North Korea held its usual lavish celebration to mark Kim Jong Il’s 69th birthday today—even though the desperately poor country couldn’t afford to hand out its usual “birthday gift” of food rations to the people. In one northeastern province, even ruling party officials haven’t gotten their gifts, which consist…
Continue reading …News of Lara Logan’s sexual assault in Egypt just came to light yesterday, and already the “blame the victim” mentality is on full display. One “stunningly offensive blog post” took just minutes to “hinge the story on the blond reporter’s looks,” writes Mary Elizabeth Williams on Salon . The LA Weekly…
Continue reading …A US marshal is dead and two fellow marshals injured after a gunman opened fire inside his West Virginia house when they tried to serve a warrant. The gunman was killed in the ensuing shootout, reports the Charleston Gazette . Marshals were at the home of a 51-year-old man accused of…
Continue reading …A fake Twitter feed that has fun with Rahm Emanuel’s fluency in f-bombs is taking off. The feed @MayorEmanuel has more than 26,000 followers, triple the number of the Chicago candidate’s real feed . Even Emanuel says he checks in, and the tweets usually make him smile, notes the Huffington…
Continue reading …One bit of good news in the Lara Logan story: She’s out of the hospital and resting at home in Washington, DC, with her husband and two children, reports ABC News . The 39-year-old CBS journalist was earlier said to be in “remarkably good spirits” despite her sexual assault and beating…
Continue reading …A slim actress walks into a restaurant, sits down with her interviewer, and proceeds to order a huge, usually unhealthy meal and gush about how much she’s enjoying it: Thus begins a frightening number of celebrity profiles in glossy magazines, especially lately. Minka Kelly chows down on spaghetti carbonara; Zoe…
Continue reading …The Iowa caucus might have gotten too conservative for its own good: The 2012 presidential contenders are spending less time in the state than usual, and others are avoiding it altogether, the AP reports. Mitt Romney in particular is MIA, which makes sense, given that he spent $10 million and…
Continue reading …The biggest threat to Planned Parenthood isn’t that ‘sting’ video , it’s Mike Pence. The Indiana Republican is on a one-man mission to cut off all the group’s federal funding. For three years in a row, he’s introduced legislation to ban any entity performing abortions from receiving funds from Title X,…
Continue reading …Nearly two years after his wife’s death , Liam Neeson is finally ready to talk about Natasha Richardson. In Esquire , Tom Chiarella offers a touching account of his interview with Neeson. Highlights: On Neeson’s arrival at the hospital after the accident : “I walked into the emergency … and for the first time…
Continue reading …Zinc has long been the subject of debate when it comes to the common cold: Can the mineral really shorten the duration of your suffering? Yes, according to a new review of research on the topic. When zinc lozenges, tablets, or syrups are taken within 24 hours of the first…
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