come out here and you want to win the first big trophy of the year.

"I guess that's a fresh start that everybody wants."

Djokovic is expected to be fresher than his increasingly familiar foe on Sunday having had an extra days' rest after he beat David Ferrer in straight sets on Thursday, while Murray was forced into five sets against Roger Federer late into Friday.

The Serb, however, doubted that would have any effect on their match, given Murray had spent less than nine hours on court in five matches prior to his battle against Federer.

"Andy, yes, he has played a five set match against Roger last night. But aside that, he hasn't been really tested the whole tournament," Djokovic said.

"And also he's considered as one of the physically strongest and fittest guys around. So I'm sure he's going to be fit for the finals."

Murray beat Djokovic in last year's U.S. Open final to claim his maiden grand slam title and the 25-year-old Serb, who demolished fourth seed Ferrer in a display of near perfect tennis, said he expected the final would not be as easy.

"I thought he absolutely deserved it because he's been around as a top player for many years. He played in many finals of grand slams. He finally won his title.

"So I think that also gave him a lot of confidence for what was coming up after that. Obviously he's showing again now why he's one of the best players in the world.

"The fact that every time we played in last probably six, seven encounters, it was always a long matches, physically very demanding, going three sets and five sets in grand slams.

"So I guess we have to expect something similar to happen, long rallies, and I'm ready for that."

(Editing by Patrick Johnston)

The 30-year-old Brazilian, who was the NBA's top rebounder until a knee injury requiring surgery sidelined him in December, was admitted to the Cleveland Clinic last Thursday where he is being treated with blood thinners.

He will need to remain on blood thinning medication for approximately three months but is expected to make a full recovery, according to the Cavaliers.

"Clearly our players' health is our top concern and we are disappointed for Anderson, and his family," Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant said in a statement.

"We know what a competitor he is and how much he wants to be on the court helping his teammates. In the meantime, he has our full support and we look forward to welcoming him back as he recovers."

Taken in the second round of the 2004 NBA Draft, Varejao was traded to the Cavaliers that same year and has spent his entire career in Cleveland.

Varejao, who has not played since suffering his knee injury, was averaging a career-high 14.1 points and a team-leading 14.4 rebounds in 25 games for a Cavaliers team that is 14th in the 15-team Eastern Conference with 40 games left in the season. (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)

His Conservative successor David Cameron has pledged to give Britons a referendum choice on whether to stay in the EU if he wins an election in 2015.

Speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blair told Sky TV that Britain's eventual exit from the EU was now on the agenda.

"The thing that sends a huge stab of anxiety through any of us that believe that Britain's place in the 21st Century has got to be as a key player in the largest political union, the biggest business market in the world, is that we're now putting on the table the prospect of Britain leaving Europe in a referendum in four or five years' time," he said.

"Why would we do that now? We don't know what the rest of Europe is going to propose by way of changes resulting from this euro crisis, we don't know yet the detail of what we're going to argue in Europe," he added.

"Surely what is better is to have that debate, try and shape the process in Europe and then decide where we are."

Blair said he agreed with Cameron when he said in a landmark speech earlier on Wednesday that reform was needed in Europe.

"Ninety percent of that speech is ... the British Prime Minister addressing the British national interest," he said.

"It's the climax to the speech (the referendum pledge) that I'm afraid is really about the internal European problem in the Conservative party and how they placate this UKIP party."

The Conservatives have long argued amongst themselves about whether Britain should be an EU member, a division eagerly exploited by the small but vociferous anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) which is rising in opinion polls.

Blair added: "There's got to be a compelling reason to put that (referendum) question on the agenda. I don't see that compelling reason now."

(Reporting by Stephen Addison Editing by Maria Golovnina)

Sixty-seven-year-old Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade will come out of retirement for the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's "A Coffin in Egypt," the company said Wednesday. The work based on the play of the same name by Horton Foote will open March 14, 2014, in a co-production with the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

The 2013-14 season announced also includes the North American premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg's "The Passenger" on Jan. 18, 2014. The opera is based on a novel about a former SS officer on a cruise ship who thinks she recognizes a former Auschwitz prisoner. Joseph Kaiser stars and music director Patrick Summers conducts in the David Pountney production that was used for the opera's staged world premiere at the 2010 Bregenz Festival in Austria 42 years after the score was completed.

The Ring stagings by Catalunya-based Fura dels Baus originated from the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain, from 2007-09 and also have been seen in Seville and Florence, Italy.

Houston said Wednesday it will show "Rheingold" starting April 11, 2014, with Summers conducting and a cast that includes Iain Paterson as Wotan and Christopher Purves at Alberich. "Die Walkuere (The Valkyrie)" will be mounted in 2014-15, "Siegfried" in 2015-16 and "Goetterdaemmerung (The Twilight of the Gods)" in 2016-17.

The company has not decided whether to show complete Ring Cycles, spokesman Glenn Petry said.

Houston's season also includes a new Rob Ashford production of Bizet's "Carmen" with Ana Mara Martnez and Brandon Jovanovich opening April 25, 2014; and an Isaac Mizrahi staging of Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music" with Elizabeth Futral, Chad Shelton and Joyce Castle opening March 7, 2014, a production originally shown by the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

There will be revivals of Verdi's "Aida" (opening the season on Oct. 18) and "Rigoletto," and of Johann Strauss Jr.'s "Die Fledermaus (The Bat)."

Welcomed by a plate of homemade cookies and admiring of the picture-perfect home where she lives with her husband, Red, it is a while before Andrew starts to suspect there is something a little off about this woman, who seems just too good to be true.

"The Neighbors," Ania Ahlborn's second novel, was inspired by a battered house and a fallen-over mailbox she passed every day, making her think of a perfect house on a perfect street that in fact is "where all the darkness is."

Ahlborn, whose first book was self-published but became such a success she then picked up a conventional publishing contract, spoke with Reuters about neighbors, horror and her book.

Q: What inspired the book?

A: "I've always been pretty fascinated with serial killers, but not in the sense that I read about them and I'm like, let's see how they kill all their victims. I'm more interested in the fact that someone could be living right next door to you, and they might be the nicest person that you had ever met, but they're really not. There's something about that that really intrigues me. Of course it terrifies me, it freaks me out, but just that concept was what spurred my writing 'The Neighbors.' That, and I do have a little bit of a love affair with the atomic age and the perfect sort of Americana thing that was going on. That to me is also a little creepy. It's so perfect that it's almost plastic, it's Stepford Wives. Every time something is super cool and happy and nice, I always find something really creepy going on with it. If you meet the one person who's always happy, always smiling and always laughing, I'm going to be the person who's sitting back thinking, what's this person hiding?"

Q: How did you bring this idea to life?

A: "I knew that I wanted to have an everyman character that readers could relate to, so I put that into Andrew. He's just a regular guy. He has a lot of issues that he's dealing with, and he really is looking for that whole grass is greener on the other side concept. Then he steps into a life that he thinks is going to be great, oh look how nice these new neighbors are - they're going to give him a job, they're really sweet, they invite him to dinner. And he couldn't be happier, only it's 'oh my God, what have I gotten myself into.'

"As far as Red and Harlow go, I had to rewrite this thing three times. The concept was there, but there was something off about it. I actually started writing Harlow as a really nice old lady, kind of like your grandma, and there was something about it that just wasn't working for me. So I let her go and said, 'Do whatever you want.' I let her run with it, and figured I'd just see what happened in the next couple pages. And she turned into this really retro, cougary vixen. I thought 'whoa, we'll run with that.' I had to rewrite the whole thing. I just loved that - it just feels so wrong. A really sweet woman who ends up being almost like a dominatrix, in a way."

Q: You sound like that surprised you. Do you have that kind of experience a lot when you write?

A: "Yes. When it comes to writing, I think there's two different ways that you can approach it. You can either plot it out and do it by an outline and make the characters do what you want them to do, or you can basically let the characters carry the story and see where it goes. I like to do both techniques. Of course I want to have a beginning, middle and end where I don't feel I'm just writing and writing and writing and it's not going anywhere, because that's horribly frustrating.

"On the other hand, you always want it to be kind of organic, so it doesn't feel forced. When you allow those characters to step up to the plate and say 'here's what I would do.' You learn a lot about yourself that way. You don't know that you've got these ideas in your head, and they come out by way of these fictional characters. It can get a little bit weird, especially when you're writing horror and thrillers. You're like, 'oh my God, what's wrong with me?'"

Q: What is the function of scary stories?

A: I think that scary stories are the most truthful. I think that the honesty behind a lot of stuff that you read in horror is really what's scary. In 'The Neighbors,' one of the things that I tried to do was make Harlow as likable as possible even after I revealed the fact that she is this monster. The reason why I did that is because if your neighbor is some crazy psychopath but you don't know that, you might like that person. That in itself is terrifying because you don't know, they're so good at hiding what they are.

"I think that there's bits of humanity that come out in horror and thrillers that are really uncomfortable for us to otherwise think about. Could I relate to the monster next door? Could I care about them? Could I be the monster next door?

"That's the way that I think that horror became so popular - it really reflects who we are and who we hide. It also reflects our worst fears. We want to explore those fears and it's a safe way to explore those fears... But forget it, when I have to be alone by myself in a locked house at night, I sleep with all the lights on and the dogs in my room, where otherwise I wouldn't care if my husband was home... It's just funny how those tiny little differences make us interpret things in a totally different way. If he's here I'm fine, but if he's not a serial killer is definitely going to knock on my door and this is the last night of my life. That's just the way that our minds work. I think that horror makes us reflect on our fears, and on who we say we are - but are afraid to say we are."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies, editing by Paul Casciato)

"Actions taken to report violations of food and drug safety laws will be rewarded," state news agency Xinhua said. "The reward for each case, in principle, will not exceed 300,000 yuan."

Rewards will be paid out after the authorities confirm the veracity of the tip-offs, the report said.

Repeated campaigns to crack down on the problem and the meting out of tough punishments have failed to bring an end to China's food safety woes.

Frequent media reports refer to cooking oil being recycled from drains, carcinogens in milk, and fake eggs. In 2008, milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and sickened nearly 300,000.

Last week, fast-food chain KFC's parent Yum Brands Inc apologized to customers in China over its handling of a recent food scare that has hit the company's sales in its biggest market.

The scandal erupted when the official China Central Television reported in late December that some of the chicken supplied to KFC and McDonald's Corp contained excess amounts of antiviral drugs and hormones used to accelerate growth.

Subsequent findings by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration found the levels of antibiotics and steroids in Yum's current batch of KFC chicken supply were safe, though the watchdog found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested.

Beijing said last December it would introduce tough new laws to punish firms that flout food safety laws, a significant move in China's struggle to get its abysmal food safety record under control.

($1 = 6.2192 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Cuomo's order came a day after federal health officials said that fast-spreading influenza had officially reached epidemic proportions in the United States, following an early start.

Nine of the 10 U.S. regions had "elevated" flu activity last week, and 20 children across the country have died, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

In New York, the governor's office said 19,128 cases of influenza have been reported this season, compared with 4,404 positive laboratory tests reported for the entire 2011-2012 season.

"We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York state is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City," Cuomo said on Saturday.

As of January 5, the state health department had reports of 2,884 patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza, compared with 1,169 total hospitalizations in 2011.

Cuomo's executive order temporarily allows pharmacists to give flu shots to patients between ages 6 months to 18 years old. Typically, the state limits pharmacists to administering vaccinations only to people 18 and older.

The governor said he instructed state officials "to marshal all needed resources to address this public health emergency and remove all barriers to ensure that all New Yorkers - children and adults alike - have access to critically needed flu vaccines."

Cuomo urged residents who had not gotten a flu shot to do so, noting that influenza cases continued to rise in New York.

In Boston, Mayor Thomas Menino, facing 10 times more flu cases than last year, declared a public health emergency on Wednesday.

The severity of the flu season has forced hospitals in some states to turn away people arriving at the emergency rooms, tighten restrictions on visitors and open extra facilities to accommodate more patients.

Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from flu, even in non-epidemic years. The threshold for an epidemic is that it results in more than 7.2 percent of deaths, but so far there is no definitive count of the total caused by flu this year.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; editing by Gunna Dickson)

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It didn't buy ads supporting the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester. Instead, it put up radio and TV commercials that urged voters to choose the third-party candidate, libertarian, describing Cox as the "real conservative" or the "true conservative."

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Where did the group's money come from? Nobody knows.

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The pro-Cox ads were part of a national pattern in which groups that did not disclose their donors, including social welfare nonprofits and trade associations, played a larger role than ever before in trying to sway U.S. elections. Throughout the 2012 election, ProPublica has focused on theof this so-calledin national and local races.

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Such spending played a greater role in the Montana Senate race than almost any other. With control of the U.S. Senate potentially at stake, candidates, parties and independent groups spent more than $51 million on this contest, all to win over fewer than 500,000 voters. That's twice as much as was spent when Tester was elected in 2006.

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Almost one quarter of that was dark money, donated secretly to nonprofits.

"It just seems so out of place here," said Democrat Brian Schweitzer, the governor of Montana who leaves office at the end of this year. "About one hundred dollars spent for every person who cast a vote. Pretty spectacular, huh? And most of it, we don't have any idea where it came from. Day after the election, they closed up shop and disappeared into the dark."

Political insiders say the Montana Senate race provided a particularly telling glimpse at how campaigns are run in the no-holds-barred climate created by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, giving a real-world counterpoint to the court's assertion that voters could learn all they needed to know about campaign funding from .

In many ways, Montana was a microcosm of how outside spending worked nationally, but it also points to the future. Candidates will be forced to start raising money earlier to compete in an arms race with outside groups. Voters will be bombarded with TV ads, mailers and phone calls. And then on Election Day, they will be largely left in the dark, unable to determine who's behind which message.

All told, 64 outside groups poured $21 million into the Montana Senate election, almost as much as the candidates. Party committees spent another $8.9 million on the race.

The groups started spending money a year before either candidate put up a TV ad, defining the issues and marginalizing the role of political parties. In a state where ads were cheap, they took to the airwaves. More TV commercials ran in the Montana race between June and the election than in any other Senate contest nationwide.

The Montana Senate race also shows how liberal groups have learned to play the outside money game despite griping by Democratic officials about the influence of such organizations.

Liberal outside groups spent $10.2 million on the race, almost as much as conservatives. Conservatives spent almost twice as much from anonymous donors, but the $4.2 million in dark money that liberal groups pumped into Montana significantly outstripped the left's spending in many other races nationwide.

As in other key states, conservative groups devoted the bulk of their money in Montana to TV and radio ads. But sometimes the ads came across as generic and missed their mark.

Liberal groups set up field offices, knocked on doors, featured "Montana" in their names or put horses in their TV ads. Many of them, including Montana Hunters and Anglers, were tied to a consultancy firm where a good friend of Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's campaign manager, is a partner.

The end result? Tester beat Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg by a narrow margin. And the libertarian Cox, who had so little money he didn't even have to report to federal election authorities, picked up more votes than any other libertarian on the Montana ballot.

Montana Republicans blamed Montana Hunters and Anglers, made up of a super PAC and a sister dark money nonprofit, for tipping the race. Even though super PACs have to report their donors, the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC functioned almost like a dark money group. Records show its major donors included an environmentalist group that didn't report its donors and two super PACs that in turn raised the bulk of their money from the environmentalist group, other dark money groups and unions.

"Part of what's frustrating to me is I look at Montana Hunters and Anglers and say, 'That is not fair,'" said Bowen Greenwood, executive director for the Montana Republican Party. "I am a hunter. I know plenty of hunters. And Montana hunters don't have their positions. It would be fairer if it was called Montana Environmental Activists. That would change the effect of their ads."

Cox and Tester deny the group's efforts swung the race. No one from Montana Hunters and Anglers returned calls for comment.

Tester, who's argued that all groups spending on elections should disclose their donors and also pushed against super PACs, said he wasn't familiar with any of the outside groups running ads. By law, candidates are not allowed to coordinate with outside spending groups, which are supposed to be independent.

Despite his ambivalence, he said he was glad the outside groups jumped in.

"If we wouldn't have had folks come in on our side, it would have been much tougher to keep a message out there," Tester said. "We had no control over what they were saying. But by the same token, I think probably in the end if you look at it, they were helpful."

* * *

Montana has long prided itself on a refusal to be pigeonholed. It's the kind of place that votes Republican for president but elects Democrats to state office. Politicians wear bolo ties, tout their Montana credentials and use words like "hell" and "crap." People introduce themselves by saying what generation Montanan they are.

Consistently, the state fights against any mandate that smacks of Washington meddling, from the federal speed limit to thein early 2010, which opened the door to corporations and unions spending unlimited money on independent ads, echoing an earlierthat equated money with free speech.

Before that, Montana had one of the country's toughest campaign finance laws, dating back 100 years, to the time of . After one of those kings bribed state lawmakers to back him as senator, the state banned corporate political spending.

Even after Citizens United, the Montana Supreme Court insisted that Montana's legacy of corruption justified keeping the ban. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court squashed that move, saying theapplied to every state in the nation.

By then, dark money groups were already weighing in on Montana's Senate race.

The TV ads started in March 2011, the month after Rehberg announced. The Environmental Defense Action Fund attacked Rehberg for his stance on mercury emissions. The Electronic Payments Coalition praised Tester for his push to delay implementing new debit-card swipe fees.

"The thing that surprised me a little bit was how early they got involved," said David Parker, an associate professor of political science at Montana State University who tracked all 160 TV commercials as part of a book he is writing on the race. "And I think that was critical, because very early on, they were able to establish the contours of this race. The candidates were just busy putting their organizations together and raising money."

Most of the money spent in 2011 on TV ads came from groups that didn't have to report their donors. They also didn't have to report their ads to the Federal Election Commission, because they didn't specifically tell voters to vote for or against a candidate. Instead of saying "Vote for Rehberg," they said things like "Call Jon Tester. Tell him to stop supporting President Barack Obama." Ads like that only have to be reported to the FEC if they air during the two months before an election.

The only way to compile data on such ad spending is by visiting TV stations, which Parker did. ProPublica helped him collect information on the last round of ads.

Parker's data shows that several heavyweight conservative groups entered the fray in mid-2011 to try to cast Tester, whom they saw as vulnerable, as a big spender.

Crossroads GPS, the dark money group launched by GOP strategist Karl Rove, ran two ads in similar to those attacking Democrats in other states for supporting excessive spending.

Also that month, a conservative group called Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee ran aabout a new miracle drug called "Spenditol," Washington's answer to America's problems. "Call Sen. Jon Tester," the ad said. "Tell him, stop spending it all." Similar ads ran against Democratic senators up for election in tight races in ,and .

Several ads run by conservative groups backfired, messing up in ways that irked Montanans.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee a party committee that reports its donors ran an ad that appeared to show Tester with all five digits on his left hand. (Tester is well known for having lostin a childhood accident involving a meat grinder.) Themisspelled Tester's first name. A Montana cable operator yanked afor claims the operator deemed false.

"The first one that burned me really bad was from the U.S. Chamber," said Verner Bertelsen, a former Republican state legislator and Montana secretary of state. "I thought you buggers! We don't need you to come in here and tell us who to vote for."

Starting in July 2011, three new liberal dark money groups ran ads.criticized Republicans for allegedly planning to cut Medicare and help to seniors. Thepraised Tester for opposing Medicare cuts.

And in October, weeks after forming, the dark money side of Montana Hunters and Anglers, Montana Hunters and Anglers Action!, launched its first , starring , the group's gap-toothed and camouflage-sporting president, who also served on thefor Tester. At the time, the super PAC side of the group was basically dormant.

The new Hunters ad accused Rehberg of pushing a bill that supposedly would give Washington politicians control of access to public lands in Montana. Rehberg, one of 60 cosponsors, argued the legislation was necessary to help the Department of Homeland Security protect the state from illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and terrorists.

"Nobody in Montana was talking about that bill," Greenwood said. "I've only heard it talked about in campaign ads. And it played a role throughout the election."

* * *

The gusher of outside money into Montana's Senate race was part of a larger pattern. Nationally, in addition to the $5.1 billion spent byand , almost 700 outside spending groups dumped more than $1 billion into federal elections in the 2012 cycle, FEC filings show.

Of that, about $322 million was dark money, most of it from 153 social welfare nonprofits, groups that could spend money on politics as long as social welfare not politics was their primary purpose.

Relating those numbers to previous elections is a largely pointless exercise, akin to comparing statistics from baseball and lacrosse. The Citizens United ruling changed the game, opening the door to unlimited corporate donations to super PACs and to a new breed of more politically active nonprofits.

"Instead of being in a boxing match in a ring, you're in a dark alley being hit by four or five people, and you don't know who they are," said Michael Sargeant, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which helps Democrats run for state offices.

Some of the players in the 2012 cycle were longtime activist organizations such as the liberal Sierra Club and the conservative National Right to Life Committee, with clear social welfare missions and only a limited amount of political spending. Other dark money groups were juggernauts likeand , founded years ago by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which crank up their fundraising during election years and devote more money to election ads than other nonprofits.

Finding out about some of the less prominent nonprofits was no easy feat. Many were formed out of post-office boxes or law firms. On their applications to the Internal Revenue Service, they minimized or even denied any political activity.

Documents for pop-up nonprofits like the conservativeand , both of which formed in 2011, led back to athat offered no explanations. The Citizens for Strength and Security Action Fund, a liberal pop-up group thaton elections in 2010, closed down in 2011. In its place came a new group: the Citizens for Strength and Security Fund, which earlier this year bought almost $900,000 in ads attacking Rehberg and the Republican Senate candidate in .

Groups picked names that seemed designed to confuse: Patriot Majority USA is liberal. Patriotic Veterans is conservative. Common Sense Issues backed conservatives. Common Sense Movement backed a Democrat.

As in the 2010 midterms, the dark money spent in 2012 had a partisan tilt. Conservative groups accounted for about 84 percent of the spending reported to the FEC mainly through Crossroads GPS, Americans for Prosperity and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Liberal groups spent 12 percent of the dark money. Nonpartisan groups made up the rest.

Despite shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars, conservatives . Only about 14 percent of conservative dark money went to support winners.

Still, campaign-finance reformers say it's a mistake to minimize the influence of this money.

"What these donors were buying was access and influence, not only to the candidates but to the party machine," said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center. "And they will get that access. On the Republican side, you have people lining up to kiss the ring of (billionaire donor) . And on the , you have even people critical of these groups meeting with the funders of these groups. This money is not going away."

Even though liberal groups spent far less than conservative ones, they had a higher success rate. About 70 percent backed winning candidates.

Some Democrats have shown distaste for the dark-money arts, pushing for more transparency. But liberal strategists are preparing to ramp up their efforts before the next election, unless the IRS, Congress or the courts change the rules.

"We probably have a lot less comfort with some of the existing rules that allow for the Koch brothers to write unlimited checks to these groups," said Navin Nayak, the senior vice president for campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, a liberal social welfare nonprofit for more than 40 years. "But as long as these are the rules, we're certainly going do our best to make sure we're competitive and that our candidates have a shot at winning. We're certainly not going to cede the playing field to the Koch brothers."

* * *

By the time Tester and Rehberg started buying TV ads, outside groups had been defining the race for a year.

Rehberg, 57, a six-term congressman and rancher often pictured wearing a cowboy hat and a plaid shirt, wasas voting five times to increase his pay and charging an SUV to taxpayers. Tester, 56, a farmer with a flat top, wasfor voting with Obama 95 percent of the time.

Tester's campaign went up with ads in March, mainly to counter the outside messages.

"The original plans were going up 60 or 90 days later than that," Tester said. "But it was important...We had to remind people of who I am."

His early ads highlighted his Montana roots, depicting him riding a combine on his farm and packing up Montana beef to carry back to Washington.

Rehberg had less money, so his earliest TV ads, which mainly attacked Tester, went up in May.

Neither Rehberg nor anyone from his media staff responded to requests for an interview on his views on campaign finance. In the past, he has said he supports theruling.

Meanwhile, conservative groups bought TV ads that hit at Tester but stopped just short of telling people how to vote. For instance, the conservative 60 Plus Association spent almost $500,000 buying TV ads featuring crooner over the health care law. None of that was reported to the FEC.

Over the summer, the Concerned Women for America's legislative committee, Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all weighed in. The TV spots were overwhelmingly negative, and many of them were cookie-cutter ads, similar to those that ran in other states against Democrats.

Liberal groups bought TV ads, too, but that was only part of their game plan. They spent their dark money on retail politics, hitting the streets and knocking on doors.

In January, the League of Conservation Voters set up two offices in Montana one in Missoula and one in Billings. It canvassed voters and hired a full-time organizer, reaching out to 28,000 sporadic voters to urge them to vote early by mail.

Lindsay Love, the spokeswoman at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana, another nonprofit that doesn't report its donors for election spending, said the group targeted 41,000 female voters. More than 1,500 people ended up knocking on 28,500 doors and making 162,000 phone calls, she said. The group sent out about 470,000 pieces of mail.

"It's hard to unpack this," Parker said. "But it's fascinating to look at groups like the League, unions and Planned Parenthood. By and large, they did phones, canvassing, mail, very little TV. One of the best ways to get out the vote is personalized contact."

Many liberal groups active in Montana, including Montana Hunters and Anglers, were connected through Hilltop Public Solutions, a Beltway consulting firm.

, a former aide to Montana's other Democratic senator, Max Baucus, is a partner at Hilltop and runs its office in Billings. The Hilltop website notes that Kaiser helped with Tester's upset Senate win in 2006. Kaiser is also a good friend of , the manager of Obama's 2012 campaign, who also once worked for Baucus.

Kaiser was on the board of the Montana Hunters and Anglers . Anotherin Billings served as the treasurer for the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC.

Hilltop partners in Washington also helped run two other groups that spent money on the Montana race: theand the .

The League of Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana paid management fees to Hilltop.

No one from Hilltop returned calls, but Nayak and Love said they worked with Hilltop independently of other groups.

Outside groups are allowed to coordinate with each other or use the same consultants they're just not allowed to coordinate with a candidate. By working together, groups can disguise who is actually behind an ad.

In early July, for instance, the League of Conservation Voters gave $410,000 to the Montana Hunters and Anglers super PAC almost all the money the group raised as of that date.

When the super PAC spent the money on TV ads against Rehberg later that month, the spots were paid for by what appeared to be an organization of Montana hunters, not some Washington-based conservationist group. Nayak said that was not a coincidence.

"We figured having a local brand like that and partnering with them on local issues made more sense than having a D.C. brand," he said.

Nayak said the League did not donate money for the later ads pushing Cox, the libertarian.

It's not clear where that money came from. The dark money side of Montana Hunters and Anglers paid for the radio ads. The super PAC bought the TV ads and had to disclose its donors, but FEC filings show its money came mainly from two other super PACs, which in turn reported getting most of their money from unions and dark money groups, including the League.

* * *

As the Montana Senate race approached its climax, as many as five fliers landed in voters' mailboxes daily. Robocalls, supposedly , interrupted meals. Strangers knocked on doors, promising free pizza for voting. People turned off their TVs, dumped their mail without looking at it and stopped answering the phone.

"My ex and I moved in together, because he had cancer and I took care of him," said Louise McMillin, 51, who lives in the university district in Missoula. "He kept getting polling calls as he was dying. After he died, I kept saying, 'He's dead, could you take his name off the list?' And they said, 'Sure, sure.' And they kept calling."

The race stayed tight. Demand for TV ad slots spiked, so the TV stations started raising their prices. The law required them to charge candidates their lowest rate. But outside groups? They could be hit up for whatever the market would bear.

Rehberg's campaign paid $400 to run a 30-second ad during the show Blue Bloods on Oct. 19 on the CBS affiliate in Great Falls. A week later, Crossroads GPS paid $2,000 for a slot during the same show.

Anything was fair game for the ads. One, from the , made fun of Tester's buzz cut, then showed his hair growing down to his shoulders, a bizarre sequence apparently designed to signal his ties to Obama. Another ad, from the dark money group , featured a baby with asaying he didn't know what smelled worse, his diaper or Tester.

"By the middle of October, people were just so tuned out and quite frankly disgusted by all these third-party ads," said Ted Dick, the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. "We found that face-to-face conversations toward the end were most persuasive and effective. That's the lesson we're taking forward."

There are other lessons. Tester said the Montana race made clear that candidates will have to raise money sooner, and go up with TV ads faster. Although uncomfortable with outside money, Tester also said it's just the way things are now, even on the liberal side.

"I mean, look, they did it," he said. "And with as many ads that were against me, I was glad they did. But it needs to be transparent. I mean, everybody's needs to be transparent... It's important to know who's spending money on who so you know why they're doing it. And the way the system is set up right now, there is no transparency. Very little."

Campaign finance reformers agree that knowing who is behind a message helps people assess it.

One example: Two postcards sent to thousands of Montanans just before the election didn't include the required notice saying who paid for them.said Rehberg had wasted "hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on pork barrel projects," and urged people to vote for Cox, "a champion for fiscal responsibility." Thecalled Rehberg "the king of pork" and told people to vote for Cox.

Cox said he didn't send them. The bulk-mail permit on the postcards came back to a Las Vegas company called PDQ Printing, according to the U.S. Postal Service. In an , PDQ describes itself as "Nevada's preeminent Union printer." No one there returned phone calls.

Greenwood, the head of the Montana Republican Party, filed a complaint with the FEC over the mailers. The complaint blames liberal groups and says they "engaged in a duplicitous strategy of supporting the libertarian candidate, Dan Cox, in a desperate attempt" to siphon votes from Rehberg.

More than likely, that complaint won't be resolved for years.

Greenwood said he didn't think disclosure was a cure-all. But he also said the current system marginalized political parties.

"Whether it's Montana Hunters and Anglers or (the conservative super PAC) American Crossroads, they are not responsive to the grassroots," Greenwood said. "These are the professionals and the money men who are not responsive at all to people. The system as it is now does not reflect what people want."

Besides picking between Tester and Rehberg, Montanans got a chance in this election to say how they want the system to work. On the ballot was an initiative largely symbolic in light of recent court decisions that declared that corporations are not human beings and banned corporate money in politics.

Gov. Schweitzer, a Democrat, and Bertelsen, the former Republican secretary of state, campaigned for the initiative. In a shocker for backers,of voters supported it.

"I realized it absolutely didn't have any legal basis to do anything dramatic," said Bertelsen, who is 94. "But it's a case of saying, 'We don't like it.' I guess we could just sit down and not say a word. But the Supreme Court I think they made a mistake. Money isn't speech, anyhow. It's just money."

By tradition, a wooden cross is cast into the water and it is believed that the person who retrieves it will be freed from evil spirits.

In the central Bulgarian city of Kalofer, 350 men in traditional dress waded into the icy Tundzha River with national flags. Led by the town's mayor and encouraged by a folk orchestra and homemade plum brandy, they danced and stomped in the rocky riverbed.

In the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanta, some 3,000 Orthodox believers turned out to watch priests hurl three crosses into the icy sea. Dozens some wearing diving suits dived into the waters to retrieve the crosses.

"We the people are so like the sea," said Romanian Orthodox Archbishop Teodosie Tomitanul. "We hope that, as the sea has been calm until now this year, our souls will be just as calm."

Some Orthodox Christian churches, including those in Russia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, follow a different calendar, and Sunday was Christmas Eve, with Epiphany on Jan. 19.