Less Than Three Studio

LONDON (Reuters) –
Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? Is your marriage or a friend's going through a rocky patch? How about a divorce voucher?

In an unusual take on the season of giving, a London law firm is offering Christmas gift vouchers for divorce advice.

The firm, Lloyd Platt & Company, which normally charges 325 pounds ($530) an hour, said it had been swamped with enquiries since it launched the vouchers early last week.

So far, more than 60 have been sold -- a snip at 125 pounds for a half hour session with a divorce lawyer.

The firm's founder, Vanessa Lloyd Platt, said she had been amazed at the response to the vouchers. "They seem to appeal to an enormously widespread spectrum of people looking for that 'must have' gift for Christmas," she said.

A spokesman for the Church of England called the vouchers sad.

"Divorce is a very personal matter and not really suitable for the idea of gift vouchers which are presents from other people," he said.

Demand for the vouchers could soar over the next few weeks.

Christmas tends to be a particularly stressful time for families, with a huge rise in people seeking advice each January, Lloyd Platt said.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Fullerton; Editing by Steve Addison)

PARIS – A Paris court ruled Friday that Google Inc.'s expansion into digital books breaks France's copyright laws, and a judge slapped the Internet search leader with a euro10,000-a-day fine until it stops showing literary snippets.
Besides being fined the equivalent of $14,300 for each day in violation, Google was ordered to pay euro300,000 ($430,000) in damages and interest to French publisher La Martiniere, which brought the case on behalf of a group of French publishers.
Google attorney Alexandra Neri said the company would appeal.
The decision erects another legal barrier that may prevent Google from realizing its 5-year-old goal of scanning all the world's books into a digital library accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
A U.S. legal settlement that would give Google the digital rights to millions of books is in limbo because U.S. regulators have warned a federal judge in New York that the arrangement probably would thwart competition in the budding electronic book market and compromise copyrights, as well.
The top U.S. copyright official and the governments in Germany and France also have raised objections about that settlement overstepping its bounds. Google is trying to address the critics with a revised settlement that is still under court review.
The French case is relatively small in comparison. It didn't even seem to faze investors as Google shares gained $3.86 to $597.80 in Friday afternoon trading.
Still, the ruling served as a reminder that Google's ambitious push into other markets beyond Internet search increasingly is clashing with fears the Mountain View, Calif., company is getting too powerful.
As part of the backlash, Google has been depicted as a copyright scofflaw that prospers off the content of others — a portrayal the company's management insists is totally off base.
The head of the French publisher's union applauded Friday's verdict.
"It shows Google that they are not the kings of the world and they can't do whatever they want," said Serge Eyrolles, president of France's Syndicat National de l'Edition. He said Google had scanned 100,000 French books into its database, 80 percent of which were under copyright.
Eyrolles said French publishers would still like to work with Google to digitize their books, "but only if they stop playing around with us and start respecting intellectual property rights."
Philippe Colombet, the head of Google's book-scanning project in France, said the company disagrees with the court's ruling.
"French readers now face the threat of losing access to a significant body of knowledge and falling behind the rest of Internet users," Colombet said in a conference call with reporters. "We believe that displaying a limited number of short extracts from books complies with copyright legislation both in France and the U.S. — and improves access to books."
Colombet declined to answer questions about whether Google would remove the books from its database or pay the fine. "We are going to study the judgment carefully over the coming days," he said.
The judgment will have little or no effect on Internet users outside of France. And French books that are in Google's database with publishers' consent will remain searchable, even in France. Colombet could not say how many French books Google has scanned overall, or how many French publishers allowing Google to show its works.
Google has scanned more than 10 million books worldwide since 2004, including 2 million with the consent of about 30,000 publishers, About 9,000 of those publishers are in Europe, Colombet said. Another 2 million books in Google's library no longer are in copyright. Google has been only showing snippets from the remaining books while it tries to iron out copyright disputes.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made catching up on France's digital delay one of the national priorities by earmarking euro750 million (about $1 billion) of a euro35 billion spending plan announced earlier this week for digitizing France's libraries, film and music archives and other repositories of the nation's recorded heritage.

Earlier this week a consortium of French technology companies announced a plan to create a book scanning project they said would be better than Google's, but only in three years time.

___

Associated Press Writer Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Paris and AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Male dancer’s standard costume includes tights and a tunic worn on the upper body. Men’s tights should be pulled up firmly in the crotch to avoid a baggy appearance. Their tights are a heavier less shear material then women’s tights, but they also wear their tights’ seams in the back. Men wear a dance belt under their tights for support and to keep the body aligned. Men also wear a regular belt or suspenders to hold up their tights.

Suspenders give a better line and eliminate the bulky belt line. Their tunic, tight-fitting waist- length t-shirt, is either tucked into their tights or worn out. If it is worn out then it should just cover the pelvic area (Penrod 14). This tunic is fitted to allow more freedom for the male dancer’s strong movements. By adding elastics to the side seams, it provides a more fitted look (Harrison 115).

Adult Costumes

Creators Syndicate –
Climate change is one of those issues I know enough about to know how little I really know. And I certainly haven't learned much more during the 193-nation climate talks that concluded in Copenhagen this week. I'm one of those agnostics willing to accept evidence that the earth is warming but not yet convinced that scientists fully understand why. And my skepticism has grown greater in light of the recent climategate scandal involving leaked e-mails that suggested prominent climate-change scientists have manipulated data and tried to stifle dissent in the scientific community.

But while the Copenhagen talks didn't shed much light on the climate issue per se, they certainly revealed much about the motivations of those involved in the debate. It was clear, both in the meetings and among protestors outside, that the most vociferous advocates for imposing limits on greenhouse emissions are motivated only tangentially by concern for the planet. The real target of radical environmentalism is capitalism.

Bolivian President Evo Morales claimed that "Mother Earth ... (is) now the slave of capitalist countries." Fellow socialist and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez made no bones about his antipathy: "The destructive model of capitalism is eradicating life," he told conference attendees. "We need to consume less and distribute more," he said, summarizing the overall feeling of most of the poorer countries represented in Copenhagen.

While communist flags waved on the streets outside the conference, inside Chavez's lament was echoed by Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. "Where is its commitment to redistributive justice, which we see (Western nations) applying on other issues?" demanded the man whose socialist and anti-white policies starved his own nation, once known as the breadbasket of Africa.

You get the impression listening to some of these critics that if they can't make their own countries wealthy, they'd be satisfied by ensuring that every other country is mired in the same poverty and misery as they are. And climate change gives them the perfect vehicle to strike a blow against wealthy countries, especially the U.S.

As the wealthiest nation, the U.S. is expected to come up with the biggest contribution to others. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was among several luminaries representing the U.S. during the conference, tried not to disappoint, pledging American help to secure $100 billion in annual financing to poorer countries by 2020. How exactly the U.S. will pay for its share of that pot of gold is unclear.

But even if we give away billions to poor countries, there will still be a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots. And if the have-nots can't close the gap by becoming wealthier, maybe the haves will simply agree to become poorer.

The United States could certainly dramatically cut back on greenhouse gases if we gave up cars, televisions, central heating and air conditioning, computers, and household appliances. We could quit eating meat, grow our own veggies, and make our own clothes. But no elected official in his or her right mind is going to suggest those measures, so instead they suggest what they think are more palatable policies by focusing on businesses and imposing new taxes on carbon emissions. But the effect will ultimately be the same: We'll cut our CO2 emissions by reducing our standard of living.

Are we really ready to do that? And should we be, based on what we know at this moment? I'm old enough to remember when radical environmentalists were warning us of a nuclear winter and a coming Ice Age. And they had plenty of prominent scientists with data to prove it. The common thread in all these predictions of catastrophe was the belief that Man was so powerful — and destructive — we could change climate for the worse all on our own.

Maybe it's time for a little less hubris — especially on the part of the scientific community. We don't have all the answers, and we will never find them if we think we already do.

Linda Chavez is the author of "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal." To find out more about Linda Chavez, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will accept the world's best-known peace prize by explaining what it means to wage war, an incongruity that has weighed on him and that he will take on directly when he receives the Nobel Peace Prize, White House officials say.
The president is dashing to Oslo in an overnight flight, in time to be there for Thursday's award ceremony and banquet, and not much more. His minimalist approach reflects a White House that sees little value in touting an honor for peace just nine days after Obama announced he was sending 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan.
The contrast has been stark for weeks. Obama won the award in early October, just as his review of a revamped war plan was intensifying. He and two speechwriters pivoted attention to the Nobel address the very day after Obama announced he was escalating the U.S. forces in Afghanistan to their highest levels.
So Obama, honored for strengthening international diplomacy, will use his speech to discuss what goes into the decision to expand a war.
The president is also expected to outline his vision of American leadership and emphasize the responsibilities of all nations to advance the cause of peace.
He was considering lots of ideas for the speech and was likely to winnow them and hash out a final draft aboard Air Force One on the flight to Norway, where the peace-award-in-wartime irony hasn't gone unnoticed.
Peace activists in the Norwegian capital plan a 5,000-person anti-war protest on Thursday. Protesters have plastered posters around Oslo featuring the image of Obama from his iconic campaign poster, altered with skepticism to say, "Change?"
Demonstrators plan to gather in sight of Obama's hotel room balcony, where he is expected to wave to a torch-lit procession in his honor, and chant slogans playing on Obama's own slogans, foremost among them: "Change: Stop the War in Afghanistan."
Obama's selection for the award by the Norwegian Nobel Committee was such a stunner that even the White House had no idea it was coming. Obama quickly said he didn't think he deserved it, and that it was really meant to boost a new U.S. approach to world affairs.
The list of Nobel peace laureates over the last 100 years includes transformative figures and giants on the world stage. They include heroes of the president, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, and others he has long admired, such as George Marshall, who launched a postwar recovery plan for Europe.
Obama is writing much of the speech himself. He has been reading the Nobel speeches by past winners to help shape his thinking.
Amid the enormous worldwide reaction to Obama's win, the prevailing response was almost confusion: He won for what, exactly?
The Nobel panel cited Obama's work toward freeing the world of nuclear weapons, combatting global warming, embracing international institutions and leading based on values shared by most of the people around the world. On that front, he was deemed nothing less than "the world's leading spokesman."
But back home in a nation struggling with war and recession, the White House is respectfully but quietly viewing this as a one-speech trip, in and out.
Obama will not do a full-scale news conference or a traditional post-ceremony interview with CNN.
As part of the festivities, Obama will be treated to a torchlit procession and offer remarks at a formal dinner banquet, where he will be joined by Norwegian royalty. Yet Obama leaves Oslo on Friday and will be long gone by the time an elaborate concert featuring celebrity musicians takes place in his honor.
The Obama entourage is not expected to be huge, either.
The president will travel with his wife, Michelle, but likely not their two daughters. Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, and her husband, Konrad, are coming, as are two of Obama's close friends: Eric Whitaker, along with his wife, Cheryl; and Marty Nesbitt with his wife, Anita.

The Nobel honor comes with a $1.4 million prize. The White House says Obama will give that to charities but that he has not yet decided which ones.

__

Associated Press writer Ian MacDougall in Oslo contributed to this story.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africans say a new Hollywood film about sport, race and Nelson Mandela will tell the world about the country's history of struggle and triumph despite some criticism that the lead roles are played by American actors.
Clint Eastwood's "Invictus" depicts Mandela, South Africa's first black president, as a strategist for racial reconciliation, working to bring whites and blacks together after the end of apartheid by supporting the country's mostly white national rugby team.
Mandela, once reviled by many whites who saw him as a terrorist, strode onto the field after South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup final wearing a national team shirt and earned rapturous cheers from a crowd dominated by whites.
Chester Williams, the only black member of South Africa's 1995 championship rugby team, hopes the nation will come together for next year's football World Cup as it did 15 years ago.
The movie is "a great opportunity for everyone, not only in South Africa but the rest of the world, to see what Nelson Mandela has done for the country," Williams, who helped coach the actors during the shooting of the movie in South Africa, told The Associated Press Wednesday.
Most South Africans won't see "Invictus" until its general release Thursday, but the movie already has made headlines and dominated talk show radio.
It has not been universally embraced, with some complaining that South Africans should be starring in their own stories. Mandela is portrayed by Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon plays the rugby team captain. But South Africans have key roles, including Patrick Mofokeng as Mandela's chief bodyguard.
Mofokeng endorsed Freeman, saying at Tuesday's premiere in Johannesburg: "He was made to play the role. I think he is Nelson Mandela."
Acclaimed South African actor John Kani, who is not in the movie, told the AP he understood international movies needed big stars like Freeman to draw investors and audiences. But Kani was worried South Africans would never get a chance to claim "bankable" status if producers and the government did not try to develop and showcase local talent.
Still, Kani said movies like "Invictus" had broader benefits, telling the world South Africa's inspiring story.
In many ways, though, South Africa remains racially divided. Blacks denied education and opportunity for generations under apartheid remain in impoverished townships on the outskirts of cities where the best neighborhoods remain largely white.
Some blacks complain Mandela spent too much time on racial reconciliation and too little on economic development or fighting AIDS. Black critics say whites did little in response to gestures Mandela made, such as donning the rugby shirt or visiting a white separatist enclave to have tea with the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid.
Sport, too, has not overcome the past. Attempts to reach out to black fans and players have repeatedly run up against rugby's legacy of racism, and black fans have been attacked at rugby stadiums.
Football is seen as the sport of blacks, and excitement over South Africa becoming the first African nation to host a football World Cup has been tempered by charges from some blacks that white South Africans didn't support the bid and won't go to the games.
"We're still living the change, we're still living the transition," said Oregan Hoskins, president of the South African Rugby Union.
Hoskins said in an interview that Mandela's bodyguards feared he was risking his life when he went to a rugby stadium full of white fans. He said that he did not know before reading the book by British journalist John Carlin that "Invictus" is based upon how much planning and force of will went into that moment in 1995.
Hoskins said even more people will learn by watching the film of "the stature of the man, determined to go in there and make it work, determined to make it successful, to make his country successful."

BERN, Switzerland – Roman Polanski will be held in jail at least three more days because he needs more time to pay his $4.5 million bail, Swiss authorities said Tuesday.
All other conditions have been satisfied for the 76-year-old director's house arrest at his Alpine chalet, and the bail transfer is expected in the next couple of days, Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said.
Once fitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet, Polanski will not be allowed to leave his house in Gstaad while Switzerland decides whether to extradite him to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
Polanski will need to pay the $4.5 million in full, according to Swiss standards that differ from other countries such as the United States where bail bondsmen often post a percentage of the total.
Polanski has been in Swiss custody since being arrested Sept. 26 on a U.S. warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles want him returned to be sentenced after 31 years as a fugitive.
The director of such film classics as "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was being held at a jail in Winterthur, near Zurich, where he was visited Monday by his lawyer Lorenz Erni and French diplomat Jean-Luc Faure-Tournaire.
Faure-Tournaire said Polanski was in "good spirits" and pleased with how he has been treated.
It was unclear when Polanski's wife and two children would join him in Gstaad. His sister-in-law, Mathilde Seigner, told the Le Parisien newspaper that his family usually goes to the chalet around Christmas and plans to meet there again this year.
Polanski was initially accused of raping the 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977. He was indicted on six felony counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molestation and sodomy, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.
In exchange, the judge agreed to drop the remaining charges and sent him to prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation. The evaluator released Polanski after 42 days, but the judge said he was going to send him back to serve out the 90 days.
The filmmaker fled the U.S. on Feb. 1, 1978, the day he was to be formally sentenced. He has lived since then in France, which does not extradite its citizens.
Polanski claims that the U.S. judge and prosecutors acted improperly in his case. His attorneys will argue before a California appeals court in December that the charges should be dismissed.

MIAMI (Reuters) –
A disbarred Florida lawyer accused by the FBI of running a $1 billion investment scam is expected to be arrested Tuesday on racketeering conspiracy charges, The Miami Herald reported.

Scott Rothstein, who fled to Morocco in late October but returned to Florida in early November, is expected to appear before a federal magistrate in Fort Lauderdale to face the charges, the newspaper said in its online edition.

It cited unidentified sources familiar with the case.

Rothstein has not directly addressed the accusations, though he has said previously that he would do all in his power "to make sure that every single penny is recovered" for those who invested with him. He has not said how that would happen.

Prosecutors are using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act to charge Rothstein and possibly others, the newspaper said. The conspiracy law is often used to prosecute members of organized crime, drug lords and others accused of running criminal enterprises.

Rothstein, who was disbarred last week by the Florida Supreme Court, is accused of mail, wire and bank fraud, along with money laundering, the Herald said. He faces at least 20 years in prison and forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits if convicted.

The FBI said in November that Rothstein, 47, was suspected of running an elaborate Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $1 billion.

Court documents said he had been selling nonexistent legal settlements to unsuspecting investors since at least 2005, using new investor money to pay previous investors in the classic Ponzi scheme model.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents raided his Fort Lauderdale law office and seized his waterfront home, yacht and other assets in Florida and elsewhere.

The Herald said federal prosecutors would ask a grand jury to consider criminal charges against Rothstein's alleged co-conspirators, possibly including former employees of his now-defunct firm.

Rothstein, a frequent contributor to political campaigns who was often photographed with politicians, had a lavish lifestyle with opulent homes and a fleet of foreign sports cars. He used his connections and charm to lure wealthy friends and patrons to invest with him.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton; Editing by Paul Simao)

Current issues and debates surrounding disability include social and political rights, social inclusion and citizenship. In developed countries, the debate has moved beyond a concern about the perceived cost of maintaining dependent people with disabilities to an effort of finding effective ways to ensure that people with disabilities can participate in and contribute to society in all spheres of life.

The disability rights movement, led by individuals with disabilities, began in the 1970s. This self-advocacy is often seen as largely responsible for the shift toward independent living and accessibility. The term "Independent Living" was taken from 1959 California legislation which enabled people who had acquired a disability due to polio to leave hospital wards and move back into the community with the help of cash benefits for the purchase of personal assistance with the activities of daily living. With its origins in the U.S. civil rights and consumer movements of the late 1960s, the movement and its philosophy have since spread to other continents influencing self-perception, organization and social policy.

Walk In Tubs

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Tiger Woods still isn't talking. Now he's not playing, either. Woods withdrew Monday from his own golf tournament, citing injuries from a car crash near his Florida home. His decision comes as questions continue to mount regarding what exactly happened in the wee hours of the morning last Friday — questions that most certainly would have been asked of him had he played.
The world's No. 1 golfer posted a statement on his Web site saying that unspecified injuries prevented him from playing in the Chevron World Challenge. He had been scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday for the tournament, which he hosts annually for a small, invited, field.
"I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week," Woods said. "I am certain it will be an outstanding event and I'm very sorry that I can't be there."
Tournament officials said fans who bought advance tickets with the hope of seeing Woods could get refunds beginning next week. Those who keep their tickets will get a 20 percent discount when they buy them next year.
Woods sustained cuts and bruises when he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and a tree at 2:25 a.m., outside his home in an exclusive, gated community near Orlando. He was treated and released from a hospital, and has not been seen in public since.
By skipping the tournament, Woods will escape having to face TV cameras and a horde of media seeking more details about the smashup. The tournament was to be the last of the year for Woods anyway, and he did not say when or where he would make his return next year.
The first tournament of the 2010 PGA Tour is the SBS Championship in Hawaii, an event for winners from the previous year, beginning Jan. 7, but Woods wasn't expected to be there. He's more likely to play at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif., the week of Jan. 25.
Woods released a statement Sunday saying the accident was his fault and asked that it remain "a private matter." But with the Florida Highway Patrol still investigating and the media in full pursuit, Woods may not get his way.
Woods even faced questions from fans who left comments on his Web site. Most voiced support for him, but some said he should address the questions about his own actions and those of his wife, Elin Nordegren, before and after the accident.
Woods hasn't answered questions from Florida troopers, either, turning them down three days in a row when they came to his house.
Four cars were parked in Woods' driveway Monday, but no lights appeared to be on inside. A new fire hydrant had already replaced the one that Woods plowed into. A dirt hole and an orange barricade remained in the old hydrant's place.
A woman at the address listed on a FHP news release as the scene of the crash, told the Orlando Sentinel that her husband didn't call emergency responders, but that someone else in the house did. The tape of the call was released Sunday.
The Associated Press called the home of Linda and Jerome Adams on Monday morning and asked to speak with the Adams' son. The woman who answered the telephone told a reporter to call back later in the day. When the AP called back Monday evening, attorney Bill Sharpe answered and said he was representing the family. He said there was no comment at this time, but said a statement might be made Tuesday.
Woods, who both hosts and plays in the Chevron World Challenge, was there last year even though he couldn't play because he was recovering from knee surgery. His absence this year will be the first since the tournament — which has only an 18-player field — began in 1999. He was replaced by Graeme McDowell.
Though he cited injuries from the accident in withdrawing, Woods didn't specifically say what those injuries included. The neighbor, who called 911 after Woods ran over the hydrant and hit a tree, said he was unconscious and laying outside his SUV. His wife told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to help him out.
"This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way," Woods said in a statement Sunday, his first since the crash. "Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible. ...
"I appreciate all the concern and well wishes that we have received," he said. "But, I would also ask for some understanding that my family and I deserve some privacy no matter how intrusive some people can be."
The reference to "false, unfounded and malicious rumors" may have involved a story published last week in the National Enquirer alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess, and that they recently were together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.

The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press. On Sunday, she flew to Los Angeles and was met by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred at the airport.

Still, even the release of the 911 tape and Woods' statement failed to answer several basic questions about the accident:

• Where he was going at that time of the night?

• How did he lose control of his SUV when it wasn't going fast enough to deploy airbags?

• Why were both rear windows of the Cadillac Escalade smashed?

• If it was a careless mistake, why not speak to state troopers trying to wrap the investigation?