Woman repeatedly raped inside Nordstrom, police allege

Prosecutors said one of the five people charged in connection with the
take-over robbery at a Nordstrom Rack department store in Westchester raped one of the female hostages.

Prosecutors offered no details. But a district attorney's office spokeswoman said the victim was sexually assaulted "multiple times."

Raymond Sherman Jr., 34, who authorities said was the most violent in the group, was charged with two counts
of forcible rape, one count of
oral copulation, one count of kidnapping for rape, one count of assault
with a
deadly weapon and 14 counts of second-degree robbery.

DOCUMENT: Read the criminal complaint 

Troy Marsay Hammock, 29, and Everett Oneal Allen, 24, face 14 counts
each of second-degree robbery and one count each of assault with a
deadly weapon, identified as a knife, according to the Los Angeles
County district attorney's office.

Rochelle Monique Sherman, 33; and Paula Roneshia Bradley, 29, were charged with one count each of accessory after the fact.

The complaint also alleges Sherman, who is awaiting extradition from Phoenix, where he was
arrested Saturday, used a handgun in the commission of the crimes.

Police have not detailed the roles of the suspects in the
robbery and hostage situation. But those in law enforcement familiar with
the investigation said there is strong evidence linking the crimes to those charged, including physical evidence and security video.

The incident began about 11 p.m. Thursday at the Promenade at Howard
Hughes Center, near the 405 Freeway. Sherman, Hammock and Allen
allegedly confronted the employees as they were leaving the store, which
had just closed.

As the incident was unfolding, one of the employees called her
husband and told him to call 911. The LAPD called a tactical alert and
closed off the area around the shopping center. When the police
department's SWAT officers arrived, they surrounded the store.

At one point, one of the suspected burglars exited, saw the police and ran back inside. A
second suspected burglar walked out with an unidentified woman, saw police and
also headed back inside. The officers entered the store at 3:30 a.m. and
freed the captives.

At least three of the employees were injured, including at least one
woman who was sexually assaulted. Another woman was stabbed in the neck
and sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and a third employee was
pistol-whipped, police said. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck praised the
employees for their bravery and composure.

Beck would not discuss whether the robbers hid in the store or gained
entrance after it closed. Nor would he say how long they remained in the
store before fleeing in a white SUV, or discuss how much cash was taken
in the robbery.

ALSO:

House catches fire during East L.A. SWAT standoff

Galt police mourn officer fatally shot responding to burglary

Talk back: Can clinicians help pedophiles quell their desires?

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Police officers stand outside Nordstrom Rack in Westchester following take-over style robbery. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Read More..

Netanyahu Issues Veiled Barb in Response to Reported Criticism From Obama

JERUSALEM — Days before an Israeli election that he is expected to win, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday directed a veiled barb at President Obama, who was quoted this week as denouncing Mr. Netanyahu’s policies.

Relations between the two leaders have long been marked by tension that has erupted on occasion into open hostility, particularly over the handling of the Iranian nuclear issue and Israeli settlement plans. Israeli commentators said the latest exchange of messages seemed to suggest that future relations between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu could be equally fraught.

In a column published by Bloomberg View on Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, an American journalist who is well acquainted with Israel, wrote that in the weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade the status of Palestine to nonmember observer state, “Obama said privately and repeatedly, ‘Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.’ With each new settlement announcement, in Obama’s view, Netanyahu is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation.”

Responding to a journalist’s question about the comments and the timing during a televised visit to a military base on Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I think everyone understands that only Israeli citizens will be the ones who determine who faithfully represents the vital interests of Israel.”

Many Israelis regard Mr. Goldberg as being well connected to Mr. Obama, citing a widely publicized interview by Mr. Goldberg with the president that was published in The Atlantic last March. Mr. Obama said then, regarding Iran, “I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don’t bluff,” and, “In terms of Israeli politics, there’s been a view that regardless of whether it’s a Democratic or Republican administration, the working assumption is: we’ve got Israel’s back.”

Asked for a response to Mr. Goldberg’s column, Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said: “I can’t confirm that specific comment or what was allegedly discussed in private meetings.  The president has been clear in stating what he believes is a realistic basis for successful negotiations, and we will continue to base our efforts on that approach.”

The stinging criticism attributed to Mr. Obama made headlines in Israel, not least because of the timing. Months ago, Mr. Netanyahu was widely perceived as meddling in the American presidential campaign in favor of the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney. Now, some Israeli commentators posited, it was payback time.

Others suggested that Mr. Obama’s criticism could only help Mr. Netanyahu, a conservative who is battling political parties further to his right.

Tensions peaked last fall, before the American election, when Mr. Netanyahu publicly criticized the Obama administration for refusing to set clear “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear progress and said that as a result, the administration had no “moral right” to restrain Israel from taking military action of its own.

The Netanyahu government’s frequent announcements of plans to build more Jewish homes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the annexed East Jerusalem have been another continual source of friction. Washington has long viewed settlement construction as an obstacle to peace. With the Palestinians demanding a settlement freeze before returning to the negotiating table, Israeli-Palestinian talks have been stalled for years.

Mr. Netanyahu blames the Palestinians for the stagnation, saying he is ready for talks without preconditions.

Soon after the General Assembly voted in November to upgrade the status of the Palestinians, the Netanyahu government announced that it would advance plans to settle a particularly contentious area of the West Bank known as E1 in response. Mr. Obama “didn’t even bother getting angry,” Mr. Goldberg wrote. “He told several people that this sort of behavior on Netanyahu’s part is what he has come to expect, and he suggested that he has become inured to what he sees as self-defeating policies of his Israeli counterpart.”

Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, told Israel Radio on Wednesday that Mr. Netanyahu had led the country responsibly, and that some of his actions found favor with the United States and Europe while others did not. Asked about the timing of Mr. Goldberg’s column, so soon before Israeli elections set for Jan. 22, Mr. Yaalon said that perhaps the journalist had chosen this “sensitive time” to publish it.

Mr. Goldberg, a columnist for Bloomberg and a national correspondent for The Atlantic, dismissed speculation that his column was timed to influence the Israeli election.

“Think of the column as coming out after the E1 announcement rather than before the election,” Mr. Goldberg said by telephone. Arguing that American criticism of Israeli settlement building was nothing new, he added, “My column just reflects the ongoing concerns of the administration.”

Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister and leader of a new centrist party that is focused on resuming the peace process, said Israelis should consider the comments attributed to Mr. Obama as a wake-up call.

Barak Ravid, the diplomatic correspondent of the liberal Haaretz newspaper, wrote on Wednesday, “So far, it’s looking like Netanyahu’s term, too, will entail confrontation with the White House.”

Mr. Obama, he added, “doesn’t intend to waste his time on Middle East peace as long as he doesn’t think Netanyahu is a serious partner.”

Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 16, 2013

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Palestine’s status at the United Nations. It is a nonmember observer state, not a nonvoting member state.

Read More..

NVIDIA’s ‘Project SHIELD’ Console Faces Three Challenges

Despite being announced at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD isn’t the first game-console-in-a-controller to be announced this year. That honor goes to the GameStick, an indie project being funded on Kickstarter. As relative newcomers to the gaming scene, GameStick‘s creators face an uphill battle for acceptance, from both potential buyers and game developers.

But despite NVIDIA‘s established position as a gaming hardware company, it may have a struggle ahead of it, too. Here are three problems which may hinder Project SHIELD‘s adoption.

The size

Unlike GameStick, which is sort of like a classic NES gamepad with a detachable memory stick that plugs into the TV, Project SHIELD is a completely self-contained console. It’s thick and bulky, enormous compared to any of today’s controllers, or even Nintendo’s 3DS XL game console. The closest thing it compares to is an original Xbox controller, before the redesign, but with a flip-up multitouch screen that’s five inches across and has 720p resolution.

You’re not going to be able to just toss Project SHIELD in your pocket, like a smartphone or iPod or very small tablet. It’ll be portable in roughly the same sense that an iPad or netbook is portable, in that you’ll need a handbag or carrying case to put it in. This puts it in a separate size category from most of its competitors, and makes it less convenient to carry around.

The cost

Project SHIELD’s Tegra 4 processor will let it play Tegra-enhanced HD Android games straight from the Google Play store, as well as stream PC games from gaming PCs running Steam and equipped with certain types of NVIDIA graphics cards. Besides that, it’s a full-fledged Android device running Jelly Bean.

But at what cost? Google’s $ 199 Nexus 7 tablet lacks a built-in game controller, doesn’t have a much bigger screen, and uses a less powerful Tegra 3 processor. Dedicated game consoles like the 3DS XL and PlayStation Vita are priced in the same ballpark as the Nexus 7. NVIDIA has yet to announce how much Project SHIELD will cost, or even when it will be on store shelves.

The Tegra-enhanced HD graphics

For many, this will be a plus. There are a lot of Tegra HD (or “THD”) games on the Google Play store right now which boast improved graphics over the versions that run on other graphics processors.

It complicates things for game developers, though, who have to write a separate version just for Tegra processors. Unlike normal ARM processors and Android itself, Tegra is owned solely by NVIDIA, which means there are a lot of tablets and smartphones out there which can’t run those versions of these games. It also means gamers may have to repurchase certain games for Project SHIELD, in order to get the enhanced versions.

Looking towards the future

Things aren’t all gloomy. So far, NVIDIA’s managed to keep developer interest in the Tegra platform, and has gotten a lot of people excited about Project SHIELD. Its partnership with Valve also puts it in position to take advantage of the excitement surrounding Big Picture mode, and the upcoming gaming PCs (like Piston) designed to work with it and connect to a television.

Finally, a wireless game controller can cost upward of $ 50 by itself, so seen in that light Project SHIELD may not turn out to be so expensive — assuming gamers buy Tegra HD titles and NVIDIA graphics cards to use it with.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Mariah Carey Reveals Who Impressed Her During American Idol Auditions

TV Watch

By Patrick Gomez

01/16/2013 at 06:30 PM EST

Mariah Carey

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Landov

Mariah Carey is famous for her amazing five-octave vocal range – but did any contestants on American Idol have the guts to sing a Carey song right to the diva herself?

Last year's Idol runner-up, Jessica Sanchez, told PEOPLE "I would pee my pants" if she had to sing in front of Carey, but other hopefuls went for it with gusto.

"There was this one time a girl sang one of my songs [and] I thought she was really good," Carey said during a panel last week to promote the Fox show's upcoming 12th season, which premieres Wednesday. "I thought, 'This girl has a chance.' I was proud that I had written a song that she was inspired to sing."

But the Grammy winner admits to cringing during some lackluster performances of her hits.

"Sometimes I'm, like, 'Is this for laughs? Are we doing this for fun?' " explains Carey.

Aside from contestants who could nail one of her own songs, Carey was intrigued by contestants who wrote their own material.

"To me, that adds to them as an artist. Every time someone would [sing a good original song] I was really impressed because that is my thing," she said. "I love to write songs."

Fellow new judge Keith Urban commented that it was more risky to sing Carey's material than original music – as long as the music was good.

"There was a girl in Hollywood week, she's 15 and she played the piano and sang [an original song]. I told her, 'If you release that song tomorrow, people will buy it by the boatloads,' " said the country singer, who described the new judging panel as a "dysfunctional family."

The final new judge, Nicki Minaj, had simpler advice for auditioning hopefuls, "Flash me!"

Joking aside, Minaj said she was looking for "an all around entertainer, someone who is going to captivate people with or without music."

Not that there wasn't a little flashing during the audition rounds. "There was one boy who came in and pulled off his shirt trying to be sexy," Minaj recalled. "And I signed a [girl's] boob!"

Read More..

Large study confirms flu vaccine safe in pregnancy

NEW YORK (AP) — A large study offers reassuring news for pregnant women: It's safe to get a flu shot.

The research found no evidence that the vaccine increases the risk of losing a fetus, and may prevent some deaths. Getting the flu while pregnant makes fetal death more likely, the Norwegian research showed.

The flu vaccine has long been considered safe for pregnant women and their fetus. U.S. health officials began recommending flu shots for them more than five decades ago, following a higher death rate in pregnant women during a flu pandemic in the late 1950s.

But the study is perhaps the largest look at the safety and value of flu vaccination during pregnancy, experts say.

"This is the kind of information we need to provide our patients when discussing that flu vaccine is important for everyone, particularly for pregnant women," said Dr. Geeta Swamy, a researcher who studies vaccines and pregnant women at Duke University Medical Center.

The study was released by the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday as the United States and Europe suffer through an early and intense flu season. A U.S. obstetricians group this week reminded members that it's not too late for their pregnant patients to get vaccinated.

The new study was led by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It tracked pregnancies in Norway in 2009 and 2010 during an international epidemic of a new swine flu strain.

Before 2009, pregnant women in Norway were not routinely advised to get flu shots. But during the pandemic, vaccinations against the new strain were recommended for those in their second or third trimester.

The study focused on more than 113,000 pregnancies. Of those, 492 ended in the death of the fetus. The researchers calculated that the risk of fetal death was nearly twice as high for women who weren't vaccinated as it was in vaccinated mothers.

U.S. flu vaccination rates for pregnant women grew in the wake of the 2009 swine flu pandemic, from less than 15 percent to about 50 percent. But health officials say those rates need to be higher to protect newborns as well. Infants can't be vaccinated until 6 months, but studies have shown they pick up some protection if their mothers got the annual shot, experts say.

Because some drugs and vaccines can be harmful to a fetus, there is a long-standing concern about giving any medicine to a pregnant woman, experts acknowledged. But this study should ease any worries about the flu shot, said Dr. Denise Jamieson of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The vaccine is safe," she said.

___

Online:

Medical journal: http://www.nejm.org

Read More..

Woman repeatedly raped inside Nordstrom

Prosecutors said one of the five people charged in connection with the
take-over robbery at a Nordstrom Rack department store in Westchester raped one of the female hostages.

Prosecutors offered no details. But a district attorney's office spokeswoman said the victim was sexually assaulted "multiple times."

Raymond Sherman Jr., 34, who authorities said was the most violent in the group, was charged with two counts
of forcible rape, one count of
oral copulation, one count of kidnapping for rape, one count of assault
with a
deadly weapon and 14 counts of second-degree robbery.

DOCUMENT: Read the criminal complaint 

Troy Marsay Hammock, 29, and Everett Oneal Allen, 24, face 14 counts
each of second-degree robbery and one count each of assault with a
deadly weapon, identified as a knife, according to the Los Angeles
County district attorney's office.

Rochelle Monique Sherman, 33; and Paula Roneshia Bradley, 29, were charged with one count each of accessory after the fact.

The complaint also alleges Sherman, who is awaiting extradition from Phoenix, where he was
arrested Saturday, used a handgun in the commission of the crimes.

Police have not detailed the roles of the suspects in the
robbery and hostage situation. But those in law enforcement familiar with
the investigation said there is strong evidence linking the crimes to those charged, including physical evidence and security video.

The incident began about 11 p.m. Thursday at the Promenade at Howard
Hughes Center, near the 405 Freeway. Sherman, Hammock and Allen
allegedly confronted the employees as they were leaving the store, which
had just closed.

As the incident was unfolding, one of the employees called her
husband and told him to call 911. The LAPD called a tactical alert and
closed off the area around the shopping center. When the police
department's SWAT officers arrived, they surrounded the store.

At one point, one of the suspected burglars exited, saw the police and ran back inside. A
second suspected burglar walked out with an unidentified woman, saw police and
also headed back inside. The officers entered the store at 3:30 a.m. and
freed the captives.

At least three of the employees were injured, including at least one
woman who was sexually assaulted. Another woman was stabbed in the neck
and sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and a third employee was
pistol-whipped, police said. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck praised the
employees for their bravery and composure.

Beck would not discuss whether the robbers hid in the store or gained
entrance after it closed. Nor would he say how long they remained in the
store before fleeing in a white SUV, or discuss how much cash was taken
in the robbery.

ALSO:

House catches fire during East L.A. SWAT standoff

Galt police mourn officer fatally shot responding to burglary

Talk back: Can clinicians help pedophiles quell their desires?

--Andrew Blankstein

Photo: Police officers stand outside Nordstrom Rack in Westchester following take-over style robbery. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Read More..

Nalagaat, Israeli Troupe of Deaf-Blind Actors

TEL AVIV — Next time you’re alone in a dark, quiet room, shut your eyes. Block out all sound.

For the deaf and blind performers of Nalagaat, an acclaimed Israeli theater ensemble, the impregnable darkness and silence is just reality, a black canvas on which to work.

In the troupe’s “Not by Bread Alone,” which is to have its United States premiere at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University on Wednesday, brush strokes of raw memories, fantastical journeys, pantomime sketches and fleeting but indelible snippets of dreams add up to a theatrical happening that draws the audience into the performers’ world.

The actors of Nalagaat (the name is Hebrew for Please Do Touch) can’t see or hear the audience; most of them can’t talk. Interpreters convey their inner voices according to a script, and supertitles in English, Hebrew and Arabic appear on a screen above the stage. Sometimes a silent-movie-type soundtrack tinkles in the background. At other times the audience is invited to sing along with a song composed for the show.

All the while the actors perform an earthy, tactile task: kneading and baking bread, with the aroma wafting up from the ovens at the back of the stage. They share their thoughts on subjects like whom they would most want to give their bread to (a kind soul, a hungry child) and what life is all about. The opening tableau of the 11 bakers sitting at long tables evolves into a meticulously timed succession of scenes and sketches, some comic and bordering on burlesque, like an imaginary visit to a celebrity hairdresser, and others that are more realistic and heart rending.

The story of how Nalagaat came to be is one of serendipity, born of an encounter between a group of disabled adults and a theater director who professes to have little patience and even less sense of pity.

“Many times in the past people asked me if I wanted to lead workshops for disabled people,” Adina Tal, president and artistic director of Nalagaat, said in an interview. “It did not interest me, though I thought it was nice that others did it.”

But about 14 years ago the Swiss-born Ms. Tal was approached to run a two-month workshop for members of a deaf-blind social club. She agreed and became captivated, she said, by the challenge of creating a new form of communication; the workshop evolved into a wandering theater company. In 2007 the troupe moved to its permanent home, the Nalagaat Center in the old Jaffa port of Tel Aviv.

“There was no other deaf-blind theater group,” said Ms. Tal, who is 59. “I always regretted that I’d been born too late to establish the state of Israel. This was a gift — a chance to invent the wheel.”

She began working through tactile-sign interpreters and with much squeezing of hands. “I did not have a clue,” she said. “Yet somehow inside I knew exactly what to do.”

Some social workers told her she was too demanding of her actors. “I may have been the first person who did not say, ‘Great!’ to everything they did,” she said.

The ensemble’s first production, “Light Is Heard in Zig Zag” (2003), about dreams and aspirations, came out of a long process in which the actors worked on improvisation, rhythm and body movement. Eventually the performers learned to express their emotions and fantasies in pantomime.

After three months of work a member of the group told Ms. Tal that all the pantomime was nonsense and that he wanted to do a Gorky play.

“I asked him: ‘How? You don’t hear, see or talk,’ ” Ms. Tal recalled. “He said: ‘That’s your problem. You’re the director.’ I said: ‘No, it’s your problem. You are the deaf and blind ones.’ We did not do Gorky because the whole strength of the group is that they are not like other actors. They had to create their own truth.”

Building on the actors’ senses of taste, smell and touch Ms. Tal explored the binding experience of preparing food. She had the troupe make salads and other basics, and the activity crystallized into the exercise of baking bread.

For “Not by Bread Alone” Ms. Tal also devised the method of using drumbeats as punctuation between scenes. After six months the performers had learned to feel and respond to the vibrations, giving them a new link to the seeing and hearing world.

“You come to see them, but through them you see yourselves,” Ms. Tal said. “To me that is art.”

At the Nalagaat Center audience members can have a pre- or post-performance meal at the Blackout Restaurant, where the flavors of the food and wine, served in the pitch dark, take on a special intensity. Blind waiters and waitresses glide around the tables wearing bells, and diners are given bibs.

The Blackout Restaurant and a mini version of Café Kapish, a coffee shop where the deaf or hearing-impaired waiters take orders in sign language, will be replicated at Skirball.

At the end of the show, as the trays of steaming bread come out of the ovens, the audience is invited onstage to have a sample. The actors mingle with the crowd, communicating through interpreters and touch — a reminder of the need for human contact, even when normal avenues of communication are closed.

It is a simple, universal message that Itzik Hanuna, who was born blind and became deaf at 11, powerfully conveys from the stage.

In a searing monologue he remembers being stuck in his bedroom as a teenager, alone with his thoughts.

“Generally I’m used to the darkness and the silence,” he declares in his distinctive high-pitched monotone. “But this time I was feeling them more than I could bear.

“I started wandering around the room. Suddenly I felt the touch of a hand. When someone touches my hand, I can feel that my loneliness starts to disappear.”

His friends had come to take him for a walk.

Read More..

Why the Atlantic removed the Scientology advertorial

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The Atlantic apologized on Tuesday for posting a sponsored advertorial from the Church of Scientology, celebrating its leader David Miscavige.

The sponsored post, which went live Monday at 9:25 a.m. PT, touted 2012 as “milestone year” for the secretive church, which has been steeped in controversy throughout the years.

It was taken down about 8:30 p.m. and replaced by a message saying the magazine had “temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”

“We screwed up,” Natalie Raabe, an Atlantic spokeswoman told TheWrap after the firestorm of criticism and mockery the advertisement generated on the web. “It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes.”

The Atlantic issued the following statement:

We screwed up. It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way. It’s safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge – sheepishly – that we got ahead of ourselves. We are sorry, and we’re working very hard to put things right.

The timing of the ad was no surprise. New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright’s book-length exposé on Scientology – based on his 2011 profile of former Scientologist Paul Haggis – is due out Thursday.

Sponsored content, otherwise known as native ads or advertorials, have become a popular source of revenue for online publications, including Forbes and Business Insider.

But, normally, advertisers do not want comment threads under their paid-for content, and while this has never been a problem for previous Atlantic clients, the heated feelings surrounding Scientology erupted in the comment section below the article.

The Atlantic’s marketing team was moderating the comments – about 20 in all before the post was pulled – as they were posted, Raabe said.

“In this case, where a mistake was made, where we are taking a hard look at these things, is there were comments allowed on this post,” an Atlantic official with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. “For a subject like this where people very strong feelings, we realized there’s not a clear policy in place for things like commenting.”

The Church of Scientology told TheWrap no one was available to speak on the controversy, and its media relations team did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

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Prince Harry Named Most Eligible Bachelor by Town & Country Magazine

By Maggie Coughlan

01/15/2013 at 06:30 PM EST

While Prince Harry may not be no. 1 in line for the throne, the young royal has been named the top bachelor of 2013.

Prince Harry, 28, beat out 39 famous faces – including George Clooney and Taylor Swift's summer romance, Conor Kennedy – to be named Town & Country's most eligible bachelor.

Despite his bouts of scandalous behavior, the magazine says it's all part of the uncle-to-be's charm.

"He's the wild-card royal, the naughty one, the one who goes out with rah women, hangs out with a fast crowd, downs too many drinks, and goes home at the wrong moment. That's why we all like him best," Town & Country says. "Harry might not possess a towering intellect – he was a lackadaisical student at Eton, and he skipped university to go to Sandhurst, the English equivalent of West Point – but he is cooler and more appealing than his older brother, sweet as William undoubtedly is."

The ginger is in good company on the list which also includes fellow royals Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark and Prince Amedeo of Belgium.

Read More..

Risk to all ages: 100 kids die of flu each year

NEW YORK (AP) — How bad is this flu season, exactly? Look to the children.

Twenty flu-related deaths have been reported in kids so far this winter, one of the worst tolls this early in the year since the government started keeping track in 2004.

But while such a tally is tragic, that does not mean this year will turn out to be unusually bad. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, and it's not yet clear the nation will reach that total.

The deaths this year have included a 6-year-old girl in Maine, a 15-year Michigan student who loved robotics, and 6-foot-4 Texas high school senior Max Schwolert, who grew sick in Wisconsin while visiting his grandparents for the holidays.

"He was kind of a gentle giant" whose death has had a huge impact on his hometown of Flower Mound, said Phil Schwolert, the Texas boy's uncle.

Health officials only started tracking pediatric flu deaths nine years ago, after media reports called attention to children's deaths. That was in 2003-04 when the primary flu germ was the same dangerous flu bug as the one dominating this year. It also was an earlier than normal flu season.

The government ultimately received reports of 153 flu-related deaths in children, from 40 states, and most of them had occurred by the beginning of January. But the reporting was scattershot. So in October 2004, the government started requiring all states to report flu-related deaths in kids.

Other things changed, most notably a broad expansion of who should get flu shots. During the terrible 2003-04 season, flu shots were only advised for children ages 6 months to 2 years.

That didn't help 4-year-old Amanda Kanowitz, who one day in late February 2004 came home from preschool with a cough and died less than three days later. Amanda was found dead in her bed that terrible Monday morning, by her mother.

"The worst day of our lives," said her father, Richard Kanowitz, a Manhattan attorney who went on to found a vaccine-promoting group called Families Fighting Flu.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gradually expanded its flu shot guidance, and by 2008 all kids 6 months and older were urged to get the vaccine. As a result, the vaccination rate for kids grew from under 10 percent back then to around 40 percent today.

Flu vaccine is also much more plentiful. Roughly 130 million doses have been distributed this season, compared to 83 million back then. Public education seems to be better, too, Kanowitz observed.

The last unusually bad flu season for children, was 2009-10 — the year of the new swine flu, which hit young people especially hard. As of early January 2010, 236 flu-related deaths of kids had been reported since the previous August.

It's been difficult to compare the current flu season to those of other winters because this one started about a month earlier than usual.

Look at it this way: The nation is currently about five weeks into flu season, as measured by the first time flu case reports cross above a certain threshold. Two years ago, the nation wasn't five weeks into its flu season until early February, and at that point there were 30 pediatric flu deaths — or 10 more than have been reported at about the same point this year. That suggests that when the dust settles, this season may not be as bad as the one only two years ago.

But for some families, it will be remembered as the worst ever.

In Maine, 6-year-old Avery Lane — a first-grader in Benton who had recently received student-of-the-week honors — died in December following a case of the flu, according to press reports. She was Maine's first pediatric flu death in about two years, a Maine health official said.

In Michigan, 15-year-old Joshua Polehna died two weeks ago after suffering flu-like symptoms. The Lake Fenton High School student was the state's fourth pediatric flu death this year, according to published reports.

And in Texas, the town of Flower Mound mourned Schwolert, a healthy, lanky 17-year-old who loved to golf and taught Sunday school at the church where his father was a youth pastor.

Late last month, he and his family drove 16 hours to spend the holidays with his grandparents in Amery, Wis., a small town near the Minnesota state line. Max felt fluish on Christmas Eve, seemed better the next morning but grew worse that night. The family decided to postpone the drive home and took him to a local hospital. He was transferred to a medical center in St. Paul, Minn., where he died on Dec. 29.

He'd been accepted to Oklahoma State University before the Christmas trip. And an acceptance letter from the University of Minnesota arrived in Texas while Max was sick in Minnesota, his uncle said.

Nearly 1,400 people attended a memorial service for Max two weeks ago in Texas.

"He exuded care and love for other people," Phil Schwolert said.

"The bottom line is take care of your kids, be close to your kids," he said.

On average, an estimated 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are elderly and with certain chronic health conditions are generally at greatest risk from flu and its complications.

The current vaccine is about 60 percent effective, and is considered the best protection available. Max Schwolert had not been vaccinated, nor had the majority of the other pediatric deaths.

Even if kids are vaccinated, parents should be watchful for unusually severe symptoms, said Lyn Finelli of the CDC.

"If they have influenza-like illness and are lethargic, or not eating, or look punky — or if a parent's intuition is the kid doesn't look right and they're alarmed — they need to call the doctor and take them to the doctor," she advised.

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CDC advice on kids: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/children.htm

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