Husband accused of cooking wife kept her head in freezer, police say

A  68-year-old Oceanside man
accused of killing his 73-year-old wife, then cooking her body parts on
their kitchen stove, will be in court next week to answer the charges.

Frederick Joseph Hengl pleaded not guilty last week as bizarre details emerged about him and his late wife.

Neighbors said they saw Hengl outside wearing a purple dress, pink makeup
and various articles of jewelry, including a pearl necklace. The
neighbors told Fox 5 News that his wife was once seen roaming outside with a knife making religious comments such as “God will smite you.”

A preliminary hearing is slated for Dec. 5 in which more details might become available. 

Deputy Dist. Atty. Katherine Flaherty told Vista Superior Court Judge
J. Marshall Hockett that police found pieces of meat cooking on the
stove at the family home and a severed head in the freezer.

Hockett ordered Hengl kept in jail on $5 million bail.

Police are unclear when Hengl's wife, Anna Faris, was killed. They
went to the couple's home after neighbors reported a strange smell and
hearing the sound of a power saw.

Several
people who live in the neighborhood said Anna-Maria Hengl had been
behaving bizarrely since last spring, exposing herself, wandering around
carrying a butcher knife and making religious pronouncements, telling
people such things as, “God will smite you.”

Her husband, meanwhile, had been going out dressed in women’s clothing, makeup and jewelry, area residents told news crews.

One neighbor said the one-time Home Depot employee, who had sold her a
ceiling fan, would sometimes wear blouses and makeup, including “hot
pink” lipstick. Another said he saw Frederick Hengl last summer clad in a
floor- length purple dress, pearl necklace and pearl earrings, carrying
an ornate purse.

Read more: http://fox5sandiego.com/2012/11/19/dismembered-womans-husband-to-face-judge/#ixzz2DLS2FbXM

Several people who live in the neighborhood said Anna-Maria Hengl had
been behaving bizarrely since last spring, exposing herself, wandering
around carrying a butcher knife and making religious pronouncements,
telling people such things as, “God will smite you.”

Her husband, meanwhile, had been going out dressed in women’s clothing, makeup and jewelry, area residents told news crews.

One neighbor said the one-time Home Depot employee, who had sold her a
ceiling fan, would sometimes wear blouses and makeup, including “hot
pink” lipstick. Another said he saw Frederick Hengl last summer clad in a
floor- length purple dress, pearl necklace and pearl earrings, carrying
an ornate purse.

Read more: http://fox5sandiego.com/2012/11/19/dismembered-womans-husband-to-face-judge/#ixzz2DLRAPQk6

"There is no evidence of cannibalism at this time," Flaherty told reporters.

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Jada Pinkett Smith Defends Daughter Willow's Hairstyles

Mom & Babies
Celebrity Baby Blog

11/28/2012 at 06:00 PM ET

Kevin Winter/Getty

Whether daughter Willow is whipping it back and forth or cutting it all off, Jada Pinkett Smith is committed to allowing her  daughter wear her hair any way she chooses.

The actress and mom of two took to her Facebook page to address critics of her parenting style, particularly those who questioned why she “let” her 12-year-old chop off her locks and sport a super-short style a few months ago.

“This is a world where women, girls are constantly reminded that they don’t belong to themselves; that their bodies are not their own, nor their power or self determination,” she writes.

Pinkett Smith, also mother to Jaden, 14, continues: “Willow cut her hair because her beauty, her value, her worth is not measured by the length of her hair.”

She also added that “even little girls have the RIGHT to own themselves and should not be a slave to even their mother’s deepest insecurities, hopes and desires.”

And it sounds like she has husband Will Smith‘s full support. “When you have a little girl, it’s like how can you teach her that you’re in control of her body?” the actor told Parade earlier this year.

“If I teach her that I’m in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she’s going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world.”

– Shakthi Jothianandan

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Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference.

A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project.

Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.

Some hospitals used special wound-protecting devices on surgery openings to keep intestine germs from reaching the skin.

The average rate of infections linked with colorectal operations at the seven hospitals dropped from about 16 percent of patients during a 10-month phase when hospitals started adopting changes to almost 11 percent once all the changes had been made.

Hospital stays for patients who got infections dropped from an average of 15 days to 13 days, which helped cut costs.

"The improvements translate into safer patient care," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission. "Now it's our job to spread these effective interventions to all hospitals."

Almost 2 million health care-related infections occur each year nationwide; more than 90,000 of these are fatal.

Besides wanting to keep patients healthy, hospitals have a monetary incentive to prevent these infections. Medicare cuts payments to hospitals that have lots of certain health care-related infections, and those cuts are expected to increase under the new health care law.

The project involved surgeries for cancer and other colorectal problems. Infections linked with colorectal surgery are particularly common because intestinal tract bacteria are so abundant.

To succeed at reducing infection rates requires hospitals to commit to changing habits, "to really look in the mirror and identify these things," said Dr. Clifford Ko of the American College of Surgeons.

The hospitals involved were Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; Cleveland Clinic in Ohio; Mayo Clinic-Rochester Methodist Hospital in Rochester, Minn.; North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, NY; Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago; OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill.; and Stanford Hospital & Clinics in Palo Alto, Calif.

___

Online:

Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org

American College of Surgeons: http://www.facs.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Baby girl hospitalized after nearly drowning in toilet

A 6-month-old baby was recovering at Children's Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday after she fell in a toilet and nearly drowned at her Sun Valley home, police said.

The baby's mother called police shortly before 10 a.m. and said her daughter had fallen in the toilet, LAPD Officer Luis Garcia said. The woman said her 2-year-old daughter was playing with the infant in the bathroom and locked the door, and the mother had to kick the door down to get inside.

When officers arrived at the home in the 8200 block of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the baby wasn't breathing, Garcia said. They performed CPR and managed to resuscitate the girl before she was airlifted to an area hospital.

Garcia said Tuesday afternoon the girl was in stable condition and was expected to be released from the hospital later in the day.

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Protesters Gather Again in Cairo Streets to Denounce Morsi

CAIRO — Thousands of people flowed into the streets of Cairo, the Egyptian capital, Tuesday afternoon for a day of protest against President Mohamed Morsi’s attempt to assert broad new powers for the duration of the country’s political transition, dismissing his efforts just the night before to reaffirm his deference to Egyptian law and courts.

By early Tuesday afternoon in Cairo, a dense crowd of hundreds had gathered outside the headquarters of a trade group for lawyers, and thousands more had filed in around a small tent city in Tahrir Square. In an echo of the chants against Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian’s ousted president, almost two years ago, they shouted, “Leave, leave!” and “Bring down the regime!” They also denounced the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group allied with Mr. Morsi.

A few blocks away, in a square near the American Embassy and the Interior Ministry headquarters, groups of young men resumed a running battle that began nine days ago, throwing rocks and tear gas canisters at riot police officers. Although those clashes grew out of anger over the deaths of dozens of protesters in similar clashes one year ago, many of the combatants have happily adopted the banner of protest against Mr. Morsi as well.

Egyptian television had captured the growing polarization of the country on Monday in split-screen coverage of two simultaneous funerals, each for a teenage boy killed in clashes set off by disputes over the new president’s powers. Thousands of supporters of Mr. Morsi and his allies in the Muslim Brotherhood marched through the streets of the Nile Delta city of Damanhour to bury a 15-year-old killed outside a Brotherhood office during an attack by protesters. And in Tahrir Square here in Cairo, thousands gathered to bury a 16-year-old killed in clashes with riot police officers and to chant slogans blaming Mr. Morsi for his death. “Morsi killed him,” the boy’s father said in a video statement circulated over the Internet.

“Now blood has been spilled by political factions, so this is not going to go away,” said Rabab el-Mahdi, a professor at the American University in Cairo and a left-leaning activist, adding that these were the first deaths rival factions had blamed on each other and not on the security forces of the Mubarak government since the uprising began last year. Still larger crowds were expected in the evening, as marchers from around the city headed for the square. Many schools and other businesses had closed in anticipation of bedlam, and on Monday, the Brotherhood called off a rival demonstration in support of the president, saying it wanted to avoid violence.

Egypt’s Supreme Judicial Council met again on Tuesday to consider its response to the president, and the leader of Al Azhar, a center of Sunni Muslim learning that is regarded as the pre-eminent moral authority here, met with groups of political leaders in an effort to resolve the battle over the president’s decree and the deadlock in the constitutional assembly, which is trying to draw up a new constitution.

But even as Mr. Morsi met with top judges Monday night in an effort to resolve the crisis, a coalition of opposition leaders held a news conference to declare that preserving the role of the courts was only the first step in a broader campaign against what Abdel Haleem Qandeil, a liberal intellectual, called “the miserable failure of the rule of the Muslim Brothers.” Mr. Morsi “unilaterally broke the contract with the people,” he declared. “We have to be ready to stand up to this group, protest to protest, square to square, and to confront the bullying.”

Mr. Morsi’s effort to remove the last check on his power over the political transition had brought the country’s fractious opposition groups together for the first time in a united front against the Brotherhood. But the show of unity papered over deep divisions between groups and even within them, said Ms. Mahdi of the American University.

“This is not a united front, and I am inside it,” she said. “Every single political group in the country is now divided over this — is this decree revolutionary justice or building a new dictatorship? Should we align ourselves with folool” — the colloquial term for the remnants of the old political elite — “or should we be revolutionary purists? Is it a conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and the pro-Mubarak judiciary, or is this the beginning of a fascist regime in the making?”

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting.

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The Wii U sells out in its first week: Evidence of a Nintendo comeback?

The latest console from the videogame pioneer is flying off the shelves. But are the kids really still into Mario and Zelda?

Earlier this year, Nintendo posted its first annual loss in three decades, a grim omen for the pathbreaking videogame maker that introduced the world to classic characters like Mario, Donkey Kong, and Link. The Japanese company has struggled amidst an industry-wide decline in the sales of consoles and games, a trend partly attributed to the ever-growing popularity of tablets and smartphones. Nintendo’s last breakout success was the Wii, released in 2006, and there have been serious doubts that its successor, the Wii U, could sell as many units. However, since the Wii U went on sale in North America on Nov. 18, Nintendo has completely sold out of all 400,000 consoles shipped to retailers. “As soon as the Wii U hits the shelf, it’s selling out,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, the head of Nintendo’s U.S. operations.

The Wii U’s early success is a surprising indication of “strong demand for the company’s next generation of videogame devices,” says Ian Sherr at The Wall Street Journal. And during the week of Nov. 18, Nintendo also sold 300,000 units of the original Wii, as well as more than 500,000 units of its portable DS and 3DS systems, which could reflect a rebound in consumer demand as the economy continues its long slog of a recovery from the Great Recession. Nintendo says it expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U systems by the end of March 2013, the end of its fiscal year.

However, it’s important to remember that “Nintendo has a very dedicated audience that craves almost anything new the company has to offer, not unlike Apple’s fans,” says Nick Wingfield at The New York Times. “The real test of the Wii U’s durability will come when the product is in better supply and more casual gamers, who don’t dream about Mario and Zelda in their sleep, can more easily buy it.” In addition, rivals Sony and Microsoft are expected to unveil their new consoles sometime in 2013, putting extra pressure on Nintendo. 

And perhaps most importantly, Nintendo has to sell games. The Wii U — which retails for $ 299.99, and $ 349.99 for a more powerful model — is being sold at a loss. Nintendo hopes that users will continue to buy games in the years to come, particularly those that aren’t sold on other systems, such as the latest installments in the “Super Mario Bros.” and “Legend of Zelda” franchises. That’s among the keys to Nintendo’s future profitability.

Sources: The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal

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The Voice Contestants Explain Their Song Choices

TV Watch

The Voice

By Julia Haskins

11/27/2012 at 07:00 PM EST

From left: Cassadee Pope, Terry McDermott, Dez Duron, host Carson Daly, Cody Belew, Nicholas David, Trevin Hunte, Melanie Martinez and Amanda Brown

Tyler Golden/NBC

Contestants on The Voice already have the talent, but to make it to the top, they need the perfect song. On Monday night's show, Coach Cee Lo Green anticipated that at this point in the competition, song choice would be the ultimate factor in determining the next star. Now, hear from the competitors themselves:

Team Blake

• Terry McDermott sang Blake Shelton's "Over"
"Me and Blake went back and forth and I'd said I wanted to do something different," he said of the song choice. "He suggested his song – and the second I heard it I was like, "That's it!" It worked out tremendously. It was really fun."

• Cassadee Pope sang Michelle Branch's "Are You Happy Now?"
"It was a big deal," she told PEOPLE of closing the show with that number. "There was pressure to close out with a bang and also top the last week. I tried to push it all aside and go out and have fun because I love Michelle Branch and that song. She is one of my songwriting idols."

Team Christina

• Dez Duron sang Justin Bieber's "U Smile"
"That song was totally my groove," he said of the performance. "Christina came up with the Justin Bieber idea. I wanted to do it my way. I love the song. It's a huge song, but I know Justin has a lot of avid fans. I knew we had to make it me. It ended up being a great risk."

Team Cee Lo

• Trevin Hunte sang Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All"
"It's definitely kind of scary because I feel like America will want something different," he says of the fact that the past two Voice winners have been soul singers. "I just want to leave a mark."

• Nicholas David sang Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On"
"I loved being able to switch it up and play a little piano and add a sax," he said of the performance. "I get nervous when I stand there waiting for the judges to talk because I have so much energy right after playing. But I'm just excited."

• Cody Belew sang Queen's "Somebody to Love"
"I never felt like I would out sing Freddie Mercury because you can't, but I wanted to put my own spin on things and embody his lyrics," he explained of performing with a choir behind him. "It was a big moment for me."

Team Adam

Melanie Martinez sang Alex Clare's "Too Close"
"It's always going to be hard when you're singing about your personal experiences," she says of the recent breakup that informed her performance. "I never expected to do it on TV. I hope that now on I can let my personal experiences be fuel for the fire."

Amanda Brown sang Adele's "Someone Like You"
"I feel like it was intense ... and I hope people were moved by it, by the rock soul," she said. "Hopefully that was enough."

• Reporting by JESSICA HERNDON

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CDC: HIV spread high in young gay males

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say 1 in 5 new HIV infections occur in a tiny segment of the population — young men who are gay or bisexual.

The government on Tuesday released new numbers that spotlight how the spread of the AIDS virus is heavily concentrated in young males who have sex with other males. Only about a quarter of new infections in the 13-to-24 age group are from injecting drugs or heterosexual sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said blacks represented more than half of new infections in youths. The estimates are based on 2010 figures.

Overall, new U.S. HIV infections have held steady at around 50,000 annually. About 12,000 are in teens and young adults, and most youth with HIV haven't been tested.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

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Inglewood educator returns to turn schools around

When he was a kid, Kent Taylor bounced from school to school in South Los Angeles until his family landed in Inglewood. In sixth grade, he started classes at an elementary school under the LAX flight path.

Thirty-six years later, he's back where he began.

"This very classroom set me on my course through life," he told students at Oak Street Elementary on a recent day. As some of them whispered, wondering if the slender African American man before them was President Obama, Taylor spoke of how he struggled to read and do math until one teacher singled him out.

"I understand what you are going through because I have been there, sitting right where you are sitting."

Named recently to turn around Inglewood's insolvent school system, Taylor is offering his life as a symbol for the change that can come to a district long mired in trouble.

But not everyone is cheering for Inglewood's would-be hometown hero, who is known for ruthlessly cutting bloated costs in another school district. One critic refers to his "quiet assassin style. You smile and grin a lot, but you are cutting people off at the knees."

Everyone agrees that Inglewood needs help. The district's standardized test scores are among the worst in California. At Inglewood High, for example, just 25% of students are at grade level in English, and 4% are proficient in math. Enrollment is in free fall, largely because students have been lured away by charter and private schools.

Because state funding is calculated largely based on attendance, the decline has left a gaping hole in the district budget. In September, Inglewood became the ninth school system to be taken over by the state. The district received a $55-million loan to shore up debts, and its leadership was stripped of power.

As state administrator, Taylor's mandate is to stabilize the district's finances — and offer some hope to its students.

In that classroom that had meant so much to him, he told the children he would be there for them. He said he'd keep coming back to their school, that he'd check on their progress. He'd even host a pizza party.

"I am you, many years from now," he said. "I want you to know that you can achieve your dreams — and I'm going to help you get there."

Taylor, the youngest of three, had a turbulent beginning. His father wasn't around much. His mother was an office clerk who at times survived on welfare. Nobody in his extended family had ever gone to college.

"Life was very hard on my son in his younger years, there's no way around that," said his mother, Ivory Wilborne, 70. "I tried my best to provide for them, but nothing was ever settled. It was hard just to pay for food. But life settled down once we got to Inglewood."

Taylor speaks mostly of his sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Fletcher, crediting her for seeing his promise. She spent extra time with the rambunctious boy who entered her classroom with poor academic skills.

"She didn't give up on me," Taylor said. "Her diligence pushed me to improve, literally gave me the foundation to succeed in later years.... Before that, honestly, I was headed for trouble."

By the time Taylor reached Inglewood High, he had become an "A" student, bookish and by-the-rules, able to read and do math better than most of his peers. He was named class president his freshman and sophomore years. Inglewood was beginning a hard struggle with gangs back then, but the gangs didn't bother kids like him — "the ones who spent our time lugging around heavy backpacks, proudly marching off to the library," he said. "That's the guy I became."

"There was something special inside him that made him stand out," said Mary Boykin, one of his English teachers. "I recall talking to him a great deal about his desire to go to college, his desire to be somebody. He was one of those you don't ever forget."

Taylor went on to UC Riverside, a big move for a kid who'd rarely ventured outside his working-class, mostly black neighborhood. He began to mix with other cultures and classes, even joining a predominantly white fraternity.

"This was another step, leaving Inglewood, expanding my view of the world," he said. "I wasn't sure if I would ever return."

Taylor's career in education took off in the 1990s. He worked as a special education teacher in San Bernardino, became a principal and then a district supervisor overseeing curriculum and intervention programs for struggling students.

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Egypt’s President Said to Limit Scope of Judicial Decree

Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times

Egyptians stand near a burned out school, before the funeral of Mohammed Gaber Salah, an activist who died Sunday from injuries sustained during protests.

CAIRO — President Mohamed Morsi agreed on Monday to limit the scope of a sweeping decree he had issued last week that raised his edicts above any judicial review, according to a report by a television network allied with his party. The agreement, reached with top judicial authorities, would leave most of Mr. Morsi’s actions subject to review by the courts, but it appears to preserve a crucial power: protecting the country’s constitutional council from being dissolved by the courts before it finishes its work.

The agreement was announced by a spokesman for the president; as of Monday night it had not yet been confirmed by the judges.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that sponsored Mr. Morsi and his party, announced that it was canceling a major demonstration in support of the president that had been planned for Tuesday.

Mr. Morsi’s deal with the judges follows four days of rising tensions and flashes of violence across the country set off by his decree, which removed the last check on his power to rule Egypt.

Mr. Morsi said he was forced to issue the decree in order to protect the constitutional assembly from the courts, which had shuttered Egypt’s first freely elected parliament and disbanded an earlier constituent assembly, both dominated by Mr. Morsi’s Islamist allies. But the scope of the new powers claimed by the president galvanized his political opposition. Vandals attacked more than a dozen offices of his political party, and thousands of people demonstrated in the streets to vent their fears of a new autocracy in a country that had just shaken one off.

The agreement announced on Monday could be a watershed moment for Egypt’s new order: a triumph of respect for the rule of law and the independence of the courts, and a demonstration that Egypt’s new leaders are capable of the kind of compromise in the national interest that often eludes the party leaders in even the most practiced democracies.

But opponents appeared set to hold out for a further withdrawal of presidential authority, as well as the immediate dissolution of the constitutional assembly. Speaking at a press conference while Mr. Morsi was meeting with the judges, the opposition activist and intellectual Abdel Haleem Qandeil called for “a long-term battle,” declaring that the limiting of the decree should only be the first step toward the opposition’s goal of “the withdrawal of the legitimacy of Morsi’s presence in the presidential palace.”

Mr. Morsi’s advisers emphasized on Monday that they had not altered the decree’s language, and they portrayed the agreement with the judges as merely an explanation of the president’s original intent, rather than any pullback.

But the statement Mr. Morsi issued last Thursday to claim his broader powers had explicitly exempted all his future edicts from judicial oversight until a new constitution is ratified, and in recent days Mr. Morsi’s justice minister, Ahmed Mekki, publicly criticized the wording of the decree as over-broad; he argued that the president should add a phrase restricting its application only to presidential edicts related to the constitutional assembly and certain other matters.

Some of the ramifications of the deal remain unclear. Mr. Morsi and the judges of the Supreme Judicial Council agreed to limit the scope of the president’s immunity from judicial review to matters known in Egypt as acts of sovereignty. That is an established formulation in Egyptian law, so interpreting the decree that way meant he would not be claiming new immunity.

By accepting that interpretation, Mr. Morsi in effect pulled back from the aspects of his decree that aroused alarm about a power grab.

Still, the deal appeared to give Mr. Morsi the power he said he had deemed most essential: to protect the constitutional assembly so that it can stay in business long enough to finish a charter and end Egypt’s tortured transition after the overthrow of its former strongman, Hosni Mubarak.

Cracks appeared in Mr. Morsi’s government on Sunday over the decree. At least three other senior advisers resigned over the measure, and the move had also prompted widening street protests and cries from opponents that Mr. Morsi, who already governs without a legislature, was moving toward a new autocracy in Egypt, less than two years after the ouster of the strongman Hosni Mubarak.

With a threatened strike by the nation’s judges, a plunge in the country’s stock market and more street protests looming, Mr. Morsi’s administration initially sent mixed messages on Sunday over whether it was willing to consider a compromise: a spokesman for the president’s party insisted that there would be no change in his edict, but a statement from the party indicated for the first time a willingness to give political opponents “guarantees against monopolizing the fateful decisions of the homeland in the absence of the Parliament.”

Mayy El Sheikh and Mai Ayyad contributed reporting.

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