Scarlett Johansson Stuns At New York Premiere Of 'Don Jon'

It's good to be Scarlett Johansson, if red carpet photos from Thursday night's New York premiere of "Don Jon," the directorial debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, mean anything. The newly engaged actress was positively glowing as she posed in a sea-green dress and nude platform stilettos, and wore her hair swept back in a high ponytail. Her engagement ring was also on full display as she smiled for cameras.

Johansson stars alongside Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza in a film about a man who is addicted to porn.

Earlier this week, the 28-year-old star spoke out about her engagement to French journalist Romain Dauriac, whom she had been dating since at least November 2012. "My friend was like 'congrats on timing,'" she told "ET Canada," in reference to the added publicity while touring for a movie. "Things work out the way they do. Maybe it's better just to get it out the way."

Julianne Hough's Stylish Shorts Make Yet Another Appearance

Aside from Miley Cyrus, Julianne Hough is the queen of short shorts.The stylish star rocked another pair of cutoff shorts while out and about in New York City yesterday (Sept. 13). Donning a colorful scarf, sandals and a hobo bag, Hough looked carefree and fashionable as she made her way down the street.

The 25-year-old dancer-turned-actress was in town for fashion week, but also attended the Estee Lauder Modern Muse Fragrance Launch Party on Sept. 12, where she wore a sheer white dress.

"My style has completely evolved from when I was first on 'Dancing with the Stars.' I can actually see the real color of my skin now," Hough recently told ET Online of her changing style. "I think it was a lot more glitz and glamour and costume, and I think now I'm trying to be a little bit more natural and understated -- but still fun -- but definitely a bit more everyday. I don't think I could walk down the street with some ballroom shoes on, and a little glitzy outfit, and feel comfortable. I think this is way more me now." THIS probably meaning short shorts and t-shirts.

John Kerry Warns Syria: 'Threat Of Force Is Real' If Chemical Weapons Deal Not Followed

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday sent a strong warning to Syria, saying 'the threat of force is real' if it does not carry out an internationally brokered agreement to hand over its chemical weapons.

Kerry issued the warning during a stop in Jerusalem, where he briefed jittery Israeli leaders on the new U.S.-Russian plan to rid neighboring Syria of its chemical weapons by the middle of next year. In comments aimed at his hosts, Kerry said the deal also served as a "marker" for the international community as it deals with Iran's suspect nuclear program.

"We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs," Kerry said.

The U.S. has been formulating its response to an alleged chemical attack carried out by Syrian forces that killed hundreds of civilians last month. "These are crimes against humanity and they cannot be tolerated," Kerry warned.

In a deal meant to avert a threatened U.S. military strike, U.S. and Russian officials reached an ambitious agreement over the weekend calling for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons program within one week. All components of Syria's chemical weapons program are to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014. The Syrian government has yet to issue an official statement on the agreement.

The deal was greeted with cautious optimism in Israel, where leaders expressed satisfaction that Syria, a bitter enemy, could be stripped of dangerous weapons but also pessimism about whether Syrian President Bashar Assad will comply.
Israel has repeatedly voiced concern that Assad, locked in a two-year-old civil war, may fire his chemical weapons at Israel in a bout of desperation or that the weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah or other hostile groups fighting in the Syrian civil war.

Perhaps more critically, the Israelis also fear that a tepid international response to Syria could encourage Iran to press forward with what is widely believed to be a nuclear weapons program. Iran denies its nuclear program has a military purpose and says it is pursuing peaceful applications like cancer treatment and power generation.

Standing alongside Kerry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the U.S.-Russia deal and stressed his belief that it would have deep repercussions on Iran, Syria's close ally.

"The world needs to ensure that radical regimes don't have weapons of mass destruction because as we have learned in Syria if rogue regimes have weapons of mass destruction they will use them," Netanyahu said.

"The determination the international community shows regarding Syria will have a direct impact on the Syrian regime's patron Iran. Iran must understand the consequences of its continued defiance of the international community by its pursuit toward nuclear weapons," he added.

He said the deal proved that "if diplomacy has any chance to work, it must be coupled with a credible military threat."

With a nod toward these Israeli concerns, Kerry stressed that the deal with Russia was merely a "framework," and much would depend on Syria.

"The threat of force is real and the Assad regime and all those taking part need to understand that President Obama and the United States are committed to achieve this goal," Kerry said.

He also said the agreement, if successful, "will have set a marker for the standard of behavior with respect to Iran and with respect North Korea and any rogue state, (or) group that tries to reach for these kind of weapons."

Ahead of Kerry's arrival, some Israeli politicians voiced skepticism, saying Assad cannot be trusted.

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said the plan was more "substantive" than earlier proposals, but warned the agreement's deadline was not speedy enough and Assad could try to hide weapons.

"We know Assad. All kinds of things could happen," he said, adding that an agreement on chemical weapons should not absolve Assad of punishment for the acts he has committed against the Syrian people.

Avigdor Lieberman, chair of parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, told Army Radio that Israel would compare its own intelligence assessments of Syria's weapons to the inventory Syria submits, which the plan requires him to do in a week.

"After we see the list of what Assad has handed over in a week, we can know if his intentions are serious of if it is just deception," Lieberman said.

After their news conference, Kerry departed for Paris where he was to discuss the Syria plan with his French, British, Turkish and Saudi counterparts on Monday.

Music's Biggest Jokes

So here we are: April Fools' Day is upon us. The day where countless "funny" people pull your seat out from under you, tell you that you're fired and joke about being pregnant. Here at HuffPost Entertainment, we'd rather not pull some flashy prank on you. But April Fools' Day is also a time for humor and letting off steam, a time where everything normal pauses and some honest, all-in-good-fun straight talk takes center stage. On that note, the following collection of musicians have earned the dubious honor of landing on our list of Music's Biggest Jokes. Keep in mind that these folks aren't meant to represent all that's wrong in the music business; nor are they meant to be taken as the worst musicians of all time. But for the reasons enunciated in the text accompanying their photos, they do seem to have taken things a step too far.

Avoid These 6 Brunch Mistakes

As many of us celebrate Easter with a festive brunch, we may find ourselves staring down a monster buffet table. What should you grab? When is it okay to indulge and what constitutes a major diet setback? We asked our favorite nutrition experts to outline their absolute brunching don'ts as we head into the holiday.What's your strategy for eating healthfully at brunch? Tell us in the comments!

1. Brunching In The First Place

"Honestly, the biggest mistake is going to brunches at all," says Ruth Frechman, M.A., R.D., C.P.T. "It’s calorie suicide. Typically, brunches are expensive. Most people want to get their money's worth. They could easily consume 4,000 calories in one meal. The average person only needs 2,000 calories for the entire day."

2. Choosing Sweet Over Savory

This is the central question of brunch: Do you go sweet or savory? Pancakes or eggs? Now we have an answer: savory (but not too salty!).

"My number one brunch don't would be dishes that are practically made of pure carbs like pancakes or waffles. Because these are digested so quickly they're guaranteed to make your blood sugar spike and then plummet," says Karen Ansel, R.D. "While you might feel fine for a while you're inevitably going to get that carb coma feeling a couple of hours later. Adding sugary maple syrup to these only adds insult to injury. Instead pick something that's more balanced with a combination of protein, complex carbs (preferably from whole grains) and some healthy fat like huevos rancheros with avocado."
3. Confusing Brunch and Breakfast

"One of the biggest mistakes people make, they do before they even get to brunch. And that's not eating anything at all," says Rachel Begun, M.S., R.D., registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "You need calories to burn calories, meaning you need to eat food to get the metabolism going. If you wait until late morning or early afternoon to eat something, your metabolism is sluggish and not operating at maximum capacity. Plus, going to brunch starving is a recipe for overeating."

Joy Dubost, Ph.D R.D. C.S.S.D. agrees: "We may think because we are combining two meals we can [eat more]," she says. "But if you are not careful on choices and portion-size, brunch can quickly exceed calories consumed in two separate meals."Instead, try to have a healthful snack in the morning before you head out the door -- something that combines fiber and protein, like low-fat cheese with an apple or yogurt with berries and slivered almonds.

4. Ordering From The Drink Menu

Alcoholic brunch drinks like bloody marys and "adult" coffee drinks are an easy way to go overboard on the calories without even realizing it. "Consuming multiple beverages, particularly those that are higher in calories, can end up being a high calorie meal on its own," explains Dubost. "I would recommend keeping it to one 12-ounce beverage. For lighter options you may want to choose mimosas or wine spritzers."

5. Beware Customizable Options

We're looking at you, omelet bar. The egg base might be just fine, but add enough meats and cheeses and you've got a calorie bomb on your hands."Many dishes can be higher in calories because we load them with numerous ingredients," says Dubost. "Try to keep it more basic or include various flavorful vegetables."

6. Thinking About Calories, Fat ... But Not Sodium

Between the bloody mary mix, hollandaise sauce and hash browns, brunch can amount to a salt lick. And while you might choose egg whites for your omelet and salad on the side, it won't do much to lower the sodium of your meal. That means you can easily surpass the government's daily recommendation of 2,300 mg within a matter of bites.

No Link Between 'Too Many Vaccines' And Autism Risk

Despite concerns by some parents that their children receive “too many vaccines too soon,” a new study finds that many shots, even on the same day, do not increase the risk of autism. In the first six months of life, children receive as many as 19 vaccine doses of six different vaccines, and by the time they are 6 years old, a total of 25 doses from 10 vaccines. In a 2011 survey, about a third of parents expressed concerns that their child received too many vaccines before age 2, and too many vaccines on a single day. Previous studies have found no link between the number of vaccines a child receives and their risk of several neurological conditions (though these studies did not specifically consider autism). The new study went a step further by looking at the link between a child's total exposure to antigens — the proteins in vaccines that stimulate the body's immune system — and his or her risk of autism. The researchers looked at total antigen exposure rather than the total number of vaccines kids received because, at the root of parents' concerns is the idea that "somehow they provide too much immunological stimulation, more so than a young child's immune system can handle," said study researcher Dr. Frank DeStefano, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

DeStefano and colleagues analyzed information from about 250 children with autism and 750 children without autism, born between 1994 and 1999. Children with autism were exposed to about same total number of antigens as children without autism at ages 3 months, 7 months and 2 years. There was also no difference between the two groups in terms of the total number of antigens they were exposed to on a single day. "Parental concerns that their children are receiving too many vaccines in the first two years of life, or too many vaccines at a single doctor visit are not supported in terms of an increased risk of autism," the researchers write in the March 29 issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. Kids are exposed to many viruses and other pathogens that stimulate their immune systems in the same way vaccines do, and it's been estimated that kids could theoretically receive thousands of vaccines at once, the researchers said. Although children today receive more vaccines than children in the mid-90s, the vaccines used today contain fewer antigens. So while children in the mid-90s were exposed to between 3,000 and 15,250 antigens in the first two years of life, children today are exposed to about 315 antigens, the researchers said. Pass it on: The multiple vaccine doses kids receive early in life do not increase their risk of autism.

Could A Breath Test Predict Heart Failure?

Breathalyzers may soon do a lot more than earn motorists a ticket for drunk driving: they could one day predict and diagnose a wide range of health problems, including heart failure and obesity. In a paper published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Raed Dweik, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, detailed how and his colleagues successfully detected heart failure in patients using breath analysis. "We were actually very surprised by the finding," said Dr. Dweik, who has studied breath testing extensively. He and his team had at first included heart failure patients as a control group for a study analyzing the breath of patients with kidney failure. Then they realized the heart failure patients had their own unique "breathprint." A finding like this is what makes this particular field of research, which in some ways is still in its infancy, so exciting, Dweik said. More from Everyday Health: Cold Sores Could Signal Later Memory Problems, Study Finds Childhood Activity May Prevent Later Bone Problems Putting Cancer Screening to the Test "Breath testing, one can argue, is as old as medicine itself, even though we don't think of it that way," said Dweik.

"A long time ago, physicians noticed that people with certain diseases, like diabetes, kidney failure, or liver failure, have a different smell to their breath. We knew this, but we didn't have a way to test it." In the last 10 to 20 years, Dweik added, more sensitive technology has allowed scientists to detect specific particles in the breath. These particles have led researchers to identify a number of serious health problems using breath, from digestive issues to colon cancer and even tuberculosis. And the research continues. A study published today in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that breath tests might be able to identify people who are more likely to develop obesity by detecting a combination of gases that signals a specific microorganism living in the gut. For the study, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles analyzed the breath of 792 participants and found that those with high concentrations of the gases methane and hydrogen had significantly higher body mass indexes (BMIs) and higher percentages of body fat than those whose breath had the normal mix of gases or a high concentration of either methane or hydrogen alone.

Elevated concentrations of methane and hydrogen together can be traced back to what's happening in the gut, according to the researchers. Methane is associated with a microorganism called Methanobrevibacter smithii, or M. smithii. Too much M. smithii, according to the researchers, makes weight gain more likely. "Usually, the microorganisms living in the digestive tract benefit us by helping convert food into energy," said the study's lead author, Ruchi Mathur, MD, in a release from Cedars-Sinai, where he is the director of the Diabetes Outpatient Treatment and Education Center in the Division of Endocrinology. "However, when this particular organism -- M. smithii -- becomes overabundant, it may alter this balance in a way that causes someone to be more likely to gain weight," Mathur said. Excess M. smithii sets off a reaction that makes a person store more calories from the food they eat, causing them to gain weight. The Cedars-Sinai study is the first to make a connection between gas production and body weight, potentially identifying people prone to obesity via their breath. Not all breath tests can be used predictively just yet, said Dweik, but that is the hope. "These studies you're hearing about are the basis for the future, what we call point-of-care, with testing in the office or clinic and eventually at home," he said. "People would have said that was impossible a few years ago."

Ex-Surgeon General Joins Electronic Cigarette Board

Former U.S. surgeon general Dr. Richard Carmona, who highlighted the dangers of secondhand smoke and supported a ban on all tobacco products, is joining the board of directors for NJOY Inc., the nation's leading electronic cigarette company – a move that could bring increased legitimacy to e-cigarettes as a viable alternative to traditional cigarettes. The country's senior public health official under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2006 will advise the Arizona-based company on public health and regulatory issues. He'll also spearhead its research of the battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution and create vapor that users inhale. The private company's flagship NJOY KING product is the top-selling e-cigarette. The 63-year-old Carmona serves as president of the health and wellness nonprofit Canyon Ranch Institute in Tucson and is a public health professor at the University of Arizona. In 2006, he published a comprehensive report that concluded that breathing any amount of someone else's tobacco smoke harms nonsmokers and was instrumental in smoking bans around the country.

And in testimony to a Congressional committee in 2003, Carmona was critical about the possibility of safer tobacco alternatives to smoking. "Definitely there's an argument that can be made for harm reduction, but clearly more research needs to be done," Carmona said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm probably going to be (the company's) biggest critic. ... I still look at my job as being a doctor of the people and I'm going to look at the science. ... If we can find a viable alternative that gave us harm reduction as people are withdrawing from nicotine, I'm happy to engage in that science and see if we can do that." There are two approaches to regulating tobacco use: one that says there's no safe way to use tobacco and pushes for people to quit above all else. The other supports lower-risk alternatives like smokeless tobacco and other nicotine delivery systems like gum or even electronic cigarettes as methods to improve overall health. Devotees insist e-cigarettes address both the addictive and behavioral aspects of smoking. Smokers get their nicotine without the more than 4,000 chemicals found in regular cigarettes.

And they get to hold a cigarette, while puffing and exhaling something that looks like smoke. More than 45 million Americans smoke cigarettes, and about half of smokers try to quit each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "When he comes on board, it's very hard for anti-tobacco people who see themselves as health campaigners to simply oppose e-cigarettes. They have to deal with the fact that one of the leaders of their community not only is supporting e-cigarettes but is willing to be on the board of directors of the biggest e-cigarette company," said David Sweanor, a Canadian law professor and tobacco expert who consults with companies and others on industry issues. In an interview with the AP, NJOY's CEO Craig Weiss said the addition to Carmona to its board is a "very powerful step forward" in its mission to "obsolete cigarettes."

The Solution To Those Stress-Induced Gut Problems? Probiotics

Probiotics could counteract the negative effects of stress on the gut, according to a new study in mice. Researchers from the University of Michigan found that stress can wreak havoc on the gut by inducing inflammation (which can lead to issues like diarrhea and belly pain, and make disorders like irritable bowel syndrome worse) because of its suppressive effect on inflammasomes. Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes that play a vital role in the body's innate immune system. But researchers also found that giving mice probiotics seemed to reverse stress's effects on inflammasome. Probiotics are live bacteria that are known to aid in the digestive process. "This study reveals an important mechanism for explaining why treating IBS patients with probiotics makes sense," study researcher Dr. John Y. Kao, M.D., an associate professor of internal medicine at the university, said in a statement. The findings are published in the journal Gastroenterology. Aside from aiding in digestive health, past research has also suggested that probiotics could play a role in improving bone density in mice. For more ways probiotics can aid health, click through the slideshow:

Avoid These 5 Breakfast Mistakes

News Health
Many of my patients admit to skipping breakfast with this excuse: Whenever they eat in the mornings, they wind up feeling much hungrier than if they hadn't eaten at all. Sound familiar? My nutrition intuition tells me that they're not feeling hungry because they ate breakfast, but rather, because they ate the wrong breakfast. In my years working with patients, I've found that for some people with good intentions, there seems to be a disconnect with what they consider a healthy breakfast.

Not Enough Protein
Many of my patients have a bowl of cereal with milk for their breakfasts. Seems like a good choice, right? Yes, one cup of milk provides eight grams of protein, but think about it: How often do slurp down all the milk that accompanies our cereal? Not often, I would guess. Protein digests more slowly than carbohydrates, so without ample amounts, you'll be hungry sooner rather than later. If you don't want to drink the milk from the bowl, add a hard-boiled egg to your meal for extra protein. You can also consume protein via 100 percent whole-grain toast, and when you do, don't top it with just a tiny smear of peanut or almond butter. Enjoy the full serving of nut butter with your toast to get more protein.

Too Little Fiber
The more sugar in your breakfast cereal, the faster it digests, and the hungrier you'll be. Conversely, more fiber will keep you fuller longer. So, here's my rule of thumb for cereal: There should always be at least five grams of fiber, and there should always be more fiber than sugar. For extra fiber, add chia or flax seeds. If you choose the latter, make sure to grind the seeds first, or else you won't absorb their nutritional benefits.

No Fat
A meal with no fat can make you hungry again within an hour. Let's look at the supposed healthy breakfast of non-fat Greek yogurt, high-fiber cereal and berries. Where's the fat? I tell my patients to either switch to 2 percent-fat yogurt or to add some nuts to prevent feeling hungry. However, whenever I mention adding fat, I want to drive home the point that more isn't better. A little fat goes a long way.

Scary Stat About Most Toddler Foods

More than 70 percent of the packaged foods parents feed their kids have too much salt in them, according to the first major study to look at the sodium content in baby and toddler foods sold in the United States."We know that children are consuming too much sodium," said Joyce Maalouf, the study's lead author. "This is a problem because too much sodium in a child’s diet can lead to high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke."

Hypertension was once considered a condition that affected only middle-age or older adults, but estimates suggest that 1 out of every 20 children has higher-than-normal blood pressure (fewer than 1 in 100 has medically significant hypertension). High blood pressure is closely tied to obesity, which now affects 17 percent of children in the U.S. -- three times the rate of the last generation.The American Heart Association recommends that children consume less than 1,500 mg per day of sodium. But some of the toddler meals researchers analyzed had 630 mg per serving -- almost half of that daily recommendation. And more than 70 percent of the toddler meals and snacks exceeded 210 mg of sodium per serving, which is the benchmark researchers used to label something high in sodium or not. The findings were presented at an American Heart Association conference in New Orleans Thursday.

News about baby food was better. Almost all commercial foods for 4- to 12-month-olds were relatively low in sodium. In general, vegetable and meat baby foods tended to be less salty than pasta options, which Kristi King, a registered dietitian nutritionist who did not work on the new study said is not particularly surprising."The pastas were higher in sodium because they're carbohydrates and they're a wheat-based product -- sodium is needed to make that pasta," she said. "Compared to the veggies, they're a little bit higher, but not significantly."For the study, packaged foods, such as macaroni and cheese, pasta, pizza, chicken or turkey and rice, targeting children age 1 and up were considered "toddler meals." The researchers also analyzed the sodium content of savory snacks, including flavored crackers, puffs and rice cakes, as well as fruit snacks, cereal bars, sweets, dairy products and juices.

7 Ways Your Garage Is Totally Stressing You Out

We've been waiting all winter to get our garage in order. (Hey -- it's pretty chilly in there!) So for months we've been ignoring the space's issues that await us every time we get in or out of the car: the clutter, dingy walls and overall gloominess. These "little problems" can add up to a lot of anxiety. But luckily, we've come up with seven easy solutions to the most stressful things in your garage. And while the area may never become a soothing oasis, it can definitely be a neat, tidy room that doesn't make you dread coming home. Click through our slideshow to see our tips. And be sure to check out our easy ways to de-stress your living room, kitchen and even your laundry room.

10 Best Spring Foods For Health

We look forward to spring because it marks the end of cold weather and the beginning of new life. And if you're anything like us, you look forward to the season's best foods -- fiddlehead ferns and ramps, pea shoots and microgreens. But these young, green foods aren't just delicious and unusual, they also may have a unique nutritional benefit: a density of phytonutrients that makes them particularly healthful. Phytonutrients in plants are developed for the protection of the plant, explains Melina Jampolis, M.D., a medical nutritionist. For example, consider the pinot noir grape: it is most delicate and so wine made from the pinot noir grape has the highest levels of reservetrol.

"My theory -- and this is just a theory -- is that consuming these foods in their immature state may mean higher levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients," Jampolis says. "It all goes back to nutrient density: there's not a lot of empty space in younger plants." But sprouts and shoots aren't the only healthful foods of the season. Consider eggs -- triggered by longer daylight, birds begin their heavy laying season as spring arrives. And eggs have a unique nutritional profile all their own -- and certainly different than bird meat. The yolk, for example, contains the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin and the phytonutrient biotin, which are all heart-protective. What's more, the quality of egg protein is considered the gold standard in terms of measuring the quality of all other protein sources. That's because the amino acids that comprise egg protein are the most digestible and the most easily absorbed by the body, according to Jampolis. Spring is also the beginning of berry season -- little nutrient powerhouses full of cancer and heart disease-fighting antioxidants.

Gwyneth Paltrow Miscarriage: Actress Reveals Her Devastation After Losing Third Child

Gwyneth Paltrow is opening up about a heartbreaking time in her life. In a candid interview with the Mail on Sunday’s You magazine today (March 17), the 40-year-old actress reveals that she experienced a miscarriage while pregnant with her third child. Paltrow, who has two children -- daughter Apple, 8, and son Moses, 6, -- with husband Chris Martin, confesses that she "nearly died" after losing the baby. "My children ask me to have a baby all the time. And you never know, I could squeeze one more in. I am missing my third. I’m thinking about it," Paltrow explains, continuing, "But I had a really bad experience when I was pregnant with my third. It didn’t work out and I nearly died. So I am like, 'Are we good here or should we go back and try again?'" One thing is for certain -- new parents and Paltrow's pals Jay-Z and Beyonce have made her reconsider getting pregnant again. "Their baby Blue Ivy is totally delish," she gushes. "She’s made me very broody." The "Iron Man 3" star has been honest about adding to her brood, recently confessing that she thought about having another child when her son Moses was younger. "My brain says, 'Oh, I think I'm done, the kids are so big now, and I don't want to go back to changing diapers,'" she told the October issue of InStyle magazine. "But a part of me would love to have another. Of course, I'm old now!"

Food Addiction Label Increases Stigma For Obese Individuals Study Finds

The stigma attached to food addiction is not as strong as the stigma attached to other addictions such as alcoholism or drug abuse, according to a new study -- unless you're obese. New research out of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, published in the February 2013 issue of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, indicates that public feelings about food addiction are relatively benevolent when the sufferer is not obese. Researchers Jenny DePierre, Rebecca Puhl and Joerg Luedicke conducted two separate studies to gauge the social stigma surrounding food addiction. In the first study, 659 participants took an online survey where they were asked to imagine encounters with people each labeled with one of the following conditions: cocaine addict, mentally ill, smoker, physically disabled, obese, obese food addict, obese physically disabled, and food addict.

The researchers presented the labelled individuals in a random order, and participants answered questions about their feelings towards individuals branded with each label. The participants also indicated how likely they would be to socially interact with each labelled individual, the amount of sympathy or concern they felt towards each, the amount of anger or disgust they felt towards them, and how responsible they thought each person was for his or her target label. The results indicated that the health condition label "cocaine addict" received the highest (worst) social stigma ratings, and the "physically disabled" label received the lowest stigma rating, meaning it was the least stigmatized. Food addicts fell in the middle, carrying less stigma than other addictions like smoking and alcoholism -- except when the food addicts were also obese. In that case, the stigma was higher than it was for smoking or alcoholism.

Also, the researchers wrote, "The obese food addict received significantly higher ratings of anger/disgust and social distance than either obese or food addict labels, indicative of an additive stigmatizing effect." In the second study, researchers looked at the stigma the food addiction label carries compared only to alcoholism and smoking labels, because "food, alcohol and tobacco are all legal and readily available substances." Five hundred and seventy participants were randomly assigned to one of six possible conditions, where they were asked to read a vignette about a thin alcoholic, obese alcoholic, thin smoker, obese smoker, thin food addict or obese food addict, view an image of that individual, and answer questions about them. Results showed that the participants found both the thin and obese food addicts more likable and less responsible for their condition than the smoker or the alcoholic. Together the results of the two studies showed that although food addiction in itself is less stigmatized than smoking, alcoholism, or drugs, an obese food addict is viewed much more negatively than a thin one.

Census: Record 1 In 3 Counties Now Dying Off Hit By Aging Population Weakened Local Economies

A record number of U.S. counties – more than 1 in 3 – are now dying off, hit by an aging population and weakened local economies that are spurring young adults to seek jobs and build families elsewhere. New 2012 census estimates released Thursday highlight the population shifts as the U.S. encounters its most sluggish growth levels since the Great Depression. The findings also reflect the increasing economic importance of foreign-born residents as the U.S. ponders an overhaul of a major 1965 federal immigration law. Without new immigrants, many metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis would have posted flat or negative population growth in the last year. "Immigrants are innovators, entrepreneurs, they're making things happen. They create jobs," said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, at an immigration conference in his state last week. Saying Michigan should be a top destination for legal immigrants to come and boost Detroit and other struggling areas, Snyder made a special appeal: "Please come here." The growing attention on immigrants is coming mostly from areas of the Midwest and Northeast, which are seeing many of their residents leave after years of staying put during the downturn.

With a slowly improving U.S. economy, young adults are now back on the move, departing traditional big cities to test the job market mostly in the South and West, which had sustained the biggest hits in the housing bust. Also seeing big declines now are rural and exurban areas, along with industrial sections of the Rust Belt. Census data show that 1,135 of the nation's 3,143 counties are now experiencing "natural decrease," where deaths exceed births. That's up from roughly 880 U.S. counties, or 1 in 4, in 2009. Already apparent in Japan and many European nations, natural decrease is now increasingly evident in large swaths of the U.S. Despite increasing deaths, the U.S. population as a whole continues to grow, boosted by immigration from abroad and relatively higher births among the mostly younger migrants from Mexico, Latin America and Asia. "These counties are in a pretty steep downward spiral," said Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer and sociology professor at the University of New Hampshire, who researched the findings. "The young people leave and the older adults stay in place and age. Unless something dramatic changes – for instance, new development such as a meatpacking plant to attract young Hispanics – these areas are likely to have more and more natural decrease." The areas of natural decrease stretch from industrial areas near Pittsburgh and Cleveland to the vineyards outside San Francisco to the rural areas of east Texas and the Great Plains. A common theme is a waning local economy, such as farming, mining or industrial areas.

They also include some retirement communities in Florida, although many are cushioned by a steady flow of new retirees each year. In the last year, Maine joined West Virginia as the only two entire states where deaths exceed births, which have dropped precipitously after the recent recession. As a nation, the U.S. population grew by just 0.75 percent last year, stuck at historically low levels not seen since 1937. Johnson said the number of dying counties is rising not only because of fewer births but also increasing mortality as 70 million baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 move into their older years. "I expect natural decrease to remain high in the future," he said. Among the 20 fastest-growing large metropolitan areas last year, 16 grew faster than in 2011 and most of them are located in previously growing parts of the Sun Belt or Mountain West. Among the slowest-growing or declining metropolitan areas, most are now doing worse than in 2011 and they are all located in the Northeast and Midwest. New York ranks tops in new immigrants among large metro areas, but also ranks at the top for young residents moving away. In contrast, the Texas metropolitan areas of Dallas, Houston and Austin continued to be big draws for young adults, ranking first, second and fourth among large metro areas in domestic migration due to diversified economies that include oil and gas production. Phoenix, Las Vegas and Orlando also saw gains.

Dead Pigs In China's Shanghai River Worry Residents

Authorities recovered hundreds more dead pigs from a river that provides drinking water to Shanghai, China's financial hub, bringing the total to more than 6,600 since last Friday. Pictures of swollen and rotting carcasses in the Huangpu river have worried many residents, but officials say the water supply remains safe. The surge in dumping of dead pigs – believed to be from swine farms in the upstream Jiaxing area of neighboring Zhejiang province – has followed police campaigns against the sale of pork products made from diseased pigs. On Wednesday, a Zhejiang court sentenced 46 people to jail for producing unsafe pork from sick pigs that they had acquired and slaughtered between 2010 and 2012. The official Xinhua News Agency said police in the city of Wenling had seized 6,218 kilograms (13,708 pounds) of diseased pork. In another operation last year, police in Jiaxing broke up a gang that acquired and slaughtered diseased pigs. Provincial authorities said police arrested 12 suspects and confiscated nearly 12 tons of tainted pork. On Wednesday, the Shanghai government said the city will continue to monitor water quality and test for viruses including porcine circovirus. It said the city disinfected the carcasses before burying some and incinerating others.

Ashley Judd Senate Run: Actress Activist Planning To Declare Candidacy, Sources Say

Ashley Judd, the 44-year-old actress and social activist, has told key advisers and political figures that she is planning to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate here this spring. Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race “around Derby” -- meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State. Reached for comment by email Saturday, Judd offered a not-quite-ironclad denial to The Huffington Post. “I am not sure who is saying this stuff, but it is not I! I’d prefer as a fan of your journalism that you stay accurate and credible. We told everyone who called us yesterday these stories are fabrications.” But she declined to specify which "stories,” did not say what wasn't "accurate,” and did not respond when asked directly whether she had, in fact, decided to run or chosen a time to declare her intentions.

“I know she knows she has to declare soon,” said one source, a highly placed elected official who declined to be identified because he was discussing private plans. "She could always change her mind," he added. "I changed my mind twice before I finally declared. But as of now it is a done deal.” She has discussed her plans, sources say, with former Gov. Wendell H. Ford, the 88-year-old dean of Kentucky Democrats, among others. The announcement, her allies told The Huffington Post, could “clear the field” of major contenders for the Democratic nomination, setting up a wild, made-for-YouTube contest between the free-wheeling, media-savvy Hollywood actress, and the methodically accusatory machine of the five-term Republican senator -- and Senate minority leader -- Mitch McConnell of Louisville.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck Leaving 'The View'?

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is being fired from "The View," according to Us Weekly. Quoting anonymous sources, the magazine reported Friday that the conservative co-host is following Joy Behar out the door after market researchers found that her political views were clashing with the audience. "People did not watch the show because of Elisabeth. So they told her yesterday her contract would not be renewed," a source told Us Weekly. That report followed a Deadline piece which said that her future on the ABC show was "unclear." Following Us Weekly's report, TV Newser posted a similar story. The site's Alex Weprin cited two sources who said Hasselbeck was leaving.

A spokesman for the show told Weprin that Hasselbeck has a "long-term contract." If Hasselbeck's conservatism is a problem with audiences, it would appear to be a relatively new one; she has been on the show for nearly ten years, and "The View" has maintained its ratings success. Hasselbeck's departure would mean that "The View" is suddenly without two of its longest-running hosts. The show has had the same cast since 2007, when it brought in Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd to replace Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones. Hasselbeck's exit would also leave the show without one of its main sources of conflict; her political arguments with Goldberg and Behar — and, before them, O'Donnell — have long been a key feature.

Why Gallup Blew The Election

Gallup, which has long touted itself as the most trusted survey brand in the world, is facing a crisis. If Barack Obama's reelection in November was widely considered a win for data crunchers, who had predicted the president's victory in the face of skeptical pundits, it was a black mark for Gallup, whose polls leading up to Election Day had given the edge to Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Obama prevailed in the national popular vote by a nearly 4 percentage point margin. Gallup's final pre-election poll, however, showed Romney leading Obama 49 to 48 percent. And the firm's tracking surveys conducted earlier in October found Romney ahead by bigger margins, results that were consistently the most favorable to Romney among the national polls. Since the election, the Gallup Poll's editor-in-chief, Frank Newport, has at times downplayed the significance of his firm's shortcomings.

At a panel in November, he characterized Gallup's final pre-election poll as "in the range of where it ended up" and "within a point or two" of the final forecasts of other polls. But in late January, he announced that the company was conducting a "comprehensive review" of its polling methods. There is a lot at stake in this review, which is being assisted by University of Michigan political scientist and highly respected survey methodologist Michael Traugott. Polling is a competitive business, and Gallup's value as a brand is tied directly to the accuracy of its results. The firm's reputation had already taken a hit last summer when an investigation by The Huffington Post revealed that the way Gallup accounted for race led to an under-representation of non-whites in its samples and a consistent underestimation of Obama's job approval rating, prompting the firm to make changes in its methodology. (Since Gallup implemented those changes in October, the "house effect" in its measurement of Obama's job rating has significantly decreased.) And in January, Gallup and USA Today ended their 20-year polling partnership. While both parties described the breakup as amicable, the pollster's misfire on the 2012 election loomed large in the background.

Over the years, Gallup's business has grown and evolved into much more than public opinion polling. The company currently describes itself primarily as a "performance management consulting firm," and the Gallup Poll is just one of its four divisions. Yet Gallup's reputation as the nation's premier public opinion pollster remains central to its business, helping it win millions of dollars in contracts with the federal government, for which the firm conducts research and collects data. That portion of Gallup's business is coming under a different sort of pressure. In November, the Justice Department joined a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee accusing the firm of overcharging taxpayers by at least $13 million in its federal contracts. Despite the election results being hailed as a victory for pollsters generally, Gallup's shortcomings have also led some to question whether the methods of all national polling firms are outdated. From the Obama campaign, which supplemented traditional polling methods with advanced data analytics drawn from public voting records, the criticism was more pointed. "We spent a whole bunch of time figuring out that American polling is broken," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina told a post-election forum.

The reelection team's internal numbers told a different story about trends in the fall and accurately forecast the outcome, leading Messina to argue that "most of the public polls you were seeing were completely ridiculous." An assessment of Gallup's recent struggles shows that its problems measuring the electoral horse race in 2012 were more severe, but similar in nature, to those faced by many other media polls. The firm's internal review, therefore, offers Gallup a chance not only to identify what went awry in 2012, but also to help the public understand how polling works -- and sometimes doesn't -- in the current era. In particular, the review could help shed light on two major problem areas for polling firms today: how they treat their "likely voter" models and how they draw their samples from the general population. Newport told HuffPost that although the "major purpose" of Gallup's review is to "focus on our practices and procedures," it may also "shed some light on factors operative in this election which may have affected pre-election polls more generally." Gallup has a chance both to reassert its position at the top of the field and to restore faith in all similar national polls -- if it confronts this review with transparency and seriousness of purpose.

Kate Upton's Lookalike Ania Is A Total Doppelganger

Kate Upton's buxom blonde look is so recognizable and so distinct that it was only a matter of time before the imitators came along. Meet Ania, Kate Upton's Russian twin. She doesn't appear to be related to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model or even know her; but thanks to Twitter, Ania was able to reach Kate directly with a photo of herself in a fur-trimmed parka... with nothing underneath. As far as we know, Ania's not a model by profession -- in fact, she describes herself on her Twitter as a "Mail order bride in training." But damn that's one good lookalike. Kate, being Kate, retweeted the photo with the note "amazing!" So you be the judge: If these two were both cast in a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit shoot or, uh, a Russian mail-order bride catalog, would you be able to tell them apart?

Kate Middleton Attends Wedding While Nearly Five Months Pregnant Photos

In the latest edition of What Has Kate Middleton Been Up To: The duchess took her baby bump to a wedding! The Prince William and Prince Harry in the Swiss Alps yesterday for the wedding of polo player Mark Tomlinson and Laura Bechtolsheimer, Olympic gold medalist in dressage. Technically, Harry escorted Kate to the ceremony at Arosa ski restort, because Will was busy acting as an usher (Fortunately, the duchess seemed to be enjoying herself, sharing a laugh with Harry and throwing confetti into the air as the newlyweds passed by. So what did the mom-to-be wear to celebrate the society nuptials?

It looks like Kate wore the same printed MaxMara Studio dress from her visit to Cambridge in November, the brown Lock & Company pillbox hat she wore during St. Patrick's Day festivities last year, Emmy shoes, Kiki McDonough hoop earrings with Annoushka pearls and an Emmy clutch. We don't seem to remember seeing that cream coat or fur stole before, so perhaps they're a couple of her recent purchases -- she has been shopping quite a bit, after all. In case you haven't quite gotten to marking your calendars, Catherine is just about five months pregnant and due to give birth in July. Back in December, the Duchess of Cambridge was hospitalized for acute morning sickness, but she's seemed to get back on schedule after the new year. Hey, even those with a royal bun in the oven have obligations... Check out the photos of the Kate Middleton, Prince William and Prince Harry attending the wedding below and see more here.

Former Adviser Sharply Criticizes Obama On Afghanistan War

His chapters on Afghanistan and Pakistan are likely to receive special attention, as they cover the two years when Mr. Nasr had a ringside view of the administration’s policymaking as a senior adviser for Mr. Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s first special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Power struggles exist in all administrations. But Mr. Nasr writes that the ones between what he describes as politically minded aides at the White House and the State Department were particularly pernicious, especially since they centered on decisions about an Afghan conflict that Mr. Obama once called a “war of necessity.” Some of the disputes took the form of bureaucratic maneuvers. Turf-conscious White House aides, Mr. Nasr writes, excluded Mr. Holbrooke from videoconferences that President Obama had with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and he was left behind on a presidential trip to Kabul, undermining his credibility with the Afghans. After Mr. Holbrooke’s death in 2010, he writes, White House officials made it clear that John Podesta, President Clinton’s chief of staff, was not an acceptable choice for envoy.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state, had been eyeing him to fill Mr. Holbrooke’s post. Mr. Podesta was considered to be too high-profile and potentially difficult for the White House to manage, Mr. Nasr states. The subtext for the squabbling was a deeper battle for influence over policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. During the early months of Mr. Obama’s first term, Mr. Holbrooke set up S.R.A.P., the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is still lodged in an inauspicious suite of offices near the State Department cafeteria. Mr. Nasr writes that the White House staff, which firmly controlled policy on Iran and the Arab-Israeli issue, was never comfortable with the arrangement, all the more so since senior members of Mr. Obama’s national security staff had been active members of his campaign team, where they had done battle against Mrs. Clinton during the primaries. “Turf battles are a staple of every administration, but the Obama White House has been particularly ravenous,” he writes. “Those in Obama’s inner circle, veterans of his election campaign, were suspicious of Clinton. Even after Clinton proved she was a team player, they remained concerned about her popularity and feared that she could overshadow the president.” Reflecting on the White House staff, Adm.

Mike Mullen, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs until September 2011, observed “they want to control everything,” Mr. Nasr recounts. Whenever possible, he notes, Mrs. Clinton went directly to Mr. Obama on policy issues to get around the “Berlin Wall” of his staffers. The bigger problem, according to Mr. Nasr’s account, is the toll it took on policy. Early on in the Obama administration, the Holbrooke team wanted to initiate negotiations with the Taliban, but the idea of such a diplomatic outreach was not endorsed for well over a year. Though Mr. Holbrooke had not favored Mr. Obama’s “surge” of troops into Afghanistan, once it was decided he wanted to use the military buildup to create new leverage for the potential negotiations. But when Mr. Obama gave a speech during the American election campaign in June 2011 and announced that he was beginning to remove the reinforcements, Mr. Nasr asserts, the president undercut the leverage the United States would have needed to effectively pursue negotiations with the Taliban. “As we went from ‘fight and talk’ to ‘talk while leaving,’ the prospect of a good outcome began to grow dimmer,” he writes. Instead of taking risks in war or to pursue a peace settlement, he writes, the White House “was happy with the narrative of modest success in Afghanistan and gradual withdrawal.” Asked about Mr. Nasr’s account, Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, vigorously disputed his interpretation of events. It was not customary to include State Department officials in presidential videoconferences with Mr. Karzai, Mr. Rhodes said.

And the secrecy that surrounded preparations for presidential trips to Afghanistan, he added, made it impracticable to take the special envoy and other interagency staff. Setting a withdrawal date from Afghanistan, Mr. Rhodes said, was essential to signal that the American commitment was not open-ended and to send the message that it was time for the Afghans to step up. Now dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, Mr. Nasr got his start in academia and never seriously contemplated a career in government. After his book “The Shia Revival” was published, Mr. Holbrooke, whom Mr. Nasr greatly admires, asked him to join Mrs. Clinton’s foreign policy brain trust during her 2008 primary campaign and then brought him to the State Department. Mr. Nasr said that he refrained from publishing his new book before the United States election in November to avoid the impression that he was trying to meddle in the American political debate. “I did not want it to be a political book,” he said. Having returned to university life, Mr. Nasr said he thought it was important to provide his analysis of policy decisions to counter the view that the time for an activist foreign policy has past. And his verdict on the United States’ handling of the war he worked on at the State Department is harsh. “The precepts were how to make the conduct of this war politically safe for the administration rather than to solve the problem in a way that would protect America’s long-run national security interests,” he said.

Man Steals Lotion To Get Life-Saving Surgery

A man suffering from a life-threatening liver problem decided his best bet to save himself was to go to prison. Dr. Joshua Mezrich, an assistant professor of surgery in the division of multi-organ transplantation at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, tells the story of a 41-year-old man who turned to crime to get medical care. Mezrich's story, which appears in the Atlantic, highlights what he said is a lack of good options for patients who need care but can't afford to pay for it. From the Atlantic: Any patient with end stage liver disease who does not have insurance (and is not eligible for Medicare) has the option of trying to qualify for state-funded Medicaid (which includes demonstrating both poverty and disability), stealing moisturizing cream from a department store, or dying. Mezrich's patient, who he did not name for medical confidentiality reasons, told the doctor his story six months ago. First the patient, while in prison on a previous charge, got a scan that showed two aneurysms in his liver's hepatic artery. Then a followup scan showed the aneurysms had grown and the prisoner needed surgery in a hurry. Unfortunately, the man was released before he could go under the knife.

That's when he weighed his options and decided a trip back to prison was his best choice since he knew he could get his surgery paid for behind bars. "He explained his thought process, and he knew he could do the time because he had done it before," Mezrich told The Huffington Post. "The fact that he had to do this highlights the gap in being able to provide for patients who don't have resources." Mezrich said the prisoner, who is due to get out of jail "shortly," is doing well after his successful operation. The doctor admits he hasn't delved deeply into his patient's criminal history, but he suspects he has a good chance of succeeding once he's on the outside. "I'll remember this patient for the rest of my life," Mezrich said. "The way he didn't blame people and the way he has a positive attitude. I think he's gonna do really well when he gets back on his feet." Mezrich's patient is memorable, but not unheard of. Just two months ago, the Buffalo News ran a feature about an ex-con who said he stole shoelaces, a pair of sandals and other items so he could get "prison health care that is very good.” Two years ago, a North Carolina man robbed a bank for $1 for the same reason. But anyone planning to follow in these men's footsteps should perhaps think twice. As Slate reported, health care in prison is often no pleasure cruise, if it exists at all.

Jennifer Lawrence Without Makeup

Jennifer Lawrence has been kicking back and relaxing in Hawaii while basking in her post-Oscar win glory. Lawrence was photographed without makeup on the balcony of her Hawaii hotel on Wednesday, Us Weekly reported. The 22-year-old looked happy and laid-back in sweatpants and a T-shirt as she chatted on the phone and drank wine with a friend. But it isn't all fun and games for the Oscar winner. Lawrence, who recently went back to being a brunette, is currently in Hawaii to film "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." She got the dye job to transform into "Hunger Games" heroine Katniss Everdeen. "[We'll be there for] two weeks," she told reporters at the Oscars, according to Us Weekly. "[It's] not reshoots, they're just scenes we haven't finished." These days, the "Silver Linings Playbook" star has definitely been earning the title of America's Sweetheart. Not only did she adorably recover after falling at the Oscars, but Lawrence also isn't afraid to admit when she has been Photoshopped. The actress, who is now the face of Christian Dior, recently joked that she is a fan of the photo editing tool. "That doesn't look like me at all!" she told "Access Hollywood" correspondent Billy Bush on the red carpet after he showed her the images from her new Dior ads, E! News reports. "I love Photoshop more than anything in the world." When he attempted to protest that it hadn't been edited, she replied, "Of course it's Photoshop. People don't look like that."

Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Dies

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era – and one of the most unexpectedly enduring. His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia, only because of his conservative views, especially his staunch opposition to abortion. Soon, though, he was a hero to AIDS activists, who chanted "Koop, Koop" at his appearances but booed other officials. And when he left his post in 1989, he left behind a landscape where AIDS was a top research and educational priority, smoking was considered a public health hazard, and access to abortion remained largely intact.

Koop, who turned his once-obscure post into a bully pulpit for seven years during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and who surprised both ends of the political spectrum by setting aside his conservative personal views on issues such as homosexuality and abortion to keep his focus sharply medical, died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. An assistant at Koop's Dartmouth College institute, Susan Wills, confirmed his death but didn't disclose its cause. Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general a decade ago under President George W. Bush, said Koop was a mentor to him and preached the importance of staying true to the science even if it made politicians uncomfortable. "He set the bar high for all who followed in his footsteps," Carmona said. Although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy, Koop described himself as "the health conscience of the country" and said modestly just before leaving his post that "my only influence was through moral suasion." A former pipe smoker, Koop carried out a crusade to end smoking in the United States; his goal had been to do so by 2000. He said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine. And he shocked his conservative supp

Las Vegas Strip Shooting: 3 Dead After Gunfire Leads To Multi-Vehicle Crash, Police Say

Bullets were flying from a black Range Rover at a gray Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Las Vegas Strip. Beneath the neon lights, police say, the Maserati ran a red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames early Thursday, killing the two people inside. Three more cars and a utility truck also collided at the crossroads home to Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally's, injuring at least six more people as the Range Rover sped off in the pre-dawn darkness. The Maserati driver was pronounced dead at a hospital. The dramatic scene that more than one tourist compared to something out of a violent action movie set off a frantic search for the occupants of the Range Rover that continued into the night, and marked the latest violent episode on the Strip since the beginning of the year. Two people were critically wounded in a shooting at a parking garage Feb. 6, and a tourist was stabbed Saturday in an elevator at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters several hours after Thursday's attack that it was sparked by an argument in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino, and that the violence at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road did not reflect the values of Las Vegas residents or visitors. "What happened will not be tolerated," Gillespie said. He promised the shooters would be "found and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." On the Strip, which remained closed as daylight turned to darkness 12 hours later, the fiery rampage shocked tourists.

"We get stabbings, and gang violence," said Mark Thompson, who was visiting from Manchester, England, with his wife, "but this is like something out of a movie. Like `Die Hard' or something." Police said they were contacting authorities in three neighboring states about the Range Rover Sport with dark tinted windows and distinctive black custom rims and plates that fled the scene about 4:20 a.m. It had a car dealer's advertisement in place of a license plate. In Southern California, the California Highway Patrol alerted officers in at least three counties to be on the lookout for the SUV. Las Vegas police Sgt. John Sheahan said the Range Rover was last seen near the Venetian resort as it headed north from the shooting scene on Las Vegas Boulevard. Witnesses also told police the SUV and Maserati had come from the nearby CityCenter area, the home of Aria, just south of the site of the attack. "We have numerous witnesses to this," Sheahan said. "But what is the genesis of this? We don't know yet." Predawn jogger Eric Lackey was on his way back to the New York-New York hotel when he snapped a cellphone photo of the blazing scene moments after the crash. Black smoke billowed from the flaming taxi, amid popping sounds from the fire.

Lackey, of Forest Hill, Md., said a security officer in a yellow shirt performed CPR on a person on the sidewalk while police officers canvassed a small crowd of perhaps 15 onlookers gathering at the scene. "Police were asking if anyone was still in the vehicles and if they heard gunfire," Lackey told The Associated Press. "That's when I realized it wasn't just a regular accident." Sheahan said police have video from traffic cameras at the intersection and were checking hotel surveillance systems. The video will not be made public, he said. Police did not release the names of the people who were killed, citing the ongoing investigation. The crumpled, gray Maserati, which had no license plate, came to rest several feet away from the incinerated taxi. "The people I feel sorry for are the people in the taxi," said Elvina Joyce, a tourist from Regina, Saskatchewan. "Seconds made all the difference in the world for them. Wrong place, wrong time." The area near the scene has been the site of high-profile violence in the past. Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 about a block away under similar circumstances, as assailants opened fire on his luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road. The killing has never been solved.

White House Refuses To Release Targeted Killing Memos

Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators’ demands for full access to the classified legal memos on the targeted killing program, Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to three Congressional staff members. The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators and while protecting what the White House views as the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s legal advice to the president. It would allow Mr. Brennan’s nomination to go to the Senate floor even if one or two Democrats vote no to protest the refusal to share more legal memos. At issue is the critical question of how Congress conducts oversight of a shadow war against people suspected of being terrorists.

The administration routinely reports on its lethal drone strikes to both the Senate and the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, but it has long rebuffed Congressional attempts to see the legal opinions that authorize the strikes — let alone requests to make them public. Only after an unclassified Justice Department white paper summarizing the legal arguments was leaked to NBC News this month did the administration make two legal opinions on the targeted killing of American citizens briefly available to members of the Intelligence Committees. But the documents were available to be viewed only for a limited time and only by senators themselves, not their lawyers and experts. The arrangement frustrated members of the committee, who were not allowed to have their staff members study the highly complex legal opinions. But the reinvigorated public discussion set off by the nomination of Mr. Brennan has raised hopes in Congress that the debate will continue even if he is confirmed.

The refusal so far to share more of the opinions with Congress, or to make redacted versions of the memos public, comes despite a pledge of greater transparency by President Obama in his State of the Union address on Feb. 12. “I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way,” the president said. “So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.” The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has long called for all Justice Department legal opinions on intelligence to go to the committee. But a spokesman said she did not believe the issue should block Mr. Brennan’s confirmation. The votes of at least two other Democratic senators who feel strongly about greater access to the legal opinions, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, are less certain.

“I still have a number of unanswered questions about the president’s authority to kill Americans who are deemed to be a threat to the United States,” Mr. Wyden said. He said that he was “encouraged” by Mr. Obama’s promise of greater transparency in the State of the Union address but that “the administration has not yet lived up to that commitment.” The administration is currently in discussions with Republican members of the Intelligence Committee about providing the trail of e-mails that were the basis of “talking points” from the intelligence agencies regarding the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, which killed the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans. Such a concession would probably win at least some Republican votes for Mr. Brennan. By most accounts, Mr. Brennan is likely to be confirmed as director of the C.I.A., in part because some human rights advocates who were once deeply skeptical about his record are now ambivalent.

Reeva Steenkamp's Mom: Why Did Oscar Pistorius Do This?

The family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend wants answers, her mother told a Johannesburg newspaper, as South Africans braced to hear why prosecutors believe a national hero murdered the model who was shot multiple times. June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's mother, told The Times in a front page interview published Monday: "Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?" "Just like that she is gone," the newspaper quoted her as saying in what it described as an emotional telephone interview. "In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here." Pistorius, who remains in custody in a red-brick, one-story police station in Pretoria, is set to return to court Tuesday for the start of his bail hearing. It will be the first opportunity for the prosecution to describe evidence police gathered against the 26-year-old double-amputee runner and the reasons why he was charged with murder.

Prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated. Pistorius' family denies he committed murder though they have not addressed whether he shot her. When word first emerged about the killing there was speculation in the local media that Steenkamp had been mistaken for an intruder in Pistorius' home. Police have said that was not something they were considering. In an email to The Associated Press on Monday, Pistorius' longtime track coach - who was yet to comment - said he believes the killing was an accident. "I pray that we can all, in time, come through this challenging situation following the accident and I am looking forward to the day I can get my boy back on the track," Ampie Louw wrote in his statement. "I am still in shock following the heart-breaking events that occurred last week and my thoughts and prayers are with both of the families involved." While Pistorius goes to court, Steenkamp's funeral will also be held Tuesday in her hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast, her family said. It is to be a private ceremony at a local crematorium, closed to the public and media. "We're just taking things one day at a time," Reeva Steenkamp's brother Adam Steenkamp said outside the family home. "But at the moment it's family coming together and the one person who would be the strongest, who held us all together, is unfortunately not here anymore - and that's my sister."

Just One Drink A Day Could Raise Your Cancer Risk

Alcohol-related cancer affected men and women equally in 2009, but with different cancers. While women with alcohol-related cancer were most likely to die from breast cancer, men were most likely to have died from oral, pharynx, larynx and esophageal cancer, Alcohol-linked breast cancer deaths accounted for 15 percent of all breast cancer deaths. While the majority – an estimated 54 percentage – of these deaths occurred in people who drank more than three alcoholic drinks per day, the researchers found that, depending on the type of cancer, up to 33 percent of people who died from alcohol-related cancer had consumed only one alcoholic drink per day on average.

Alcohol as Part of an Unhealthy Lifestyle In the new study, alcohol-related cancers predominantly killed people who consumed 40 grams or more of alcohol per day – approximately three drinks or more. Drinking between one and three alcoholic drinks per day was linked to 14 to 17 percent of alcohol-related cancer deaths, and one drink or less per day was responsible for between 25 and 35 percent. (If that last set of number seems large, researchers explained that the higher percentage of deaths at the lower level of alcohol consumption is due to the fact that there are more people in the one-drink-per-day category.) While researchers are not exactly sure how alcohol may lead to cancer, it is clear that poor health habits – not just drinking – play a major role in cancer risk.

Dr. Nelson says that people who drink a lot often also have a poor diet and/or smoke, which, coupled with alcohol use, puts them at a greater risk for developing cancer. “There are some types of alcohol-related cancer, such as oral, where there are strong relationships between alcohol and tobacco,” he says. “Cancer is a complex disease, but as a general rule, it is safe to say that people who are smokers are less likely to live a healthy lifestyle.” And a healthy lifestyle is the best way to ward off cancer, regardless of whether you drink alcohol, said Eric Jacobs, PhD, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology for the American Cancer Society, in an e-mailed statement “Whether or not you drink alcohol, not smoking, being physically active, and maintaining a healthy weight can greatly lower your risk of fatal cancer as well as improve your general health," Dr. Jacobs said in the statement.

Women and Breast Cancer: Assessing the Alcohol Risk The dramatic link between alcohol and breast cancer death rates raises a question: Should women limit their alcohol consumption even more than is currently recommended? Moderate drinking is currently defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. “There is no safe level of alcohol consumption for breast cancer,” asserts David H. Jernigan PhD, associate professor in the department of health, behavior and society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “The risk begins to increase the minute you pick up a drink. Women with breast cancer in their family should think long and hard about their decision to drink.” Clifford Hudis MD, chief of the breast cancer medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, has a different view, saying the breast cancer risk posed by drinking is simply a part of life.

"There’s no such thing as a zero-risk life," Dr. Hudis says. "Unfortunately, alcohol is a part of many people's social lives, so I think those people just need to be aware of a slightly increased risk of cancer." Knowing your family history is key to deciding whether you should avoid alcohol over fears of breast cancer, says Freya Schnabel, MD, a professor in the department of surgery at New York University Cancer Center in New York City. You need to know what you’re at risk for before you can start mitigating that risk, she says. “People need to be thoughtful about their family history and figure out where their risks are coming from,” says Dr. Schnabel. “I see a lot of people where everyone in their family has breast cancer. For them, they may want to restrict and be careful about their approach to alcohol.” How Alcohol Can Help and Hurt Health Although this new study outlines the cancer risks linked to alcohol, previous studies have indicated that there may be some benefit to moderate alcohol consumption, says Jacobs.

“While even light drinking may increase risk of some cancers, notably breast cancer, light drinking may also help lower risk of heart disease, and overall death rates do not appear to be increased in light drinkers,” Jacob says. But conflicting information on the benefits and risks of alcohol makes it difficult for consumers to understand how they should balance their consumption, says Chandini Portteus, vice president of research, evaluation, and scientific programs for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “I think it’s confusing for an everyday consumer,” says Portteus. “What we need to know more about is what the threshold is — if there is a safe limit on alcohol consumption. We don’t really understand if there is a threshold or if any alcohol consumption is a concern.” The important thing for consumers is to look at all the information available and make an educated decision on what’s best for them based on all of the research, Portteus says:

“We can’t look at one study in isolation from the rest." But Nelson thinks the purported benefits of alcohol consumption are overrated when compared to the risks. “Even if you took into account all the potential benefits of alcohol,” he says, “it causes 10 times as many deaths as it prevents worldwide.” However, notes Jernigan, most people don’t want to hear that going to the bar after work could be setting you up for cancer down the line. “The message that alcohol could be good for you resonates so much more pleasantly than the message that alcohol can kill you,” he says. “We are deeply ambivalent about alcohol because we want to enjoy it and not think about its health effects.” The most important thing, Nelson believes, is to make people understand that alcohol is a carcinogen. While it may be impossible to get people to stop drinking, making them aware of the dangers can help them make smarter decisions. “We spend a lot of time talking about potential cancer-causing agents, but alcohol is missing from the discussion,” he says. “If people really want to reduce their cancer risk, one of the things they can do is avoid alcohol.”