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Florida Was Weird as Only It Can Be in 2011 Did you hear about the giant Lego man that washed up on Siesta Key beach? What about the man who walked into a bar, ordered a beer and disappeared for 30 minutes to rob a bank, only to return and finish his drink? Or how about the puzzling story of the baby grand piano that showed up on a sandbar near Miami? That's Florida, where weird is an everyday event. Over the past year, a 92-year-old woman fired four shots at a neighbor who refused to kiss her, a Delray Beach man cut off a piece of a dead whale that washed ashore - planning to eat it - and an 8-year-old girl gave her teacher some marijuana and said: "This is some of my mom's weed." The piano was a mystery for about a month. On Jan. 1, 2011, the charred instrument showed up on a Biscayne Bay sandbar, a couple hundred yards from shore. A 16-year-old student eventually admitted he put it there as part of an art project. A day after it was removed, someone set up a table with two chairs, place settings and a bottle of wine. It's still not clear how the 100-pound, 8-foot-tall Lego man washed ashore. The local tourism bureau hoped to use Lego man to promote the area, but the man who found it has placed a claim on it. He can keep it if the owner doesn't collect it before early next year. As for the bar-bank robber, he was arrested at his watering hole, not too long after the holdup. Author Tim Dorsey, whose novels include Florida strangeness both real and fantasy, said the state is an odd place because of its diverse, highly transient population. There's pockets of strangeness all over the country, but here it's a baseline lifestyle. There, it's the aberration. There, it's the tail end of the bell curve. Here, it's the peak of the bell curve," Dorsey said. Young people made up a large part of the peculiar tales. In Palm Beach County, an elementary school teacher opened an end-of-the-year gift from an 8-year-old student's grandmother and found toiletries and a loaded handgun. A Tampa woman upset with her 15-year-old son's bad grades forced him to stand on a street corner with a sign that read: "Honk if I need an education." A 15-year-old Florida Keys girl who is a big fan of the "Twilight" books and movies was afraid that her mother would get upset by the bite marks her boyfriend gave her after they acted out her vampire fantasy. She made up a story about being attacked; doubtful investigators got her to tell the truth. Deputies arrested an 18-month-old's father after they found the man passed out in his mobile home while the toddler was in the yard picking up beer cans and drinking them. Pasco County deputies said a woman walked into a bank with a 3-year-old boy and robbed it. A homeless man held up a Tampa bank, fled on a city bus and handed out stolen cash to passengers. And while he didn't rob it, an unhappy Palm Coast bank customer left quite a deposit. He urinated in a drive-thru bank tube and drove off. Animals always account for a fair share of odd news. At the Miami airport, a Brazilian trying to get through security was caught with several baby pythons and tortoise hatchlings in his underwear. A woman found a 7-foot alligator in her bathroom, and a man stored his dead cougar in a freezer. In north-central Florida, an Ocala ice cream shop got rid of its costumed mascot - a waving vanilla cone - because passers-by kept mistaking him for a hooded Ku Klux Klansman. In unusual crime stories, two managers of a Lake City Domino's Pizza were charged with burning down a rival Papa John's as a way to increase business. Two deaf men using sign language were stabbed at a Hallandale Beach bar when another costumer thought they were flashing gang signs. And finally, a North Naples man who was pulled over for a traffic violation called 911 and reported a shooting nearby to get out of a ticket. He still got a ticket and was also charged with making a false 911 call.

David Cameron: UN's hands 'stained with blood' over failure to stop atrocities in Syria Mr Cameron's strongly-worded comments risk worsening relations with Moscow after a gradual thaw over recent years. The PM also announced an additional 12 million US dollars (£16.7 million) of British humanitarian aid for civilians caught up in the civil war in Syria. Mr Cameron made clear he also laid some of the blame for atrocities in Syria at the door of Iran, which has backed president Bashar Assad. "Assad has colluded with those in Iran who are set on dragging the region into wider conflict," said the PM. The only way out of Syria's nightmare is to move forward towards political transition and not to give up the cause of freedom. The future for Syria is a future without Assad. It has to be based on mutual consent as was clearly agreed in Geneva in June. Mr Cameron's speech came a year after he told the same body that he welcomed the emergence of democratic movements across north Africa and the Middle East in the Arab Spring. With Syria still mired in war, Islamist parties winning elections in Egypt and US ambassador Chris Stevens murdered by a mob in Libya earlier this month, Mr Cameron acknowledged that doubts over the Arab Spring were gaining ground in western capitals. But he urged the international community to keep faith in the process of change in the Arab world, while accepting progress would be slow in some areas. "Nothing in the last year has changed my fundamental conviction," said Mr Cameron. The Arab Spring represents a precious opportunity for people to realise their aspirations for a job, a voice and a stake in their own future. And we, in this United Nations, must do everything we can to support them. Mr Cameron denounced the killing of Mr Stevens as a "despicable act of terrorism," but said he was inspired by the response of the Libyan public, who were not prepared to allow extremists to "hijack their chance for democracy." The PM said: "The right response is to finish the work Chris Stevens gave his life to. And that's what the vast majority of Libyans want too. Mr Cameron said: "One year on, some believe that the Arab Spring is in danger of becoming an Arab Winter. They point to the riots on the streets, Syria's descent into a bloody civil war, the frustration at the lack of economic progress and the emergence of newly elected Islamist-led governments across the region. But they are in danger of drawing the wrong conclusion. Today is not the time to turn back - but to keep the faith and redouble our support for open societies, and for people's demands for a job and a voice. Describing himself as a "liberal Conservative not a neo-conservative," Mr Cameron said he had never expected democracy to provide a swift and easy solution to the area's problems, but respected each country's right to develop in its own way. "We cannot expect the damage of decades to be put right in a matter of months," said Mr Cameron. But the drive for opportunity, justice and the rule of law and the hunger for a job and a voice are not responsible for the problems in the region. Quite the opposite. The building blocks of democracy, fair economies and open societies are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And we in the United Nations must step up our efforts to support the people of these countries as they build their own democratic future. Mr Cameron said Britain was ready to work with recently-elected Islamist governments such as Egypt's, but stressed they would be judged on issues such as their treatment of women and Christian minorities, as well as whether they seek to interfere in neighbouring states. "Democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other," said Mr Cameron. So let us judge governments not by their religion - but by how they act and what they do. And let us engage with the new democratic governments in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya so that their success can strengthen democracy not undermine it. He announced that a British Government taskforce has been set up to clear bureaucratic hurdles to the repatriation of assets of the former regimes in Arab Spring states, which were frozen during the last year's upheavals. In private talks ahead of his address, Mr Cameron was urged by Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi to step up pressure on Russia and China to back a Security Council resolution on Syria. In their 30-minute meeting, Mr Mursi agreed that the Assad regime must not remain in place, but that external military intervention would make matters worse. He voiced his support for further EU, US and Arab sanctions on Syria, and said he wanted to explore how Arab neighbours can work together to increase pressure on Assad. Mr Cameron will be heartened by this backing for his stance from the democratically-elected leader of the most populous Arab state.

Lincoln, Liberty and two Americas Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. Those are the opening words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and they seem eerily prescient today because once again this country finds itself increasingly divided and pondering the future of this great union and the very ideas of liberty and equality for all. The gap is growing between liberals and conservatives, the rich and the not rich, intergenerational privilege and new-immigrant power, patriarchy and gender equality, the expanders of liberty and the withholders of it. And that gap, which has geographic contours - the densely populated coastal states versus the less densely populated states of the Rocky Mountains, Mississippi Delta and Great Plains - threatens the very concept of a United States and is pushing conservatives, left quaking after this month's election, to extremes. Some have even moved to make our divisions absolute. The Daily Caller reported last week "more than 675,000 digital signatures appeared on 69 separate secession petitions covering all 50 states," according to its analysis of requests made through the White House's "We the People" online petition system. According to The Daily Caller, "Petitions from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas residents have accrued at least 25,000 signatures, the number the Obama administration says it will reward with a staff review of online proposals." President Obama lost all those states, except Florida, in November. The former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul took to his Congressional Web site to laud the petitions of those bent on leaving the union, writing that "secession is a deeply American principle." He continued: "If the possibility of secession is completely off the table there is nothing to stop the federal government from continuing to encroach on our liberties and no recourse for those who are sick and tired of it." The Internet has been lit up with the incongruity of Lincoln's party becoming the party of secessionists. But even putting secession aside, it is ever more clear that red states are becoming more ideologically strident and creating a regional quasi country within the greater one. They are rushing to enact restrictive laws on everything from voting to women's health issues. As Monica Davey reported in The New York Times on Friday, starting in January, "one party will hold the governor's office and majorities in both legislative chambers in at least 37 states, the largest number in 60 years and a significant jump from even two years ago." As the National Conference of State Legislatures put it, "thanks to an apparent historic victory in Arkansas, Republicans gained control of the old South, turning the once solidly Democratic 11 states of the Confederacy upside down." Arkansas will be the only one of these states with a Democratic governor. As Davey's article pointed out, single-party control raises "the prospect that bold partisan agendas - on both ends of the political spectrum - will flourish over the next couple of years." But it seems that "both ends of the political spectrum" should not be misconstrued as being equal. Democrats may want to expand personal liberties, but Republicans have spent the last few years working feverishly to restrict them. According to a January report from the Guttmacher Institute: "By almost any measure, issues related to reproductive health and rights at the state level received unprecedented attention in 2011. In the 50 states combined, legislators introduced more than 1,100 reproductive health and rights-related provisions, a sharp increase from the 950 introduced in 2010. By year's end, 135 of these provisions had been enacted in 36 states, an increase from the 89 enacted in 2010 and the 77 enacted in 2009. Almost all the 2011 provisions were enacted in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. According to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, at least 180 restrictive voting bills were introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states. Most of the states that passed restrictive voting laws have Republican-controlled legislatures. An N.C.S.L. report last year found "the 50 states and Puerto Rico have introduced a record 1,538 bills and resolutions relating to immigrants and refugees in the first quarter of 2011. This number surpasses the first quarter of 2010 by 358. That trend slowed in 2012 in large part because of legal challenges. Many of the states that had enacted anti-immigrant laws or adopted similar resolutions by March of last year, again, had Republican-controlled legislatures. We are moving toward two Americas with two contrasting - and increasingly codified - concepts of liberty. Can such a nation long endure? Gail Collins and Joe Nocera are off today.

Extreme heat bakes Midwest, parts of East Coast PHILADELPHIA - Highways buckled in Illinois and Wisconsin, water use was cut back in Indiana and those who had power in the mid-Atlantic were urged to conserve it, but the heat gripping much of the country was only expected to worsen Saturday. Temperatures of more than 100 degrees were forecast in Philadelphia, authorities warned of excessive heat in the Midwest and the power outages surpassed a week in the mid-Atlantic, where extreme heat was expected into the weekend. A major storm in the area last week left behind damage, which combined with the high demand for power to stress the electrical system's capabilities, a Washington-area utility said. Hundreds of thousands remained without power Friday night in the Appalachians and mid-Atlantic, mostly in West Virginia. Tens of thousands were still without power in the Midwest as well after storms there this week. Utilities hoped to restore service over the weekend in Michigan, where temperatures were forecast in the 90s. The heat was blamed for at least 23 deaths. Nine people in Maryland have died of heat-related causes in recent days, the state said. Authorities in Chicago said heat was a factor in six deaths there, mostly among older people. Three deaths in Wisconsin and two in Tennessee were also reported to be heat-related. In Ohio, a man in his 70s and two women -- one in her late 60s, the other in her 80s -- were found dead this week, said Dr. Jeff Lee, a deputy county coroner in the central part of the state. He said all three were suffering from heart disease but died from stress caused by high temperatures in their houses. Temperatures inside were stifling, recorded in the 90s in two cases, with windows shut and no ventilation. The houses lacked electricity because of recent power outages. "If they had gotten cooling, we would have expected them to survive," he said. Record temperatures were set Friday in the Indiana cities of Indianapolis, South Bend and Fort Wayne, where temperatures could reach 106 degrees but feel more like 114. In central Arkansas, Russellville reached 106 degrees, breaking a record set in 1964. Relief was on the way in the form of a cold front as the weekend ends, but forecasters expected it to bring severe weather, too. The rain should help dry spells in many places. Much of Arkansas is enduring brown grass and seeing trees lose their green, and farmers in Ohio are growing concerned about the dry conditions, considered among the worst of the past decade.

Prep-School Predators: Report Alleges Sex Abuse at Elite New York City School A scathing exposé alleges that decades of sexual abuse by teachers at the elite Horace Mann school went unreported and unpunished. Graham Morrison / Bloomberg Students arrive at the Horace Mann School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx borough of New York. The world of elite New York City private schools was rocked this week by allegations in a special New York Times Magazine report alleging decades of sexual abuse at one of the most well-respected institutions in the country. For decades, a handful of teachers at the Horace Mann school, an elite prep school in the Bronx, sexually abused both their male and female students with various levels of impunity, according to the exposé by screenwriter Amos Kamil. In the article, Kamil, a Horace Mann alumnus, recalls his friends and classmates privately confiding in him the abuse that they endured at the hands of their teachers: Guys, I have to tell you something that happened to me when we were at H.M. Do you remember Mr. Wright, the football coach? Our metal utensils ceased clanking. Speaking calmly and staring into the flames, he told us that when he was in eighth grade, Wright sexually assaulted him. "And not just me," he added. There were others. First Wright befriended him, he said. Then he molested him. Then he pretended nothing happened. No one knew what to say, at least at first. But then slowly, the rest of us started telling stories, too. One of the guys talked about a teacher who took him on a field trip, and then invited him into his bed in the hotel room they were sharing. My friend fled, walking in the rain for hours until the coast seemed clear. Another told a story about a teacher who got him drunk and naked; that time, no one fled. MORE: Sex Abuse in Schools: Why Repeat Offenders are so Common Very few of the victims ever reported the abuse, instead resorting to silence, apathy, therapy, alcohol and even suicide. On the two occasions when complaints were made, the offenders were swiftly relieved of their duties; but as Kamil alleges, the school took no action to investigate other similar crimes or to address the mental or other needs of the victims. The case is the latest in a series of New York-area school sex abuse scandals that have come to light lately. At Poly Prep, a prestigious Brooklyn private school, a former football coach was accused of preying on boys in his charge while the school administration turned a blind eye. In April, a former math teacher at Riverdale County School in the Bronx was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a teenaged student. Meanwhile, several New York City public school teachers have been arrested for sexually assaulting students, sparking a district-wide investigation. MORE: Did Jerry Sandusky Write Love Letters to an Alleged Victim? The Horace Mann allegations are among the most troubling of the recent accusations, not least because of the pedigree of the institution involved: the school is consistently named one of the 10 best prep schools in the country, and came in second on a 2010 Forbes list. Following the release of the Times article, Horace Mann released a statement to the school community expressing abhorrence at the alleged crimes committed and reassuring students and parents that the school is a safe place to learn. "The safety, security, and well- being of the children who attend Horace Mann are at the core of everything we do," the letter stated. Many Times commenters, however, were quick to point out that the school as of this writing has not reached out to past victims, many of whom still struggle with memories of the abuse that they endured as children. MORE: The Horrors of Miramonte: After an L.A. School's Sex Abuse Scandal, Can Students Be Healed?

Obama quizzed on TVShack accused Richard O'Dwyer extradition

Maisie Baxter Facebook comments investigated by police

The Republican race: A bit of a breakthrough THE race for the Republican presidential nomination has followed a consistent pattern. Every month or so a candidate emerges from the pack to threaten Mitt Romney's lead, only to drop back after a week or two. It used to be a new challenger each time: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and so on. Lately, it has been the same man periodically snapping at Mr Romney's heels before falling behind again: Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania. This week Mr Santorum flubbed yet another chance to overtake Mr Romney, by losing the primary in Illinois. That is great news for Mr Romney. After Georgia, Illinois is the biggest prize yet, accounting for 69 of 2,286 delegates to the Republican convention in August, at which the nominee will formally be selected. Mr Romney won by a big margin: 47% to 35%. Because of the complicated electoral rules in Illinois and many other states, that will bring him at least two-thirds of the delegates from the state. It also marks the first time that he has drubbed Mr Santorum in the Midwest, after narrow wins in Michigan and Ohio and defeats in Iowa and Minnesota. Mr Santorum did his best to expand his appeal beyond the most conservative voters, talking in histrionic terms about the need for smaller government. "This is the most important election of your lifetime," he intoned at a rally in Peoria, the supposed navel of middle America. "Freedom [is] at stake," he tweeted on the morning of the primary. But he had already fluffed his lines, appearing to suggest that the unemployment rate was not that important (compared with preserving America's founding principles, he meant). Disappointingly for Mr Santorum, Peorians seemed to have faith in Mr Romney's ability to repair the economy. People for whom that was the most important issue voted for him overwhelmingly, according to exit polls. They also had misgivings about Mr Santorum's emphasis on social issues. At an event he held also in Peoria, a veteran said of his fixation with abortion: "It's the last thing we should care about. If we keep spending, we are going to end up like Greece. Yet like a moth to the flame Mr Santorum keeps returning to such topics, and all the controversy that comes with them. During a speech he gave at a religious school in the Chicago suburbs, two men in the audience stood up and kissed, prompting predictable hostility from the crowd. Mr Romney has won over half of the delegates awarded so far. That pace, if sustained, will be more than enough to secure him the nomination outright, although probably not before the final primaries in May and June. His rivals, by contrast, would need to improve their showing dramatically, winning the lion's share of the remaining delegates simply to deny Mr Romney outright victory. And they would have to do that in unfavourable states like Maryland, New York and California. The prospects for the two other candidates, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, look hopeless; but neither of them shows any sign of being ready to concede. Both Mr Paul and Mr Santorum argue that they have actually won more delegates than estimated in the caucus states. This could be true (those delegates have not actually been assigned yet), but the difference would be far too small to alter the dynamics of the race. Mr Gingrich, for his part, seems to enjoy campaigning and to bear a grudge about how Mr Romney and an allied Super PAC ended his time in the sun with cloudbursts of negative advertising. Moreover, even if Mr Romney's nomination is in the bag barring some unexpected reversal, his position is hardly commanding. His biggest wins have tended to be in places that either vote reliably Democratic in presidential elections, such as Illinois and Massachusetts, or don't vote at all, such as Guam and Puerto Rico (which gave him almost 90% of the vote on March 18th). He still struggles to win the support of poorer, less educated, more conservative and more religious voters. On March 24th he is likely to lose the next state to vote, Louisiana. His long, hard march to the nomination continues. Explore our map and guide to the Republican candidacy race

Romney turns Obama's attacks back against the president As President Obama and Mitt Romney campaigned heavily in the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday, new polls show neck-and-neck race in Colorado with both candidates tied at 48 percent; meanwhile in Nevada, the president still holds a slight advantage. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has appropriated for himself one of President Barack Obama's most potent lines of attack throughout this election. If there is a candidate who represents the status quo and whose plans for the next four years are hazy, it's Obama, as Romney tells it. It's the same charge the Obama campaign has used against Romney -- with great effect -- for most of 2012. But in a stroke of irony, the Republican nominee has turned the attack back toward the president, with a degree of success. "This election is a choice between the status quo," Romney said during a major speech on Friday in Iowa, "or choosing real change." Governor Mitt Romney addressed a crowd of supporters in Ames, Iowa, touting himself as a candidate of change and promising to "bring that kind of change, real change to our country." The former Massachusetts governor has stumped for most of this week by calling himself the candidate of "big change," claiming for himself the mantle of "change" that Obama had first powerfully represented in 2008. Moreover, Romney has begun ridiculing Obama's plans for a second term as thin and vague at best. You see the President's campaign is slipping, the president's campaign is slipping because he can't find an agenda. He's been looking for it -- there's only 12 days left," Romney said at a rally Thursday in Ohio. He hasn't had a chance to defend it or to describe it to the American people in our debates and so the American people now have to recognize that given the big challenges and the big election we have it's time for a big change. If Romney's offensive seems familiar, that might be due to its similarities to many of Obama's own attacks on the Republican nominee. The president, for instance, has sought throughout the campaign to link Romney to former President George W. Bush, arguing that little has changed in Romney's proposals from the last Republican to inhabit the White House. "We can't afford to go backwards to the same policies that got us into this mess; we've got to go forward with the policies that are getting us out of this mess," Obama said yesterday at a rally in Virginia. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivers his speech on the economy during a campaign stop at Kinzler Construction Services, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, in Ames, Iowa. And Obama mocked Romney's jobs plans as nonsensical and insubstantial, much as Romney has begun to do of Obama's second-term agenda. "I've got a plan that will actually create jobs, not just talk about creating jobs -- a plan that will actually create middle-class security, not just use the words but not deliver on the promise," Obama said at the same rally in Richmond. Unlike my opponent, I'm actually proud to talk about what's in my plan, because the arithmetic works. But Romney has been able to turn these criticisms back against Obama precisely because voters suggest that they are seeking change, even if Obama is re-elected. Sixty-two percent of registered voters, for instance, said in this week's NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that Obama should make "major changes" in a potential second term. Obama's campaign also produced a new, glossy pamphlet -- which packages many of Obama's existing jobs proposals, which have met defeat on Capitol Hill -- in a glossy pamphlet. Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan ridiculed it as a "comic book" during a rally Thursday in Virginia. President Obama really hasn't given us a vision for a second term agenda. Just a couple of days ago he came up with a slick new brochure, with less than two weeks left to say, 'Oh I do actually have an agenda,'" he said. It is ... a slick re-packaging of more of the same. That Obama hasn't laid out much of a comprehensive second term agenda -- combined with the overall thirst for "change" among many voters -- has only aided Romney and Ryan's ability to sidestep many of the questions about their own plans that had dogged the Republican ticket for much of the election. When asked about the difficult arithmetic or politics underlying Romney's proposals, Republicans are arguing in the closing days of the election that Obama has hardly offered better. In an interview on Friday with radio host Michael Smerconish, the president dismissed Romney's claim to "big change" -- by again voicing his familiar criticism of Romney. "What Gov. Romney's offering is a return to policies that have failed us in the past," Obama said. He's now talking about them as 'big changes.' They're not big changes; they're a repeat, a relapse, of things that haven't worked for American families for over a decade now.

Hope for consensus on gun control diminishes In the days following the shooting deaths of 20 children in Newtown, Conn., some of the most ardent gun rights advocates called for a new conversation on how to address gun-related violence in the United States. But National Rifle Association officials and some leading Republicans signaled over the weekend that they would continue to resist any comprehensive change in gun laws, while calling for armed personnel to be placed in all schools and a discussion about violence in popular culture. Learn more about mass shootings that occurred this year Tom Hamburger NRA officials and some in GOP signal a continued resistance to any comprehensive change in laws. Philip Rucker and Sari Horwitz Until the Newtown attack, the issue was deemed politically untouchable, unlikely to garner consensus on Hill. Cheryl W. Thompson Data show children killed by guns are usually shot by someone they know, and deaths at school are rare. Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz, David S. Fallis and Joel Achenbach The fights ahead will be protracted and brutal - and any legislation may well be riddled with loopholes. Marc Fisher, Robert O'Harrow and Peter Finn Lanza gave little away. A look at legislation since 1934 regulating guns in the United States. Ann Hood Living a parent's worst nightmare. Joe Manchin III On gun control, both sides fall short. "I do believe better security in schools is a good place to start," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who rejected the notion of government action to ban sales of the kind of assault-style weapons used in the Newtown shootings. "I don't suggest you take my right to buy an AR-15 away from me, because I don't think it will work," he said. White House officials said they were not encouraged by the NRA approach and reiterated the administration's commitment to regulating assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. "I don't think it's what will work," said Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." He characterized legislation to ban assault weapons authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) as "a phony piece of legislation . . . built on lies." Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), interviewed Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" show, said the NRA statements were "really disheartening." "I had hoped they would come to the table and say "everything on is on the table." What this does mean is that the kind of new regulation of guns that President Obama and Vice President Biden and a lot of people would like to see enacted early next year is not going to happen easily. It's going to be a battle. Meantime, around the country state legislators and school board members began their own debate over the NRA schools initiative, with officials from Maine to Minnesota and South Dakota and Texas discussing whether it would be good policy to have guns in the hands of teachers or others in the schools as a way to curb violence. "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," LaPierre said Sunday, repeating a theme from a Friday news conference in which he announced the new NRA campaign to place a police officer or an armed guard in every school. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that LaPierre was "so tone deaf he actually helps the cause of us passing sensible gun legislation . . ." Citing polling data, Democrats have said that they think there is an opportunity to exploit a gulf between the membership of the NRA - particularly powerful in rural areas - and the group's outspoken leadership in Washington. Hunters and NRA members are asking for a ban on military assault-style weapons, said Rep. Mike Thompson, the Vietnam veteran and avid hunter from California who has been named point man for House Democrats on the issue. Longtime NRA backers, such as Rep. Gene Green (D-Tex.) questioned last week whether the NRA had become too closely associated with the Republican Party and was losing some of its political clout with Democrats.

It's no fluke: Limbaugh revels in the crossfire Rush Limbaugh's words about student land him in hot water Limbaugh is no stranger to controversy, or apologies Talk-radio host has been raising hackles for more than 25 years He's become political symbol, valuable to both parties (CNN) -- Republican kingmaker or entertainer? Truth teller or "big fat idiot"? How about "lightning rod"? Once again, Rush Limbaugh -- the conservative provocateur with the self-described "talent on loan from God" -- is in hot water. Limbaugh, who has been the leading talk-radio host for more than two decades, ignited this most recent controversy when he made comments about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, who had testified as an advocate for contraception at a Capitol Hill hearing. What does it say about the college co-ed Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says she must be paid to have sex? Limbaugh asked on his show last Wednesday. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. His remarks set off a major outcry, prompting top Republicans and Democrats alike to denounce the famed talk show host. Limbaugh apologized Saturday, saying his "choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir." He added, "I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices." The damage, however, has been done. Eight companies, including AOL, Quicken Loans and ProFlowers, have announced they will pull ads from Limbaugh's show, the No. 1 radio show in America. What effect this will have on Limbaugh -- and the 600-plus radio stations his show airs on -- is anyone's guess. Limbaugh's situation is complicated by the politics of his show, said Michael Harrison, founder and publisher of Talkers magazine, which covers the talk industry. Talk radio "has such a high profile and so much buzz factor, people tend to give these big-time talk-show hosts" far more sway than they actually have, Harrison said. People who see things through the political lens only see things politically. But politics is only part of the story, he said. The fact is, he's primarily an entertainer. Glory in fury The Fluke controversy is far from the first time Rush Hudson Limbaugh III has made controversial statements -- or backtracked. In 2006, Limbaugh mocked Parkinson's-afflicted actor Michael J. Fox after Fox appeared in a political commercial for Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. He later offered a conditional apology: "I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act." Three years earlier, Limbaugh resigned from ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" after igniting a controversy with statements about African-American quarterback Donovan McNabb. My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated. I offered an opinion," Limbaugh said. This opinion has caused discomfort to the crew, which I regret. Limbaugh's remarks were inspired by Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke's Capitol Hill testimony. Limbaugh has also mocked presidential children Amy Carter ("the most unattractive presidential daughter in the history of the country") and Chelsea Clinton (comparing her to a dog). Both times, he apologized, though some critics questioned the spirit of his regret. His words still carry weight within the Republican Party, and just as often raise the hackles of his ideological opponents. Limbaugh often glories in their fury, letting fly with such terms as "feminazis" ("Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society," he once said), "caller abortions" (disconnecting unwanted callers), "banking queen" (for the openly gay congressman and House Financial Services Committee member Barney Frank) and "state-run media" (mainstream media). Indeed, before a number of advertisers had announced their intent, Limbaugh doubled down on the Fluke controversy. After President Obama called the student, Limbaugh mocked the story on his show. "The president called her to make sure she's OK," Limbaugh said. What is she, 30 years old? Thirty years old, a student at Georgetown Law, who admits to having so much sex that she can't afford it anymore. Limbaugh has been stoking passions since he first went on the air as a talk-show host in 1984, replacing the equally outrageous Morton Downey Jr. in Sacramento, California. Previously, Limbaugh -- part of a noted southeast Missouri Republican family -- had worked as a music DJ under the name Jeff Christie and as director of promotions for the Kansas City Royals. In Sacramento, he found his exaggerated "El Rushbo" persona and set about raising ratings and emotion in equal measure. By 1988, he had moved to New York and his show went national. He quickly became a star, reaching more than 5 million listeners for his "EIB Network" by 1991. (Current numbers are difficult to determine, says Harrison, but Talkers believes Limbaugh reaches 15 million people a week. Others question the figures.) "EIB" stood for "Excellence In Broadcasting" -- a typical mock-heroic Limbaugh touch befitting his golden voice. Even those who disagree with him acknowledge his radio talent. "Rush is just an amazing radio performer," "This American Life" host Ira Glass told The New York Times Magazine in a 2008 Limbaugh profile by Zev Chafets, who later wrote a Limbaugh biography. Years ago, I used to listen in the car on my way to reporting gigs, and I'd notice that I disagreed with everything he was saying, yet I not only wanted to keep listening, I actually liked him. That is some chops. You can count on two hands the number of public figures in America who can pull that trick off. The power of the bully pulpit Limbaugh also became a power within the Republican Party, using his bully pulpit to promote conservative views and denigrate Democrats and their fellow travelers. The GOP appreciated the boost, naming him an honorary member of the 1994 "Contract With America" congressional freshman class. He branched out, writing best-selling books -- the first two were titled "The Way Things Ought to Be" and "See, I Told You So" -- and starting a syndicated TV talk show, which was produced by future Fox News head Roger Ailes. Limbaugh's popularity naturally led to detractors. Perhaps the most publicly outspoken was comedian Al Franken, who ripped Limbaugh's books with his own, titled "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations." That book, along with regular Comedy Central appearances opposite such political personalities as Arianna Huffington, helped establish Franken as a left-wing force. The Democrat is now one of Minnesota's U.S. senators. Limbaugh's show is the No. 1 radio talk show in America. Given the mockery Limbaugh dishes out, his personal life has left him open to jokes. He's been divorced three times; he married his fourth wife, Kathryn Rogers, in 2010. He's struggled with weight problems. He suffered from addiction to pain medication and was named during a 2003 investigation into a black market drug ring in Palm Beach County, Florida. He also was detained by drug enforcement agents in 2006 after returning from the Dominican Republic. The agents confiscated a supply of Viagra; the prescription was not in Limbaugh's name. Democratic Party leaders have also found Limbaugh a useful target, making him the center of a 2009 advertising campaign. Over the years, several Republicans have backed off positions on issues after being taken to task by Limbaugh. In 2009, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia, criticized Limbaugh and fellow conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity for their attacks on the congressional GOP leadership; he apologized within 24 hours. Other Republicans have spoken out against handling Limbaugh with kid gloves. "The problem I'm having with the party right now is when he says things that I consider to be completely outrageous, I would like to see other members of the party do likewise, and they don't," former Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN in 2009. Powell had been a subject of Limbaugh's gibes. Talkers publisher Harrison -- who describes Limbaugh personally as "basically a shy man," sensitive to slights but "intelligent enough to have overcome his emotions and stay out of the public profile" -- believes that Limbaugh will weather this storm, as he has so many others. "I suspect he will come through this, because Limbaugh is not an elected official, he's not a clergyman, he's not a member of the government, he's just basically in the same business Ryan Seacrest is in," he said. In the end, all of this talk helps keep him out there as one of the big controversial talk-show hosts of our time. That doesn't mean, however, that Limbaugh is done dodging bullets. In our passionate times, a person who rouses of any sort of emotion is bound to stay a target. On Monday, attorney Gloria Allred jumped into the fracas with an open letter calling Limbaugh's apology "meaningless." Don Imus was suspended after racially insensitive remarks in 2007. Shock jock Howard Stern had several run-ins while broadcasting in local New York radio and in syndication. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the moralistic commentator and author, left broadcast radio in 2010, telling CNN's Larry King: "The reason is, I want to regain my First Amendment rights." Stern and Schlesinger now ply their trades for the subscription-based satellite radio company Sirius XM. "Anybody in talk radio who states a political opinion gets as many enemies as they get supporters," Harrison said. Being a celebrity today is dangerous, and being a controversial talk-show host is a very dangerous profession. CNN's Political Unit contributed to this report.

Violence Against Women Act Divides Senate "We're mad, and we're tired of it," said Senator Maria Cantwell. WASHINGTON - With emotions still raw from the fight over President Obama's contraception mandate, Senate Democrats are beginning a push to renew the Violence Against Women Act, the once broadly bipartisan 1994 legislation that now faces fierce opposition from conservatives. The fight over the law, which would expand financing for and broaden the reach of domestic violence programs, will be joined Thursday when Senate Democratic women plan to march to the Senate floor to demand quick action on its extension. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has suggested he will push for a vote by the end of March. Democrats, confident they have the political upper hand with women, insist that Republican opposition falls into a larger picture of insensitivity toward women that has progressed from abortion fights to contraception to preventive health care coverage - and now to domestic violence. "I am furious," said Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington. We're mad, and we're tired of it. Republicans are bracing for a battle where substantive arguments could be swamped by political optics and the intensity of the clash over women's issues. At a closed-door Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska sternly warned her colleagues that the party was at risk of being successfully painted as antiwoman - with potentially grievous political consequences in the fall, several Republican senators said Wednesday. Some conservatives are feeling trapped. "I favor the Violence Against Women Act and have supported it at various points over the years, but there are matters put on that bill that almost seem to invite opposition," said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who opposed the latest version last month in the Judiciary Committee. You think that's possible? You think they might have put things in there we couldn't support that maybe then they could accuse you of not being supportive of fighting violence against women? The legislation would continue existing grant programs to local law enforcement and battered women shelters, but would expand efforts to reach Indian tribes and rural areas. It would increase the availability of free legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, extend the definition of violence against women to include stalking, and provide training for civil and criminal court personnel to deal with families with a history of violence. It would also allow more battered illegal immigrants to claim temporary visas, and would include same-sex couples in programs for domestic violence. Republicans say the measure, under the cloak of battered women, unnecessarily expands immigration avenues by creating new definitions for immigrant victims to claim battery. More important, they say, it fails to put in safeguards to ensure that domestic violence grants are being well spent. It also dilutes the focus on domestic violence by expanding protections to new groups, like same-sex couples, they say. Critics of the legislation acknowledged that the name alone presents a challenge if they intend to oppose it over some of its specific provisions. "Obviously, you want to be for the title," Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican leadership, said of the Violence Against Women Act. If Republicans can't be for it, we need to have a very convincing alternative. The latest Senate version of the bill has five Republican co-sponsors, including Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, a co-author, but it failed to get a single Republican vote in the Judiciary Committee last month. As suggested by Mr. Sessions, Republicans detect a whiff of politics in the Democrats" timing. The party just went through a bruising fight over efforts to replace the Obama administration's contraception-coverage mandate with legislation allowing some employers to opt out of coverage for medical procedures they object to on religious or moral grounds.

Two charged for body encased in concrete WINDER, Ga., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Police from Florida and Georgia say they are trying to determine if a concrete-encased body found in a Georgia back yard is that of a missing Florida reporter. An autopsy was performed Tuesday to determine if the remains were those of Sean Dugas, 30, of Pensacola, who has been missing since Aug. 27, CNN reported. A body encased in concrete was found Monday buried in the back yard of a residence in Winder, Ga. The owner of the house said his twin sons, William and Christopher Cormier, 31, had come to the home about three weeks ago and asked to bury Dugas' dog in the yard. They said they had been caring for the animal, but had to kill it. The sons have been detained and charged by Winder police with concealing the death of another person. Pensacola detectives traveled to Winder Tuesday. Dugas was a former crime reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. His girlfriend went to his home on Aug. 27 to pick up for lunch and found he wasn't there. She returned on Sept. 7 and found the house empty except for a television, Pensacola police Capt. David Alexander said in a statement. She reported Dugas missing on Sept.

Bomb, Other Attacks in Iraq Leave 18 Dead A bombing near a playground and other insurgent attacks killed 18 people including several children in Iraq on Saturday, challenging government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday. The strikes underscored the difficulties facing Iraq's leadership as it struggles to keep its citizens safe. Authorities have said they intended to increase security to thwart attackers who might use the four-day Eid al-Adha to strike when people are off work and families gather in public places. The deadlier of two blasts in Baghdad struck near a playground and a small market in the neighborhood of Bawiya in eastern Baghdad. Police officials said eight people were killed, including four children. Another 24 people, including children, were wounded, they said. "Nobody expected this explosion because our neighborhood has been living in peace, away from the violence hitting the rest of the capital," said Bassem Mohammed, a 35-year-old father of three in the neighborhood who was startled by the blast. We feel sad for the children who thought that they would spend a happy time during Eid, but instead ended up getting killed or hurt. Authorities have said they planned to increase the number of checkpoints, shut some roads and deploy extra personnel during the holiday period. Elsewhere, a bomb attached to a bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims killed five people and wounded nine, according to police. The so-called sticky bomb, hidden on the underside of the bus, detonated as the pilgrims were heading to a Shiite shrine in Baghdad to mark Eid, a major Muslim holiday. In the northern city of Mosul, gunmen broke into the houses of two Shabak families, killing a boy and his parents in one and a mother and daughter in the other, according to police. A bomb exploded near the house of another Shabak family, wounding six family members. Shabaks are ethnically Turkomen and Shiite by religion. Most Shabaks were driven out of Mosul by Sunni militants during the sectarian fighting a few years ago. Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualties. Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, is a major Muslim holiday that commemorates what Muslims believe was the Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, the Biblical Ishmael, as a test of his faith from God. Christians and Jews believe another of Abraham's sons, Isaac, was the one almost sacrificed. Eid al-Adha, which began Friday, marks the end of the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims worldwide typically slaughter lambs and other animals to commemorate the holiday, and share some meat with the poor. Violence has ebbed across Iraq, but insurgents frequently attack security forces and civilians in an attempt to undermine the country's Shiite-led government. Holidays are a particular time of concern for security forces. A wave of attacks shortly before another Muslim holiday in August, Eid al-Fitr, killed more than 90 people in one of the deadliest days in Iraq this year. Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed reporting.

Can't Sleep? Losing Belly Fat Might Help Poor sleep can lead to weight gain, but now researchers say the relationship works both ways. Studies consistently show that sleep deprivation is linked to obesity and that heavier individuals tend to report more problems getting a good night's slumber. Now researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine report at the 2012 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Los Angeles that weight loss, either through diet or a combination of diet and exercise, can lead to better sleep. For six months, the researchers followed 77 overweight or obese individuals with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. At the start and end of the study, the participants filled out sleep surveys detailing their sleep problems such as sleep apnea, fatigue, insomnia, restless sleep, excessive sleep and use of sedative . The scientists also measured the volunteers" body mass index (BMI) to track changes in weight. The participants were then separated into two groups. The first group went on a weight-loss diet with exercise training and the second group simply stuck to a diet program. MORE: Losing Sleep Leads to Gains In Weight At the end of the six months, both groups experienced a weight loss of about 15 pounds on average and a 15% reduction in belly fat. And factoring in a composite score representing their overall sleep health, the authors found both groups also equally boosted their sleep quality by about 20%. "The key ingredient for improved sleep quality from our study was a reduction in overall body fat, and, in particular belly fat, which was true no matter the age or gender of the participants or whether the weight loss came from diet alone or diet plus exercise," said study author Kerry Stewart, a professor of medicine at John Hopkins in a statement. According to Stewart, belly fat is particularly concerning since it can be metabolically detrimental to health. Belly fat is almost like a living organ. It produces proteins that cause inflammation," says Stewart. When you lose a lot of belly fat in particular, the level of those substances go way down and the inflammatory response is much less than it was before. MORE: Why Sleep Deprivation May Lead to Overeating That means that rates of heart disease may decline as belly fat dissolves. Inflammation aggravates blood vessels, which can increase heart disease risk, and also interfere more generally with the body's normal physiological processes. The end result is obesity, and obesity in turn puts added mechanical pressure on the heart and lungs. "If you have a lot of belly fat, the lungs can't expand as well, so it becomes harder to breathe when you're sleeping, which is why more people get sleep apnea," says Stewart. When you have sleep apnea, you wake up more in the middle of the night and that leads to daytime sleepiness and fatigue. So people are feeling miserable because they haven't had a good nights sleep. Shedding extra weight and increasing physical activity triggers a drop in inflammation and can lower insulin resistance and improve metabolism. "This can foster weight loss or prevent further weight gain," says Stewart. Whether sleep problems cause obesity, or obesity causes sleep disturbances isn't clear, although it's likely both processes are at work simultaneously. We are not exactly sure where the problem starts, but we think it is a vicious cycle. Regardless of where it starts, they feed off each other," says Stewart. MORE: Sleeping Pills Linked with Early Death Earlier studies have suggested sleep deprivation leads to overeating and disruptions in circadian rhythms that put you at a higher risk for heart disease, obesity, depression and even Type 2 diabetes. Not getting enough sleep can also lead to hormonal changes in men and women that can disrupt hunger signals and stimulate appetite or lessen feelings of satiety. The good news is that the latest studies show that if poor sleep can lead to obesity, losing weight can help you get some more z's.

Russian Orthodox Church: Anti-Putin punk band deserve leniency if they repent MOSCOW - The Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday asked for clemency for three jailed members of the rock band Pussy Riot if they repent for their "punk prayer" for deliverance from President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's main cathedral, a statement that came a day before an appeal hearing and appeared to reflect a desire to put an end to the case that has caused an international outrage. But it was unclear whether the women, who were sentenced to two years last month, would offer a penitence sought by the church and how much leniency a court may show. Putin has always been reluctant to avoid leaving an impression that he could bow to public pressure and has taken an increasingly tough line on dissent since his inauguration in May. Monday's appeal hearing has caught their family members between hope and despair as they attempt to gauge from the words and actions of government and church officials whether the political tide will turn in their favor. In Sunday's statement, the church reaffirmed its condemnation of the women's raucous stunt, saying such actions "can't be left unpunished." But it added that if the women show "penitence and reconsideration of their action," their words "shouldn't be left unnoticed." Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that keeping them in prison any longer would be "unproductive" - a statement that encouraged hopes the appeals court could set them free. But skeptics said that ahead of the band members' conviction on charges of "hooliganism driven by religious hatred," Putin himself said the women should not be judged too harshly, raising similar hopes for their release that proved vain. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were arrested in March after dancing and high-kicking at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral as they pleaded with the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin, who was elected to a third presidential term two weeks later. They said during their trial in August that they were protesting the Russian Orthodox Church's support for Putin and didn't intend to offend religious believers. Both the government and the church may have a strong interest in putting the Pussy Riot case behind them to avoid further damage at home and abroad. The band members' imprisonment has come to symbolize intolerance of dissent in Putin's Russia and caused a strong international condemnation. Their cause has been taken up by celebrities and musicians, including Madonna and Paul McCartney, and protests have been held around the world. Even some government loyalists criticized the harsh sentence, voicing concern about the church's interference in secular affairs and a growing repressive streak in the Kremlin's policies. Since his inauguration in May, Putin has taken an increasingly tough stance against dissent in response to a series of massive winter protests against his 13-year rule. Opposition activists have faced interrogations and searches, and the Kremlin-controlled parliament quickly stamped a slew of draconian bills, including the one that raised fines 150-fold for taking part in unsanctioned protests and another obliging those non-government organizations that receive foreign funds to register as "foreign agents." In a clear nod to the Pussy Riot stunt, pro-Kremlin lawmakers last week discussed a new bill that would make "offending religious feelings" a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Actions like these have left the friends, families, and lawyers of the Pussy Riot women pessimistic about the possibility of a successful appeal. Violetta Volkova, one of the three lawyers for the women, said Friday after visiting a prison where they are being held that she had little hope for a fair sentence in a country where courts bow to the authorities. "There is always at least some minimal hope for common sense and that the court will act in accordance with the law," she said. But given the political situation in Russia, we can't depend on a legal sentence. Stanislav Samutsevich, the father of one of the women, said he also had little hope, saying that he believed the government would use the appeals process to "in some way justify the severe sentence imposed." Friends and family say they have tried to keep the women busy with books and letters to try to lighten their mood. Olga Vinogradova, a children's librarian, book reviewer, and longtime friend of the convicted Maria Alekhina, sent her philosophy books to read. She said she received messages from Alekhina once or twice a week. Like Tolokonnikova, Alekhina is the mother of a young child, a 5-year-old boy, a fact which has drawn particular sympathy from supporters of the women, who have been behind bars since their arrest in March. "One thing that she wrote to me in a letter is that . she couldn't pay a higher price than such a long separation from her child," said Vinogradova. For her freedom to speak her mind that is the greatest price. Vinogradova said that in her exchanges with Alekhina her friend had expressed little hope of leaving with an effective appeal. "She's scared about what's happening now, with the new laws," said Vinogradova, "I think she may have expected more from the protest movement."

Derrick Mason retires as a Raven Wide receiver and punt return specialist Derrick Mason announced his retirement Monday, choosing to go out as a Baltimore Raven. Derrick Mason, then with the Baltimore Ravens, at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Jan. 2, 2011. BALTIMORE, June 11 (UPI) -- Wide receiver and punt return specialist Derrick Mason announced his retirement Monday, choosing to go out as a Baltimore Raven. In six seasons with the Ravens, Mason became the all-time franchise leader in receiving yardage (5,777) and catches (471). Mason owns the team's top three single-season reception records with 103 catches in 2007, 86 in 2005 and 80 in 2008. But the 38-year-old was cut loose by the team amid acrimony last year. He was subsequently signed by the New York Jets and traded to the Houston Texans, finishing the 2012 season with 170 yards on 12 receptions in 12 games. Mason considered a permanent retirement in 2009 after the death of close friend and former Tennessee Titans teammate Steve McNair. He racked up 12,061 receiving yards and 66 touchdowns on 943 receptions in 230 games for four teams in his 15-year career, while also compiling 1,590 yards and two TDs on 182 career punt returns. Originally drafted by Tennessee in 1997, he played eight seasons for the Titans.

UN criticises Europe's 'baby boxes' Often found in the walls of hospitals the boxes offer a safe place where parents can place an unwanted child, and have becoming increasingly popular in European countries such as the Czech Republic, Germany and Latvia. "Just like medieval times in many countries we see people claiming that baby boxes prevent infanticide there is no evidence for this," Maria Herczog, a member of the UN committee, told the Guardian newspaper. A prominent child psychologist, she argued that the boxes should be replaced with better provision for family planning to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Despite this, the baby-box system retains popularity. A survey in the Czech Republic one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the system from earlier this year found that the majority of the population favoured keeping the country's 47 boxes. The Czechs also rejected an earlier request from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to close their boxes pointing out that a special ministerial commission concluded that the system was in accordance with Czech law and saved lives.

Prince of Wales defends tax status By Vanessa Houlder, FT.com December 16, 2012 -- Updated 0448 GMT (1248 HKT) File photo of Britain's Prince Charles. Clarence House has defended the Prince of Wales' financial arrangements on taxes Campaigners accused the Duchy of Cornwall of using "a highly questionable interpretation" (CNN) -- Clarence House has defended the Prince of Wales' financial arrangements after antimonarchy campaigners accused the Duchy of Cornwall of using "a highly questionable interpretation" of its legal status to avoid corporation tax. Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, said it had written to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) asking it to investigate and "take the necessary steps to ensure that the Duchy is paying corporation tax in line with normal practice for corporate entities." But Clarence House said on Saturday there was no legal basis for the Duchy to pay corporation tax as the Duchy was a trust set up to generate income for Princes of Wales. It said: ``The Prince voluntarily pays income tax on income generated by the Duchy, so there is no legal requirement to pay corporation tax and to do so would result in double taxation.. Republic based its criticisms on a November 2011 tribunal ruling on a dispute over whether the Duchy was required, as a public authority, to conduct an environmental assessment of an oyster farm. Republic said that the tribunal's finding that the Duchy was a "body or other legal person" meant it had "its own tax obligations." But the findings of the tribunal , which said the Duchy's historical context was "complicated and possibly unique," do not provide any clear-cut support for this view. It found against the Duchy on the grounds it was a public authority. The ruling said the Duchy's modern role was "carrying out the public function or service of providing an income for the undertaking of an extremely important constitutional role for the UK." Republic's move came in the wake of intense public interest in corporate tax after the Public Accounts Committee criticised Starbucks, Google and Amazon over their tax arrangements earlier this month. Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic said: At a time when the country is under unprecedented economic stress it is unacceptable that the heir to the throne is avoiding his tax obligations in this way. He added: "As with Starbucks and Google there is a moral obligation to pay a fair rate of tax." The Duchy was established in 1337 to provide an income for the eldest living son of the Monarch, by a charter stipulating that he would be entitled to it income, but not to the capital, thereby preserving the estate for his successors. It is a landed estate, mostly in the south west of England, comprising 53,628 hectares.

Defendant in Rutgers webcam trial won't testify Defendant in Rutgers webcam trial won't testify - Crime & courts Lawyer for former student accused of hate crime rests case NEW BRUNWSICK, N.J. - A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man won't take the witness stand in his own defense, his lawyer told the judge as he rested his case Monday. Prosecutors presented about 20 witnesses over 10 days as they built a case against Dharun Ravi. Defense lawyers called nine lawyers in two days. The 20-year-old Ravi is charged with 15 criminal counts, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy. Bias intimidation is a hate crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison in New Jersey. His roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge in September 2010, just days after the intimate encounter. His death brought widespread attention to the difficulties that can be faced by young gays. Ravi isn't charged in Clementi's death. Jury deliberations could begin sometime Tuesday. Lawyers' summations are scheduled for 9 a.m. Lawyers were expected to spend part of Monday afternoon haggling over details of the instructions that will be given to jurors. Judge Glenn Berman said it's tricky because both invasion of privacy and bias intimidation laws are relatively new and there are some issues that need to be worked out.

Shooting at Pittsburgh Hospital: 2 Dead at Western Psychiatric Institute Prince Harry Gets Advice Prince William has been advising his brother during his royal tour.

British engineer 'in love' with South Africa, hacked to death for his mobile phone "As he opened the door, he was attacked," said his friend and neighbour Gavin Hoole, who was among the first to discover the murder the following day. He was stabbed outside and then dragged into the kitchen where they killed him. Then they assaulted Felicity, hitting her around the head with a pole then they left. We think they drugged the dogs with a kind of poison. Felicity was not dead, but because the gang had cut the telephone wires and there is no mobile phone reception, she couldn't get help. It was only the next morning, at around 7am when people arrived to start work, that anyone realised something was wrong when they heard her screaming. She had been on her own for 12 hours, but she is medically trained and managed to apply a bandage to her own head which stopped the bleeding. Mrs Preece is being treated at a hospital in Bloemfontein where she was said to be in a "stable" condition. Her son and two daughters are at her bedside. "Her children are with her and helping to support her emotionally," a spokesman said. Mr Preece's daughter-in-law Jeanne Preece told how he moved to South Africa in 1995 to work as a geotechnical engineer - and had "fallen in love" with the country . "He fell in love with South Africa from Day One," Mrs Preece, who is married to his son, said yesterday. He used to say that the natural beauty of the country and its people was wonderful. After studying at Birmingham University, Mr Preece worked in the UK before moving to South Africa to work for diamond miners De Beers. Last year he was made Principle Geotechnical Engineer for rival mining firm Snowden. However, according to his family, his true love was for nature. After working in South Africa's commercial capital Johannesburg, every weekend Mr Preece would drive for 200 miles to the Fleur de Lis farm where his wife lived. The couple were both animal lovers. They kept horses and were in the process of transforming the remote farmstead into a nature reserve for cheetahs and birds of prey. The farm, in South Africa's Free State province, is in a spectacularly beautiful location. The imposing peaks of Lesotho's mountains just a few miles away. The couple had previously advertised a cottage for rent on the property, which was described as 260 hectares of hill farm "situated north of the beautiful Lesotho Maluti Mountains," where visitors can "experience exhilarating, safe walking." According to Jeanne Preece, they were unaware of the worrying spate of farm attacks on smallholdings in the area: Mr Preece's death was the second farm murder - and fifth robbery - in their area of the Free State province this month. They didn't even seem to view it as a dangerous area. My father in law used to tell me that he knew all his neighbours," she said. And anyway, it wasn't even a robbery. That's what we can't understand: they took just a wallet and a cell phone. Who would kill someone for that? Since South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, more than 3,000 white, mainly Afrikaans, farmers are thought to have been killed in their homes. Police spokesman Captain Phumelelo Dhlamini said that three men were suspected of carrying out the attack. The suspects came from Lesotho. It's very, very easy to cross the river," he said.

Militia leader suspected in Arizona murder suicide GILBERT, Arizona (Reuters) - A prominent border militia leader and reputed neo-Nazi is believed to have shot dead four people before turning a gun on himself following a domestic dispute at a home in a Phoenix suburb, police said on Thursday. Police believe Jason Todd "J.T." Ready opened fire at a house in Gilbert on Wednesday, killing his girlfriend, her daughter, the daughter's boyfriend and their girl toddler, then shot himself, Gilbert Police Sergeant Bill Balafas said. "Right now, that's what our investigation is leading us to believe," Balafas told reporters at an early morning news conference on Thursday. Ready, 39, founded the U.S. Border Guard, a private-citizen militia in Arizona. He said in a posting on the group's website: "We are under attack at this very moment but not by invading troops (yet) or communistic threat ... What or who is it you ask? Just look around your neighborhoods and your schools. Look at the violence on T.V. Look at the border. Ready had long-held ties to neo-Nazi groups in the United States, both the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center said on their websites. Police identified the dead as Lisa Lynn Mederos, 47, who they said was Ready's girlfriend; Amber Nieve Mederos, 23; Jim Franklin Hyott, 24; and 15-month-old Lily Lynn Mederos, who was still alive at the scene but later died in a hospital. Police found the child and the bodies of two of the adults inside the home and those of the other adults outside. Autopsies are expected to be completed by late Friday. We feel safe to say that this was a domestic violence issue. There was an argument and this is purely a domestic situation," Balafas said. At the time of the shooting an unidentified female witness was in the home. Balafas said "she heard arguing, she heard gunshots (and) came through a back bedroom and located the bodies." Balafas said late Wednesday that police had been unable to search the house after an unknown liquid was found in two 55-gallon (208-litre) drums outside the house. The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force had joined the investigation after "military grade munitions and ordnance" were found at the crime scene, Balafas said. The U.S. Border Guard's website carries pictures of Ready, a heavyset man with a goatee beard, dressed in camouflage fatigues and toting an assault rifle in a cactus-studded stretch of desert. A message posted on the website late Wednesday said the militia was "extremely saddened by the untimely loss of our founder, J.T. Ready and the other souls lost in such a senseless act of violence." Our sympathies go out to all of his family and friends during this time of unbelievable grief and pain. God bless you, J.T. You will be fiercely missed," it added. A profile of Ready by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center said Ready had attended neo-Nazi gatherings in Nebraska and Phoenix, and advocated deadly force to stop Mexicans from crossing the U.S. border illegally. A chilling propensity to violence was apparent in a blog posting by Ready on the U.S. Border Guard website. Some of us have our fingers on the triggers; Soap box. Ballot Box. Ammo box. These were given to us by our founding fathers and mothers," Ready wrote. We have just about depleted the first two options. Earlier this year Ready set up an exploratory committee to run for the office of sheriff in Arizona's Pinal County, which straddles an area of desert between Phoenix and the Mexico border frequently used by drug and human smugglers. A Facebook page titled "JT Ready for Sheriff" carried a message from the administrator that said there were unconfirmed reports that "a cartel assassination squad murdered JT Ready and several of his friends and family this afternoon in Gilbert Arizona." Writing by Tim Gaynor; editing by Barbara Goldberg and Mohammad Zargham

Rapeseed - the unlikely British attraction for Japanese tourists - Telegraph A tour firm has started offering tours of Britain's rapeseed fields to Japanese tourists.Picture: CHRISTOPHER JONES

Donald Sutherland: "'The Hunger Games' could be the most influential American film since I can't remember" Sutherland is easily roused to passion in either direction, positive or negative, especially when explicating on a subject. "Just before shooting began, Gary added three scenes set in the Presidential Rose Garden that make lucid the concept of an oligarchy, of the privileged, of the hegemony of the Panem over the rest of the states..." He breaks off abruptly, scratching the back of his hands. I think I've eaten something that I'm allergic to. My skin is burning. Before I can offer any assistance, he's right back into college professor mode. When I read it, I thought it had the possibility to be the most influential American film since I can't remember. What we're dealing with is the destroyed fabric of a once-upon-a-time empire. And the empire is obviously here. He says the parallels between the film's heroine, Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence), and Joan of Arc are extraordinary. I went back to Shaw and the introduction that he did for Saint Joan. Do you remember it? Not off the top of my head, I confess. It's the preface, which is probably 40 pages long, where he breaks down everything about Joan of Arc, comparing her to Socrates, to Napoleon. The particular kind of genius and vision she had, and the ability to make effective that vision, which is the definition of genius. He opens a folder full of script pages and extracts a copy. "Oh he's wonderful, Shaw," he says, putting on his reading glasses. God, he's hysterical. He proceeds to read me the preface, amply demonstrating why he also enjoys a thriving career as a voice-over artist. "If Joan had been malicious, selfish, cowardly, or stupid," declares the lilting voice of Volvo, Simply Orange and the 2010 Winter Games, "she would have been one of the most odious persons known to history instead of one of the most attractive." He fixes me with a pointed look. When she was thwarted by men whom she thought fools, she made no secret of her opinion of them or her impatience with their folly. Sutherland fiddles with his Blackberry for a bit before asking me abruptly: "Do you know Robert Fisk?" If he means the renowned foreign correspondent, I admit I do not. Well you should. He's the best journalist around. Quite extraordinary. He takes a cushion and clutches it over his stomach. I fill the silence by musing on a recent biography of the late, influential film critic Pauline Kael and how it might help explain her poisonous review of The Day of the Locust back in 1975. ("There's nothing specifically wrong with Donald Sutherland's performance," she wrote. "It's just awful.") "Wait, wait, wait - finish your sentence," he tells me when I digress. I regroup and start again, venturing that all Kael's pet hates could be explained by the fact that she was only 4ft 11in. Sutherland perks up. I did an interview with her once, but I didn't know who she was. At the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York. The journalist who came in afterwards said, "How did you like speaking with Pauline Kael?" I said, "You mean that little old lady who was just here?" At which point, the man started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. He pauses ruefully. I paid a heavy price. Sutherland's conversational speciality, I gradually induce, is the well-honed anecdote, studded with random but precise details, then expertly capped with a sotto voce punchline. "The same thing happened when I made Novecento with Bernardo [Bertolucci]," he continues. I knew his contract was to deliver a two-and-a-half-hour movie. But the cut I saw was at least four hours long. "It's OK," he said. I'm going to show it to Pauline Kael. She's going to love it, and they're going to have to release it. He pauses - more ironically this time. She hated it. Now he's warming up and the mere mention of The Dirty Dozen is like a Proustian madeleine. I remember being with Lee Marvin at the Pair of Shoes casino in London. I couldn't have been sitting at the table; I didn't have any money. I would have been standing. And John Cassavetes was there. Telly for sure [Savalas]. And Charlie [Bronson]. If my memory serves me correctly, Lee was playing all seven slots on a blackjack table. Whenever he asked for water - because he wasn't drinking at the time - they'd bring him vodka and he didn't "notice" the difference." Sutherland assumes a drunk face and lowers his voice. He did not win. The sofa cushion has by now been cast aside and we're officially doing the greatest hits. That was my big break, The Dirty Dozen. I was bottom of the cast. It was the day before shooting and the director Bob Aldrich was addressing the cast. Telly, Charlie - my god, the cast we had - Robert Ryan, Ernie Borgnine. They were all sitting there. And Clint Walker sticks up his hand and says, "Mr Aldrich, as a representative of the Native American people, I don't think it's appropriate to do this stupid scene where I have to pretend to be a general." Aldrich turns and points to me and says, "You - with the big ears. You do it." " He sighs. It changed my life. Sutherland grew up in New Brunswick, a town of just 5,000 people in Nova Scotia. His father was an engineer and he studied engineering too, before dropping out to pursue drama, but he remains at a loss to explain why. I'd never been in a theatre, I'd never seen a play. I had no idea why I decided I was an actor. I still don't know. He went to the University of Toronto because it had a theatre, but was too scared to audition. After a friend bet him a dollar he would get cast, he went along to prove him wrong. I made my debut in Thurber's The Male Animal. The opening night when I played my first scene, they laughed. When I left the stage, they applauded. And when we did the curtain call, they stood up. A wolfish smile slowly spreads across his face. I have never, ever had it so good. He went to England in the late Fifties to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts but left after nine months. My intent was to learn my craft and their intent was to do some psychological bull---- that just destroyed people. Iris Warren [the principal] destroyed voices. She told me I had no place in English theatre and I would be better off driving a truck. I said, "Well, if I do, don't walk on the street."" He joined the Perth Repertory Theatre instead, which he loved, before graduating to TV Plays of the Week and low-grade horror films, and onto Hollywood proper. He had a good Seventies, to say the least, starting with that apex of counter-culture fun, an affair with Jane Fonda (his co-star in Klute). He says the key word to the craft of acting is "investigation." He shows me his script of The Hunger Games, which is covered in scribbles and thoughts. And this is a script he respects. But he says it's hard to watch his old performances, even the best ones. He crawled out of a screening of Ordinary People on his hands and knees. Even though you're fine, the character that's still inside you goes nuts. I said this to my wife and she said, "Don't be ridiculous." But you have this totality of the character's life inside you. You can't bear to see the wounds. I have a lot of admiration for Sutherland as a disciplined underplayer. I still marvel at the scene in Ordinary People where he visits his son's psychiatrist and slowly unburdens himself. It's a five-minute scene played almost entirely sitting down in a chair, but it's riveting thanks to the pinpoint calibration of his performance. Is it a Canadian thing, I wonder, some self-effacing streak that allows compatriots like him and Christopher Plummer to blend in and thrive as character actors, rather than get marooned as typecast ageing stars? "You know Robertson Davies, the author?" he asks. Someone asked him the difference between the United States and Canada and he said it was the frontiers. In the United States, the frontier was the far west and the hero was an outlaw. In Canada, the frontier was the far north and the hero was a mounted policeman. There is no whispered punchline this time. I'm at that point in life, where I look at my part in a script and I'm always dying. I come in. I say, "Hi, how are you?" And then I'm having a heart attack. He's been married for 35 years to the French-Canadian actress Francine Racette, his third wife, and divides his time between Santa Monica and France. What's France like, I wonder. "It's OK," he says a little plaintively. I speak the language but not enough to have a really good conversation. I read and I write. He takes a stern paternal pride in his five offspring. One is a Hollywood agent and two are actors, including Kiefer Sutherland, star of 24. Kiefer's mother is Shirley Douglas, daughter of Canadian politician Tommy Douglas, and Sutherland still remembers when he heard she had been arrested by the FBI in 1969. I was leaning on a tank in a field in Yugoslavia making Kelly's Heroes. Clint Eastwood walked towards me out of the sun like something out of a Fistful of Dollars. "I have some bad news for you," he says. Your wife has been arrested in Beverly Hills for buying hand grenades for the Black Panther Party from an undercover agent of the FBI. He was laughing so hard, he fell on the ground. She claimed she was trying to buy mace, but they still extradited her. He lights up at the mention of Eastwood. He's very generous. I admired him intensely. And he has the best lunch on his films. I really wanted to lose weight on Space Cowboys. He shakes his head. Impossible. Sutherland's admiration for most of his directors is extravagantly unguarded. I kept saying for years that I was a concubine for Fellini and making the movie was the sex. Which brings us neatly to Don't Look Now. "When Nic Roeg phoned me in Florida to see whether I wanted to do the movie I said, "Yeah, absolutely, I just don't think that extrasensory perception should be punished. I think the guy should survive the killing at the end and that his extrasensory perception should save him," and in the middle of a sentence, Nic said, "Do you want to do the film or not?" I said, "Yes." And I have a son named Roeg. I move on to the obligatory topic of the sex scene, long enshrined as the grassy knoll of movie lovemaking. The did they/didn't they? debate was stirred up again last year by former Variety editor Peter Bart in his book Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and Sex). According to Bart, who visited the set in Venice as an executive at Paramount, he and Roeg had a hushed exchange that began with him asking: "Nic. Don't they expect you to say "cut"?" Bart then claimed he saw Sutherland "moving in and out." Sutherland denied the charge last year and is even more emphatic today. He [Bart] wasn't there! And more than that, we were in a little room - Julie, me, the cameraman Tony Richards and Nic - with wires going under the door. You couldn't get anybody else in the room. If he thinks someone was having sex, forget it. I'd like to think about someone having an erection [in those circumstances] because he can forget about that. He shakes his head, laughing. I seize the moment to test out a story which came to me via a relative of Carl Foreman, the late screenwriter of High Noon, who claimed the real drama behind the sex scene was Christie's freewheeling approach to personal hygiene. She was, alleged Foreman, going through an early Seventies au naturel phase and Sutherland would only do the scene if the film-makers ensured she took a bath first. Sutherland's reaction to this story is a look of horror beyond even his zombified freeze-frame at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Oh god, no, oh my god, oh god no, oh my god, please. He just sits there shaking his head. Isn't that interesting that people make up such crap? I feel about as ratified as a Chilean sea bass. He takes back the cushion and clutches it over his stomach. God, I can't imagine that for a second... "The Hunger Games" is released on March 23 Donald Sutherland's IMDB

Star Lana is real Rey of light the Stone Roses" triumphant renunion shows, Danny Boyle's musical feast of an Olympic opening ceremony, that seismic set from Kasabian as they shook down the main stage at T in the Park - there have been plenty of highlights in 2012. When it comes to the question of whose year it has been, however, Lana del Rey wins hands down, for my money at least. The New Yorker was first mentioned on these pages a year ago, when just a few of her songs were floating about on the web. With her foxy locks, bee-stung lips and legs that go all the way to heaven, she oozed old Hollywood glamour which, combined with the quality of her haunting retro-pop songs, seemed a winning concoction. And so it proved as major label debut Born To Die sent her career into the stratosphere on its release in January. Not for long, mind. After a dodgy vocal performance on Saturday Night Live that same month, the old build "em up to knock "em down routine came into play and the girl hailed as pop's new saviour suddenly became its whipping girl. A flash-in-the pan? As the year approaches its end, Del Rey, below, is turning around the opinion of many people with winning live performances as she steps out to promote the release of new eight-song Born To Die spin-off The Paradise Edition, which includes some of her best songs to date. The past 12 months have been a roller coaster ride and a half for the Video Games singer, but it looks like she's in for the long haul after all. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Michael Jackson remembered by brothers "The brothers don't know this, but I've broken down several times and cried during rehearsals," said Jermaine during a recent rehearsal break on a soundstage in Burbank, California. I'm so used to Michael being on the right and then Marlon, Jackie, on and on. It's just something we never get used to. Marlon said: "For me, this cycle that comes around every year - this day, that day - that doesn't affect me because it affects me every day. When that day comes around, it's the same. You learn to live with it. I still wake up sometimes and go, 'Jeez. I can't believe my brother's not here.' The Jacksons' tour is scheduled to end July 29 at the Snoqualmie Casino Amphitheater in Snoqualmie, Washington. Meanwhile, on 3rd July a collection of Jackson's costumes and memorabilia will go on sale at Bonhams entertainment memorabilia auction in London. One of his black Savile Row jackets is valued at up to £12,000 and another jacket, a red, single-breasted outfit with black/gold and diamante buttons and a blue arm band, is also expected to raise £12,000.

"Absolutely Fabulous" 20th Anniversary Specials Everybody hates the rich. And not just hedge-fund managers and Wall Street traders. All big spenders look suspect these days. A California advocacy group is agitating for a state tax on millionaires by painting Kim Kardashian as a reality-show Marie Antoinette. "Being on TV has changed my life," Ms. Kardashian says on a rabble-rousing video at taxkimk.com. Because you get lots of free stuff. Even nonreality shows feed class warfare. "Two Broke Girls," a CBS sitcom about two down-on-their luck waitresses, is a hit. Socialites and plutocrats in the Hamptons are the object of scorn and worse in the post-credit-collapse nighttime soap "Revenge." So it's hard to see how two heedless, Champagne-slurping hedonists who rode the greed-fueled excesses of Thatcher-Blair prosperity can find an audience 20 years later, in the middle of a worldwide economic slump, unemployment and towering government debt. It's a relief to report that Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, a k a Edina and Patsy, the middle-aged, spendthrift heroines of "Absolutely Fabulous," are back in the first of three 20th-anniversary specials on BBC America beginning on Sunday - unchanged and still quite funny. It turns out that the duo's particular brand of substance abuse, self-absorption and high-end shopping is recessionproof. Eddy and Pats, as they call each other, were deliciously bad in good times; in times of trouble they are still a tonic - with gin and a twist. And older. "I grieve for the menopause," Eddy (Ms. Saunders) says. I don't have any hormones, darling. I'm just held together with gels, pills and suppositories. The show, which was created by Ms. Saunders in 1992, showcased Eddy as a hard-partying London public-relations diva with a reproving, bookish teenage daughter, Saffron (Julia Sawalha). Eddy routinely mocked and neglected Saffy and instead went clubbing with Pats, a tall, thin and lugubrious fashion-magazine editor whose capacity for no food and lots of drugs and drink made Keith Richards look abstemious. Jokes about menopause, drinking, drugs, sex, cosmetic surgery and fat are all over television nowadays, so it's hard to remember that when "Absolutely Fabulous" first surfaced on American television in 1994, it was an era when only Roseanne Barr dared be quite so crass, and she played a more sympathetic role of working-class wife and mother. "Absolutely Fabulous" was in its way groundbreaking, yet it also harked back to an earlier era of television comedy. Some of the most memorable sitcoms of all time revolve around a pair of daffy dames. Lucy and Ethel rise above all others, but Mary and Rhoda found their niche in the 1970s, replacing housework and marital scheming with the single woman's preoccupation with feminism, careers and dating. In the 1980s "Kate and Allie" tapped into another stage of the women's movement, finding humor in the lives of divorced working moms. Eddy and Pats came next, and they introduced the world of earned, but undeserved wealth, satirizing the materialism and cult of celebrity ushered in by the Reagan-Thatcher revolution. That was a me decade that lasted almost three, and "Absolutely Fabulous" spanned most of it: the series had only three seasons, but the duo kept coming back in mini-series and specials. They were often imitated, but especially on American television writers were not as daring. British comedy is notoriously callous, with an unyielding ban on sentimentality or political correctness. Ms. Lumley in particular created an archetype that has often been copied, without going quite as far. Christine Baranski was very funny - but not nearly as outrageous - as a martini-swilling best friend to Cybill Shepherd on "Cybill." It's hard to imagine that Karen Walker, the ditsy, dipsy best friend played by Megan Mullally on "Will & Grace," could have found so welcoming an audience without Patsy as a model. Most of all, the show's setting, a prescient send-up of Cool Britannia fashion, publicity and celebrity promotions, opened the way for "Sex and the City." The world has changed, but Eddy and Pats are still living in a soggy Champagne-and-pills hangover, aging has-beens struggling to stay on top, even though they were never really that close to it in their heyday. They still live decadently, and Eddy has held on to her Notting Hill town house but seems as needy and desperate as ever, instructing her assistant to update her Web site: "Blog and flog," she trills. Weight is still a preoccupation. "I'm at a time in my life, darling, when every fat cell I ever lost or gained has come back for the fat-cell reunion of the year," Eddy moans. The show mentions the "credit crunch" as an acknowledgment of a changed economy, but in the same old spirit of political incorrectness. Saffy, who is now an adult but still censorious, bemoans the London riots of 2011, which brought on arson and looting. Patsy isn't convinced. "Oh, I don't know," she says with her trademark sneer. Nothing wrong with a bit of extreme shopping. Twenty years ago the heroines of "Absolutely Fabulous" were wacky heralds of a new age of extravagance. Now they are the last blinkered women in the bunker, hoarding designer shoes and awaiting an Evite back to the glamorous life. They don't belong there, and that's what makes them so welcome. BBC America and Logo, Sunday night at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time. Produced for the BBC by Saunders & French, BBC America and Logo. Written by Jennifer Saunders; Jon Plowman, executive producer; Justin Davies, producer. WITH: Jennifer Saunders (Edina Monsoon), Joanna Lumley (Patsy Stone), Julia Sawalha (Saffron Monsoon), June Whitfield (Mother) and Jane Horrocks (Bubble).

The future of gaming: It's now Four gaming "visionaries" took part in a panel discussion to share their hopes for future designers and the gaming industry. Paul Barnett says future game makers are playing them now With app stores and Kickstarter, game designers won't have to be driven to find funding Mark DeLoura wants constraints of today's design to seem archaic to those getting started (CNN) -- The future of video gaming is bright, according to four industry visionaries who spoke at a recent gaming event. Kellee Santiago, Ken Levine, Paul Barrett and Mark DeLoura were part of a panel discussion at the opening of a new Smithsonian exhibit, The Art of Video Games. Each has been successful in the gaming business and has great hope for what's to come. Barrett, the senior creative director for BioWare-Mythic, said people who are going to make games in the future are playing them right now. He describes this time in those gaming lives as their Golden Age. "What's interesting about my Golden Age is it is where I learned my prejudices about what games I liked and I don't like," Barrett said. That period defined my understanding of games so that when I had the chance to make games, those are the kinds of game I wanted to make. For the gamers of today, he said, "The current Golden Age is pretty bloody good." Others on the panel said they were also driven to create games that reflected or expressed something they wanted to share with others. For Levine, the creative director of the "BioShock" franchise, it is about creating worlds and telling stories that mean something in those worlds. He related a story about the creation of "BioShock," where players can save or sacrifice young girls, known as Little Sisters, to gain power. In the beginning of the creative process, the little girls were sea slugs. "In order for the story to be meaningful, we had to create empathy between the player and the thing they were making a decision about," Levine said. That took a while for that to come about. The actual choice became simple -- what do you want to do with this little girl? Santiago and DeLoura hope future game designers go beyond what games are about today and challenge themselves and the industry about what gaming could be. DeLoura, the vice president of technology at THQ, wants the constraints of today's design to seem archaic to those who are just getting started and hopes for more diversity. "The games that break down (the conventional) mentality is what does it for me," he said. For us pioneers up here, one of the things I would like to challenge us to do is to reach out into communities you don't expect games to come from and really pull those out and get them shared with the broader community. Santiago, co-founder and president of thatgamecompany, echoed that sentiment of opening up new ideas for games of the future. She is also a partner in IndieFund, which helps independent game developers reach and maintain financial independence. "My biggest hope is that the people who will be making games, what those people look like, completely changes," she said. We're going to see new types of stories and new types of experiences. With greater technology and distribution channels, it has flipped a switch for people and they say, 'Oh, I could do that too!' Levine added that with additional venues for gaming like app stores and Kickstarter, future game designers don't have to be driven to find funding to produce games anymore. He said that without that financial pressure, creativity goes up. "Games were my companion as a kid," Levine said. It didn't shut my world down. It opened my world up. Barrett said there is a whole new wave of people who want to make games that are fearless, expect success and have wide ranging views. He said those future designers have one goal in mind. They don't want to make games that are art. They want to make games that are awesome.

Sallie Mae to Change Forbearance Fee Policy Score two for online consumer advocates - or, as they might be called, Occupy Online. On Thursday, three months after Bank of America backed down from imposing a $5 monthly debit card fee in response to an online Change.org petition that collected 300,000 signers, Sallie Mae, the nation's largest private student-loan provider, changed its fee policy in response to an online petition. For years, Sallie Mae had required unemployed people who could not afford their monthly payments to pay a $50-per-loan fee every three months to suspend their payments temporarily, even as interest charges mounted. Sallie Mae called this forbearance fee a "good faith deposit" - but it was neither credited to the borrower's account nor refunded. Stef Gray, 23, a New Yorker who owes $600 a month on four loans, saw it as a predatory effort to squeeze blood from a generation of turnips - graduates already buried under a mountain of student debt. In November, she started a petition, "Tell Sallie Mae: Stop the Unemployment Penalty" with Change.org., a group based in San Francisco. "Sallie Mae is preying on people like me and cashing in on the fact that we need more time to find work before we can repay our student loans," it said. Ms. Gray, who has paid $300 to Sallie Mae in forbearance fees, had another $150 due for January. Although she has four loans, she said, the top Sallie Mae fee is $150. She did not pay the fee, and this week her loans became delinquent. On Thursday morning, wearing a cap and gown and accompanied by Molly Katchpole, 22, the nanny who started the Bank of America petition, Ms. Gray visited the Washington offices of Sallie Mae to hold a news conference and deliver the petition, which had attracted 77,000 signatures. Thursday afternoon, Sallie Mae blinked. "We have been giving careful consideration to our policy for some time, and we are changing it to apply the good-faith payment to the customers" balance after they resume a track record of on-time payments," it said in a statement. Patricia Christel, a Sallie Mae spokeswoman, said that about 4 percent of its private student loans are in forbearance. The new policy will be retroactive to forbearances started Jan. 1. Ms. Gray was pleased, if cautious. "It's a partial victory," she said. They're still charging a forbearance fee, which they don't for federal loans. I'm glad they're not pocketing the fee, but they're still charging it. And I still can't pay it. By comparison with Sallie Mae, she said, her credit-card companies seem pleasantly responsive. "With Sallie Mae harassing me with collection calls while they're tacking on $1,100 in interest every three months, and refusing to work with me, it's ridiculous to say, but it's made me hold up credit card companies as kind to consumers," she said. Ms. Gray, who held a job in school, said her $40,000 in loans have ballooned to more than $65,000. In a better economy, she said, her master's degree in geography and expertise in geographic information systems would make her a good candidate for a job working with census or health statistics. But so far, she said, nothing has been forthcoming. Back when she was borrowing, said Ms. Gray, whose parents died when she was young, no one explained the difference between federal and private loans. "I was under the impression that Sallie Mae was a governmental agency, a nonprofit, with the same terms as federal loans," she said. But with federal loans, there is no forbearance fee, and sometimes there is even an opportunity to put off not just loan payments but interest accrual. Even better, with federal loans, she might have been eligible for income-based repayment, in which borrowers make up to 25 years of payments based on their income - payments of zero for those who are unemployed or earn very little - and have any remaining federal debt discharged. "Private student loans have been so grossly under-regulated that this is just one of many issues that need to be addressed on a broader level," said Lauren Asher, a founder of the Project on Student Debt. Private loan borrowers are at the mercy of their lenders if they hit hard times. Ms. Gray said that her biggest worry is default - and the prospect of having her credit ruined so she would be unable to buy a house or car, or perhaps, since many employers check credit, even to land a job. "Student debt has sort of stalled my generation in a state of arrested development," she said. You can discharge gambling debt or child support obligations in bankruptcy, but not student debt, so I guess in the eyes of the law, it's better to be a deadbeat dad than an unemployed graduate with loans.