Woman tells paper she was Arafat's wife
Yasser Arafat, 65, and his wife, Suha Arafat, 31, are expecting a little Arafat. But the PLO leader's happy news is being tempered by a skeleton from his closet: A woman, Najla Yassin, claims in the Israeli paper Haaretz that she was his secret, flesh-and-blood first wife.
Ms. Yassin, his former office manager, says she dumped her first husband for Mr. Arafat in 1967 and lived with him 18 years.
Christmas poem sells for $255,000
'Twas right before Christmas, and for one famous poem, a man paid big money, and then took it home.
Ralph Gadiel, whose Northbrook, Ill., company sells gifts and collectibles, won a bidding war Friday, paying $255,000 for a rare handwritten copy of "A Visit From St. Nicholas," the famous 56-line poem written in 1822 by the Rev. Clement Clarke Moore.
The copy being auctioned in New York City -- one of three surviving handwritten copies -- was transcribed by Moore for an admirer in 1860 when he was 81.
Stone rejects blame for killers in society
Got a problem with "Natural Born Killers"? Well don't shoot the messenger, director Oliver Stone said Friday.
"It is a harsh mirror to a troubled society. . . . We are a society of the gun," he said after his movie was shown at the Cairo Film Festival in Egypt.
The inclusion of "Natural Born Killers" in the festival surprised many in a country where movies are monitored for violence, nudity, political content and blasphemy.
The movie satirizes the news media for promoting violence as it tells the story of two lovers, played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis, who go on a killing spree and become folk heroes.
Alice Cooper to tee off for $1.5 million prize
Alice Cooper may have a new source of cash: golf.
The rocker, who lives in Paradise Valley, near Phoenix, was one of four players to get a hole-in-one last week during a competition sponsored by the Fiesta Bowl.
L Mr. Cooper, an avid golfer who once sponsored his own tourna
ment, will join about 40 other players at today's finals at the Arizona Biltmore Country Club.
Senator Mitchell marries in New York
Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine, retiring from the Senate, and Heather MacLachlan, a Canadian-born sports marketing consultant, married yesterday in New York City.
Mr. Mitchell will be an adviser to the president and the secretary of state on economic initiatives in Ireland. The marriage is the first for the 35-year-old bride and the second for Mr. Mitchell, 61, whose first marriage ended in divorce.
Birthdays
Producer Carlo Ponti is 81. Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn is 76. Actress Betsy Blair is 71. Actress Rita Moreno is 63. Actor Ron Carey is 59. California state Sen. Tom Hayden is 55. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana is 53. Actress Donna Mills is 51. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is 51. Singer Brenda Lee is 50. Actress Lynda Day George is 48. Actress Bess Armstrong is 41. Singer Jermaine Jackson is 40.
This Santa goes by car