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| WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 19, 2007 |
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 TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR: VLADIMIR PUTIN: Time magazine is naming Vladimir Putin at its 2007 Person of the Year, recognizing the Russian president’s “outsize — if not always benign — influence on global affairs.” Time’s “People Who Mattered” include Rupert Murdoch, Don Imus, Radiohead, and Billiam the YouTube Snowman.
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GITMO RULING ON PRISONERS: The United States must hold court hearings to determine whether suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay are prisoners of war or unlawful enemy combatants, a military judge said in a ruling that could delay war crimes trials. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said in a ruling issued late Monday in Washington that a military administrative panel’s status finding is not enough by itself to proceed with a trial at the US base.
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 IN REVERSAL, FED APPROVES PLAN TO CURB RISKY LENDING: The Federal Reserve, acknowledging that home mortgage lenders aggressively sold deceptive loans to borrowers who had little chance of repaying them, proposed a broad set of restrictions Tuesday on exotic mortgages and high-cost loans for people with weak credit. The new rules would force mortgage companies to show that customers can realistically afford their mortgages. They would also require lenders to disclose the hidden sales fees often rolled into interest payments, and they would prohibit certain types of advertising.
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W. ISRAEL VISIT DUE IN WEEKS: President Bush, trying to nurture fragile peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, will make his first trip to Israel and the West Bank next month as part of a nine-day swing through the Middle East. Bush also will make stops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
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 BRIT’S ‘BABY’ SIS; JAMIE LYNN, 16, GETS PREGNANT: Click here to comment Britney Spears’ 16-year-old kid sister – Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn – is knocked up by her high-school sweetheart. The baby-faced blond star of TV’s teen craze “Zoey 101″ says she’s already three months preggers by mop-topped Louisiana lover Casey Aldridge – an 18-year-old fellow Christian whom she met at church.
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FIRE CONTROLLED AT WHITE HOUSE COMPOUND: Thick black smoke billowed from a fire Wednesday in Vice President Dick Cheney’s suite of offices in the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. Cheney’s office was damaged by smoke and water from fire hoses, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said. The vice president was not in the building at the time; he was in the West Wing of the White House with President Bush. More than 1,000 people who work in the building were evacuated. The fire broke out on the second floor of the building around about 9:15 a.m. and was under control within a half hour, District of Columbia fire department spokesman Alan Etter said.
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 ARUBA 3 OFF HOOK; VANISH CASE CLOSED WITH NO BUSTS: The three main suspects in the Aruba disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway walked free yesterday as frustrated authorities officially declared the investigation a cold case – and admitted the girl’s presumed killers may never be caught. Aruban prosecutors announced that, with no hard evidence and no body, they don’t have enough to convict the trio – Joran Van der Sloot, and brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe – even though they still believe they were involved in her death.
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 LBN-THINK AGAIN……
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DEATH PENALTY DOWN: The 42 executions recorded in 2007 are the fewest since 1994, when there were 31, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which compiled the report and released it Tuesday.
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is approving rules that allow publishers to own both newspapers and broadcast stations in the biggest U.S. cities and that limit growth for cable-television companies. The media marketplace is now “considerably different,” says chief Kevin Martin. ***The Vatican is condemning the fantasy film “The Golden Compass,” co-produced by Time Warner’s New Line Cinema, saying it promotes a cold and hopeless world without God. The Vatican newspaper describes the movie as “the most anti-Christmas film possible.” ***The Hollywood writers strike is so far having virtually no impact on the broadcast networks outside of late night. Ratings are in fact down but not because of the strike. Driving the declines are factors such as increased DVR recording and normal audience erosion. ***”Jimmy Kimmel Live,”‘ the late- night talk show on ABC, will produce new episodes in January without writers, following NBC’s decision to bring back “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” New episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will begin airing Jan. 2. ***”The History of Howard Stern,” a documentary running this week on Sirius Satellite Radio, is said to reinforce the shock jock’s longtime assertion that his show is about much more than talking dirty. Stern has been working on the project since he left CBS for Sirius in January 2006. ***Celebrity news site TMZ.com is being served with a subpoena in pop star Britney Spears’ child custody case. Spears’ ex-husband, Kevin Federline, wants video footage TMZ shot showing Spears out and about on a day she claimed she wasn’t feeling well enough to attend a deposition.
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NO DEAL: Former President George H.W. Bush shot down a proposal yesterday by former President Clinton that the two elder statesmen set off around the globe to repair damage done by the current President Bush once his wife gets into the Oval Office. The elder Bush “wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy,” said his chief of staff, Jean Becker.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: As readers of this column know, I have a rule that there is a simple way to test whether any Arab-Israeli peace deal is real or not: If you need a Middle East expert to explain it to you, it’s not real. I now have the same rule about global climate agreements: If you need an environmental expert to explain it to you, it’s not real. I needed 10 experts to explain to me the Bali climate agreement — and I was there! I’m still not quite sure what it adds up to. I’m not opposed to forging a regime with 190 countries for reducing carbon emissions, but my gut tells me that both the North and South Poles will melt before we get it to work. There is a better way. Just make America the model of how a country can grow prosperous, secure, innovative and healthy by becoming the most clean, energy-efficient nation in the world — and let everyone follow us.
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 LBN-BOOK NEWS: ***Alexandra Styron, novelist and daughter of famed author William Styron, has landed a serious six-figure advance to write a full-length memoir. The deal was struck in just five days after The New Yorker published her well-received essay about growing up as a Styron, prompting a bidding war for a book on the same subject. Styron’s longtime agent, Esther Newberg, conducted the auction. Nan Graham of Scribner won it.
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***US retailers, mired in the worst holiday season since 2002, posted their smallest weekly sales gain in two months. Sales at stores open more than a year increased 2.1 percent in the week through Dec. 15, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC said.
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LEE SET FOR SOUTH KOREAN LANDSLIDE: Lee Myung-Bak, a former Seoul mayor and Hyundai executive currently facing investigation amid allegations of fraud, claimed victory Wednesday in South Korea’s presidential election as early returns and exit polls showed him heading for a landslide win. “Today, the people gave me absolute support. I’m well aware of the people’s wishes,” said Lee, the 66-year-old leader of the conservative opposition Grand National Party, The Associated Press reported. “I will serve the people in a very humble way. According to the people’s wishes, I will save the nation’s economy that faces a crisis.”
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LBN-NOTICED: ***Mommy-to-be Jennifer Lopez was all smiles at Harvey Weinstein and Georgina Chapman’s wedding – except when she got two blasts from the past in the form of ex-boyfriends. Among the celebs sending warm wishes via video to Weinstein and Chapman were two of Lopez’s previous beaus, Ben Affleck and Sean “Diddy” Combs. ***Literary power-house Alan Nevins having drinks last night with LCO Vice-President Liam Collopy at McCormick & Schmick’s in Beverly Hills. ***George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani lunching yesterday at the Grand Havana Room at 666 Fifth in NYC. ***Chelsea Clinton lunching around the same time and talking business with a middle-aged gent at Cellini on East 54th in NYC, where they downed insalata bianca. ***Carole King in black leather fringed jacket birthday’d her daughter at Serendipity in NYC. ***David Letterman took striking staffers to nonunion Ben Benson’s in NYC.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***Roger Clemens forcefully denied the allegations that Brian McNamee, his former personal trainer, made about his using steroids and human growth hormone.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By MAUREEN DOWD: One of my male colleagues was explaining why men age better than women. “It’s evolutionary,” he said. “As we wear out our wives, who are running around taking care of the kids, we know we’re going to have to get another younger wife, so we stay good-looking.” He was kidding. (I think.) We were discussing Hillary’s latest hurdle: the Old Hag routine. When men want to put down a powerful woman in a sexist way, they will say she’s a hag or a nag or a witch or angry or hysterical. First, the Republicans tried to paint Hillary as angry, but that didn’t work because she has shown a steady composure and laughed a lot (even if the laughter isn’t always connected to people saying anything funny). She has kept her sense of humor — which has a tart side — mostly under wraps, so she won’t be accused of being witchy. But some conservative pundits who disagree with a woman on matters of policy jump straight into an attack on the woman’s looks or personal life.
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VACUUMS AS FLEA FIGHTERS: Most households have a perfect flea-killer – a vacuum cleaner. Researcher Glen Needham, associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University, said yesterday a standard vacuum cleaner kills 96 percent of adult cat-fleas, the most common fleas found in households, and 100 percent of younger fleas.
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: It’s going to be hooker vs. hooker on cable TV as Chris Albrecht – the former HBO chief booted from his job after pleading no contest to choking his girlfriend, Karla Jensen – gets sweet revenge against his old company. For a while, it appeared HBO had the lead in the race to bring a raunchy drama about prostitution to TV with its “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl,” with Darren Star penning the pilot. But Variety reports Albrecht has just sold the nudity-filled British series, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” starring pixiesh-blond actress Billie Piper, to HBO rival Showtime. Albrecht tells the paper he had always hoped to develop a show about hookers while he was at HBO, and “Secret Diary” is “exactly what I had always wished we had found. Like ‘Sex and the City,’ it’s got the glitz, but it’s got real emotion, too.” Albrecht said there was some talk of Americanizing the show, but ultimately it was decided the US audience could handle British accents. Meanwhile, Albrecht is now set to marry his beloved Jensen ***A settlement announced on Tuesday between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema could bring “The Hobbit” to movie theaters by December 2010.
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff and his ex-wife, Pamela Bach, have agreed to share custody of their teenage daughters and reached a financial settlement. “David is pleased to have the matter behind him,” Hasselhoff’s lawyer, Melvin Goldsman, said.
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 AMY JAILHOUSE; SINGER GETS ARRESTED IN BRIBE PROBE: British belter Amy Winehouse found herself in jail yesterday – albeit briefly – after being busted and quizzed over her suspected involvement in an alleged bribery plot involving her hubby. Winehouse, 24, was arrested on suspicion of attempting to interfere with a court case, officials said. The singer was finger printed and asked to sub mit DNA samples at a police station in East London before being freed on bail until an other hearing in March, they said.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW…
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LBN-DID YOU KNOW? ***In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion. ***Half the world’s population earns about 5% of the world’s wealth. ***There are more than 600 million telephone lines, yet almost half the world’s population has never made a phone call on a land line. However, more than half the world’s population has made a cell phone call. There are more than 2 billion cell phones in use. ***More personal telephone calls are made on Mother’s Day in the USA than on any other day in any other country. ***One in ten people in the world live on an island.
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LBN-QUOTE: “The style is highly discursive, leap-frogging forwards and backwards across the decades, without ever sacrificing thrust or clarity.”—– Nicholas Blincoe
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LBN-HISTORY: On Dec. 19, 1984, Britain and China signed an accord returning Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.
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10. Personal-Comment: “Why does almost every celebrity have amug shot? It’s as though they think fame somehow permits them to make an ass out of themselves.” – Sara Elizabeth, Los Angeles, California. Check them out yourselves at http://snipurl.com/1vhzh. 11. Send your personal comment to us. 30 word maximum. Must Be signed signed with city and state. E-mail mailto:FreeBulletinBoard@timewire.net. 12. A teenager tried to copy the scene from the hit film American ie by having to much fun with a blazing hot apple pie, which onsequently landed him a spot in the emergency room. http://snipurl.com/1vhy9. 13. Exotic cruises to Asia, Australia or the Amazon… let Mark Customize your cruise …mark@wwcruises.com. Summer cruises LA to Hawaii …book today.
14. Personal-Comment: “Thanks for being so first with the top news.”- Mike Richardson, Torrance, California. 15. LBN Reader Comment: “What is it when a man talks dirty to a woman? Sexual harassment. What is it when a woman talks dirty to a man? $3.99 a minute.” – Faye Eketia, Palm Springs, CA.
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