| Unique stuffings can be Thanksgiving standouts

Unique-stuffings-can-be-Thanksgiving-standouts Food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs recently launched food52, an online community that is, in essence, a virtual kitchen for cooks and food enthusiasts. And just in time for Thanksgiving, the duo shared these recipes for two kinds of stuffing: challah, mushroom and celery stuffing, and ciabatta stuffing with chorizo, sweet potato and mushrooms.

Challah, mushroom and celery stuffingAmanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs - | Unique stuffings can be Thanksgiving standouts |

| Angela Lansbury to receive Sondheim Award

Angela-Lansbury-to-receive-Sondheim-Award WASHINGTON - Actress Angela Lansbury will be the first recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award from a Washington-area theater that has produced more of the composers works than any other U.S. theater.

Signature Theatre announced Thursday that it will honor Lansbury, 84, in April at a gala celebration and fundraising event for the Arlington, Va., theater.

Lansbury is known to many for her role in televisions Murder She Wrote, when she played detective Jessica Fletcher for 12 seasons in the 1980s and 1990s.

She also is a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical star. Two of Lansburys Tonys are for Sondheim musicals, the 1974 revival of Gypsy and Sweeney Todd in 1979.

Sondheim, 79, noted that Lansbury first appeared on the musical stage in Anyone Can Whistle, for which he wrote the score in 1964.

That appearance was a gift to the musical theater, although perhaps not such a gift to her, since the show only ran for nine performances, Sondheim said in a statement. I am thrilled that Signature Theatre is helping me make it up to her by giving her the first Stephen Sondheim Award.

The theater, which has produced 18 of his works, created the award earlier this year to honor those who stand out for interpreting or collaborating on Sondheims music.

Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for West Side Story in 1957 and has won nine Tonys throughout his career, helps approve the recipients of the award.

Lansbury returns to Broadway this month in Sondheims A Little Night Music costarring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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| Hail Otto! Near 21 he’s now world’s oldest dog

Hail,-Otto!-Near-21,-he’s-now-world’s-oldest-dog This old dog may not be learning any new tricks, but he now holds the title as the world’s longest-lived pooch.

Otto, a dachshund-terrier mix, is 20 years and 8 months old — that’s about 145 in dog years, his owners estimate — and he is being recognized for his great age by Guinness World Records.

Lynn Jones, 53, of Shrewsbury, England, has owned Otto since he was six weeks old. She and her husband, Peter, contacted Guinness after the previous record-holder, Chanel — also a dachshund mix — recently died at age 21.

So what’s Otto’s secret for longevity? Love, good food and regular trips to the vet, the couple say. Still, the pet now suffers from arthritis and is no longer as active as he was in his younger days.

“He doesn’t really like walkies any more,” Lynn told the UK Daily Mail. “He gets about 10 yards down the road and then looks back over his shoulder as if to say, ‘I want to go home.’ “

But what Otto lacks in physical ability, he still retains in spirit.

“He’s still playful,” she said. “He can still jump all over people when they come ‘round.”

- | Hail Otto! Near 21 he’s now world’s oldest dog |

| UN: For 7th year warming emissions grew again

UN:-For-7th-year,-warming-emissions-grew-again

BONN, Germany – The industrialized world again in 2007 boosted, rather than reduced, its emissions of global-warming gases, the U.N. reported Wednesday, as international negotiators looked ahead to crucial climate talks in December.

Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases rose by 1 percent between 2006 and 2007 among 40 nations classified as industrialized under the 1992 U.N. climate treaty, the treaty secretariat reported, detailing data for the latest available reporting period.

It was the seventh consecutive year of an upward trend, it said.

European Union countries did cut their emissions year-to-year, by an average of 1.6 percent, led by Denmarks 6.1 percent reduction. But the United States, the biggest emitter in this group, increased its emissions by 1.4 percent, and the output of heat-trapping gases by Japan, Canada and Australia also rose, the data show.

Scientists attribute a 0.74-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures in the past century in part to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The warming will severely disrupt the climate, they say, unless emissions are cut back sharply, by at least 80 percent by 2050.

Under the climate treatys 1997 Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialized nations are committed to reduce emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States was the only major industrialized nation to reject Kyoto, arguing such cuts would harm its economy, and that fast-growing economies, such as Chinas, should have been subject to Kyoto quotas.

President Barack Obama, reversing his predecessor George W. Bushs position, says the United States wants to join in a new post-2012 global agreement to rein in emissions, but in exchange U.S. negotiators seek some level of commitment from China, India, Brazil and other poorer nations. Developing countries complain, meanwhile, that emissions reductions envisioned in pending U.S. legislation are too weak.

The dispute threatens to block final agreement at the U.N. climate conference scheduled for Dec. 7-20 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In releasing the emissions data, U.S. climate treaty chief Yvo de Boer said the numbers underscore, once again, the urgent need to seal a comprehensive, fair and effective climate change deal in Copenhagen.

In the Kyoto framework, overall emissions by the 37 ratifying nations in 2007 were 16 percent below the level of 1990 — seemingly good progress, except that the reductions came largely from the industrial slowdown that occurred in Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Those countries emissions grew between 2000 and 2007.

Next years report on 2008 emissions is expected to show a momentary dip because of the global recession, de Boer noted, but overall the continuing growth of emissions from industrialized countries remains worrying.

China and other developing countries dont report emissions to the treaty secretariat. But the International Energy Agency says Chinese output of carbon dioxide grew by 7.6 percent from 2006 to 2007, as it surpassed the U.S. as the worlds biggest emitter. Compared with population, China emitted 4.57 tons of carbon dioxide per capita, while the U.S. emitted 19.10 tons per capita.

___

On the Net:

http://unfccc.int/files/press/factsheets/application/pdf/ghgfactsheet2009.pdf

- | UN: For 7th year warming emissions grew again |

| Fifteen Iran Guards among killed in Sunday attack

Fifteen-Iran-Guards-among-killed-in-Sunday-attack

TEHRAN –
Fifteen members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were among those killed in Sunday's suicide bombing in the Islamic Republic's volatile southeast, state radio reported on Tuesday.

Iranian media had previously said six senior Guards commanders were among the 42 people killed in the deadliest such attack in Iran since its 1980-88 war with Iraq, without saying how many other Guards died. Tribal chiefs and other civilians also died in the bombing.

"The number of Revolutionary Guards martyred ... in the terrorist incident in Sistan-Baluchestan province is fifteen," state radio said. It said the Guards would hold a ceremony in Tehran later on Tuesday to bid farewell to them.

The deputy head of the Guards' ground forces, General Nourali Shoushtari, and its commander in Sistan-Baluchestan province, General Rajabali Mohammadzadeh, were among the dead.

Iranian media say a Sunni rebel group, Jundollah , has claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Iran, mainly Shi'ite Muslim, says the group is backed by the United States and Britain and has suggested it has links with majority Sunni Pakistan. London, Washington and Islamabad have denied involvement.

The attack highlighted deepening instability in a southeastern region bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many minority Sunnis live in the impoverished area, which has seen an increase in bombings and clashes between security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and heavily armed drug traffickers.

Iranian police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam said Sunday's incident was mainly of "foreign origin" and showed traces of Western intelligence organizations, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

"There will have to be special security plans implemented in Sistan-Baluchestan, and neighboring countries will have to feel responsible. Together we will have to take a decision to confront rebels, terrorists and smugglers," he said.

The Revolutionary Guards is an elite force seen as fiercely loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It handles security in key border areas and its power and resources have increased in recent years.

Jundollah, which accuses the government of discrimination against Sunnis in the remote desert region, has been blamed for many deadly incidents over the last few years.

The group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in May that killed 25 people in the same region, and says it is fighting for the rights of Iran's minority Sunnis.

Iran rejects allegations by Western rights groups that it discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

- | Fifteen Iran Guards among killed in Sunday attack |

| Chef LaLa’s double-duty baby meatballs

Chef-LaLa’s-double-duty-baby-meatballs Want to teach your children the art of healthy cooking and delicious meals? Chef LaLa shares kid-friendly ethnic recipes that can also be transformed into a new dish for tasty leftovers or a second option.

Baby veggie-meatball soupChef LaLa - | Chef LaLa’s double-duty baby meatballs |

| Cleric in CIA kidnap case seeks $15 million

Cleric-in-CIA-kidnap-case-seeks-$15-million MILAN - An Egyptian cleric allegedly kidnapped from a Milan street in 2003 as part of the CIAs extraordinary rendition program on Wednesday asked for 10 million euros in damages from the American and Italian defendants charged in his abduction.

Carmelo Scambia, lawyer for Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, said his client has been left deaf in one ear and suffering problems with balance and walking. Emotionally, Scambia said, Nasrs behavior is childlike, anxious and terrorized.

Scambia appealed to Judge Oscar Magi to award the damages to send a signal to Nasr and his wife that reality exists, that principles exist. Magi is hearing the case against 26 Americans and seven Italians accused of Nasrs abduction.

Prosecutors say Nasr was taken in broad daylight from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003, transferred in the back of a van to the Avian Air Base in northern Italy, then flown to the Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany before being flown onward to Egypt.

During the nearly four years Nasr was in Egyptian custody, Scambia said his client suffered unimaginable torture including rape, electric shock and repeated beatings.

Before his abduction, Nasr was under surveillance as a terror suspect by Italian authorities, but Scambia emphasized that no arrest warrant had been issued at the time of his disappearance.

He was not a terrorist. He enjoyed political asylum. And most of all, he was a human being, Scambia told the court.

Scambia asked the judge to find the defendants guilty and award 5 million euros immediately upon sentencing. The balance would be awarded pending final appeals, which can last for years.

International arrest warrants
A lawyer for Nasrs wife, Ghali Nabila, also is seeking 5 million euros for her suffering during years of not knowing her husbands whereabouts and for the deterioration of her husbands physical and mental health. Nabila did not know her husbands fate for more than a year after his abduction. He contacted her in April 2004 during a brief release from Egyptian custody, before being put back in prison until his eventual release in February 2007.

Twenty-six Americans, all but one believed to be CIA agents, are on trial in absentia, accused of kidnapping Nasr as part of the CIA program. All are considered fugitives, and have international arrest warrants issued against them. Seven Italians also are charged.

Human rights advocates say renditions were the CIAs way of outsourcing the torture of suspected terrorists to countries where it was practiced. The CIA hasnt commented on the case, the first in any country to scrutinize extraordinary renditions.

Prosecutors have demanded prison sentences ranging from 10 to 13 years for the American defendants. The trial continues with closing arguments by the defense, and a verdict is expected next month.

More on: CIA | Italy

- | Cleric in CIA kidnap case seeks $15 million |