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Los Angeles (E! Online) –
No doubt tired of the misinformation about her condition circulated by everyone from the media to her own son, Farrah Fawcett is taking control of her life story, teaming up with NBC News for a two-hour prime-time special on her battle with cancer.
According to the network, Farrah's Story is an “extremely personal” look at the former Charlie's Angel as she receives treatment in the U.S. and Germany.
The documentary special will be narrated by Fawcett and will feature footage shot by the actress herself.
“This film is very personal,” the 62-year-old actress says. “At the time, I didn't know if anybody would ever see it. But at some point, the footage took on a life of its own and dictated that it be seen.”
Those closest to Fawcett also appear in the footage, including longtime partner Ryan O'Neal, close friend and the special's producer Alana Stewart, her Charlie's Angels costars Jaclyn Smith and Kate Jackson, father Jim Fawcett and her medical team.
And while the actress has been reticent about opening up about her cancer battle, she now says the time is right to share her struggle—as well as her successes.
“I've never understood why people are interested in anything that I do. Until now.
“As much as I would have liked to have kept my cancer private, I now realize that I have a certain responsibility to those who are fighting their own fights and may be able to benefit from learning about mine.”
Farrah's Story airs on NBC May 15.
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NEW YORK – Marilyn French, the writer and feminist whose novel “The Women’s Room” sold more than 20 million copies and transformed her into a leading figure in the women’s movement, has died at 79.
French died of heart failure Saturday at a Manhattan hospital, said Carol Jenkins, a friend and president of New York’s Women’s Media Center.
She was an academic in 1977 when “The Women’s Room,” her first novel, was published. Her aim, she said, was “to change the entire social and economic structure of Western civilization, to make it a feminist world.”
The landmark novel, which was translated into 20 languages, details the journey to independence of a 1950s housewife who gets divorced and goes to graduate school. The book mirrored aspects of French’s own life experiences, including the rape of her daughter.
She was called anti-male after a character in the novel says: “All men are rapists, and that’s all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, and their codes.”
“Those words came from a character, and she was not a man-hater and never said that in her personal life,” Jenkins said. “But she wanted men to accept their part in the domination of women.”
Still, the novel “connected with millions of women who had no way before of claiming their anger and discontent,” Jenkins said.
The male subjugation of women is the main theme of French’s novels, essays, literary criticism and her four-volume, nonfictional “From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women.”
A Brooklyn native, French graduated from Long Island’s Hofstra University with a master’s degree, studying philosophy and English literature. She taught there in the 1960s. After her divorce, she earned a doctorate from Harvard and was an English professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass.
A smoker, she survived a battle with esophageal cancer in 1992 that included a 10-day coma she described in “Season in Hell: A Memoir.”
Her last novel is to be published this fall, and she was also working on a memoir.
French is survived by her son, Robert French, of East Brunswick, N.J., and daughter Jamie French of Cambridge, Mass.
A memorial is planned for June in New York.

Manchester ‘launch’ for ID cards
Manchester will be the first city where people can voluntarily sign up for an ID card, ministers are set to confirm.
Anyone over 16 in the city who holds a UK passport will be able to apply for a card from the autumn at a cost of 60.
People will be able to enrol in post offices and pharmacies, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is expected to say.
Opposition parties have called for the 5bn scheme to be scrapped while some Labour MPs have expressed their doubts about its cost in the current climate.
With the government facing a major squeeze on public spending in the next few years, some believe the scheme should be ditched to save money.
Earlier this month, former home secretary David Blunkett said ID cards should be abandoned in favour of biometric passports.
Giving fingerprints
The Home Office has brushed aside these calls, arguing that ID cards will reduce fraud – thus saving money – and are vital to combating terrorism and organised crime.
The Manchester launch will mark the beginning of the main phase of the ID scheme which ministers say will culminate in cards being available nationwide by 2012.
At a series of meetings on Wednesday, Ms Smith will say post offices and pharmacies can play an important role in the success of the ID scheme, allowing people to give their fingerprints and a face scan while “out doing the shopping”.
Each card will cost 30 with a further 30 charge for collecting the data.
“ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists,” the home secretary will say.
Government officials will seek to allay people’s concerns about the amount of personal data to be collected and retained for the new cards, saying it will be no greater than for passports.
“I think it is important to recognise that we’re not collecting some massive accumulation of information about citizens,” said James Hall, chief executive of the Identity and Passport Service.
Critics of ID cards argue they are costly and unnecessary and say the bleak state of the public finances make it even more imperative the scheme is scaled back.
The Conservatives said the idea of trialling the scheme in one city was “nonsensical”.
“The government is split down the middle on ID cards but it looks as if Jacqui Smith is carrying on regardless,” said the shadow home secretary Chris Grayling.
“They should abandon this farce and scrap the whole scheme.”
Airport resistance
Non-EU residents have been required to have identity cards since the end of last year.
But efforts to issue cards to pilots and other airport workers – a scheme which is being trialled at Manchester and London City airports – are meeting with growing resistance.
Pilots unions say their members are effectively being forced into signing up for the cards.
“Our members believed the government promise that the ID card would be voluntary,” said Jim McAuslan, general secretary of the Balpa union.
“But they now know it is anything but. Our members must have an airside pass to operate aircraft and now discover that to get that pass they must have a national ID card.
“This is coercion and a case of Big Brother knows best.”
Officials said they were prepared to work with unions to resolve any differences but stressed that ID cards would improve security at airports and speed up recruitment procedures.

Source:BBC

On Wednesday, Amazon is expected to introduce a new, bigger-screen Kindle aimed at the textbook market and newspapers. The Wall Street Journal reports that half a dozen universities will be giving students the new Kindle in the fall; Amazon has also struck deals with a number of textbook publishers. (See the top 10 gadgets of 2008.)
Joining CEO Jeff Bezos onstage will be New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger – signaling some kind of partnership between the Times and Amazon. It’s no secret that Sulzberger has been talking to everyone about how to save the Times; he recently visited Silicon Valley and had a number of salon-style dinners with technocrats offering advice. Amazon’s Kindle, however, has already proven to be a promising source of revenue for the newspaper. The Times is already the best-read subscription-based periodical on the current Kindles – though how well read is anyone’s guess. (The Wall Street Journal is the second best-read newspaper and has sold a mere 5,000 subscriptions to date.)
The Times has been the most aggressive of all the publishers searching for a solution to the ailing print business. It’s common to see a Times product on a new communications device, from the first iPhone to the first Kindle. Later this month, the paper is supposedly coming out with a new Times Reader – the section fronts and archived crossword puzzles free, the rest by subscription – available as an Adobe Air application. It would hardly be surprising then to learn that the newspaper has been quietly working with Amazon to create an even more compelling Kindle-based product that takes advantage of a larger display screen. And if the new Kindle supports variable fonts and renders grayscale photographs? So much the better for it and the rest of the newspapers of the world. (See the 10 most endangered newspapers in America.)
Kindles 1 and 2 helped give trade books a lifeline by wirelessly linking Amazon’s online bookstore to the devices and making it easy to buy books. And Kindle 3 will apparently do the same thing for textbooks and newspapers. But what about everyone’s favorite periodicals – magazines?
A number of magazines, including this one, have also been available to paid subscribers on the Kindle from the start. But since the device’s E-Ink display technology doesn’t handle color, let alone high-quality photos, the Kindle has been more of an experiment than a revenue gusher for magazine publishers. E-Ink, which is also on the upcoming Plastic Logic e-reader – its display measuring 8.5 inches by 11 inches – is reportedly nearly two years away from full color.
But magazine fans should not despair: a variety of competitors are also working on color-display technology that’s as readable as E-Ink, among them Fujitsu’s Flepia, which is already on sale in Japan, and Qualcomm’s Mirasol technology, which is being used in smart phones.
So what will emerge on top? The Kindle or some other e-reader? The bigger question is whether readers, used to getting content for free on the Web, will be willing to pay for it on a device that’s better suited to reading.
See the 50 best inventions of 2008.
See the 100 best novels of all time.
View this article on Time.comRelated articles on Time.com: Amazon’s Kindle 2: Trying to Light a Bigger Fire Amazon Kindle Users Are Older Than You Think Amazon Kindle Sales on the Rise?

Chrysler lenders aim to stop sale
A group of lenders unhappy with the reconstruction of Chrysler – in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – has asked a New York court to halt the process.
The US government is backing a plan to sell most Chrysler assets to a new entity led by Italian carmaker Fiat.
But a group of 20 lenders, including hedge funds, want the deal blocked.
Lawyers representing the group, who have also asked for their identities to be kept secret, said the plan would go against normal bankruptcy principles.
Chrysler has asked for permission for a quick sale of most of its assets to a new company held by Italy’s Fiat , a United Auto Workers union healthcare trust and the US and Canadian governments.
‘Illegal plan’
The group of lenders says the proposed procedures are not legitimate and do not maximise the sale price of the assets.
They have also previously said Chrysler’s proposed plan “inverts” the usual priority scheme, whereby senior secured creditors are paid in full first, followed by junior lenders, administrative claims, unsecured lenders and equity holders.
Creditors object to the way the restructuring benefits the United Auto Workers union, which is an unsecured creditor, for the 10.6bn Chrysler owes to its retiree healthcare fund.
In addition, they say the anonymity request is because they feel they are unfairly becoming the focus for a political backlash.
When President Barack Obama unveiled the proposed Chrysler bankruptcy last week he called the lender group – who hold more than 300m of secured Chrysler debt – “speculators.”
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has described the group’s members as “greedy hedge funds,” and Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, has labelled them as “vultures.”
In a court filing the lender group said some of their members have received death threats.
The group has urged the court to prevent the sale or substantially change it.

Source:BBC

Ferguson seeking Fletcher U-turn
Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson hopes referee Roberto Rosetti will admit it was an error to send off Darren Fletcher against Arsenal.
The Italian official gave Fletcher a straight red for fouling Cesc Fabregas in the box in United’s 3-1 Champions League semi-final second leg victory.
It means he will miss the final unless the referee decides he made a mistake.
“In respect to the referee he might look at it himself without anyone asking him,” said Ferguson.
“You can see the ball has moved in a different direction but we shouldn’t ask him. He’s competent and fair enough to look at it himself possibly. Apparently, you can’t appeal and if that’s the case it’s disappointing for the boy.
“Darren’s one of the most honest players in the game and to miss the final is a tragedy.”

Arsenal manager Arsenal Wenger also insisted the red card was “very harsh” after television pictures clearly showed Fletcher played the ball cleanly.
However, it would now take an unprecedented decision by Uefa to earn Fletcher a reprieve from suspension for the final on 27 May.
The incident was the only sour note for United on the night as they outplayed the Gunners to seal a 4-1 aggregate win and book their second successive Champions League final.
United arrived at the Emirates Stadium holding only a slender 1-0 lead from last week’s first leg, but United scored twice in the first 11 minutes through Park and a stunning Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick to put them firmly in control.
“We got a good start and that made the difference,” said Ferguson. “The two quick goals knocked the wind out of their sails and wherever you play teams can’t recover from that.”
Arsenal tried to force their way back into the game but were floored by Ronaldo’s second of the game after the hour.
“I thought they couldn’t handle Ronaldo. That made a big difference,” added Ferguson.
United now face the winner of the tie between Chelsea and Barcelona with the London club holding a slender advantage going into the second leg at Stamford Bridge after a 0-0 draw in Spain.
Ferguson though feels the hunger of his players to win the competition makes whichever team they face a moot issue.
“We should have this cup more times than we have,” said Ferguson. “This is another opportunity for us to do so.
“I think we have the quality, the energy and the ambition to do it. It’s a hungry team and when the chips are down they don’t let me down.”

Source:BBC

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) –
Dom DeLuise, the U.S. comic actor who gained fame on television and in movies such as “Blazing Saddles,” has died at age 75, family members said on Tuesday.
DeLuise, who co-starred alongside Burt Reynolds in movies such as “Smokey and the Bandit II” and “The Cannonball Run,” died in his sleep at a Los Angeles hospital on Monday night, his son Michael DeLuise told a Los Angeles TV station.
“Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much,” Reynolds told celebrity television show “Entertainment Tonight.”
In December 2008 the actor told ET that he had been fighting prostate cancer. “I'm still here. I'm 75 and here. I feel very blessed,” he said.
ET said a family member told the show DeLuise died as a result of a variety of health problems.
Dominick “Dom” DeLuise was born August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. He began his career in movies and on TV in the 1960s, and he gained widespread fame on the Dean Martin Show as “Dominick the Great,” a magician whose act routinely went wrong.
For a brief period in 1968, he was given his own TV program, “The Dom DeLuise Show,” and he later proved to be appealing as a guest star in sketch comedy and other shows.
“I loved him from the moment we met. Not only did we have the greatest time working together, but I never laughed so hard in my life as when we were together,” Doris Day, who starred with DeLuise in the 1966 movie, “The Glass Bottom Boat,” said in a statement.
In the 1970s, DeLuise became a regular character actor in Mel Brooks' comedies, and appeared in the wildly popular western spoof “Blazing Saddles,” as well as “Silent Movie,” “History of the World: Part 1,” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
He worked in the 1980s and 1990s on a wide range of movies and TV shows such as “Beverly Hills 90210″ and “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and he hosted a version of “Candid Camera” from 1991 to 1992.
His voice was used in animated programs such as “All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series.”
An avid cook, DeLuise wrote several cookbooks including “Eat This” and “Eat This Too!” In recent years, he appeared on the home improvement radio show “On the House with The Carey Brothers.”
He is survived by his wife, Carol Arthur, and three sons, Peter, David and Michael, who work in the entertainment industry.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)

WASHINGTON – A flu virus is a powerhouse of evolution, mutating at the maximum speed nature allows. A mild virus can morph into a killer and vice versa.
One change already made this year’s swine flu more of a problem, helping it spread more easily among people. The big question is: What mutations are next? That’s why scientists are watching it so closely.
“There are no rules to flu viruses; they are just so mutable,” said Dr. Paul Glezen, a flu epidemiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The fact that it changes all the time really confounds our efforts to control it.”
Think of flu’s evolution like a family tree: In the current flu’s distant ancestry are last century’s three pandemics. But its more immediate relatives are swine flu strains that were no big deal to humans.
The good news right now is that this flu has lost some of the most dangerous genetic traits of past pandemics. The bad news is that it’s gained something its parents didn’t have: the ability to spread from human to human.
Flu reproduces about every eight hours, said Dr. Raul Rabadan, professor of computational biology at Columbia University. That means this morning’s flu is a parent by the afternoon, a grandparent by the evening, and a great-grandparent by the next day.
Instead of complex double-helix DNA — nature’s basic biological instruction book — flu has a simpler, single strand of genetic code. Normal DNA has a spellcheck-like system that reduces mistakes in replicating the code; the flu virus does not. So mutations come more often. If the mutations are good for the virus, they multiply, and voila, you have a new and sometimes nastier flu.
Scientists are trying to piece together swine flu’s ever-changing genome, its genetic ancestors and the random mutations that in this instance turned a simple pig disease into something that scares billions.
They also don’t know how the virus is going to mutate next.
In the world’s most devastating global flu epidemic in 1918, the first wave of cases in the spring were mild. Then, the virus evolved and came back in the fall as a strain that proved truly deadly, flu experts say. So scientists today are watching to see if that could happen again.
Also troubling is the possibility that this virus could develop resistance to anti-flu drugs, and flu trackers are watching for such changes, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flu chief Dr. Nancy Cox said.
It’s impossible to know where this swine flu strain began exactly, Cox said. But flu trackers do have clues to its closest ancestral genes.
“Its two parents were swine viruses that we know and love,” said virologist Dr. Richard Webby, a researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
The mother of the swine flu was a surprising genetic event that went unnoticed except by a few scientists a little over a decade ago. Three influenza strains — some pig, some bird, some human — combined in pigs to form two new strains of swine flu. This new flu was unusual. Virus hunters called it a “triple reassortment.”
That 1998-99 flu in pigs first hit a farm in North Carolina, then spread to Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and eventually to at least 23 states. No more than 4 percent of the swine died. But the disease was in more than one-quarter of tested pigs. A handful of people who were in close contact with the hogs got slightly sick when they caught this flu from pigs, but they didn’t die and didn’t spread it to others.
In 2005, a 17-year-old Wisconsin boy caught that triple reassortment flu virus from “respiratory secretions” of a pig he had been helping his brother-in-law butcher, according to the CDC. He recovered and didn’t pass it on to others.
There have been about 10,000 generations of that virus since. Six of the eight genetic segments of the current swine flu can be traced to that triple combination, Rabadan said.
The rest of the swine flu parentage is more of a mystery. The other two of the eight genetic segments can be traced to pig viruses in Europe and Asia that were seen from time to time in the 1990s, Rabadan said. Scientists don’t quite know if those other two segments combined with the triple reassortment at the same time or separately.
How the triple reassortment genes and the European and Asian genes met and mixed is not known, Webby said.
The three global flu epidemics of the past, including the 1918 event, all passed on traits to ancestors of this flu, Rabadan said. But there have been many changes in the thousands of generations since.
A specific gene for virulence that was seen in the 1918, 1957 and 1968 pandemics was notably absent in this swine flu, said Dr. Peter Palese, a prominent flu researcher for Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He said when he removed that gene from other viruses of the past, they weren’t as dangerous.
Rabadan suggests the way to think of this flu is like a homemade car with parts from different vehicles. The parts have all been in several different vehicles before. Sometimes the combination of parts is a dud and the car doesn’t move. And sometimes you get a race car. A pandemic is a race car.
All eight of the new flu’s genetic segments have been in different viruses before. But this is the first time this specific combination has been seen. The big question is: Why is this particular swine virus spreading so fast among people when past swine viruses haven’t?
One possibility is that it’s just this particular combination of the eight parts that makes it spread among people, Webby said. But a more logical explanation is that a small mutation within the individual genetic segments changed things.
These tiny changes are possible because there are about 13,000 individual letters, or bases, in the flu genetic code, Rabadan said. That’s tiny compared to more than 3 billion in humans.
One prime suspect is the surface protein hemagglutinin, the “H” in the virus’ H1N1 name. It is “probably the most important gene determining virulence and immunological characteristics,” according to Palese.
In flu viruses, scientists have so far identified 16 hemagglutinins. Only three — H1, H2 and H3 — commonly infect humans. The other surface protein, neuraminidase, has nine variations. Palese said scientists are seeing more different types of flu strains because of better surveillance and increases in bird, pig and human populations.
“These genetic processes of mutation and genetic reassortment occur all the time,” he said, “and every once in a time, it’s a lottery winner.”

WASHINGTON – Justice Department officials have stopped short of recommending criminal charges against Bush administration lawyers who wrote secret memos approving harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects. A person familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says investigators recommended referring two of the three lawyers to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action. The person was not authorized to discuss the inquiry.
The person noted that the investigative report was still in draft form and subject to revisions. Attorney General Eric Holder also may make his own determination about what steps to take once the report has been finalized.
The Justice Department notified two senators by letter that a key deadline in the inquiry expired Monday, signaling that most of the work on the matter was completed. The letter does not mention the possibility of criminal charges, nor does it name the lawyers under scrutiny.
The inquiry has become a politically-loaded guessing game, with some advocating criminal charges against the lawyers and others urging that the matter be dropped.
The letter did not indicate what the findings of the final report would be. Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and played key roles in crafting the legal justification for techniques critics call torture.
Investigators initially recommended professional sanctions against Bybee and Yoo, but not Bradbury, according to the person familiar with the matter. That would come in the form of recommendations to state bar associations, where the most severe possible punishment is disbarment.
Bybee is a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Yoo is a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. Bradbury returned to private practice when he left the government at the end of President George W. Bush’s term in the White House.
Asked for comment, Yoo’s lawyer Miguel Estrada said he signed an agreement with the Justice Department not to discuss the draft report. Lawyer Maureen Mahoney, who is representing Bybee, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
“The former employees have until May 4, 2009 to provide their comments on the draft report,” states the letter from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
Whitehouse has scheduled a hearing on the issue next week.
Now that the deadline has passed, there is little more for officials to do but make revisions to it based on the responses they’ve received, and decide how much, if any, of the findings should be made public.
Both Whitehouse and Durbin have pressed the Justice Department for more information about the progress of the investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
The office examines possible ethics violations by Justice Department employees. On rare occasions, those inquiries become full-blown criminal investigations.
The language of the letter, dated Monday, indicates the inquiry will result in a final report.
The letter notes that Holder and his top deputy will have access to any information they need “to evaluate the final report and make determinations about appropriate next steps.”
The results of the investigation were delayed late last year, when then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey and his deputy asked investigators to allow the lawyers a chance to respond to their findings, as is typically done for those who still work for the Justice Department.
Investigators also shared a draft copy with the CIA to review whether the findings contained any classified information. According to the letter, the CIA then requested to comment on the report.

CLEVELAND – Five years ago, a shotgun blast left a ghastly hole where the middle of her face had been. Five months ago, she received a new face from a dead woman. Connie Culp stepped forward Tuesday to show off the results of the nation’s first face transplant, and her new look was a far cry from the puckered, noseless sight that made children run away in horror.
Culp’s expressions are still a bit wooden, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. Her speech is at times a little tough to understand. Her face is bloated and squarish, and her skin droops in big folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating her new muscles.
But Culp had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible.
“I guess I’m the one you came to see today,” the 46-year-old Ohio woman said at a news conference at the Cleveland Clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. But “I think it’s more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so I could have this person’s face.”
Up until Tuesday, Culp’s identity and how she came to be disfigured were a secret.
Culp’s husband, Thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. He went to prison for seven years. His wife was left clinging to life. The blast shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. Hundreds of fragments of shotgun pellet and bone splinters were embedded in her face. She needed a tube into her windpipe to breathe. Only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left.
A plastic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Risal Djohan, got a look at her injuries two months later. “He told me he didn’t think, he wasn’t sure, if he could fix me, but he’d try,” Culp recalled.
She endured 30 operations to try to fix her face. Doctors took parts of her ribs to make cheekbones and fashioned an upper jaw from one of her leg bones. She had countless skin grafts from her thighs. Still, she was left unable to eat solid food, breathe on her own, or smell.
Then, on Dec. 10, in a 22-hour operation, Dr. Maria Siemionow led a team of doctors who replaced 80 percent of Culp’s face with bone, muscles, nerves, skin and blood vessels from another woman who had just died. It was the fourth face transplant in the world, though the others were not as extensive.
“Here I am, five years later. He did what he said — I got me my nose,” Culp said of Djohan, laughing.
In January, she was able to eat pizza, chicken and hamburgers for the first time in years. She loves to have cookies with a cup of coffee, Siemionow said.
No information has been released about the donor or how she died, but her family members were moved when they saw before-and-after pictures of Culp, Siemionow said.
Culp said she wants to help foster acceptance of those who have suffered burns and other disfiguring injuries.
“When somebody has a disfigurement and don’t look as pretty as you do, don’t judge them, because you never know what happened to them,” she said. “Don’t judge people who don’t look the same as you do. Because you never know. One day it might be all taken away.”
It’s a role she has already practiced, said clinic psychiatrist Dr. Kathy Coffman.
Once while shopping, “she heard a little kid say, `You said there were no real monsters mommy, and there’s one right there,’” Coffman said. Culp stopped and said, “I’m not a monster. I’m a person who was shot,” and pulled out her driver’s license to show the child what she used to look like, the psychiatrist said.
Culp, who is from the small town of Unionport, near the Pennsylvania line, told her doctors she just wants to blend back into society. She has a son and a daughter who live near her, and two preschooler grandsons. Before she was shot, she and her husband ran a painting and contracting business, and she did everything from hanging drywall to a little plumbing, Coffman said.
Culp left the hospital Feb. 5 and has returned for periodic follow-up care. She has suffered only one mild rejection episode that was controlled with a single dose of steroid medicines, her doctors said. She must take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of her life, but her dosage has been greatly reduced and she needs only a few pills a day.
Also at the Cleveland Clinic is Charla Nash of Stamford, Conn., who was attacked by a friend’s chimpanzee in February. She lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids, and will be blind, doctors said. Clinic officials said it is premature to discuss the possibility of a face transplant for her.
In April, doctors at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston performed the nation’s second face transplant, on a man disfigured in a freak accident. It was the world’s seventh such operation. The first, in 2005, was performed in France on Isabelle Dinoire, a woman who had been mauled by her dog.
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On the Net:
Cleveland Clinic: http://www.clevelandclinic.org/face

Government lends 5m for LDV deal
The UK government is lending 5m to Malaysian firm Weststar, which has agreed to take over struggling UK van maker LDV.
The deal will stave off administration on Wednesday, but the loan would have to be repaid after four weeks, says BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym.
The last-ditch deal will secure, for now, hundreds of jobs.
The Birmingham-based business and plant has been at a near standstill since before Christmas.
Weststar is yet to formally accept the deal.
‘Credible chance’
About 800 people are employed at LDV’s Birmingham factory and about 1,200 people employed in dealerships.
“Weststar’s proposed purchase of LDV offers the only credible chance of keeping this manufacturing plant in the UK,” said business minister Ian Pearson.
“Whilst completion of the deal is not certain, it would have been irresponsible of the government not to support it going forward.
“But this is a one-off bridging loan and it cannot be extended.”
It is understood LDV and Weststar had reached a deal earlier in the week, but that it relied on the short-term UK government financing.
LDV had been looking for funding, or a rescue deal, before Wednesday, 6 May, when it was due to formally go into administration.
‘Long way to go’
Following the news of the government loan, Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of trade union Unite, said: “We are delighted at the government’s backing for this company.”
He added: “There’s a long way to go yet but now thoughts can turn to building a serious and successful future for this company, and to getting these men and women, who have not built a vehicle in months, back to work.”
In February, LDV asked the government for a bridging loan because it was “literally running out of cash”.
At the time the government said the taxpayer could not be expected to pay for the company’s losses, but that talks with LDV were “ongoing and regular”.
LDV – which was put up for sale by its Russian owner Gaz late last year – has a long-term association with Weststar making LDV commercial vehicles in Malaysia.
Are you affected by the issues in this story? Do you work for LDV? Send us your comments.

Source:BBC

Comedy actor DeLuise dies aged 75
Actor and comedian Dom DeLuise, who starred in films including Blazing Saddles and Cannonball Run, has died at the age of 75, it has been announced.
He died in his sleep at a hospital in Los Angeles on Monday night following a long illness, DeLuise’s family said.
He had appeared in scores of films, TV shows and Broadway plays and provided voices for numerous cartoon characters.
His friend, fellow actor and regular co-star Burt Reynolds, said there would “never be another like him”.
The two appeared together in several films including The End and Smokey and the Bandit II.
“I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much,” said Reynolds.
DeLuise is best known for his performances in Mel Brooks’ successful comic films, playing film director Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles and Roman emperor Nero in History of the World: Part I.
Later on, he also became known for his cooking, authoring two cook books and demonstrating recipes on television.
He is survived by his wife, Carol Arthur, and three actor sons, Peter, Michael and David.

Source:BBC

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) –
Villagers brought truckloads of bodies to the capital of a province in Western Afghanistan on Tuesday to prove that scores of civilians had been killed by U.S. air strikes in a battle with the Taliban.
The governor of Farah Province, Rohul Amin, said about 30 bodies had been trucked to his office, most of them women and children. Other officials said the overall civilian death toll may have been much higher, with scores of people feared killed while huddled in houses that were destroyed by U.S. warplanes.
U.S. forces confirmed that a battle had taken place with air strikes and said they were investigating reports of civilian casualties, but were unable to confirm them.
“There was an insurgent attack on an ANA (Afghan National Army) group and the ANA called for assistance, and some coalition troops joined them to help fight this group,” said U.S. military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian. “There was close air support, but I can't give any detail on the type of aircraft.”
He said U.S. and Afghan officials would head to the site on Wednesday to investigate the reports of civilian deaths.
“Once we get eyes on the ground we will have a better idea of what may have happened.”
Ghulan Farooq, a member of parliament from the province, said he had been told by family members in the Bala Boluk district where the fighting took place that as many as 150 people had died. He said U.S. air strikes had destroyed 17 houses. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.
Lieutenant Colonel Khalil Nehmatullah, commander of an Afghan Army battalion in the province, said: “Unfortunately the Taliban took people into some buildings and forced them to stay in there after the security forces started telling them to evacuate.”
“Arabs and Pakistanis were among the Taliban fighters who were armed with RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) … the ANA entered the scene with help from a unit of U.S. marines, and they were fighting until 11 pm,” he told Reuters. He said he did not know the extent of the civilian casualties.
EXECUTIONS
Amin said the battle in Farah province, a vast desert region on Afghanistan's western border, began after Taliban guerrillas moved into a village on Monday and executed three former government officials for cooperating with the state.
Before the reports of large numbers of civilian casualties emerged, the governor said four Afghan security forces members and about 25 insurgents had been killed.
The head of public health and hospitals in Farah province, Abdul Jabar Shayeq, said 11 civilians and three policemen had been admitted to hospital with wounds from the fighting.
Jalil Ahmad, a resident in the district, said earlier that some 100 Taliban fighters had taken up positions in residential areas to fight the Afghan and foreign troops.
“Civilian lives are in danger from both sides and they don't care about it,” Ahmad said. “We beg President (Hamid) Karzai to save our lives.”
Civilian deaths have become a bitter source of friction between Afghan authorities and U.S. forces. Washington says it is working harder this year to limit civilian deaths and investigate reports of such incidents more rapidly after the number of civilians killed by U.S. forces soared last year.
In the worst incident last year, the Afghan government and the United Nations said a U.S. strike killed 90 civilians. Washington initially denied it, but after three months said it had killed 33 civilians as well as 22 people it called militants.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Washington, where he will meet U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time since Obama's inauguration. Obama has declared Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan to be Washington's main military concern.
Last year more than 7,000 people, including 2,000 civilians, died in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan, the United Nations and aid agencies say.
The United States plans to more than double its forces to fight the Taliban insurgents this year from 32,000 at the start of the year to 68,000 by the year's end. Other countries have around 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.
(Additional reporting by Golnar Motevalli, Hamid Shalizi and Peter Graff in Kabul; Writing by Peter Graff; editing by Ralph Boulton)

LONDON – Britain on Tuesday published its first list of people barred from entering the country for allegedly fostering extremism or hatred, including Muslim extremists, a right-wing American radio host, an Israeli settler and jailed Russian gang members.
The U.K.’s law and order chief, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, said she decided to publish the names of 16 of 22 people who have been banned by the government since October so others could better understand what sort of behavior Britain was not prepared to tolerate.
She cited unidentified “public interest” reasons for not disclosing the other six names.
“I think it’s important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it’s a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won’t be welcome in this country,” Smith told GMTV.
But some of the people on the list criticized it, and one analyst said it contains a wide variety of people to avoid giving Britain’s Muslims the impression that it singles them out.
Popular American talk-radio host, Michael Savage, who broadcasts from San Francisco and has called the Muslim holy book, the Quran, a “book of hate,” is on the list. Savage also has enraged parents of children with autism by saying in most cases it’s “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.”
Savage told the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com that he was considering legal action against Smith for defamation.
“She’s linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses? For my speech? The country where the Magna Carta was created?” the site quoted him as saying Tuesday.
A phone call to his home station, KNEW in San Francisco, wasn’t immediately returned.
The list includes Americans Stephen “Don” Black, founder of a Florida-based white supremacist Web site, and anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps Sr., who leads a church in Topeka, Kansas.
Black was criticized as the “Godfather of hate on the Internet” in a 2000 HBO documentary. The British government previously acknowledged that Phelps was banned.
His daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, also has been barred from the U.K. The pair have picketed the funerals of AIDS victims and claimed the deaths of U.S. soldiers are a punishment for tolerance of homosexuality.
Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for Phelps’ anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, claimed on Tuesday that Smith was helping to spread her group’s message.
“She caused the words to just flow all over the world,” Phelps-Roper said in a telephone interview. “They’re publishing that story about (Smith) in every country in the world in languages I can’t even read.”
The list also includes Yunis Al-Astal, a Hamas lawmaker in Gaza; Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man once jailed for murdering four Israelis; Egyptian cleric Safwat Hijazi; and Israeli settler Mike Guzovsky, who Britain’s Home Office said was involved with military training camps.
Also banned from entering Britain are Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, two leaders of a Russian gang. They were imprisoned for 10 years in Russia last year for their role in racially motivated killings of 19 people.
Alan Mendoza, head of The Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think-tank in London, said Tuesday that he supports the idea of a public list of the unwanted, but that many of the names were “just here for padding.”
He said the British immigration officials’ real focus was keeping Islamic extremists out of Britain and indoctrinating elements of the U.K.’s sizable Muslim minority.
But Mendoza said that “if the government proposed a list purely of those figures, you can imagine the reaction within the Muslim community.”
Muhammad Abdul Bari, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, an umbrella group for U.K. Islamic groups, said Britain’s government appears to be “creating a sort of ‘pre-crime.’”
“We have more than sufficient legislation on the statute books to deal with the very situations they claim trying to protect us against,” he said.
Earlier this year Britain’s government was criticized for its decision to bar far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders from the country because of his anti-Islam views.
But the spectacle of seeing the elected European lawmaker detained at London’s Heathrow Airport drew protests from the Dutch government, sparked debate in Britain over the whether officials were muzzling free expression, and raised questions about who the U.K. should ban.
Smith’s list does not include Wilders, but Mendoza said the British government was trying to compensate for its embarrassment over the Wilders affair by banning people who were so widely disliked that nearly everyone would agree they should be kept away.
___
Associated Press Writers Nancy Zuckerbrod in London; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Home Office list: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news/name-and-shame-list

LOS ANGELES, CaliforniaMiss California USA Carrie Prejean “breached her contract” by keeping semi-nude photos a secret and could be stripped of her beauty queen title, according to a state pageant spokesman.
Miss California USA Carrie Prejean may lose her crown because of some semi-nude photos she appeared in.
Prejean said the photostaken when she was a teenage modelwere being used in a “vicious and mean-spirited” effort to silence her for “defending traditional marriage.” The 21-year-old Miss USA contestant has been the center of controversy since she declared her opposition to same-sex marriage in a response to a question on the pageant stage last month. “That answer, and my commitment to stand by my beliefs, has since resulted in attacks on me and my integrity as a woman,” Prejean said in a news release dated Tuesday. Her fate was being discussed in “closed-door meetings” Tuesday among California pageant officials, lawyers and representatives of Donald Trump, who owns the international competition, said Miss California USA spokesman Roger Neal. “They are going over the legalities and clearly she breached her contract,” Neal said. “When you compete for Miss California, you’re supposed to disclose whether you posed for nude or semi-nude photos because it’s grounds for disqualification.” The spokesman for Miss California USA provided CNN with a copy of the pageant contract Prejean signed last year agreeing that the discovery of semi-nude photos could mean disqualification. “You’ll see in the agreement that she signed that she clearly violated the terms of her reign as Miss California USA, but we don’t expect a decision to be made today,” Neal said. One photo published Monday on a Web siteThe Dirtyshowed barely more skin than the bikini Prejean wore in the pageant’s swimsuit competition. While she appears topless, she was turned away from the camera with her arm covering most of her breast. The Web site said it had “exclusive images,” suggesting there were more to be published. “The reports say that there are more photos to come,” Neal said. “We’ll see what happens with those, and we want to know who’s releasing them.” Shanna Moakler, the co-executive director of the Miss California USA organization, will meet with Tami Farrel, the runner-up for Miss California USA, “to discuss the possible next steps.” In the news release Prejean defending the photos, which she said were taken when she was a teenager. “I am a Christian, and I am a model,” she said. “Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos.” She said the photos “have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid Web site that openly mocks me for my Christian faith.” “I am not perfect, and I will never claim to be,” she said. “But these attacks on me and others who speak in defense of traditional marriage are intolerant and offensive. While we may not agree on every issue, we should show respect for others’ opinions and not try to silence them through vicious and mean-spirited attacks.” Prejean announced last week that she will star in a new 1.5 million ad campaign supporting what she called “opposite marriage” (marriage between a man and a woman) funded by the National Organization for Marriage. “Marriage is good,” Prejean said at a news conference announcing the ad campaign. “There is something special about unions of husband and wife. Unless we bring men and women together, children will not have mothers and fathers.”
Source:CNN

Holders Manchester United remain on course to become the first side to retain the Champions League, as two goals in the first 11 minutes saw them defeat Arsenal 3-1 for a 4-1 aggregate victory and a place in the final against either Chelsea or Barcelona in Rome.
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring United’s second goal as they reached the Champions League final.
A carnival atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium saw the home fans optimistic that last week’s 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford could be overturned, but those hopes were cruelly dashed as two individual mistakes allowed United to take a foothold in the gamea position they never looked likely to relinquish. Arsenal went into the match unbeaten in their last 27 home matches in Europe, since Chelsea defeated them 2-1 at Highbury in 2004, and had yet to taste European defeat at the Emirates, but that proud record always looked in doubt from the moment United took an eighth-minute lead. Cristiano Ronaldo played a dangerous ball from the left into the Arsenal penalty area and young Gunners left-back Kieran Gibbs, who has deputized superbly for French international Gael Clichy in recent weeks, lost his footingallowing Ji-Sung Park to collect the ball and fire past goalkeeper Manuel Almunia. The goal, the first Arsenal had conceded at home in Europe this season, justified manager Alex Ferguson’s decision to select Park ahead of Carlos Tevez in the only change to the United side from last week’s victory at Old Trafford. Park’s strike meant Arsenal now had to score three to reach the final, but their task was made even harder just three minutes later when Ronaldo’s 40-yard free-kick deceived Almunia, who had kept Arsenal in contention in the first leg with a string of fine saves. Despite the ferocity and brilliance of Ronaldo’s long-range strike, Almunia appeared to misjudge the flight of the ball as it nestled into the left-hand corner of the net. The second goal effectively killed off the contest, with 79 minutes remaining, and Arsenal were fortunate not to go three goals down on the night in the 17th minute when Almunia dived full-stretch to tip Wayne Rooney’s superb curling effort around the post.
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The half-time interval gave Arsenal some respite, but United looked far from finished as an attacking threat and could have extended their lead six minutes after the break when Ronaldo twisted and turned the Arsenal defense before firing a fierce shot that Almunia did well to turn around the post. Arsenal pressed forward in search of a goal that would have given them some hope, but left themselves open to a United counter-attack and in the 61st minute the visitors added a devastating third. An Arsenal corner was cleared and the ball found its way to the marauding Park, who found Rooney on the left. The England striker looked up before picking out Ronaldo who had burst into the box, and the Portuguese winger clinically despatched his finish into the top corner of the Arsenal net. With the match over as a contest, Arsenal were now just playing for pride. Robin Van Persie’s long-range shot stung the hands of fellow-Dutchman Edwin van der Sar in the United goal, while substitute Nicklas Bentdner fired into the side-netting after a promising run. However, There was a late sting in the tail for United when midfielder Darren Fletcher tackled Cesc Fabregas in the penalty area. The Scotsman appeared to take the ball but Italian referee Roberto Rosetti stunned United by pointing to the penalty spot before sending off Fletcher, meaning he will now miss the final. Van Persie stepped up to convert the penalty, but it was scant consolation for a well-beaten Arsenal side, as United moved to within 90 minutes of winning a fourth European Cup and a possible showdown against Premier League rivals Chelsea in a repeat of last year’s epic final in the Moscow rain. “We got the lucky break by scoring the first goal,” a delighted Ferguson told ITV Sport. “However, after that, I though our performance was terrific. “It’s just such a shame that Darren Fletcher will miss the final. He clearly took the ball and Mr Rosetti is one of the best referees in Europe, but he got that one wrong and unfortunately there is no appeal procedure.” Talking about the final, Ferguson added: “Barcelona’s display against Real Madrid on Saturday had me drooling with admiration, but Barca have defensive problems and I just think Chelsea might be too strong for them on the night.”
Source:CNN

In pictures: Met Museum Gala
Victoria Beckham arrives at the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Benefit in New York. She wore a gown designed by Marc Jacobs, and was accompanied by his partner, Lorenzo Martone.
Designer Marc Jacobs and supermodel Kate Moss arrived together. Beckham told reporters Jacobs was a “genius”. “I get so
much inspiration from him,” she added.
The gala launched an exhibition, The Model As Muse, which explores how models influenced 20th Century fashion. Justin Timberlake, who arrived with girlfriend Jessica Biel, co-chaired the event.
Madonna, in the midst of an adoption battle in Malawi, said very little to the press as she walked the red carpet in a Louis Vuitton creation.
Singer Rihanna, who chose to wear a black Dolce and Gabbana suit, made her first public appearance since her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown allegedly assaulted her in February.
Fashion designer Stella McCartney joined actresses Liv Tyler, Kate Hudson and Kate Bosworth on the red carpet.
Pop star Katy Perry posed for photographers in an unusually demure Tommy Hilfiger dress. “I feel like Cleopatra,” she said.
Despite being heavily pregnant Heidi Klum said she would not have missed the gala as “it is the biggest fashion event of the year”.
Elizabeth Hurley’s husband Arun Naya accompanied his model wife.
Fashion icon Twiggy posed for photos with Agyness Deyn. Musician Jack White arrived with wife Karen Elson.
Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman made actress Kate Beckinsale’s gown. “Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but she’s strong on the inside,” said Champan of her muse.
Winona Ryder, Claudia Schiffer and Marion Cotillard also attended the annual event, proving the A-list pulling power of organiser and Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
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Source:BBC

WASHINGTON – A flu virus is a powerhouse of evolution, mutating at the maximum speed nature allows. A mild virus can morph into a killer and vice versa.
One change already made this year’s swine flu more of a problem, helping it spread more easily among people. The big question is: What mutations are next? That’s why scientists are watching it so closely.
“There are no rules to flu viruses; they are just so mutable,” said Dr. Paul Glezen, a flu epidemiologist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The fact that it changes all the time really confounds our efforts to control it.”
Think of flu’s evolution like a family tree: In the current flu’s distant ancestry are last century’s three pandemics. But its more immediate relatives are swine flu strains that were no big deal to humans.
The good news right now is that this flu has lost some of the most dangerous genetic traits of past pandemics. The bad news is that it’s gained something its parents didn’t have: the ability to spread from human to human.
Flu reproduces about every eight hours, said Dr. Raul Rabadan, professor of computational biology at Columbia University. That means this morning’s flu is a parent by the afternoon, a grandparent by the evening, and a great-grandparent by the next day.
Instead of complex double-helix DNA — nature’s basic biological instruction book — flu has a simpler, single strand of genetic code. Normal DNA has a spellcheck-like system that reduces mistakes in replicating the code; the flu virus does not. So mutations come more often. If the mutations are good for the virus, they multiply, and voila, you have a new and sometimes nastier flu.
Scientists are trying to piece together swine flu’s ever-changing genome, its genetic ancestors and the random mutations that in this instance turned a simple pig disease into something that scares billions.
They also don’t know how the virus is going to mutate next.
In the world’s most devastating global flu epidemic in 1918, the first wave of cases in the spring were mild. Then, the virus evolved and came back in the fall as a strain that proved truly deadly, flu experts say. So scientists today are watching to see if that could happen again.
Also troubling is the possibility that this virus could develop resistance to anti-flu drugs, and flu trackers are watching for such changes, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flu chief Dr. Nancy Cox said.
It’s impossible to know where this swine flu strain began exactly, Cox said. But flu trackers do have clues to its closest ancestral genes.
“Its two parents were swine viruses that we know and love,” said virologist Dr. Richard Webby, a researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
The mother of the swine flu was a surprising genetic event that went unnoticed except by a few scientists a little over a decade ago. Three influenza strains — some pig, some bird, some human — combined in pigs to form two new strains of swine flu. This new flu was unusual. Virus hunters called it a “triple reassortment.”
That 1998-99 flu in pigs first hit a farm in North Carolina, then spread to Iowa, Texas, Oklahoma and eventually to at least 23 states. No more than 4 percent of the swine died. But the disease was in more than one-quarter of tested pigs. A handful of people who were in close contact with the hogs got slightly sick when they caught this flu from pigs, but they didn’t die and didn’t spread it to others.
In 2005, a 17-year-old Wisconsin boy caught that triple reassortment flu virus from “respiratory secretions” of a pig he had been helping his brother-in-law butcher, according to the CDC. He recovered and didn’t pass it on to others.
There have been about 10,000 generations of that virus since. Six of the eight genetic segments of the current swine flu can be traced to that triple combination, Rabadan said.
The rest of the swine flu parentage is more of a mystery. The other two of the eight genetic segments can be traced to pig viruses in Europe and Asia that were seen from time to time in the 1990s, Rabadan said. Scientists don’t quite know if those other two segments combined with the triple reassortment at the same time or separately.
How the triple reassortment genes and the European and Asian genes met and mixed is not known, Webby said.
The three global flu epidemics of the past, including the 1918 event, all passed on traits to ancestors of this flu, Rabadan said. But there have been many changes in the thousands of generations since.
A specific gene for virulence that was seen in the 1918, 1957 and 1968 pandemics was notably absent in this swine flu, said Dr. Peter Palese, a prominent flu researcher for Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. He said when he removed that gene from other viruses of the past, they weren’t as dangerous.
Rabadan suggests the way to think of this flu is like a homemade car with parts from different vehicles. The parts have all been in several different vehicles before. Sometimes the combination of parts is a dud and the car doesn’t move. And sometimes you get a race car. A pandemic is a race car.
All eight of the new flu’s genetic segments have been in different viruses before. But this is the first time this specific combination has been seen. The big question is: Why is this particular swine virus spreading so fast among people when past swine viruses haven’t?
One possibility is that it’s just this particular combination of the eight parts that makes it spread among people, Webby said. But a more logical explanation is that a small mutation within the individual genetic segments changed things.
These tiny changes are possible because there are about 13,000 individual letters, or bases, in the flu genetic code, Rabadan said. That’s tiny compared to more than 3 billion in humans.
One prime suspect is the surface protein hemagglutinin, the “H” in the virus’ H1N1 name. It is “probably the most important gene determining virulence and immunological characteristics,” according to Palese.
In flu viruses, scientists have so far identified 16 hemagglutinins. Only three — H1, H2 and H3 — commonly infect humans. The other surface protein, neuraminidase, has nine variations. Palese said scientists are seeing more different types of flu strains because of better surveillance and increases in bird, pig and human populations.
“These genetic processes of mutation and genetic reassortment occur all the time,” he said, “and every once in a time, it’s a lottery winner.”

Los Angeles (E! Online) –
Finally, after all these years a new Dallas spinoff is coming…to a Los Angeles courtroom.
Days after getting sued by a former housekeeper who claimed the erstwhile Pamela Ewing pulled a gun on her, Victoria Principal is fighting back with a countersuit, alleging that it was the ex-maid who did the assaulting.
Per the complaint filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by E! News, the Dallas star alleges that Maribel Banegas “engaged in outrageous, threatening violent conduct” after Principal fired her only two days into the job, leaving the actress fearing for her safety.
Principal accuses the housekeeper of assault, trespass, civil extortion, animal cruelty and negligence. Principal also claims Banegas seriously injured the actress's pooch and then, after getting canned, refused to leave her house, pounding on kitchen counters and screaming “give me money” in a failed extortion bid.
Banegas' suit, filed in L.A. Superior Court on Friday, contends that she was fired by Principal after taking too long to walk the dog. When Banegas asked for her final payment, the suit claims, Principal went upstairs and, instead of retrieving her checkbook, returned with a gun and threatened to kill Banegas.
Banegas says she was so scared she hid in a room in the residence until the police showed up. The incident, the worker alleges, caused her severe emotional distress.
Describing Banegas as a 6-foot, 160-pound “formidable figure,” Principal admits to grabbing the gun, but says she did so only because she feared for her safety. Principal says she was forced to call the cops after Banegas locked herself in the guest house and demanded payment.
The next morning, Principal says, she woke up to find her pet dog writhing in pain, which a veterinarian diagnosed as three injured vertebrae supposedly caused by abuse from Banegas.
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Los Angeles (E! Online) –
X marks the spot for a Wolverine sequel.
Just two days after Hugh Jackman's domination of the box office—Box Office Mojo estimates the film's worldwide gross at 158.2 million and counting—comes the rather unsurprising word that a follow-up to the origin story is already in the works.
According to Variety, the sequel, which will mark Jackman's fifth time donning the killer claws, will focus on the X-Men comic's samurai storyline, the Japanese locale setup for which is teased after the blockbuster film's end credits.
Meanwhile, the action star Oscar host is showing no signs of slowing—or being typecast—with no fewer than four other projects in the works, one of which will be a 2010 return to Broadway as the titular Houdini.
Rounding out today's star-studded castings: Ben Stiller, Christina Aguilera, Wilmer Valderrama, Peter Dinklage, Ken Watanabe and the newest Mad Man.
As for Jackman's big screen ambitions, he's looking to reteam with his Oscars duet partner Anne Hathaway in the big screen adaptation of the musical Carousel. Per the trade, he's also on board to star in the race car-centric Drive and as an heiress-protecting NYC detective in Personal Security.
In other notable casting news:
• Ben Stiller is resurrecting Used Guys, the years-old futuristic romantic comedy he was originally intended to star in alongside Jim Carrey. Per Variety, Stiller is bringing the film, set in a world in which women clone and trade men, back to the big screen, looking to star and produce the reborn flick. Reese Witherspoon has been approached to take on the female lead as the owner of Stiller's suddenly obsolete clone model.
• Christina Aguilera is bringing her big voice to the big screen, signing on to make her film debut in Burlesque, a contemporary musical. E! News confirms that Aguilera will play an ambitious small-town girl who finds love and success in a Los Angeles nightclub in the film, produced by Screen Gems, the same studio that helped shepherd Beyoncé's Obsessed to a No. 1 debut.
• Ken Watanabe and Tom Hardy are starting up Inception. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the duo join Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy and Marion Cotillard in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi action flick about a blackmailed CEO. The film is aiming for a summer 2010 release.
• Wilmer Valderrama and Jason Ritter are making their way to The Dry Land, an indie drama following a young soldier returning to a now unsatisfying small-town life. Per the Hollywood Reporter, America Ferrera and Melissa Leo costar.
• Jared Harris is on the Fringe no more. The thesp is making the jump over to Mad Men, per the Hollywood Reporter, signing on to star as Sterling Cooper's new financial officer Lane Pryce for the cable drama's third season. The show will return to AMC in August.
• Peter Dinklage is heading Down Under, joining Chuck's Yvonne Strahovski, Noise's Brendan Cowell and Aussie supermodel Megan Gale in the romantic comedy I Love You Too. Per the Hollywood Reporter, the film centers on a commitment-phobe and New Ager, both of whom embark on a quest to win over their dream woman. Shooting kicked off in Melbourne this week.
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BALTIMORE – Michael Phelps’ three-month suspension from competition is now over and he marked the occasion like any other day: He woke up late and headed to the pool. Speaking exclusively with The Associated Press, Phelps said he didn’t even realize his suspension ended Tuesday. Coach Bob Bowman couldn’t resist making a joke, saying he planned to enter his star swimmer in a meet later that night.
“I had no idea,” Phelps said of his ban, which was doled out by USA Swimming after a picture surfaced in a London tabloid showing him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.
Actually, he’ll return to competition next week at a meet in Charlotte, N.C. It will be his first time swimming competitively since winning eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.
“I’m happy to be back in the water and be back in semi-shape,” said Phelps, who’s lost almost 20 pounds in last two months. “I’m sort of getting back into racing shape and getting ready to race my first race since Beijing. We’ll see how it’s goes.
“I’m happy to have some structure back in my life,” he added.
Phelps said he considered retiring from the sport after the picture surfaced. After all, he already broke Mark Spitz’s 36-year-old record of seven gold medals and became the winningest Olympian ever with 14 golds.
But after writing down the pros and cons of resuming his career, Phelps decided to get back in the water. He’s not concerned what the photo did to his image.
“It was a stupid mistake that I made,” he said during an interview on the deck of the pool at Loyola College in his native Baltimore. “But I’ll have what I’ve accomplished in and out of the pool for the rest of my life. I’m satisfied with what I’ve done and happy with what I’ve done.”
Phelps said the whole experience has “shown me who my real friends are. It’s also given me a lot of time to think. Pretty much since Beijing ended, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.”
After going into virtual seclusion for nearly a month after the photo surfaced, Phelps called Bowman on March 1 — the coach remembers the day vividly — and said simply, “I’m doing it.”
“I was not really concerned whether he would quit or not,” Bowman said. “I was concerned that if he did quit, that he did it for the right reasons. Otherwise, it would just be a joke. I have told him, ‘You’ve done all there is to do. If you quit today, you’re the greatest of all time. You can walk away.’ But I did think it would be bad if he walked away because of this thing. He should go on his own terms.”
His motivation restored, Phelps plans to keep swimming through the 2012 London Olympics. While he’s not going to attempt eight gold medals again, he will continue to do a program that would be exhausting to most swimmers.
In Charlotte, he’ll swim five events: the 50-meter freestyle, 100 free, 200 free, 100 backstroke and 200 butterfly. Only two were on his record-breaking program in Beijing, the 200 free and 200 fly.
“I’m feeling good in the water and swimming some decent times in practice,” Phelps said. “But I have no idea what to expect in the meet. I’m going in open minded.”
As for his life away from the pool, Phelps wouldn’t discuss tabloid reports that he’s dating Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who made headlines of her own last month when she finished runner-up in the Miss USA pageant. Some thought her response to a question about legalizing same-sex marriage may have cost her the title.
Phelps would only say the two “are good friends,” but added that he can sympathize with what she’s gone through since expressing her opposition to gay marriage.
As for tabloid reports of his heavy partying, Phelps rolled his eyes and said nearly everything written about him was false. Specifically, he denied a report detailing a wild night in New York City.
“I know I have not been perfect by any means,” he said. “But I have learned from all of my mistakes. That’s all you can ask for.”
(This version CORRECTS the school’s name to Loyola College, instead of university.) )

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) –
After more than five centuries protecting popes, the Swiss Guard may consider opening the ranks of the world's smallest army to women, its commander said Tuesday.
“I can imagine them for one role or another. Certainly we can think about this,” Daniel Anrig, who took over the post late last year, told Italian television program “Studio Aperto.”
Anrig's remarks could represent a major change in position regarding the future of the elite corps composed entirely of 19- to 30-year-old Catholic men hailing from the Swiss Army.
Anrig's predecessor argued that mixing the sexes could be more trouble than it was worth and cited cramped Vatican barracks as another reason for excluding women.
Asked about difficulties like cramped quarters, Anrig responded: “Any problems can be resolved.”
The Swiss Guard was founded on January 22, 1506, when 150 Swiss mercenaries marched to Rome to serve under Pope Julius II, known as “the warrior Pope.”
Today, the guard numbers around 110 men. Clad in flamboyant striped uniforms, the guard's role is largely ceremonial and many of its members still carry around a medieval weapon — the halberd, which is a combination of spear and battle axe.
Wednesday, the Vatican will hold an annual ceremony commemorating the 140 guards killed in the May 6, 1527 sacking of Rome. The surviving members saved the life of Pope Clement VII.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart)

McALLEN, Texas – Texas health officials have confirmed the first death of a United States resident with swine flu.
Few details were immediately released. But health officials say the patient who died earlier this week was a woman in her 30s who lived in Cameron County, along the U.S.-Mexico border. Carrie Williams, spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services, said Tuesday the woman had other, chronic health problems, but didn’t offer specifics.
Last week, a boy from Mexico City died at a Houston hospital, marking the first swine flu death in the United States.