NEW YORK, N.Y. - Former Mayor Ed Koch has been moved to intensive care for closer monitoring of the fluid in his lungs and legs, his spokesman said Thursday.

Koch's cardiologist wanted to keep a closer eye on the 88-year-old, who was also showing an iron deficiency, spokesman George Arzt said.

Koch was readmitted to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital on Monday with shortness of breath. He had been released two days earlier after being treated for water in his lungs and legs. He had initially been admitted on Jan. 19.

His hospitalization follows two other ones in recent months.

In December, he was admitted with a respiratory infection. The former mayor was also hospitalized in September after feeling weak while staying with friends in North Carolina. He was treated for anemia, was released after three days and said he planned to head straight to his office at a law firm.

In 2009, Koch spent five weeks at the hospital, undergoing a quadruple bypass in June and gallbladder surgery in July.

Koch was mayor for three terms, from 1978 through 1989, and is credited with saving the city from near-financial ruin. His trademark question to residents was, "How'm I doing?"

Owls don't need eyes in the back of their heads to see what's behind them they can just swivel their heads all the way around. In fact, many owl species, such as the barred owl, can rotate their heads 270 degrees in each direction, which means they can look to the left by rotating all the way to the right, or vice versa.

But how do they do it without severing their arteries or preventing blood from reaching the brain? An illustrator and a physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine teamed up to find out.

"Until now, brain imaging specialists like me who deal with human injuries caused by trauma to arteries in the head and neck have always been puzzled as to why rapid, twisting head movements did not leave thousands of owls lying dead on the forest floor from stroke," said study author Dr. Philippe Gailloud, in a statement from the university.

If humans tried to rotate our heads so rapidly or far, we'd tear the lining of our arteries, which would cause clots to form and lead to a stroke (besides also breaking our necks), he added. "The carotid and vertebral arteries in the neck of most animals including owls and humans are very fragile and highly susceptible to even minor tears of the vessel lining."

Looking inside owls

To get a glimpse of the owl's blood vessels when their necks were turning, the duo injected dye into the blood vessels of a dozen dead owls and used a CT scan to visualize the shimmering fluid spreading throughout the birds' arteries like blood, said Fabian de Kok-Mercado, who performed the work while getting a master's in medical illustration at Johns Hopkins. (He is now an illustrator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md.) The researchers then twisted the dead owls' heads to see what happened. [Video: Watch the owls' necks twist.]

After creating the CT scan images, the researchers injected a plastic-like substance into the veins of dead snowy, barred and great horned owls and dissected the animals, drawing the routes and locations of the vessels.

They found a number of previously undiscovered and unique traits, de Kok-Mercado told OurAmazingPlanet. For one, the owls' neck bones, or vertebrae, contain holes that are much larger than those found in other birds or humans. In humans, the hole in the vertebra is about the same size as the artery, but in owls the hole is about 10 times larger than the artery, according to the study, published today (Jan. 31) in the journal Science. These holes, or canals, likely hold air sacks meant to cushion the twisting motion of the head, de Kok-Mercado said.

"We also noticed right away that these canals were absent in the bottom two vertebra of the neck," de Kok-Mercado said. This gives the cord-like vessels some slack when the bird twists its head.

The large holes and "slack" at the bottom of the neck help explain why the vessels don't break. But they don't explain why the supply of blood isn't cut off when an owl turns its head with so much twisting, the vessels are bound to become partially blocked.

Blood to the brain

The team noticed that the vertebral artery enlarges slightly as it approaches the brain, which is unusual and not seen in many other animals (like the trunk of a tree, vessels generally get smaller as they get farther from the heart). The authors think that these enlarged areas may function as reservoirs in which blood can pool, so that the brain has extra blood to work with as the head swivels around, de Kok-Mercado said.

The blood vessels near the brain are also highly connected. A vessel called the patent trigeminal artery connects the front and the back of the owl's brain, which helps supply the organ with as much blood as possible.

Why do owls need to crane their necks to such an extreme degree? It's because their eyes are tubular, built almost like telescopes, giving them amazing vision, de Kok-Mercado said. But unlike humans, who have roughly spherical eyes, owls cannot move them about easily, so they have to rotate their heads.

The finding is just another example of how the birds are perfectly adapted to suit their environment, enabling them to see despite having relatively fixed eyes.

"I hope it gives people more of an appreciation of the life on this planet," de Kok-Mercado said.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Whooo's in There? Amazing Images of Owls 10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know About Animals Vision Quiz: What Can Animals See? Copyright 2013 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

BERLIN (Reuters) - One of Germany's most famous biscuit-makers has appealed to an extortionist dressed as the "Cookie Monster" to return its prized golden biscuit emblem.

The Bahlsen biscuit company's emblem has hung above its headquarters in Hanover since 1913 and was first reported stolen a week ago.

Just days after it went missing a ransom note arrived at the local newspaper which included a photo of the thief dressed as the "Cookie Monster" from children's television series "Sesame Street", pretending to take a bite from the golden biscuit.

In a message posted on Facebook on Thursday and addressed to the monster, Bahlsen promised to donate 52,000 packets of biscuits to charities if the 20 kg (44 pound) golden biscuit was returned.

The original ransom note demanded that Bahlsen give biscuits to children in hospitals across Hanover and donate a 1,000-euro ($1,400) reward for the emblem's return to an animal home.

A spokeswoman denied media suggestions that the theft and ransom note were part of a marketing stunt and said the firm was anxious to recover the emblem as soon as possible.

($1 = 0.7370 euros)

(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Paul Casciato)

The Wii U is a bust (so far). And the legendary gaming company's future is looking increasingly bleak

Nintendo had no choice but to go all in with the Wii U, the newest in a long line of ostensibly childhood-defining game consoles. Unfortunately, the company also inherited the weighty expectations of the original Wii which, if you'll remember, became a surprise hit when it debuted in 2006, or just two short years after the world was first introduced to a little-known senator named Barack Obama. But ever since the Wii U hit store shelves last November, sales have been disappointing. Now the company is dramatically lowering its forecasts for the future.

Initial sales figures indicate that Nintendo has so far sold just 3.06 million Wii U game consoles, and anticipates moving just four million Wii U units through March far below previous estimates of 5.5 million, predictions that weren't even that optimistic to begin with.

Initial reviews of the Wii U were mixed. Yes, it's fun. But the console failed to offer a compelling reason for consumers to free up dusty shelf space alongside their Xbox 360s or PlayStation 3s. Some critics say the console is confused, and Nintendo didn't know if it was targeting mature gamers fixated on first-person shooter games like Call of Duty and Borderlands, or more casual fans like the original Wii did with its motion-sensing nunchuck. Further complicating matters is a nimble new mobile industry, dominated by non-committal, take-anywhere games like Temple Run and Angry Birds.

"Nintendo needs a change in strategy," Michael Pachter, a gaming research analyst for Wedbush Securities, tells The New York Times. Even though Nintendo is an instantly recognizable brand the world over, the company still doesn't license its gaming titles for other platforms (ever see Mario on an iPhone?). To make matters worse, on Thursday, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that the company has no intention of lowering the price of its $300 flagship gaming system anytime soon. "We were already offering it at a good price," he said.

That means Nintendo, unless it releases a best-selling breakout title soon (Zelda, perhaps? Super Smash Bros. Brawl?), will continue on its path toward an increasingly dark future. The company already had its worst year ever in 2011. Dramatic restructuring seems imminent.

Consoles compared to phones, tablets, laptops, and many other gadgets have a much slower product cycle. Manufacturers only press "reset" every couple of years so that game-makers aren't constantly readjusting to new hardware.

For quickly aging dinosaurs like Nintendo, that means more plodding along. More disappointing forecasts. More reluctant critics. More lost opportunities to earn the trust of lifelong fans. More, more, more. (Or for Nintendo, less, less, less?)

"People have to try it to see it is fun," Iwata said of the Wii U. Undoubtedly, it is.

But unfortunately for Nintendo, "fun" just isn't good enough anymore.

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The List: The 14 video games New York's MoMA just classified as art Opinion Brief: Can the Wii-U save Nintendo? Analysis: The teen hospitalized after a 4-day video-game binge Like on Facebook - Follow on Twitter - Sign-up for Daily Newsletter

Members of a Florida family were shocked to be awakened in the middle of the night to find their house surrounded by police with guns drawn shouting at them to put their hands up.

Police Lt. Mike Beavers said the commotion was "very rare" for the small town of Oviedo, about 20 miles northeast of Orlando.

"This is the first time I've heard of it happening in our little town," Beavers told ABCNews.com.

The frightened family did not want to be identified but recounted the ordeal to ABC News' Orlando affiliate WFTV.

"I heard the doorbell ring," the father of two told WFTV. "We couldn't see anybody at the front of the door. All we saw was the rifle barrel."

The man said he and his wife originally believed they were being robbed.

"They have rifles, they have guns, and I said, 'Let's get out of the house,' so we ran down the hallway and got our two boys up," the father said.

"We were told to freeze and put our hands over our heads," he recalled. "They said, 'We're the police,' so that was a big relief."

What the family didn't realize was that an Xbox hoax had led the Oviedo police to its house. The police said they were responding to a call from AT&T saying it had received online messages from a person who said he was hiding inside the house, claiming that someone had been killed there and that others were being held hostage.

But when police arrived, all they found was a very surprised and confused family.

Upon investigation, police learned that the confusion all started when an Oviedo teenager living in another house called police saying his Xbox had been hacked.

The teenager said the hackers had threatened to call in bomb threats to his home if he did not meet their demands for gaming information.

When the teenager refused, the hackers sent fake messages reporting the killing and hostage taking at the teenager's former home. His previous address, where police showed up, was still connected to his Xbox.

The teenager did some of his own investigating, police said, and provided authorities with some possible identifying information on the hackers.

"The caller gave information to officers regarding two possible suspects, including IP addresses, Twitter and Facebook accounts and a possible name of one of the suspects," according to the police report. "The information provided to the officers revealed that both suspects were located in different states."

The information has been turned over to Oviedo detectives for further investigation.

Also Read

With immigration reform now firmly on the agendas of both the Senate and White House, a key question is how to assess its possible impact on states, particularly in two of the most important areas, the labor market and fiscal policy.

Who will be the most affected? While every state would feel some effect, the states with the most illegal immigrants are the most obvious to register the impacts of any changes to immigration law. California tops that list with nearly a quarter of the nation s illegal immigrant population of roughly 11 million.

Ultimately the most significant political impact California would feel would be a slew of new Democratic voters, Steve Camarota, director of research at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, says with a laugh.

RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

But while that may affect elections many years in the future, he says, the two places to watch for the more immediate impact of immigration reform are in fiscal policies and the labor market.

As the newly legal residents begin to pay taxes, they will eventually qualify for state health and welfare benefits, which will raise costs to the state. Beyond that, this same pool of workers 80 percent of whom do not have education beyond a high school level will compete directly with the native population of workers with similar education and skill levels for jobs that have demanded documented legal status.

California already has a very low level of participation in the work force by this group between the ages of 18 and 29, he says. He notes that in 2000, the native-born cohort of workers in that age group and with no more than a high school education was 64 percent. Last year, that figure dropped to 43 percent. This is below the national average of some 50 percent, he says, adding that reforms would greatly increase the numbers of workers who can compete at that level.

Now you will have many more people competing for low wage jobs such as the local security guard at an office building or a UPS delivery person, he adds.

On the flip side, this influx of documented workers would fill tax coffers in many states, in particular the ones with large undocumented populations, Texas and Florida being the next largest after California, points out Ian Macdonald, co-chair of the global mobility and immigration practice at the law firm Littler Mendelson.

This will have a direct impact on state funding for health care and education, as well as on certain industries such as construction, agriculture, hospitality, and others where unskilled workers are needed, he says via e-mail.

New burdens of government paperwork to process applications for legal status are sure to cost current state budgets, while requirements for employers to screen applicants for that status may bring their own problems, he says. A question currently on the table is whether to make E-Verify, a digital screening tool, mandatory for employers to use on new hires only or on the entire workforce, notes Mr. Macdonald.

By having employers run both existing and new hires through this comprehensive database, many employers will likely find that many of their existing employees were in fact undocumented workers who had escaped detection, he says. This could be a hardship for a company experiencing a sudden drain on its employee base.

Some politicians support this, he notes, adding that US workers will no longer be competing against undocumented workers and good corporate citizens will no longer be competing against companies that build business models around undocumented cheap labor.

RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

Related stories

Could you pass a US citizenship test? Immigration reform: a bid to attract workers who will boost the economy (+video) Obama on immigration reform: I'll act if Congress doesn't Immigration reform: 'This will be the year,' bipartisan Senate 'gang' says (+video) Read this story at csmonitor.com

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HONOLULU (AP) Actor Jim Nabors says marrying his longtime male partner doesn't change anything about their relationship he just wanted it to be formally acknowledged.

"I just wanted it legal," the 82-year-old actor best known as Gomer Pyle in "The Andy Griffith Show" told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Nabors married 64-year-old Stan Cadwallader in Seattle on Jan. 15. Nabors says they have been partners for 38 years.

Nabors said they flew from Honolulu just for the short ceremony and were married in a hotel room by a judge friend who drove up from Olympia, Wash.

Nabors said he's not an activist but feels strongly that gay marriage should be a right for everyone.

"I think every person on this earth has a choice of who they want to spend their life with," he said.

News of Nabors' marriage was first reported by Hawaii News Now. Nabors told Hawaii News Now he's been open about being gay with co-workers and friends but hadn't acknowledged it to the media before. He said he's not ashamed of people knowing, he just didn't tell people because it was "such a personal thing."

The couple met in 1975 when Cadwallader was a Honolulu firefighter.

Nabors told the AP that Cadwallader began working for him long ago and took care of his business affairs.

"He's my best friend," Nabors said.

Nabors became an instant success when he joined "The Andy Griffith Show" in spring 1963. The character of Gomer Pyle the unworldly, lovable gas pumper who would exclaim "Gollllll-ly!" proved so popular that in 1964 CBS starred him in "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."

In the spinoff, which lasted five seasons, Gomer left his hometown of Mayberry to become a Marine recruit. His innocence confounded his sergeant, the irascible Frank Sutton.

Gay marriage became legal in Washington state last month. Several other states allow it, but Nabors said he picked Washington because he didn't want to travel too far from his Hawaii home.

"I like the weather," he said. "Still, I froze my butt off there."

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia .

On the Radar

This past week we saw an extraordinary change in the military lifting the ban on direct combat for women. Former Marine Corps General James Cartwright, a defense consultant for ABC News, lived through a similar sea change in the 1990s, when the military lifted its combat ban for female aviators.

Cartwright recalls the first integrated deployment with female marines to Japan and the Philippines in the early 1980s.

"For all of the hoopla that goes with that, quite frankly they did extremely well," says the retired general. "If you set the conditions, if you set the moral temperature of the organization, you will do just fine."

"Fast forward to when we brought them into the officer ranks as pilots," adds Cartwright. "There were all sorts of speculation -- women couldn't go faster than the speed of sound, they'd break or whatever, I don't know ... But the reality was, in many cases they were better."

Cartwright, who also served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says it all comes down to leadership. But in 1991, then Commandant Robert Barrow came out publicly against women in combat.

"If you want to make a combat unit ineffective, assign women to it," Barrow told the Senate Arms Services Subcommittee.

"We change and we evolve," says Cartwright, who adds that emotional strength is probably more important than physical strength in modern combat units.

"The evolution of seeing this gender integration ... has been overdue, it's been a little bit too slow, but now that we're able to realize it, you know I can only see that we will be better off," says Cartwright. "Because at the end of the day, any time you add diversity to an organization, it's going to be better."

The Marine Corps recently put two young women through the infantry officers course; neither of them completed it. That class of young male marines may now be saying, 'Yea, see, they can't do it,' but to get over that prejudice, Cartwright says leaders have to make sure ground rules are the same for everybody.

"We found that in aviation if you make them special, if you set them aside, if you do things, then you set them up for failure. They've got to be equal," says the former Marine Corps aviator.

To those young female marines, he offered some advice.

"Don't give up," says Cartwright. "If this is your goal and this is your passion, then get yourself back together again."

For more from Ret. Gen. Cartwright, including his response to the alleged problem of arm strength, whether women should be called to serve if there was a draft again, and a memorable story involving a guy, a gal, and the ability to pull Gs to centrifuge, check out this week's On the Radar.

(Reuters) - American actor Burt Reynolds has left a Florida hospital after a battle with the flu, a representative for the "Smokey and the Bandit" star said on Tuesday.

"Burt has been released from the hospital," said Reynolds' manager, Erik Kritzer.

Reynolds, 76, was admitted to an unidentified hospital last week with dehydration and was later placed in intensive care.

Reynolds is best known for his roles in 1970s films such as "Deliverance" and "The Longest Yard."

He won a Golden Globe award and scored an Oscar nomination for his role as a porn king in the 1997 film "Boogie Nights."

Reynolds underwent heart bypass surgery in 2010.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Doina Chiacu)

(Reuters) - Apple Inc said on Tuesday that it will sell a version of its iPad tablet computer with 128 gigabytes of storage, which is twice the capacity of its existing models.

Apple, which has sold more than 120 million iPads so far, said that the new iPad will go on sale February 5, in black or white, for a suggested retail price of $799 for the iPad with just Wi-Fi model, and $929 for the version that also has a cellular wireless connection.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (Carolyn Kaster/AP)Organized labor is entirely behind comprehensive immigration reform and will mount a full-fledged campaign to help drive it through Congress, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told Yahoo News on Tuesday.

Trumka, whose federation comprises 57 unions representing some 12 million people, called the planned overhaul one of our top priorities right now. He spoke by telephone from Las Vegas, Nev., where he was to attend President Barack Obama s speech on immigration reform.

We think everybody ought to have the right to work hard and to progress to citizenship, Trumka said.

White House officials cite robust support from organized labor which at times in recent history has opposed giving the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil a path to citizenship as a key factor in their optimism about getting a comprehensive bill through Congress. They also point to the expansion of support among Christians, notably evangelicals. And they joke that the difficulty of managing a broad coalition is the kind of problem they like having.

Unions did have at one point some differences on the issue, but the entire labor movement is entirely behind this now, Trumka said. We ll be at the table the whole time this thing is being developed to make sure it meets the needs of workers. Once it s drafted, he continued, we ll be pushing this thing [with a] full-fledged campaign aimed at both public opinion and wary lawmakers.

We ll be targeting those in the House or the Senate that either are recalcitrant and don t want to do anything or aren t where they need to be," he said.

Labor wants to see a comprehensive overhaul "It can t just be hit and miss," Trumka added that does a better job of managing legal immigration to meet labor market needs, ensures employers are not exploiting undocumented immigrants, gives those on U.S. soil illegally a path to citizenship and makes sure that families are not broken up, he said.

Trumka also noted that unions are a little concerned about a proposed provision in the bipartisan Senate framework requiring that undocumented immigrants seeking legal status provide a proven history of employment. That could be difficult employers may not want to admit that they hired such workers but it could be defined in a very broad sense, he said.

The system is clearly broken right now, doesn t work for anybody, doesn t work for the country, he added.

The AFL-CIO, the country's largest labor federation, isn't exactly a newcomer to the debate. It produced an outline of its own in August 2009. While organized labor's national clout has diminished along with shrinking membership, unions remain a core constituency for Democrats, and much of the party's backbone, providing cash and voter outreach.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande said on Monday it would be up to African forces to tackle Islamist rebels in the northern part of Mali once the main towns in the region were retaken.

At a news conference in Paris, Hollande said "we are in the process of winning the battle" but acknowledged the harder part was still to come and that it would largely be a task for Malian and African forces.

After retaking several cities, including the northern town of Gao at the weekend, French and Malian troops sealed off the fabled desert town of Timbuktu on Monday after Islamists, who had taken control early last year, fled a French-led offensive.

Hollande said French troops would take a step back once the job of retaking key towns was complete.

"Then the Africans can take over the baton," Hollande said.

"They are the ones who will go into the northern part, which we know is the most difficult because that's where the terrorists are hiding."

In the face of a two-week-old French-Malian counter-attack, rebels have pulled back into the Saharan desert and mountains.

Military experts fear they could carry on a grueling hit-and-run guerrilla war against the government from there.

Hollande sent French fighter jets to Mali on January 11 and now have around 3,500 troops on the ground. There are a further 1,900 soldiers as part of the growing pan-African force.

As French and Malian troops push into northern Mali, African troops from a U.N.-backed continental intervention force expected to number 7,700 are being flown into the country.

"It's up to the Africans to permit Mali to restore its territorial integrity," Hollande told a news conference.

"Once territorial integrity is restored the French will only stay to train and direct. Just as we went into action rapidly, we will draw back to the starting points."

A third northern town, the Tuareg seat of Kidal, in Mali's rugged and remote northeast, remains in rebel hands.

(Reporting By Brian Love, John Irish and Emmanuel Jarry; editing by Mark John)

David S. Kime Jr. was many things. World War II veteran. Purple Heart recipient. Father. Grandfather. Husband. And, it should be noted, Burger King enthusiast.

The 88-year-old Kime died Jan. 20, and during his funeral procession a few days later, members of Kime's family took a detour to the Burger King drive-through.

Linda Phiel, one of Kime's three daughters, said her dad loved fast food and ate it daily. "He always lived by his own rules," she said. "His version of eating healthy was the lettuce on the Whopper Jr."

The York (Pa.) Daily Record spoke with Phiel, who explained that when her mother was alive, she tried to his eating habits in check. "When she died, for a while, he would eat with us," she said. "But he considered us health freaks because we ate things that were green, like broccoli."

After a while, Phiel stopped trying to talk her dad into eating more veggies. "When you're 88 years old, I guess you've earned the right to do what you want to do," she said.

The funeral procession ordered a whopping 40 of the Whopper Jr. burgers, including one for the dearly departed. Kime's Whopper was placed on top of his casket before burial.

The Burger King's manager, Margaret Hess, said, "It's nice to know he was a loyal customer up until the end the very end."

An old maid writes with the detachment of a god. In honor of the bicentennial of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, I give you the above words by D.A. Miller, America's most swashbuckling reader of Jane Austen.That s the central mystery of Jane Austen s novels. And what a mystery it is. The author s voice, though we re always reminded it belonged to a sour-faced spinster who couldn t score a husband to save her life, flatly refuses to make itself meek. Meek? Jane Austen s voice doesn t even make itself human. Rather, the Austen world spirit sweeps in omnisciently to Pride and Prejudice, which turns 200 today, laying down universal truths like Solomon or HAL. From there it manipulates the pouts and slaps and rosy countenances of all the single ladies the Catherines and Elizabeths and Emmas all the coquettes, ing nues and hysterics for whom Jay McInerney and all of us wild-eyed Janeites still pine. The sadistic Austen voice brings authority, stern judgment and only the ghost of a chance for redemption: Her girls, after all, are always caught in the gears of a tightly engineered Austen marriage plot, from whose bourn no traveler returns.The Austen voice can mock, rig and savor that plot only because it that Austen-god suspends itself well outside the life-threatening grip of courtship and matrimony. This, anyway, is the argument of Miller in his book Jane Austen, or the Secret of Style. I can think of no better way to celebrate the bicentennial of Pride and Prejudice, Austen s great novel of bulimia (among other matters) than with Miller s book, which like anything good Mr. Darcy, strong tea, food can make the brain ache in big doses.Great novel of bulimia? That s right. Professor Miller, who taught me in graduate school to see the god in the spinster, also showed me what a tyrant Austen was about the importance of being thin and brief (good) versus being fat and prolix (bad, very bad). (Worse than you know.)His lecture on this subject led to my fascination with the character of Charlotte, Elizabeth s would-be best friend. You ll recall that Elizabeth Bennet is the heroine of Pride and Prejudice, the witty resourceful daughter of an emotionally abusive dad who likes Elizabeth best because she s kind of a tomboy, and smart; she also sucks up to him by slagging off her sisters. In that way, Elizabeth reminds many female reader-types of ourselves trying to upstage other maybe prettier girls as frivolous nitwits in the name of winning the attention of Important Men. Oh, and then hating ourselves for it. In any case, Elizabeth has a friend, Charlotte. Charlotte is plainer than Lizzie, with no game in the drawing room. In short, she s nowhere near as cool as Lizzie, so Lizzie bestows confidences on her huge emotional outpourings of shame and remorse that she reserves for Charlotte alone, believing, in the immemorial way of popular girls, that the plainer girl is lucky to hear even the snotty, hiccupping self-pity of a superstar like Elizabeth Bennet. Of course, Lizzie never reciprocates by listening to Charlotte, which is why she is appalled to find out that Charlotte is not with her in lockstep on her oft-repeated resolution not to marry a loser. Charlotte, who s been an obedient sidekick to Lizzie for half the novel, turns the tables and boldly elopes with a loser a former suitor of Lizzie s, in fact and Lizzie is absolutely crushed. Deservedly so. She can t control everyone! (Only her maker, Austen, can.) It s a horror when you realize this; take it from me. How is this bulimia? I ll tell you. Lizzie is all about being brief and witty; only goofy girls or sententious men talk too much. To monopolize conversations is like eating whole cakes. It shows no restraint and it s disgusting. At the same time there s much talk of Lizzie s light-footedness and general low body weight. This is in contrast to the droning bore, Miss Bates, who is coded as fat and also can t shut up. But how does Lizzie keep her conversation and her figure in fighting shape? Does she have naturally modest appetites for food and attention? No. She is roiling with the same hungers everyone has, but she s put herself in an empire-waist straitjacket of wit, wit and more wit, so she has nowhere to go when she just wants to babble and sob. To binge. To purge. That s where Charlotte comes in. By expressing herself to Charlotte at length and in sordid hues gorging on cupcakes of emotion and then barfing them up in the silent, yielding bin of her friend Lizzie frees herself up to impress Mr. Darcy by seeming slim and tart. (Is that the acid reflux?)Go back and read Pride and Prejudice and see for yourself. It s about courtship all right, but it s also about the ways we try vainly to keep ourselves aloof from emotions and the whims and longings of our mortal bodies. Some of that, in younger years especially, involves using our friends. (Susanna Sonnenberg explores this and more in her beautiful and unsparing new book, She Matters: A Life in Friendships. ) And some of it involves becoming authors ourselves and hoping that that will, once and for all, immunize us from being human. Here s to that effort, vain and tender. Happy birthday, Pride and Prejudice.

Top Line

Wealthy conservative investor Foster Friess is best known in Washington, D.C. for helping fund Rick Santorum's presidential campaign. And the multimillionaire says he would support the former Pennsylvania senator again if he runs in 2016, even likening Santorum to Ronald Reagan.

"If people let him out of that box of social conservative, and appreciate how much more he brings to the table, I think he's still one of my favorite candidates," says Friess.

Friess spent well over a million dollars on Santorum's campaign, and says SuperPACs -- specifically the injection of large amounts of cash in elections -- were not really anything new in the 2012 cycle.

"People forget that the SuperPACs are just the reiteration of the 527s," says Friess, referring to independent groups that are allowed to raise money for political activities and issue advocacy.

"George Soros and Peter Lewis gave, what, $14 million and $20 million to make hard times for Bush and no one seems to talk about that," adds the conservative multimillionaire.

Since the November election, the Republican party has been in hand-wringing mode, trying to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. But Friess says he sees nothing in need of fixing.

"I believe we have an opportunity now to lift up a whole new group of young Republicans, and young new faces that are going to change our country back to where it was maybe 20 years ago," says Friess.

But the country's demographics are a far cry from what they were 20 years ago, and there has been talk of the Republican party's need to change in order to survive.

"I think the smartest thing the Republican party can do is stick to the principles that Republicans stand for -- limited government, respect for the constitution and free markets," says Friess. "If you stick with that, there's no way we're not going to win."

For more on Foster Friess, including his new charity, and his ideas on bipartisanship, check out this week's Top Line.

And head to ABCNews.com for a bonus video of the multimillionaire's take on Wall Street, and his advice on managing money.

TORONTO (AP) Canadian immigration officials have denied U.S. actor Randy Quaid's request for permanent resident status in Canada.

A Canadian government official confirmed late Saturday his request for permanent status has been denied. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Quaid can appeal the decision to the federal court.

U.S. officials last year refused to seek extradition of the actor and his wife from Canada to face felony vandalism charges in Santa Barbara, California, but authorities in the coastal town say they'll still have the couple arrested if they return to the states.

Quaid has sought to stay in Canada, claiming he was being hunted by "Hollywood star-whackers" who had killed his friends David Carradine and Heath Ledger.

Quaid's trouble began in 2010 when he and his wife were arrested for causing more than $5,000 damage at a hillside home they were renting.

Randy Quaid is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid and is best-known for his roles in films such as "National Lampoon's Vacation" and "Independence Day." He won a Golden Globe award for his depiction of President Lyndon Johnson in a TV movie in the late 1980s.

A barge carrying 80,000 gallons of oil hit a railroad bridge in Vicksburg, Miss., on Sunday, spilling light crude into the Mississippi River and closing the waterway for eight miles in each direction, the Coast Guard said. A second barge was damaged.

Investigators did not know how much had spilled, but an oily sheen was reported as far as three miles downriver of Vicksburg after the 1:12 a.m. incident, said Lt. Ryan Gomez of the Coast Guard's office in Memphis, Tenn.

Authorities were still trying to determine the source of the leak, but it appeared to be coming from one or two tanks located at the stern of the first barge, Gomez said. He said there was no indication that any oil was leaking from the second vessel, and said it was still unclear whether the second barge also hit the bridge or was damaged through a collision with the first.

"Investigators are still trying to figure out what happened," he said.

United States Environmental Services, a response-and-remediation company, was working to contain the oil with booms before collecting it and transferring it to one of the barge's undamaged tanks, then ultimately to a separate barge, Gomez said. He could not say how long the river would remain closed in the area. Five northbound and two southbound vessels were waiting to pass, he said.

"It's still considered an active leak," Gomez said. "We don't have an estimate or accurate amount of what was released."

Railroad traffic was allowed to continue after the bridge was found safe for trains, Petty Officer Carlos Vega said.

The barges are owned by Third Coast Towing LLC, Gomez said. According to a website listed under that name, the company is located in Corpus Christi, Texas. No one answered the telephone at the company Sunday night.

Both vessels were being pushed by the tugboat Nature's Way Endeavor. The website for Nature's Way Marine LLC of Theodore, Ala., identifies the vessel as a 3,000-horsepower, 90-foot-long boat, making it the largest and highest-powered of the company's five tugs. It was built in 1974 and underwent a complete rebuild in 2011, according to the company.

A company manager referred calls to the Coast Guard command center at Vicksburg.

The last time an oil spill closed a portion of the lower Mississippi River, it was for less than a day last February after an oil barge and a construction barge collided, spilling less than 10,000 gallons of oil. In 2008, a fuel barge collided with a tanker and broke in half, dumping 283,000 gallons of heavy crude into the waterway, and closing the river for six days.

The oil sheen from Sunday's incident was unlikely to pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico, located 344 river miles south of Vicksburg.

Residents and businesses in Gulf Coast states are still recovering from the April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which killed 11 workers and spewed more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf.

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McConnaughey reported from New Orleans. Associated Press Writer Lisa J. Adams in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.natureswaymarine.com/default.asp

Information about Endeavor: http://bit.ly/VefsWz

LOS ANGELES (AP) "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" cooked up $19 million in its opening weekend.

Paramount's R-rated action film update on the classic fairytale topped the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Hansel & Gretel" features Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as grown-up renditions of the title characters battling witches with crossbows.

Don Harris, Paramount's president of distribution, blamed icy weather on the East Coast for the film's not-so-bewitching debut.

"We got dinged a little bit with the weather on Friday, but overall we're pleased," said Harris, who added that "Hansel & Gretel" performed solidly internationally, earning $25 million overseas.

Other films opening over the weekend in the U.S. and Canada didn't fare as well. The crime thriller "Parker," starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez, debuted in fifth place with $7 million, while Relativity Media's raunchy ensemble comedy "Movie 43" opened in the seventh spot with $5 million.

Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian noted that it was the first time box-office grosses were down over last year after four up weekends.

Universal's supernatural horror film "Mama" starring Jessica Chastain dropped to second place with $12.8 million in its second weekend.

Several best-picture Academy Awards contenders continued to benefit from Oscar buzz, as well as the motion picture academy's decision to move up this year's nomination announcement, giving nominees more time in theaters between the Jan. 10 nominations unveiling and the Feb. 24 ceremony.

"Having an Oscar nomination is like holding a lottery ticket," said Dergarabedian. "It could pay off on Oscar night, but it's already paying big dividends now. All this time between the Oscar nominations and the telecast is prime time for these movies to capitalize on their higher profile."

"Silver Linings Playbook," which is up for eight Academy Awards, came in third place over the weekend with $10 million. The film starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence is in its 11th weekend of release and earned $3 million overseas.

"Zero Dark Thirty," the Osama bin Laden manhunt drama also starring Chastain, dropped to fourth place with $9.8 million. It's competing in five categories at the Academy Awards and nabbed $3.6 million internationally.

"Django Unchained," which is nominated for five Oscars, took in $5 million in sixth place, and the musical "Les Miserables," which is up for eight Academy Awards, earned $3.9 million in the 10th position. It was the fifth weekend for both films. "Django" topped the international chart with $47.9 million in 65 total territories.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," $19 million ($25 million international).

2. "Mama," $12.8 million.

3. "Silver Linings Playbook," $10 million ($3 million international).

4. "Zero Dark Thirty," $9.8 million ($3.6 million international).

5. "Parker," $7 million.

6. "Django Unchained," $5 million ($42.9 million international).

7. "Movie 43," $5 million ($2.8 million international).

8. "Gangster Squad,"$4.2 million ($6.8 million international).

9. "Broken City," $4 million ($500,000 international).

10. "Les Miserables," $3.9 million ($14 million international).

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Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Django Unchained," $42.9 million.

2. "Skyfall," $35.4 million.

3. "Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters," $25 million.

4. "Life of Pi," $17.5 million.

5. "Les Miserables," $14 million.

6. "Lincoln," $10.7 million.

7. "Miracle in Cell No. 7," $9.7 million.

8. "The Impossible," $7.2 million.

9. "Gangster Squad," $6.8 million.

10. "Wreck-It Ralph," $5.9 million.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

http://www.rentrak.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Follow Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

Ryan (NBC)

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan lashed out at President Barack Obama on Sunday, saying the commander in chief does not have a full grasp of the budget problems facing the U.S. economy.

"I don't think that the president actually thinks we have a fiscal crisis," Ryan said on NBC's "Meet The Press" in his first live interview since the 2012 presidential campaign, when he was Mitt Romney's running mate. "He's been reportedly saying to our leaders that we don't have a spending problem, we have a healthcare problem. That leads me to conclude that he just thinks we ought to have more government-run healthcare and rationing."

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, told David Gregory that while Democrats may have gotten higher taxes on the wealthy as part of the New Year's deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, that's all they'll get.

"The president got his additional revenues," Ryan said. "So that's behind us."

"Are we for raising revenues? No we're not," he continued. "If you keep raising revenues, you're not going to get decent tax reform."

Ryan also offered outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a compliment while bashing Obama.

"Look, if we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles, chief staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now," Ryan said. "That's not the kind of presidency we're dealing with."

The former vice presidential candidate also addressed a pair politically-divisive issues: immigration reform and gun control.

"It's a system that's broken that needs fixing," Ryan said of current U.S. immigration laws. "Look, immigration's a good thing. We're here because of immigration. That's what America is. It's a melting pot. We think this is good. We need to make sure that it works."

On gun control, Ryan said he was open to universal background checks, but stopped short of embracing a ban on assault weapons. "Let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper," he said. "What's our policy on mental illness? What's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing?"

And as far as his political aspirations for 2016 are concerned, Ryan said it's too early for him to talk about.

"I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do," Ryan said. "I'll decide later about that."

NEW YORK (AP) Relatives of a missing New York City woman who disappeared during a vacation to Turkey, her first trip outside the U.S., are heading to Istanbul to look for her, her brother said Sunday.

Sarai Sierra's family was last in touch with her on Monday, the day she was supposed to start her journey home. The 33-year-old mother of two had been in Turkey on her own since Jan. 7.

Her brother David Jimenez told The Associated Press that he and Sierra's husband, Steven, were planning to leave for Turkey on Sunday night. He said he had no return date planned.

"I don't want to come home without my sister," he said.

Sierra planned to head to the Galata Bridge, a well-known tourist destination that spans the Golden Horn waterway, to take some photographs, said her mother, Betzaida Jimenez. Her daughter then supposed to begin traveling home and was scheduled to arrive in New York City on Tuesday afternoon.

Sierra's father went to pick her up at the airport and "waited there for hours" with no sign of his daughter, Jimenez said.

Sierra had planned to go on the trip with a friend but ended up going by herself when the friend couldn't make it. She was looking forward to exploring her hobby of photography, her family said.

"I was nervous. I didn't want my daughter to go," Jimenez said, but the trip had passed smoothly with Sierra in regular contact with her family and friends through text messaging and phone calls.

"She would always call and let us know, 'This is what I did today,'" Jimenez said.

When she didn't show up in New York City, her husband called the place where she had been staying, David Jimenez said. The owner of the hostel checked her room and saw that her passport, equipment chargers and other items were still there.

"It looked like she was just stepping out," he said.

The family has been in touch with authorities in their efforts to find her. No one was available to comment after hours Sunday at Istanbul police headquarters. Crime in Turkey is generally low and Istanbul is a relatively safe city for travelers, though there are areas where women would be advised to avoid going alone at night. The Galata and the nearby Galata Bridge areas have been gentrified and are home to fish restaurants, cafes and boutiques.

Sierra's children, ages 11 and 9, do not know their mother is missing, her brother said. Betzaida Jimenez said the situation has "been a nightmare."

"I'm forcing myself to get up because I have to get up," she said.

But she said the tight-knit family was holding onto their faith.

"We're praying and trusting God that she's safe somewhere and we're going to find her," she said.

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. Follow Deepti Hajela at www.twitter.com/dhajela

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - France's military intervention in Mali has revived trans-Atlantic tensions over security issues, this time involving a key counterterrorism battlefield, along with dismay from critics who see U.S. President Barack Obama as too reluctant to use military force.

According to interviews with officials from both sides, the French have privately complained about what they see as paltry and belated American military support for their troop deployment, aimed at stopping the advance of militants allied with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The Americans question whether French President Francois Hollande's armed intervention, which is entering its third week, was coupled with a thought-through exit strategy.

Hollande called Obama on Thursday, January 10, and in a brief conversation about Mali, told the U.S. leader that France was about to mount a major military operation in the north African country.

Hollande was in a hurry and called Obama to inform, not to consult, according to French and U.S. officials. France's ambassador to Mali had sent an urgent message to Paris, warning that if the strategic city of Mopti fell to armed Islamic militants, there would be nothing to stop them from capturing the capital, Bamako, and controlling the entire country.

France launched its military operation on January 11.

"Had we not intervened, the whole region would have become a new 'Sahelistan'," said a senior French official, referring to the Sahel region of Africa south of the Sahara Desert.

But France's sense of urgency ran headlong into American concerns about whether Paris had a long-term plan for Mali, and about getting the U.S. military deeply involved in a new foreign conflict as Obama begins his second term in office, the officials said.

'MINIMAL' U.S. SUPPORT?

The United States has given what U.S. officials say is significant intelligence support to French forces in Mali, and has helped to airlift French troops and equipment into the country.

France wants more U.S. and European help to move its soldiers and materiel. More urgently, it wants U.S. aerial refueling capability for its planes, French officials said. That would help France conduct airstrikes to relieve pressure on French troops should they encounter trouble in northern Mali, they said.

A U.S. official said France's refueling request is under active consideration.

U.S. support has been "minimal" in practice, one U.S. official acknowledged on condition of anonymity. Washington, this official said, gave France a "hard time" when they asked for increased support, and the French will "remember us for that."

Obama, who took office when the United States was mired in two costly wars, has shown himself to be cautious - too cautious, mostly Republican critics say - about foreign military interventions. He limited the U.S. role in the campaign that helped oust Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and has resisted months of pressure for more muscular support for rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

There are disagreements within the White House and Congress about U.S. support for the Mali mission, said Republican Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

"This is not new ... We're seeing an ongoing debate about our participation level in Syria. We saw that same level of debate about our participation in Libya, and now we're having that exact same philosophical stalemate and debate on what we do with the French in Mali," Rogers said in an interview.

Obama and his aides "don't want their hand forced by French action," said Todd Moss, vice president of the Center for Global Development think tank and a former top official in the State Department's Africa bureau.

"There is very little, if any, political support in the U.S. for military action in a place like Mali," Moss said.

Obama spoke to Hollande by phone on Friday and "expressed his support for France's leadership of the international community's efforts to deny terrorists a safe haven in Mali," the White House said in a statement.

The White House said Hollande thanked Obama for the "significant support" provided by the United States.

LOOKING FOR AN EXIT STRATEGY

France has 2,500 soldiers in Mali, which it sent to block a southward advance on the Malian capital by Islamists occupying Mali's north. While French and Malian troops have appeared to make progress in recent days, the Islamists have proven to be better trained and equipped than France anticipated.

The U.N. Security Council last month authorized deployment of a 3,300-member African military force, known as AFISMA, to Mali. The full force was originally not expected to be ready until at least September. It now appears that the Africans will be contributing many more troops with a sharply accelerated deployment schedule, although there are questions about how well trained and equipped they are.

Even before Hollande acted, the United States had been reluctant for months about supporting international intervention in Mali, causing French-U.S. frictions at the United Nations.

Remembering that it took the Americans weeks to decide on their level of support for the aerial mission over Libya in 2011, France decided to act immediately when Islamist forces in Mali began moving south, the French officials said.

One French official described Obama's policy as almost "isolationist" - very reluctant to intervene, especially without a clear, easily sellable U.S. strategic interest at stake.

The Obama administration has said it will do whatever it can to ensure France is successful in disrupting the militants' progress.

Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said, "We continue to share the French goal of denying terrorists a safe haven in the region, and we support the French operation."

The United States, Vietor noted, is working to accelerate the deployment, training and equipping of the African force.

Privately, U.S. officials are more skeptical, suggesting that Paris has developed its plans on the fly, and has no clear exit strategy.

"I don't think it's a secret that the French military effort has evolved and developed over time, and as that's happened we've worked with them to get the clearest-possible picture of not just their short term planning but also how they view this operation looking in three months or three years," an Obama administration official said.

France has not specified how long its troops will stay in Mali, where they hope to split local Tuareg rebels away from AQIM militants and into talks with the Malian government.

"The longer we stay, the bigger the risks," the senior French official said.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed and David Alexander, Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, David Lewis in Dakar, and Catherine Bremer in Paris; Writing by Warren Strobel; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

The nighttime viewing capabilities of the Suomi NPP satellite are giving earth scientists new views of the planet's surface once the sun goes down.

An image taken on Sept. 27, 2012, and released recently by NASA's Earth Observatory, shows off the satellite's penetrating gaze with a view of low-level, marine layer clouds off the coast of California. These clouds are invisible to technologies previously used to view nighttime scenes.

Suomi NPP, run jointly by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, took the image with its Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) "day-night band," which detects wavelengths of light from green to near-infrared. This means the satellite can spot gas flares, auroras, wildfires, city lights and reflected moonlight, according to the Earth Observatory. And add to that, low-lying clouds.

In the Suomi image, the marine layer clouds shroud the ocean along the California coast, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. You can also see the shadow of some higher-level clouds cast by moonlight onto the low clouds. Marine layer clouds are so called because they form in a sheet over the ocean as low stratus clouds. [Album: Reading the Clouds]

Here's how it works: Winds push moist surface-level air upward, causing it to expand and cool, while at the same time a coastal California feature called the Pacific High causes higher-level air to sink towards the surface, where it warms; these opposing forces create what is called an inversion layer between the surface and upper-air masses, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

While temperatures in the atmosphere typically get cooler the further up you go, the opposite happens in the inversion layer: Air is cooler toward the bottom, where the surface air is rising, and warmer toward the top of the layer, where the upper-level air is sinking.

If the air rising from the surface cools to a point at which the moisture in it condenses out below the inversion layer, marine layer clouds are formed, bounded on the top by the bottom of the inversion layer. This explains the typically uniform height of the cloud tops. The clouds are bounded on the bottom by the point at which they reach saturation and water condenses out.

These clouds can pose a hazard to ship and air travel, according to the Earth Observatory, but detecting them has been tricky in the past because of the limits of other Earth-observing satellites. Another image of the same scene taken in thermal infrared wavelengths the band of the light spectrum typically used by meteorologists to observe Earth's surface at night illustrates this.

In this image, you can only see the higher-level clouds that were casting shadows in the previous image. The marine layer clouds are too close in temperature to the ground to show up as distinct feature in these wavelengths.

Suomi's capabilities therefore give meteorologists another tool to better observe and predict Earth's weather.

Reach Andrea Thompson atathompson@techmedianetwork.com and follow her on twitter @AndreaTOAP.Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Image Gallery: Crazy Cloud Patterns Infographic: Earth's Atmosphere Top to Bottom In Images: Mysterious Night-Shining Clouds Copyright 2013 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American actor Burt Reynolds is battling the flu in the intensive care unit of a Florida hospital, CNN reported on Friday.

The "Smokey and the Bandit" actor arrived at the unnamed hospital with dehydration and was later transferred to intensive care, Reynolds' manager, Erik Kritzer, told CNN.

"He is doing better at this time," Kritzer was quoted as saying on Friday afternoon. "We expect, as soon as he gets more fluids, he will be back in a regular room."

Reynolds, 76, is famous for roles in 1970s movies including "Deliverance" and "The Longest Yard." More recently, he won a Golden Globe award for his role as a porn king in 1997 film "Boogie Nights."

Reynolds had heart bypass surgery in 2010.

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

Foster Friess (Michael Bonfigli/The Christian Science Monitor)Republican Party donor Foster Friess, 72 Rick Santorum's backer in his bid to be president made headlines in 2012 for joking that, in his day, "Gals put [aspirin] between their knees" as a form of inexpensive contraception.

When Yahoo News on Friday asked Friess about the GOP's relationship with women, he once again showed interest in the topic. Only this time, it was personal.

"Hugh Hefner said, 'This guy Friess wants to reverse the sexual revolution,'" Friess said. "Well, I have four kids, they're two years apart, and contraception's been very, very good to me."

Friess, speaking at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor in which he discussed a range of topics, from get-out-the-vote efforts to the need for party cohesion declined to offer further details about his personal choices. He did, however, credit Democrats for successfully controlling the "war on woman" dialogue with the help of "The View" talk show host Joy Behar and for spreading the idea that Santorum falsely wanted to ban contraception.

Republicans, he believe, would do well to imitate their efforts. "How the Democrats got away with this, I think, is another indication of a flaw of Republicans no one confronted that and said this is bald-faced demagoguery," Friess said, adding that women were "seduced" into believing that "this was a war."

He also faulted President Barack Obama for failing to give equal pay to women at the White House and for being someone who "bows to a leader of a country that doesn't allow women to vote or drive a car." (Friess did not say which leader.)

As for get-out-the-vote efforts, Friess suggested that the GOP would also do well to look to the Democratic Party: "I would basically have more on-the-ground activity; I would emulate what [Obama] did." He noted that he had early on questioned the effectiveness of his phone-banking for Santorum compared with Obama's making personal connections with voters at dinners and barbecues.

"It's once been said that for Democrats this is a blood sport," Friess said about politics. "For Republicans, this is a hobby. And that's why Democrats run the government and Republicans run the museums."

Friess also espoused Republican cohesion, calling on his party to end its divisiveness and come together for the good of the country. "Right now, the Republican Party has their tail between their legs," Friess said, even as he noted that Republicans occupy 30 governorships and won control of state legislatures across the country in 2012.

Asked if he believes he contributed to Mitt Romney's general election defeat by supporting Santorum and dividing the party, Friess was adamant that this was not the case. "We helped Mitt Romney," Friess said, explaining that Romney was able to court conservatives by learning from Santorum's successes. "I heard him paraphrase some of Rick's same vision." Additionally, "I don't believe any Republican can win without social conservatives," he said.

At one point, Friess expressed support for gays, noting that his brother-in-law is gay. But he stopped short of advocating gay marriage. Instead, he suggested that America needs to be wary of creeping Sharia law in the U.S. threatening gay Americans, as well as countries that "kill" gays.

Friess is already looking ahead to 2016 and said he would support a Santorum campaign. "Rick Santorum has so much potential," Friess said, adding that Santorum isn't "motivated by perks" or status.

Friess would not, however, confirm his reported interest in creating a super PAC, and suggested the form in which he chooses to donate is not an issue.

"It's exciting to be part of the 1 percent," said Friess, who noted it has given him the ability to get involved in things like disaster relief. He has no interest, he added, in making excuses for being wealthy. "I'm not going to give up my lifestyle," he said.

Asked if he has spoken with other millionaires and billionaires about future political endeavors, Friess, who lives in Wyoming, noted that he surrounds himself with the same people he knew in childhood. "I don't know that many millionaires and billionaires," he said.

As for the others in the richest 1 percent with political clout, he suggested Democratic donor George Soros is funding research in churches in an effort to force some to lose their tax-exempt status. "This may seem conspiratorial," he admitted, saying he "read it on the internet" and can't confirm the validity of the information.

Despite all his differences with the Democratic Party and specific criticisms of the president, however, Friess said everyone needs to support Obama's efforts to repair the nation's economy. "The excitement that I see going forward now for our country is that all of us need to kind of help President Obama create his legacy," said Friess, "which I'm sure he does not want to go down as the president [who] bankrupted America."

NEW YORK (AP) Exxon has once again surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable company after the iPhone and iPad maker saw its stock price falter.

Apple Inc.'s stock has been on the decline since its earnings report earlier this week. It dropped 2 percent Friday to $441.30 for a market capitalization of $414.5 billion. Exxon Mobil Corp. gained 13 cents to $91.48 and has a market capitalization of $417 billion.

Apple's earnings results, posted Wednesday, suggested that its fast growth phase, rare for a company of its size, may be coming to an end. On Thursday, the stock saw its biggest one-day percentage drop since 2008.

Apple first surpassed Exxon in the summer of 2011. The two companies traded places through that fall, until Apple surpassed Exxon for good in early 2012.

NEW YORK (AP) Serious theater fans have a reason to suddenly freak out: Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will team up on Broadway this fall in two of the most iconic plays of the 20th century.

Producers announced Thursday that Stewart and McKellen will star in Harold Pinter's "No Man's Land" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" which will play in repertoire under the direction of Sean Mathias.

The Broadway theater, performance dates, the two supporting actors and the schedule of performances will be announced later.

Stewart and McKellen starred in a production of "Waiting for Godot" in London's West End in 2009. Prior to Broadway, they'll tackle "No Man's Land" in an as-yet-unspecified out-of-town tryout this summer.

Mathias told The Associated Press all three men struggled to make "Waiting for Godot" as honest and realistic as possible an approach they'll likely replicate with Pinter's play.

"What we tried to do, with so much effort, was make it real. Make them human beings, compassionate, funny, flawed and vulnerable and cocky all the things human beings are," Mathias said. "We never wanted to make it esoteric. I'm sure this is how we will approach the Pinter as well."

Stewart, 72, and McKellen, 73, first worked together in 1977 in Tom Stoppard's "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour." They've also starred in the "X-Men" movie franchise as Professor Xavier and Magneto.

Stewart will play Vladimir in "Waiting for Godot" and Hirst in "No Man's Land;" McKellen will play Estragon in "Waiting for Godot" and Spooner in "No Man's Land."

"My main feeling is it's lovely to be back with friends and it will be lovely to be back in New York," said McKellen, who is doing a sit-com in England and next goes to Middle Earth to film scenes for "The Hobbit" franchise. "But I've got an awful lot to do in the meantime."

McKellen made his Broadway debut in Aleksei Arbuzov's "The Promise" in 1967 and won a Tony Award for his performance in "Amadeus" in 1981. His films include "Apt Pupil," ''Gods and Monsters" and "The Lord of the Rings."

Stewart, perhaps best known as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," first appeared on Broadway in Peter Brook's production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1971 and has recently been in David Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre" and "Macbeth."

Putting the Beckett and Pinter plays together in repertoire makes theatrical sense since both require four male actors and they both mine a surreal, witty vein.

"Both plays play tricks with our memory, with time, with what time is," said Mathias. "Both plays are dealing with a landscape of poetry, a landscape of psychology, a landscape that is both real and isn't real. So there are incredible reverberations and resonances."

Stewart and McKellen will sink their teeth into Beckett and Pinter after spending the summer filming "X-Men: Days of Future Past." Mathias, a Tony nominee in 1995 for "Indiscretions," will be directing "Breakfast at Tiffany's" on Broadway this spring.

Now a thorny question: Who gets top billing on Broadway McKellen or Stewart? After all, both actors have gotten knighthoods for their services to drama and the performing arts.

"For me there's no question," Stewart said. "Ian was a star actor while I was still working in regional theater. To be absolutely frank, I was in awe of him and his work long before I knew him."

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

President Barack Obama talks with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, at the conclusion of the Inaugural Um, bipartisanship? President Barack Obama would object to the annihilation of the Republican Party, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday. His comments came two days after Republican House Speaker John Boehner charged that doing away with the GOP would be one of the Democrat s top second-term priorities.

I know it s not his goal. His goal is to work together with Congress, with members of both parties to achieve progress on behalf of the American people, Carney said.

But Obama would not object if somehow the GOP were destroyed, right?

I think he would object, Carney insisted. He believes that the two-party system is part of the foundation of our democracy and that it is a healthy aspect of our democracy even if it s contentious.

Boehner leveled the accusation in a speech Tuesday to the Ripon Society, which describes itself as a Republican public policy advocacy organization, as he reflected on the president s inaugural address.

Given what we heard yesterday about the president s vision for his second term, it s pretty clear to me that he knows he can t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans, Boehner said. So we re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal to just shove us into the dustbin of history.

Carney disputed Boehner s contention.

Even though we have profound differences, and differences that we will not resolve necessarily in the next year or two, or three, or four it is imperative that we come together and act on behalf of the American people, the spokesman said.

The president believes that a strong two-party system is the foundation of our democracy and looks forward to working with Republicans as well as Democrats and get things done, Carney added.

What about the political polarization in Washington?

We need to have spirited debates, but not debates that paralyze us. We need to compromise, not be absolutists, Carney said, stressing that politicians should pursue government by compromise, not confrontation and crisis.

Ben Curtis, an actor and former spokesperson for Dell (DELL) known for his catchphrase Dude you re getting a Dell, believes that he can help the company he used to promote. According to Curtis, the solution is simple: bring back the Dell Dude. The actor represented the company from 2000 to 2003 in a series of commercials that were critically acclaimed and helped Dell become the world s largest PC vendor. After running into some legal problems, however, Curtis was let go.

[More from BGR: RIM releases BES 10 for BlackBerry 10 and rival phones, offers free 60-day trial]

The company has struggled in recent years as consumers begin to embrace a post-PC era. Dell is reportedly in buyout talks with a private equity firm that would value the company between $22 billion and $25 billion.

[More from BGR: As data gets cheaper for Verizon to transmit, customers are paying more]

Curtis doesn t believe this is the best option, though.

I think they re making a huge mistake and simply need to bring back the Dell Dude! he said in an interview with Bloomberg. That s it. That s all they need to do. If they brought me back, their sales, stock and media presence would skyrocket.

Curtis believes this would be by FAR the smartest move they could make.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

NEW DELHI (AP) Five suspects, their faces covered with woolen caps, arrived in a special fast-track New Delhi court Thursday for the start of their trial for the rape and murder of a young woman on a bus last month in a case that triggered outrage and questions over the treatment of women in India's justice system.

Police were on alert outside the sprawling court complex in south New Delhi as the suspects arrived. Inside the court, about 30 policemen blocked access to the room where the trial was to be held, while scores of journalists and curious onlookers crowded the hallway.

The suspects were whisked into the courtroom by a phalanx of armed policemen for the start of the trial, although there were no immediate details released.

The court will hear opening arguments by the prosecution and defense lawyers. The trial will be conducted in a closed court room after Judge Yogesh Khanna denied a defense motion to make the proceedings public.

A sixth suspect says he is a juvenile and is expected to be tried in a juvenile court.

Police say the victim and a male friend were attacked after boarding a bus Dec. 16. The attackers beat the man and raped the woman, inflicting massive internal injuries with a metal bar, police said. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died two weeks later in a Singapore hospital.

The trial began a day after a government panel recommended India strictly enforce sexual assault laws, commit to holding speedy rape trials and change the antiquated penal code to protect women.

The panel appointed to recommend suggestions to overhaul the criminal justice system's handling of violence against women, received a staggering 80,000 suggestions from women's and rights groups and thousands of ordinary citizens.

Among the panel's suggestions were a ban on a traumatic vaginal exam of rape victims and an end to political interference in sex crime cases. It has also suggested the appointment of more judges to help speed up India's sluggish judicial process and clear millions of pending cases.

Law Minister Ashwani Kumar said the government would take the recommendations to the Cabinet and Parliament.

"Procedural inadequacies that lead to inordinate delays need to be addressed," he told reporters.

An advanced member of the largest group of dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth still had a relatively puny brain, researchers say.

The scientists analyzed the skull of 70-million-year-old fossils of the giant dinosaur Ampelosaurus, discovered in 2007 in Cuenca, Spain, in the course of the construction of a high-speed rail track connecting Madrid with Valencia. The reptile was a sauropod, long-necked, long-tailed herbivores that were the largest creatures ever to stride the Earth. More specifically, Ampelosaurus was a kind of sauropod known as a titanosaur, many if not all of which had armorlike scales covering their bodies.

Sauropod skulls are typically fragile, and few have survived intact enough for scientists to learn much about their brains. By scanning the interior of the skull via CT imaging, the researchers developed a 3-D reconstruction of Ampelosaurus' brain, which was not much bigger than a tennis ball.

"This saurian may have reached 15 meters (49 feet) in length; nonetheless its brain was not in excess of 8 centimeters (3 inches)," study researcher Fabien Knoll, a paleontologist at Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences, said in a statement. [Gallery: Stunning Illustrations of Dinosaurs]

The first sauropods appeared about 160 million years earlier than this fossil.

"We don't see much expansion of brain size in this group of animals as they go through time, unlike a lot of mammalian and bird groups, where you see increases in brain size over time," researcher Lawrence Witmer, an anatomist and paleontologist at Ohio University, told LiveScience. "They apparently hit on something and stuck with it expansion of brain size over time wasn't a major focus of theirs."

For years, scientists have wondered how the largest land animals ever lived with such tiny brains. "Maybe we should flip that question on their end maybe we shouldn't ask how they could function with tiny brains, but what are many modern animals doing with such ridiculously large brains. Cows may be triple-Einsteins compared to most dinosaurs, but why?" Witmer said.

Their computer model also revealed the ampelosaur had a small inner ear.

"Part of the inner ear is associated with hearing, so the fact it had a small inner ear means it probably wasn't all that good at hearing airborne sounds," Witmer said. "It probably used a kind of hearing we don't think much about, which depends on sounds transmitted through the ground."

The inner ear is also responsible for balance and equilibrium, Witmer said.

"Given what we know about its inner ear, Ampelosaurus probably didn't put a real premium on rapid, quick jerky eye or head movements, which makes sense these are relatively large, slow-moving, plant-eating animals," he said.

Knoll and his colleagues had previously developed 3-D reconstructions of another sauropod, Spinophorosaurus nigeriensis. In contrast to Ampelosaurus, Spinophorosaurus had a fairly developed inner ear.

"It is quite enigmatic that sauropods show such a diverse inner ear morphology whereas they have a very homogenous body shape," Knoll said. "More investigation is definitely required."

Currently scientists are debating whether sauropods held their heads near the ground, grazing on low vegetation, or high up like giraffes to browse on high leaves. "It could be that learning more about the inner ear could tell us what sauropod neck posture was like," Witmer said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 23 in the journal PLOS ONE.

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25 Amazing Ancient Beasts Inside the Brain: A Journey Through Time Album: The World's Biggest Beasts Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The storm clouds in Earth's atmosphere are filled with microbial life, according to a new study.

The research, published today (Jan. 23) in the journal PLoS One, revealed that hailstones drawn from storm clouds harbor several species of bacteria that tend to reside on plants, as well as thousands of organic compounds normally found in soil. Some of the bacterial species can seed the tiny ice crystals that lead to rain, suggesting they play a role in causing rain.

"Those storm clouds are quite violent phenomena," said study co-author Tina Santl Temkiv, an environmental chemist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "They are sucking huge amounts of air from under the clouds, and that's how the bacteria probably got into the cloud."

Living on a cloud

In the past, researchers have found bacterial life in clouds that drift over mountaintops. Bacteria have been found as far up as 24.8 miles (40 kilometers) and may even survive as spores into space, Temkiv said. [Holey Clouds: Gallery of Formations Cut By Airplanes]

Temkiv and her colleagues wanted to see if bacteria lived in the violent storm clouds that hover above the Earth's surface. To find out, they studied 42 hailstones that had formed in a thunderstorm over Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May 2009.

After carefully removing the outer layer and sterilizing the hailstone, they analyzed its chemical composition.

The team found thousands of organic, or carbon-containing, compounds nearly as many as found in a typical river, Temkiv said. In addition, they found several species of bacteria that normally live on plants. Some of the bacteria make a pinkish pigment that allows them to withstand the punishing ultraviolet rays in the atmosphere.

Some of bacteria found are ice-nucleators, meaning they can act as seeds for ice crystals to attach to in the clouds above Earth. When these same ice crystals get large enough, they fall as rain or snow, depending on the air temperature.

The findings suggest that bacteria could influence weather patterns, possibly making rain, Temkiv said.

"They may be growing in clouds, increasing in number and then modifying the chemistry in the cloud but also in the atmosphere indirectly," she told LiveScience.

The researchers think the bacteria come from the air hovering just above Earth that gets swept into the storm clouds through updrafts. That would suggest the atmosphere is a thread that can connect distant ecosystems, and that certain bacteria may be better at colonizing faraway environments, Pierre Amato, a researcher at France's Blaise Pascal University who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email.

"Clouds can be thought of as transient ecosystems selecting for certain [types of bacteria] that are better fitted than others, and that can thus quickly disperse over the globe," Amato said. "Understanding how microbes disperse is relevant, of course, for epidemiology, and also for microbial ecology."

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The World's Weirdest Weather Image Gallery: Curious Clouds 10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEW YORK (AP) Adele will perform the James Bond theme "Skyfall" at the Oscars, her first U.S. performance since last year's Grammy Awards.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday that Adele will sing the Oscar-nominated song at the 85th annual Academy Awards on Feb. 24. She and producer Paul Epworth are nominated for best original song for "Skyfall."

The announcement isn't much of a surprise considering Adele's award show ubiquity. She recently won a Golden Globe for the Bond theme.

Adele hasn't previously sung "Skyfall" live for an audience. She says in a statement that she's honored to be singing in front of people who've captured her imagination. The Oscars will also present a tribute to James Bond, marking the 50th anniversary of the franchise.