With Aid, Afghan ‘Honor’ Victim Inches Back

Mauricio Lima for The New York TimesGul Meena recovering from an ax attack at a hospital in Jalalabad. Reportedly attacked by her brother for dishonoring their family, she was saved by villagers and doctors. JALALABAD, Afghanistan — It is doubly miraculous that the young woman named Gul Meena is alive. After she was struck by an ax 15 times, slashing her head and face so deeply that it exposed her...

Read More..

The Kids Are All Right: How Social Media Created a Generation of Activists

This week marked the nation’s inaugural  “Giving Tuesday,” a UN sponsored initiative, which utilized social media to encourage businesses, schools, and community members to give back. The effort resulted in $ 10 million worth of donations made in a single day, a 53 percent increase over the same day last year.Conceived as a means to promote activism and charity, the campaign’s use of social media...

Read More..

What's the Latest Fashion Trend the Duchess Is Starting?

Stylewatch Style News Now 11/29/2012 at 06:15 PM ET Getty; Startraks (2)After a quiet Thanksgiving holiday, Hollywood stars were out en force this week, dazzling (and sometimes disappointing) in a whole host of haute looks. And just...

Read More..

South Africa makes progress in HIV, AIDS fight

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — In the early '90s when South Africa's Themba Lethu clinic could only treat HIV/AIDS patients for opportunistic diseases, many would come in on wheelchairs and keep coming to the health center until they died.Two decades later the clinic is the biggest anti-retroviral, or ARV, treatment center in the country and sees between 600 to 800 patients a day from all over southern Africa....

Read More..

Couple kept girl as sex slave, beat her, police say

An Oceanside couple is being held on suspicion of keeping an underage Mexican immigrant as a sex slave, forcing her into prostitution and beating her severely, San Diego County Sheriff's Department officials said.Marcial Garcia Hernandez, 45, and Inez Martinez Garcia, 43, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of 13 felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under age 14. The...

Read More..

Barack and Michelle Obama Taking Reader Questions

11/30/2012 at 01:15 PM EST The Obamas on election night Win McNamee/Getty Now that the election is over, what do you want to know from President Obama? The turkey's been pardoned, the Christmas tree is up and now Barack and Michelle Obama are sitting down with...

Read More..

Kenya village pairs AIDS orphans with grandparents

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged people in Nyumbani. They all died years ago, before this village of hope in Kenya began. Only the young and old live here.Nyumbani was born of the AIDS crisis. The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents — eight grandfathers among them — saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of...

Read More..

Couple kept girl, 12, as sex slave, police allege

An Oceanside couple is being held on suspicion of keeping an underage Mexican immigrant as a sex slave, forcing her into prostitution and beating her severely, San Diego County Sheriff's Department officials said.Marcial Garcia Hernandez, 45, and Inez Martinez Garcia, 43, were arrested Thursday on suspicion of 13 felony counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under age 14. The...

Read More..

Hacking Report Criticizes Murdoch Newspaper and British Press Standards

LONDON — The leader of a major inquiry into the standards of British newspapers triggered by the phone hacking scandal offered an excoriating critique of the press as a whole on Thursday, saying it displayed “significant and reckless disregard for accuracy,” and urged the press to form an independent regulator to be underpinned by law. Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesLord Justice Sir Brian Leveson...

Read More..

Video Games: Art-Tested, MoMA-Approved

Citing a palpable “aesthetic experience” in classic games while eschewing others, the Museum of Modern Art announced Thursday that it has assembled a new collection of video games. The museum’s initial collection includes 14 classics like Pac-Man and Tetris, but also more recent additions to the canon like Passage and Canabalt. The museum has a “wish list” of...

Read More..

Lindsay Lohan Will Be Charged with Lying to Police

By Howard Breuer 11/29/2012 at 01:35 PM EST There's more legal trouble in store for Lindsay Lohan.The same day that the actress was arrested in New York for allegedly punching a woman in a club, she will have charges filed against her in California for lying to police in a separate incident. Nearly six months...

Read More..

Clinton releases road map for AIDS-free generation

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ambitious road map for slashing the global spread of AIDS, the Obama administration says treating people sooner and more rapid expansion of other proven tools could help even the hardest-hit countries begin turning the tide of the epidemic over the next three to five years."An AIDS-free generation is not just a rallying cry — it is a goal that is within our reach," Secretary...

Read More..

Bombings Are Said to Kill Dozens Near Syria’s Capital

Francisco Leong/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesRebels celebrated on top of a downed Syrian jet in Daret Azzeh, 20 miles west of Aleppo, on Wednesday. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Syrian state media said on Wednesday that 34 people and possibly many more had died in twin car bombings in a suburb populated by minorities only a few miles from the center of Damascus, the capital, as the...

Read More..

Melissa Rycroft & Tony Dovolani Thank Fans for Dancing with the Stars Win

We have a winner! Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani won the mirror-ball trophy on Dancing with the Stars Monday night in the culmination of a challenging all-stars season. "It's unbelievable," Rycroft told PEOPLE after the show. "I don't know why we kept underestimating ourselves. I don't know why we kept thinking, 'It's not us, it's not us.' And it was us." Dovolani, who's never won in 14 previous...

Read More..

Simple measures cut infections caught in hospitals

CHICAGO (AP) — Preventing infections from surgery 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 measures included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery,...

Read More..

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...

Read More..

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...

Read More..

Nintendo says more than 400,000 Wii Us sold in US

NEW YORK (AP) — Nintendo has sold more than 400,000 of its new video game console, the Wii U, in its first week on sale in the U.S., the company said Monday.The Wii U launched on Nov. 18 in the U.S. at a starting price of $ 300. Nintendo said the sales figure, based on internal estimates, is through Saturday, or seven days later.The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. It...

Read More..

Do You Like Emily Blunt as a Blonde?

Stylewatch Style News Now 11/27/2012 at 01:00 PM ET Gregory Pace/BEImages; Inset: Rex USAShe wasn’t trying to go incognito, but Emily Blunt was barely recognizable with her new hair color on Monday night.“That’s not Emily Blunt,”...

Read More..

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...

Read More..

Husband who cooked wife on stove wore dresses, jewelry

A strange portrait was emerging of a 68-year-old Oceanside man accused of killing his 73-year-old wife, then cooking her body parts on their kitchen stove. Frederick Joseph Hengl was seen by neighbors dressed in women's clothes and wearing makeup, according to neighbors.They said they saw Hengl outside wearing a purple dress, pink makeup and various articles of jewelry, including a pearl...

Read More..

Rebels Claim They Seized Air Bases and a Dam in Syria

ReutersThe bodies of Syrian civilians in a street in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, after opposition activists said they were shot by government forces. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fresh from declaring that they had seized an important military airport and an air defense base just outside Damascus, Syrian rebels on Monday said they overran a hydroelectric dam in the north of the country, adding to a...

Read More..

How Will Larry Hagman's Death Affect Season 2 of Dallas?

TV Watch TV News 11/26/2012 at 12:45 PM EST Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing TNT What will happen to J.R. Ewing?Before his death on Friday from complications from throat cancer, Larry Hagman, who plays the devious oil tycoon, had filmed six of 15 episodes for season...

Read More..

Bounce houses a party hit but kids' injuries soar

CHICAGO (AP) — They may be a big hit at kids' birthday parties, but inflatable bounce houses can be dangerous, with the number of injuries soaring in recent years, a nationwide study found.Kids often crowd into bounce houses, and jumping up and down can send other children flying into the air, too.The numbers suggest 30 U.S. children a day are treated in emergency rooms for broken bones, sprains,...

Read More..

Husband killed wife, cooked her on stove, police allege

A strange portrait was emerging of a 68-year-old Oceanside man accused of killing his 73-year-old wife, then cooking her body parts on their kitchen stove. Frederick Joseph Hengl was seen by neighbors dressed in women's clothes and wearing makeup, according to neighbors.They said they saw Hengl outside wearing a purple dress, pink makeup and various articles of jewelry, including a pearl...

Read More..

Bangladesh Fire Kills More Than 100 and Injures Many

MUMBAI — More than 100 people died Saturday and Sunday in a fire at a garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, in one of the worst industrial tragedies in that country. It took firefighters all night to put out the blaze at the factory, Tazreen Fashions, after it started Saturday around 7 p.m., a retired fire official said by telephone from Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. At least 111 people...

Read More..

Saudi telco regulator suspends Mobily prepaid sim sales

(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia‘s No.2 telecom operator Etihad Etisalat Co (Mobily) has been suspended from selling pre-paid sim cards by the industry regulator, the firm said in a statement to the kingdom’s bourse on Sunday.Mobily’s sales of pre-paid, or pay-as-you-go, sim cards will remain halted until the company “fully meets the prepaid service provisioning requirements,” the telco said in the statement.These...

Read More..