ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Elections in Pakistan appeared set to be delayed by several weeks despite demands by the party of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and other politicians that they take place as scheduled on Jan. 8, officials said Monday.


The Election Commission said it had recommended an unspecified delay in the parliamentary polls following unrest triggered by Bhutto's assassination last week. It said its final decision would be made on Tuesday.

Separately, a senior government official predicted the elections would be postponed by "six weeks or so as the environment to hold free and fair elections is not conducive." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.

Meanwhile, video footage of Bhutto's killing raised new questions about the government's version of how she died. On Sunday, her party named her 19-year-old son its symbolic leader, while her husband was said to take effective control.

Despite being in mourning, Bhutto's political party and that of Pakistan's other major opposition leader want the polls held on time, perhaps sensing major electoral gains are possible amid sympathy because of Bhutto's death and accusations that political allies of President Pervez Musharraf were behind the killing. The government has rejected the charges.

Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, like Bhutto also a former prime minister, said Monday that the election should be held Jan. 8, while also saying Musharraf should resign and be replaced by a national unity government.

"He is a one-man calamity. He is responsible for all the trouble in Pakistan. The country is burning," Sharif said.

Western governments are also urging the government to go ahead with the polls without major delays. They see the elections as a key step in U.S.-backed plans to restore democracy to the nation as it battles Taliban and al-Qaida militants.

Bhutto was killed in a suicide bomb and gun attack on Thursday, but disagreements between her supporters and the government over the precise cause of death are undermining confidence in Musharraf and adding to calls for international investigators to probe the killing.

New video footage, obtained by Britain's Channel 4, shows a man firing a handgun at Bhutto from close range as she stands up in an open-topped vehicle. Her hair and shawl then move upward, suggesting she may have been shot. She then falls into the vehicle just before an explosion rocks the car.

The government has insisted Bhutto was not hit by any of the bullets and died after the force of the blast slammed her head against the sunroof. Bhutto's family and supporters say she died from gunshot wounds to her head and neck.

Bhutto's husband said late Sunday he refused permission for doctors to perform an autopsy, meaning that short of exhuming her body — something her supporters have already ruled out — the cause of her death will be difficult to establish.

After days of rioting that left at least 44 dead, life in many Pakistani cities began returning to normal, though soldiers and police patrolled many areas. The streets were still quiet in the southern city of Karachi, the scene of some of the worst violence, witnesses said.

The country's stock markets tumbled in early trading Monday as the uncertain political outlook and violence triggered a selling spree. After opening for the first time since the killing, the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange's 100-share index had plunged by 4.7 percent at midday — one of its biggest single-day falls.

On Sunday, Bhutto's political party named her son, Bilawal Zardari, as its symbolic leader and left day-to-day control to her husband, extending Pakistan's most enduring political dynasty.

"My mother always said democracy is the best revenge," Bilawal said late Sunday at an emotionally charged media conference at Bhutto's ancestral home. "The party's long struggle for democracy will continue with renewed vigor," he said.

Bhutto's party also appealed to Sharif's party, the country's other major opposition leader, to reverse an earlier decision to boycott the polls. Sharif's party later agreed.

Tariq Azim, a spokesman for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said "we are also ready for the contest on Jan. 8." Earlier, he predicted the election may be delayed up to four months.

The appointment of Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as effective leader was not without complications. A former Cabinet minister who spent eight years in prison on corruption accusations, he is known as "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly taking kickbacks and is viewed with suspicion by many Pakistanis.

Zardari said the opposition party — Pakistan's largest — had no confidence in the government's ability to bring his wife's killers to justice and urged the United Nations to establish a committee like the one investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Several leading U.S. politicians have made similar calls.

The British and U.S. governments had been pushing Bhutto, a moderate Muslim seen as friendly to the West, to form a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf after the election — a combination seen as the most effective in the fight against al-Qaida, which is believed to be regrouping in the country's lawless tribal areas.

Source

Close family members of U.S. troops are split on whether the Iraq invasion was a mistake, and 55% disapprove of President Bush's job performance, according to USA TODAY/Gallup Polls focusing on immediate relatives of servicemembers.

"They've maxed out on the troops. You've got guys who are over there on their fourth or fifth tours. It's ridiculous," says Jeanette Knowles, 40, of Mountain Home, Idaho, whose brother, Jeff, served a tour in Iraq with the Oregon National Guard.

Knowles, who calls herself a Democratic-leaning moderate, says her disapproval of Bush stems from his handling of the war.

Military families are more supportive of the war than Americans without immediate family members in the military, the polls show. Among Americans without military relatives, 59% say the invasion was a mistake, compared with 49% of immediate family members.

The data on close relatives of troops were gleaned from four national polls between Sept. 7 and Dec. 2. The polls identified 548 people as wives, children, parents, siblings, grandparents or a close in-law of a servicemember. Among them are 301 people whose loved ones served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Previous military family polling was largely of people who identified themselves as related in some way to a servicemember.

"I don't want to see another Korea. I don't want to see us stay there (in Iraq) forever. And you don't want to be in a country if they don't want us there," says Bruce Bartley, 65, of Fredonia, N.Y., whose son, Army Capt. Steven Bartley, is on his second tour in Iraq. The elder Bartley, who describes himself as a conservative, disapproves of Bush's job performance and says the invasion was a mistake.

Among military families, 55% disapprove of Bush's performance compared with 64% of Americans without relatives in the service in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. Men in military families are more approving of Bush (47%) than female relatives (36%).

"The numbers really aren't much of a surprise," says Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association. "They show that the military is in many ways a reflection of the country as a whole, not an isolated subculture, as some would portray it."

Bush considers families' support important, White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore says. "But he believes that it's important to continue to base his decisions on the advice he receives from commanders on the ground," she says.

More than 1.5 million servicemembers have been sent to Iraq or Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001, and Army combat tours last up to 15 months. Bush meets in private with grieving families, visits the wounded and frequently speaks to gatherings of military families.

SOURCE

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. hotel heiress Paris Hilton's potential inheritance dramatically diminished after her grandfather Barron Hilton announced plans on Wednesday to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion (1.16 billion pounds) fortune to charity.

That wealth includes $1.2 billion Barron Hilton stands to earn from both the recent sale of Hilton Hotels Corp. -- started by his father Conrad in 1919 when he bought a small hotel in Cisco, Texas -- and pending sale of the world's biggest casino company, Harrah's Entertainment Inc.



That money will be placed in a charitable trust that will eventually benefit the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, raising its total value to about $4.5 billion, the foundation said in a statement.

Barron Hilton, chairman of the foundation, intends "to contribute 97 percent of his entire net worth, estimated today at $2.3 billion, including the created trusts, at whatever value it is at the time of his passing," the foundation said.

Paris Hilton was not immediately available for comment on her grandfather's plans for his fortune.

Jerry Oppenheimer, who profiled the Hilton family in his 2006 book "House of Hilton," has said Barron Hilton is embarrassed by the behaviour of his socialite granddaughter Paris and believes it has sullied the family name.

Barron Hilton, who is 80, has not commented on Oppenheimer's remarks.

The foundation supports projects that provide clean water in Africa, education for blind children, and housing for the mentally ill. Its aims, based on Conrad Hilton's will, are "to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute."
"Speaking for the family as well as the foundation, we are all exceedingly proud and grateful for this extraordinary commitment," said Steven Hilton, one of Barron's sons and president and chief executive of the foundation.

Conrad Hilton established the foundation in 1944 and when he died in 1979 left virtually all of his fortune -- including, according to media reports at the time, a 27 percent controlling stake in Hilton Hotels -- to the charity.

But Barron Hilton challenged the will and after a nearly decade-long legal struggle reached an out-of-court settlement to split ownership of the shares with the foundation in 1988, The New York Times reported.

The hotel group was sold for $20 billion in October to private equity firm Blackstone Group, while the acquisition of Harrah's -- of which Barron Hilton was a board member until 2006 -- is due to be completed by Apollo Management and TPG Capital in early 2008.

Paris, a symbol of celebrity privilege in America, gained notoriety in 2003 when a home video of her having sex with a boyfriend was posted on the Internet.

She parlayed her notoriety, fuelled by tabloid headlines about her partying lifestyle, into a celebrity career that has included a reality television show, a book, a music album, and film roles. Then this year she spent more than three weeks in jail for violating probation in a drunk-driving case.

(Editing by Daniel Trotta and Eric Walsh)

SOURCE

Known for: to be the daughter of the legendary Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, singing three songs on the album Songs About Jane by Maroon 5 and being the bride of Tobey Maguire, many years ago.
Presentemment on the bill: In the series The Office, in which she embodies the character of Karen Filippelli
Soon in the film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, with Christopher Meloni (Law and Order: SUV), Timothy Hutton, John Krasinski and Julianne Nicholson.



John Krasinski and his Office co-star Rashida Jones arriving at the airport in St. Barths, sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com. Seems like they're rekindling that real-life romance!

A sink that mounts on top of your toilet(s), running clean water automatically as the toilet bowl fills after a flush. Ingenious way of conserving water. Website found here

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.
Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.

God, look at the time! My wife will kill me!
Di! Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit!

Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?

The designated hitter rule has got to go.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.

I think some people in togas are plotting against me.
Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.

If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?
Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?

Honk if you speak Latin.
Sona si Latine loqueris.

If you can read this you're over-educated
Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes

I think some people in togas are plotting against me.
Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.

I saw, I conquered, I came
Vidi Vici Veni

Stupid cow
Vacca foeda

Excuse me. I've got to see a man about a dog.
Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.

Royally screwed
Raptus regaliter

If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!
Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!

I hate Astroturf.
Gramen artificiosum odi.

I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult.
Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.

Don't call me, I'll call you.
Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo.

It doesn't rhyme.
Nullo metro compositum est.

I don't care. If it doesn't rhyme, it isn't a poem.
Non curo. Si metrum non habet, non est poema.

Make my day.
Fac ut gaudeam.

Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!
Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur!

Do you want to dance? I know the Funky Broadway.
Visne saltare? Viam Latam Fungosam scio.

Say, you sure are drinking a lot.
Re vera, potas bene.

May barbarians invade your personal space!
Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!

May conspirators assassinate you in the mall!
Utinam coniurati te in foro interficiant!

May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!
Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!

Couch potato
Radix lecti

What's your sign?
Quo signo nata es?

Oh! More! Go on! Yes! Ooh! Ummm!
O! Plus! Perge! Aio! Hui! Hem!

Honey, I'm home.
Mellita, domi adsum.

I am as dead as the nehru jacket.
Tam exanimis quam tunica nehru fio.

Go with the flow.
Ventis secundis, tene cursum.

Let it all hang out.
Totum dependeat.

Pretty please with a cherry on top!
Te precor dulcissime supplex!

I am the Master of the Universe!
Magister Mundi sum!

Gag me with a spoon!
Fac me cocleario vomere!

I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.
Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.

Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just happy to see me?
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?

Take my wife, please!
Prehende uxorem meam, sis!

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

That's nothing--in a previous life I was a Roman Emperor.
Nihil est--in vita priore ego imperator Romanus fui.

Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.
Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!

Eat my shorts.
Vescere bracis meis.

Everyone is doing it.
Sic faciunt omnes.

Get a life.
Fac ut vivas.

Let's all wear mood rings!
Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!

I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.

46 year old Fabian Hands was arrested Monday night for the murder of two women and the use of a weapon to commit a felony.

After killing two women, his 36 year old girlfriend Saundra Brown and her 48 year old sister Renota Brown, their bodies were left in the basement while he raped his girlfriend’s daughter.

Police arrive at the house Monday evening when a 20 year old woman came out claiming she had been raped. Hands then appeared and continued to assault her disregarding the officers.

The 20 year old woman was taken to the hospital, Saundra and Renota were pronounced dead at the scene.

CNN) — A judge sentenced six French aid workers to eight years hard labor Wednesday after convicting them of trying to kidnap 103 children in the central African country of Chad.



The judge also fined each of the six defendants to pay 60,000 ($87,000) to each of the 103 children, according the CNN Paris-based affiliate, BFM-TV.

That order would require each defendant to pay a total of 6,180,000 ($8.9 million.)

Authorities detained members of the French charity, Zoe’s Ark, in October as they tried to fly 103 children from Chad to France.

The charity said the children were orphans who had fled the nearby war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, but aid agencies later said the children were from Chad, not Sudan, and that they were not orphans.

The head of Zoe’s Ark, Eric Breteau, said after the verdict that he and his colleagues may have been lied to about whether the children were from Sudan or Chad and whether they were orphans.

We are really sorry because our intention was never to separate families, he told France 2 in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad.

Antonia Van Winkelverg, the wife of convicted aid worker Philippe Van Winkelverg, blasted the sentence in an interview with France 2.

Eight years because he was treating children, she said. You who are doctors, nurses, you go do humanitarian work and at any moment you could be in Philippe’s shoes. That’s Chadian justice for you.

But Chadian prosecutor Alain Kagonbe tld BFM-TV: It was a very merciful ruling, and if that ruling had been rendered by the French justice system it would have been the same.

The court in Chad also sentenced two people from Chad and Sudan to four years in prison. It also acquitted two citizens of Chad. Watch a report on how the events unfolded

The French Foreign Ministry has asked authorities in Chad to let the six aid workers serve their sentences in France.

The French penal code does not include provisions for hard labor, so the six would spend time behind bars in France.
found here.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — With approval ratings consistently between 80 percent and 90 percent, Sarah Palin is not only the nation’s most popular governor; she might be the public official in America who is held in the warmest regard by her constituents.

Just a year into her first term, Palin is gaining even more national attention.
As political honeymoons go, her’s might be one for the record books.
In 2007, new Gov. Palin got the Legislature to give her the gas line selection process she wanted and the increase in oil taxes she called a special session for.


Meanwhile, controversies over the failed state dairy and her vetoes of public works projects did little to blunt her popularity.
“I think that it’s been a great year,” Palin said. “Thanks to supportive legislators, who are kind of tired of politics as usual and recognize the need to do some things differently and really start progressing the state.”

At mid-year, pollster Dave Dittman found unprecedented high marks for Palin, with 88 percent of Railbelt residents approving of her job performance, notably her working relationship with the Legislature.

“They’re cooperating together. I think the public at large likes that,” Dittman said. “The Legislature has the highest marks I’ve ever seen.”
Legislators were grateful for Palin’s change of pace.

“It certainly was a huge improvement over the last administration. The whole mood was a mood of more cooperation this year than it has been since I’ve been in the Legislature,” said Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage.

“I’m a great admirer of the governor, and the governor’s a good friend of mine, and I think we work together pretty well,” said Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez.
Palin seems to have a frosty relationship with Senate President Lyda Green.

“It’s gone on a little too long — the friction - I think. We should have been able to figure out a way to work together and communicate with each other better by now,” said Sen. Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage. “I’m hoping that the next session is a clean slate.”
While Palin has endured her share of attacks from those who opposed the oil tax increase and gas pipeline procedure, her hold on the public imagination has not waned.
“We’ve been standing on the sidelines for years looking for an executive within this state to start sticking up for what the vast majority of average Alaskans believe in, not what the establishment wants, or the people that wear $1,000 suits in the capital of Juneau want,” radio talk show host Eddie Burke said. “What the guy hauling trash wants, what the school teacher wants.”

Across the country, political pundits are taking notice.

Longtime White House correspondent and Baltimore radio commentator Lester Kinsolving says Alaska’s governor would be a perfect running mate for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
“I can’t imagine anyone that I can think of right now who would be more appealing as a vice presidential candidate,” Kinsolving said.

Fred Barnes, a regular talking head on Fox News, met with Palin at the governor’s house in Juneau this summer and wrote a rave review about her for his magazine, the Weekly Standard.
“What helps her obviously is that she’s a woman, she’s attractive, she’s a conservative, she has a strong record of integrity, she’s a spending-cutter, she’s not a tax-raiser, and those things obviously would help,” Barnes said. “I’m not sure she’s ready to be vice president, yet, however.”

Barnes spoke before Palin introduced her oil tax legislation and her budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
But the beat goes on, with a story in Newsweek and a recent photo shoot for an upcoming issue of Vogue.
Palin says she has no aspirations for higher office next year. Still, opinion polls suggest she could defeat longtime senior U.S. senator Ted Stevens.
She says the national attention is not going to her head.

Palin’s next test will come in the regular legislative session that begins Jan. 15.

One person was killed and two others injured when a tiger escaped from its cage at the San Francisco Zoo today, police said. According to Bob Jenkins, director of animal care at the zoo, the tiger that killed the person is "Tatiana," the same one that mauled its trainer one year ago. The 350-pound Tatiana somehow escaped her pen just past the zoo's 5 p.m. closing hour and killed a man in his 20s standing near the tiger exhibit, police said.

The injured visitors are in stable but serious condition at San Francisco General Hospital, police said.

It is not known how the tiger escaped.

Four tigers were in the cage but only one left confinement, Smith said.

Police said all victims were visitors and no employees were injured. Fire, police and zoo officials were at the scene investigating.

The zoo is on lockdown and will remain closed Wednesday out of respect to the victims, Jenkins said.

Last December, the Siberian tiger attacked and injured its trainer during a public feeding at the zoo. The trainer suffered lacerations to her arm.

Jenkins said officials felt there was no need to put down the animal after the mauling about a year ago.
Mayor's Office Releases Statement

The office of Mayor Gavin Newsom released the following statement:

The Mayor is deeply saddened to hear the news about the victims of the incident at the San Francisco Zoo this evening.

The police responded immediately to the scene during the incident and have killed the tiger that caused the fatality.

This tiger was the only animal that escaped its enclosure.

The Police Department has secured the scene with the aid of the Fire Department and the Department of Animal Care and Control.

A thorough investigation is being undertaken to uncover all the facts and to understand how this tragedy could have occurred.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims' families. The Zoo will be closed tomorrow, December 26.

source: MSNBC

Most of the time news crews leave the office to cover a story. Last night, in Chicago the story came crashing through the studio wall during the 10 o'clock newscast.

It happened at Chicago's WLS-TV studio on State Street. Watch today's ABC2 Netcast so see the news anchor's reaction to the crash. He was live on the air when the minivan slammed into the building.



Police are still trying to figure out why it happened but witnesses have said the driver may have intentionally crashed into the studio. No injuries were reported, and no charges have been filed.

If you’ve ever had a boss look over your shoulder, you’ll appreciate this: He has a satellite now.

A New York State court has determined that data from a Global Positioning Satellite system in an employee’s car can be used to discipline – even dismiss –that employee. In short: Goof off in the company car, and your TomTom might tell on you.

It’s already cost one Westchester man his job, and the case of the dismissed North Castle building inspector has opened an orbital can of worms with space-age legal implications.

Attorney Bruce Millman, who represented the Town of North Castle when the fired inspector appealed his termination, doesn’t predict drastic changes in the private sector, where GPS vehicle tracking is already commonplace. But the Nov. 20 decision could have serious implications for government employees, Millman said, by prompting more government employers to “either install GPS systems, or seek the right to do it.”

Lost in space

According to Millman, the North Castle inspector was assigned a town vehicle for day-to-day fieldwork, and a GPS tracker indicated that “over a period of time” he “falsified reports of his location, whereabouts and movements.” Based on that evidence, the town cited the inspector for misconduct and, after a disciplinary hearing, fired him.

The former inspector sued North Castle “and attacked the reliability of the data itself,” Millman said. But “the court found that this evidence was sufficiently reliable to be used for termination.”

That decision doesn’t sit well with civil libertarians, according to Seth Muraskin, executive director of the Suffolk County Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Muraskin said the ACLU and its New York offshoots have less of a problem with private businesses tracking employee movements with satellites, but “more of a problem if it’s a town or government agency.”

“It’s more of an intrusion on individual privacy by the government,” he said. “Private companies can do what they want … though we’re still opposed to it in theory.”

Putting aside privacy concerns, Muraskin suggested the fired inspector had a legitimate gripe when he challenged the accuracy of the data that did him in. “A lot of time … GPS systems don’t always give the right information,” Muraskin said. “You have a number of people who may be wrongly prosecuted based on incorrect information.”

The executive director conceded that GPS tracking has its place in public life – “you can make the argument for any public safety official or agency” – but only if it’s “properly monitored and controlled.”

“If you’re going to have something like that, it has to be for a specific reason,” Muraskin said. “Not just an intrusion.”

Videos posted on YouTube today have been circulating all around the internet creating a frenzy of bloggers reacting to the news. In it, Raz B, a former B2K member, accuses his former managers Chris stokes and Marques Houston of molestation. Raz B recorded himself on the phone with the families of Stokes and Houston. Later in the video Raz B’s little brother, Ricky Romantic, is heard saying the following.

"Chris made me take showers with the other boys .... All the [things] that my brother was introduced to, that … was brought to me first. I blocked that … and I wasn't with it - I backed out ... I kinda knew what was going on there. And yet, I took my brother over to Chris, and I didn't protect him like I should have."

"[Chris Stokes] molested my brother and he molested me ... when I say that, it hurts."

Chris Stokes’ response was, "I don't do that anymore, that was me years ago ... I just don't do that in my life anymore."

It’s official: Katherine Heigl is a married woman!

The Grey’s Anatomy star, 29, wed musician Josh Kelley, 27, in a black-tie ceremony Sunday afternoon at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Deer Valley, Utah. Afterward, her Grey's costar T.R. Knight told Usmagazine.com: "It was incredible. It was beautiful."

Heigl's sister Meg told Us: "It was great."

The 30-minute sunset ceremony, which ended shortly after 5 p.m., took place under a giant white tent in front of more than 100 guests, including Grey's costars Sandra Oh, Kate Walsh and Knight.

The heated wedding tent, dramatically lit by blue-and-purple lighting and decorated in large white drapes, was filled with silver chairs covered with white cushions on a white carpet. The couple wed on an altar flanked by brass candleholders.

Knight was to have served as a groomsman.

Next on the agenda for the couple? "I'm super excited to start a family," Heigl recently told Extra. "I've always wanted a family, a large family. But I say that now!"

The pair met in 2005 when Heigl appeared in the music video for his song “Only You.” She gushed to Us: “I met this guy I couldn’t imagine living without!”

Kelley popped the question June 19, 2006, with a 3-carat, pear-shaped diamond flanked by pave diamonds. Designed by jeweler Ryan Ryan, the sparkler has sentimental value (half of the platinum band is from her mother’s own engagement ring).

What better way to keep the little ones occupied while you do whatever it is you do around Christmas—binge drinking perhaps—than the Norad Santa tracker?

As is the tradition every year, Norad uses their fancy satellites, which are supposed to warn us about incoming North Korean nukes, to track Santa's progress in delivering Wiis and PS3s to good little boys and girls.

So if half of our population is gone on the morning of December 25 thanks to some Kim Jung Bombs, you know who to blame. – Jason Chen

Wisconsin Department of Transportation released the following information on the Wisconsin road conditions. See detailed road conditions in Madison and Milwaukee.

Madison-area current travel information

Over 210 million vehicles are in operation on roadways across the United States. As these numbers continue to increase, WisDOT has implemented several technologies to manage traffic on southwest Wisconsin's highway system. These technologies include:

These programs help to advise motorists of congestion, delays and construction. Use these tools to plan your route to work, home or vacation destination.

Milwaukee-area current travel information

Over 210 million vehicles are in operation on roadways across the United States. As these numbers continue to increase, WisDOT has implemented several technologies to manage traffic on southeast Wisconsin's freeway system. These technologies include:

These programs help to advise motorists of congestion, delays and construction. Use these tools to plan your route to work, home or vacation destination.

Meet former child star Danielle Fishel, known for her role as Topanga on “Boy Meets World”.


Danielle Fishel is in the news today as reports are surfacing that she was arrested Thursday morning on a drunk driving warrant. Officers stopped her car in Newport Beach shortly before 5:00 AM Thursday. She was released from jail a little while after she was arrested

Wow, Microsoft have a bit of a crisis on their hands over the xmas period. I’ve signed up with XBox Live and am having no problems with it, but my wife also has a profile and wanted to connect too, albeit as a free Silver member just to get a gamer tag (really I feel it’s very cheeky that they ask you to subscribe once per profile anyway rather than once per machine). However, trying to create a Live account out of her local profile failed at the last hurdle with a rather cryptic error message, involving the error code ‘8007065B:0′ and telling me to ‘check your storage device is connected and that you’re connected to the internet’ (both true, I can use my profile fine).

Odd we thought, maybe it’s just an xmas rush, we’ll do it later. However after this she couldn’t use her local profile any more, because it was marked as corrupt. Live asks you to ‘recover’ your gamertag in that situation, but trying to do that led to the exact same error. Tsk. Not a huge deal though, she’d only just started and just created a new local profile for the time being, losing the 30 gamer points she’d accumulated so far with good grace.

Today I decided to look up the error code online to see if it was a known issue, perhaps with multiple accounts on one box or something. And oh boy, is it a known issue.

It seems like in the last few days, a lot of people have been getting this problem. And worse, these are people who have played online for a while, and have perhaps visited family and transferred their gamertag to their 360’s temporarily. When they got home and transferred their gamertag back, they found themselves in the exact same situation as my wife - ie without a connection to Live and no access to their gamertag. I can imagine that this sucks royally if you’ve built up your Live account over a long period, and/or want to play online over the xmas period. Microsoft seem to have acknowledged it now, but seem wholly unprepared for the tumult of support calls it’s causing - whether they’ll clear it in time for xmas, who knows.

I’m fine, and my wife can play locally for now anyway. But boy, way to screw up Microsoft - you really couldn’t have picked a worse time. I think you’d better call the Live engineers in over the holidays to fix it.

Eddie Van Halen has officially gone solo. At least in the relationship department.

A Los Angeles judge has signed off on the divorce between the guitar god and TV fixture Valerie Bertinelli, ending a quarter-century of matrimony.

The judgment was entered Thursday. The former One Day at a Time player filed for divorce in December 2005, even though the couple officially separated four years earlier.

She cited the usual irreconcilable differences for the split, which her publicist described as amicable.

According to court papers, the ex-couple, who wed in 1981, has already divvied up their assets.

There was no word on custody arrangements for their 16-year-old son, Wolfgang. The teen has been living with his mother since the split, but of late has been on the road touring with dad's revamped Van Halen.

Bertinelli, 47, has morphed from child star to TV-movie queen to Jennie Craig pitchwoman. In July she announced she was writing a memoir, Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time, slated for release in April.

"I've grown up in and out of the public eye, survived some tough times, learned some important lessons, and come out—as has my entire family—in a great place," she said.

Van Halen, 52, has managed to get his career back on track after being sidelined for oral cancer in 2000 and then rehab earlier this year.

His eponymous band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last March and has since embarked on a hugely successful reunion tour with original frontman David Lee Roth, brother Alex on drums and Wolfgang on bass.

The band, which is up for a People's Choice Award next month for Favorite Reunion Tour, recently extended the road show into 2008.

At first I was unsure if the term referred to people against social networking sites, or was a community for people affected by anti-social personality disorder. It turns out, Anti-Social Networking sites are spoofs of popular online communities.

“Web 2.0 faces its backlash in the form of sites parodying Facebook and MySpace. Sometimes perusing MySpace makes us just want to lock ourselves in the basement and listen to Hungarian black metal,” BuzzFeed clarified. “We suppose this is the internet equivalent to that.”

The Facebook parodies include Enemybook and Snubster.

Enemybook lets Facebook users categorize by “Enemybook” (see image) as well as view other people’s Enemybooks. You can also “tell friends to ‘enemy’ someone, and spread the hate” or “Add Enemy Details” just as you would friends. For example, to answer “Why is John your enemy?,” users can select from:
- We lived together and didn’t get along
- We worked together and didn’t get along
- John hooked up with my (ex/sister/etc.)
- John killed my (…)
- John insulted my (…)
- John is my (ex, etc.)
- John i the friend of my enemy
- Facebook ruined our relationship
- We became enemies randomly
- I don’t even know this enemy, but I hate them already

Feature like these could bruise a few feelings… but I guess that’s the intention behind the aptly named site.

Snubster, on the other hand, “encourages people to undermine and mock online social communities, got its start in 2006 and allows users to alienate each other by putting people ‘On Notice’ or listing them as ‘Dead to Me,’ Wired blog explained. “While Snubster actually has its own site, it also recently launched Facebook application.”

Ken Hendricks, founder of ABC Supply Co. Inc. in Beloit, died early Friday after suffering a massive head injury in a fall at a construction site at his Rock County home.

The 66-year-old Hendricks, who also served as chairman and CEO of ABC Supply, died while in surgery at a hospital in Rockford, Ill.

Hendricks, who grew up the son of a roofer in Janesville, began shingling roofs on weekends while working two other jobs and by age 30 had 500 roofers working for him. In 1982, he acquired three roofing supply centers, which were the first locations of the new American Builders and Contractors Supply.

Today, ABC Supply is the nation's largest wholesale distributor of roofing with sales of nearly $3 billion. The company employs 6,000 people at 390 locations in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

Hendricks also owned or held controlling interest in, or held active board and management positions, with other companies, including American Aluminum Extrusion Co., Hendricks Development Group and Gem Pharmaceuticals LLC.

He is survived by his wife, Diane, their seven children and their families.