May 3On this day. 1961: President Kennedy, receiving an honorary degree from George Washington University, joked that it only took him two minutes to earn it — in contrast to his wife's two years.

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"Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character." -Calvin Coolidge

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The manager of a movie theater in Jefferson City, Mo., is defending himself after a publicity stunt resulted in a police response last weekend.

that management of Goodrich Capital 8 Theaters hired an actor to dress in full tactical gear (complete with a fake gun) and walk into the movie theater during the opening weekend of "Iron Man 3."

Several moviegoers called police, who responded anticipating an active shooter situation.

"We received a series of 911 calls stating that a man dressed in all black and body armor and a rifle was walking into Capital 8 Theaters," Capt. Doug Shoemaker told KMIZ.

Capt. Shoemaker told , "Everything was in place, its the opening night of a superhero movie, its somebody walking in all-dark clothes, everything pointed to bad things about to happen. Theres really no good that can come of this."

Last summer,were shot and killed during a showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

The theater's management is defending the stunt saying its job is to entertain the guests. Capital 8 Theaters manager Bob Wilkins told KMIZ that the stunt resulted in only a few complaints.

Via KMIZ:

When asked if management took into consideration what happened in the the mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater, Wilkins responded, "Absolutely. That's my number-one priority every day. It's the safety and security of our guests."

ABC 17 News asked Wilkins if he had any regrets for allowing the publicity stunt and he said, "No, my job is to entertain people."

John Morlock, an army veteran who suffers from post traumatic stress, saw the stunt play out.

"We had just finished watching 'Iron Man 3,'" Morlock told KMIZ. "We're just getting into the car when I spotted a man in full assault gear, carrying what appeared to be a modified M-4 and 9 mm on his side."

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Three young women newly freed from a decade-long kidnapping ordeal in Cleveland endured their captivity in the dungeon-like confines of a squalid house, where they were raped, starved, beaten and kept in chains by the man who abducted them, authorities said on Wednesday.

Their accused tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, a veteran school bus driver fired from his job last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women, who were rescued from his house on Monday evening shortly before his arrest.

His two brothers, initially arrested as suspects in the case, were not charged, and police said investigators had determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women.

The three victims, believed to have been abducted separately from the surrounding neighborhood and held prisoner for years, were found alive together when neighbors were alerted to their presence by cries for help from one of the women, Amanda Berry.

She told police that her escape two days ago was her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned in the house, during which time she conceived and gave birth to a daughter, now 6, and rescued along with the three women.

Additional details of their captivity emerged in a police report from the initial investigation, including that the three were held in the basement for periods of time, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who read the report and said he was briefed by multiple sources in the police department.

Cummins said that one of the three - he did not know which - had suffered at least five miscarriages, which Castro is accused of causing by starving her for weeks and beating her in the stomach.

Freed from the house along with Berry and her daughter were Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.

Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbors to live there alone. Berry has said she only managed to call for help when Castro briefly left the premises on Monday.

"The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped," Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the news conference. "They don't believe that they've been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively."

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the house twice, only to go to the garage on the small lot, when they were disguised in wigs and hats.

Tomba said Berry, DeJesus and Knight had been kept separately in the house, where police have found ropes and chains.

"They were not in one room, but they did know each other and they did know each other was there," he said.

Berry's daughter was born on December 25, 2006 during her mother's captivity, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father.

TELEVISED HOMECOMINGS

As authorities readied their case against Castro, Berry and DeJesus went to their families' homes on Wednesday. Knight was in a Cleveland hospital where a spokeswoman said she was in good condition.

Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister's house and going in the back door.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting "Gina. Gina."

Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.

"I want to thank everybody that believed," she said. "Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they're the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there."

Neither Berry nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, spoke publicly. Knight was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Castro, who is not a suspect in any other cases, faced arraignment on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house, which Tomba said was "in quite a bit of disarray," but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

The three brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women's escape. However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.

The two brothers would be appearing in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

"There is nothing that leads us to believe that they were involved or had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, their statements and the brothers' statements," Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez said at a news conference, adding, "Ariel would have kept everybody at a distance."

Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing on the frantic emergency call she made to a 911 operator after a neighbor heard her scream and helped her break through a locked screen door.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

In 2005, Castro was named in a complaint of domestic violence in a custody dispute with his ex-wife that accused him of breaking her nose twice, knocking out her tooth, dislocating her shoulder twice and threatening to kill her and her daughters several times.

The complaint was eventually dismissed.

(This story corrects the surname spelling of city councilman to Cummins, not Cummings, in the sixth and seventh paragraphs)

(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)

At 0836 GMT commercial banks quoted the currency of Africa's third-largest economy at 2,545/2,555 to the dollar, from Tuesday's close of 2,550/2,560.

The Bank of Uganda (BoU) was on Wednesday due to auction 200 billion shillings of three- and five-year bonds. Analysts said the unscheduled sale was to plug gaps after foreign donors cut aid due to concerns over graft.

The shilling rally is "mainly because of inflows from offshore investors who are taking part in the auction," said Faisal Bukenya, head of market making at Barclays Bank.

Relatively weak demand for dollars stemming from the central bank's cautious monetary policy has kept the shilling strong since hitting a 14-month low of 2,715/2,725 early January.

The BoU has held interest rates unchanged at 12 percent for five months. Analysts say the policy will allow the shilling to trade on a firm footing in the coming weeks.

"But in the long-term, we see the shilling coming under pressure if the government raises taxes to plug the expected huge budget deficit created by direct budget support cuts by donors," Centenary Bank wrote.

The finance ministry has proposed several tax hikes in the 2013/14 fiscal year, which traders say risk deterring fresh investment in key sectors.

The American former world number one, a 15-times champion on the PGA Tour, twice choked up with tears during his acceptance speech in St. Augustine, Florida on what he described as "the coolest night of my life".

Couples was inducted along with eight-times European Tour order of merit winner Colin Montgomerie, former U.S. Open champion and television broadcaster Ken Venturi, former European Tour executive director Ken Schofield and twice former British Open winner Willie Park Jr.

The first American player to reach number one in the official world rankings, Couples broke down when he described how he had gained motivation to pursue a career in golf while attending a golf clinic in his native Seattle at the age of 14.

"An unbelievable PGA Tour player was doing the clinic, and I got up front and I was staring at him," the 53-year-old Couples recalled.

"I wasn't really the person who said, 'That's what I want to do, I'm going to be a PGA Tour player.' But I knew I wanted to really, really get involved in golf.

"And the gentleman's name was Lee Trevino, who has been a mentor and someone I love."

Couples' golfing journey took him from Seattle to the University of Houston and he went on to become one of the most popular players in the game with a languid swing and prodigious length off the tee which earned him the nickname 'Boom Boom'.

He won his only major title at the 1992 Masters but also clinched the prestigious Players Championship in 1984 and 1996, an event widely regarded as the unofficial fifth major.

VETERAN COUPLES

A veteran of five Ryder Cups, Couples captained the triumphant U.S. Presidents Cup teams in 2009 and 2011, and also has eight wins on the Champions Tour for players aged over 50.

"Thanks for taking a kid from Seattle and putting him into the Hall of Fame," Couples said as he ended his acceptance speech. "This is the coolest night of my life."

Montgomerie, though he never won a major championship despite several close calls, was delighted to earn his place in the class of 2013 after a career highlighted by 31 victories on the European Tour.

"This has been a humbling experience for me," said the 49-year-old Scot, who also compiled a stellar record in the biennial Ryder Cup team competition where he never lost in eight singles matches.

"I'm very proud to be standing here in front of you this evening."

Known for his natural swing, an aversion to practice and a temperament that could be prickly at times, Montgomerie recorded five runner-up spots in the majors among a total of 10 top-10 finishes.

"I've enjoyed thoroughly my exploits in major championships," Montgomerie said during a news conference. "I just haven't been fortunate or whatever it takes, I've never, ever stood up and made a winner's speech... I never will.

"There's always a time where a bit of fortune comes your way, whether it be for you or against your opponent at the time, and it just so happens with five runner-ups... that I just haven't been so-called fortunate to walk through the door."

Montgomerie twice lost majors in playoffs - the U.S. Open in 1994 and the PGA Championship in 1995 - but his most agonising near-miss came in the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot where he double-bogeyed the final hole to finish a stroke behind winner Geoff Ogilvy of Australia.

"That's the one that hurts," Montgomerie said. "The four others or five others really, somebody happened to beat me. The 2006 Winged Foot I beat myself, and that's where it hurts most. So that has taken the most to recover from.

"So at the same time, if you're talking about regrets of any part of my golfing career, I have none. Absolutely none. I've done exactly what I've tried to do. I've tried 100 percent on every shot, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mystery shadows "A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea", a novel about a girl growing up in rural post-revolutionary Iran while dreaming about her identical twin sister and the wonderful life she must be leading in the United States - if she is alive at all.

Crowded security lines at Tehran's airport, shouting, a girl chasing her twin as a woman in a long coat holds her hand. That is the memory Saba Hafezi clings to after her mother and sister vanish in a haunting tale by Dina Nayeri.

Nayeri left Iran at the age of ten for the United States. She grew up in Oklahoma and worked as an investment banker before starting to write fiction, first collaborating with her brother on a series of young adult books. This is her first adult novel.

Nayeri, who said her book was sparked by a trip to Greece that brought many memories to the surface, spoke to Reuters about writing, exile and its impact on storytelling.

Q: Why twins and why tell the story from the point of view of the one left behind?

A: When I was first thinking of the idea, I was a little bit obsessed with the idea of what I would have been like if I'd stayed in Iran, what my life would have turned out to be. I started thinking about writing about two sisters, one of whom stayed in Iran and one who went to America, to have their lives be parallel, to have both of them be real and living their lives in the different ways.

I wanted there to be this magical realism where all the parallels in their lives would be happening through some kind of magic of twinness. Eventually, after several drafts and a couple of years working on it, I realized it would be much more powerful if it was the story of one of the sisters, about longing for the other life -- to have that element of loss and longing. Then I started thinking the story I really wanted to tell was the one in Iran.

Q: People have always said being away from a place allows you to write about it more clearly. Did this help you come to terms with having left Iran, is that part of it?

A: Yes and no. I definitely unearthed that longing inside myself but I also found all the ways I could fulfill that here. I found a lot of Iranian communities, really exiled Iranians, and compared their experiences to mine. I discovered music and food and all these wonderful things. In that sense, I came to terms with the results of this. On the other hand, it does make me want to go back more. I interviewed people with just beautiful stories and I have so many friends who every summer go back. It makes me sad that I don't quite feel safe going back yet. I think one day I will and that's where it's all headed.

Q: What was the hardest part of writing this and what was the easiest, the most fun?

A: The hardest part -- there are two different aspects of it. The first was just trusting myself as a writer, because all my education and adulthood was in the business world and I didn't know what it would take to be a good writer. There was a lot of studying on my own. At one point I went on Amazon and ordered 50 prize-winning novels of the last five years. It was fun, but it was hard to get that confidence in my voice and discover the voice of the novel.

I don't know that any part of it was easy but the most fun part was all of the interviews and all of the details and stories I was gathering from people. I'm a natural extrovert and so I don't like solitude as much as most writers, I love to be around people. So calling up dozens and dozens of people and getting them to tell me stories, making sense of it and writing up little scenes and sending it back to them, seeing if they'd be okay using it, that was the most delightful part.

Q: Every family has stories they tell - how does the whole idea of exile affect the stories that are told?

A: Obviously storytelling is a very human thing and it's universal, but in my family, we were such huge storytellers even beyond that. There was never any time when somebody wasn't telling a story or begging for a story. I think what happened as a result of exile is that some of those became mythologized.

I remember that stories from home dried up because we were no longer at home and having that kind of access. Suddenly that pool of stories kept getting repeated over and over again until they took on this mythic element in my mind. I really believe there are some stories in my family history that are just full of lies now because they've taken on a magic quality that can't possibly be ... There are things that just become more storybook as years pass and you have no more access to those people, particularly people that have passed on in the 25 years since I've been away - for example, my grandfather.

He would tell stories constantly. He would sit in the little town square in the village with the other old men and smoke the hookah and they would talk and talk. Some of the things he said and did, and some of the things from his youth, might as well be from a storybook now, they can't possibly be real.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Patricia Reaney)

"One of the extraordinary measures of progress that we've seen in this country has been the recognition that the LGBT community deserves full equality - not just tolerance, but a recognition that they are fully a part of the American family," Obama told a news conference.

"I think Americans should be proud that this is just one more step in this ongoing recognition that we treat everybody fairly ... and we judge people on the basis of their character and their performance, not their sexual orientation."

Obama, an avid basketball fan, called Collins on Monday to tell him he supported his decision.

First lady Michelle Obama also tweeted her backing for the the National Basketball Association player, who acknowledged he he is gay in Sports Illustrated magazine.

"So proud of you, Jason Collins! This is a huge step forward for our country. We've got your back!" she wrote. (Reporting By Gabriel Debenedetti; editing by Christopher Wilson)

NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Country music legend George Jones' final standing ovation, after a career filled with them, came on Thursday afternoon at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville.

And the song that brought about 4,000 fans and friends to their feet was Jones' signature song, "He Stopped Loving Her Today," fittingly a tune about both love and death.

Alan Jackson, a long-time friend, sang the song, channeling Jones' country traditionalism. Jackson ended by removing his white cowboy hat and waving it toward the heavens, looking up, tears on his cheeks, saying: "We love you, George."

Jones, whose honky-tonk career spanned more than six decades, died on April 26 at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after being hospitalized with a fever and irregular blood pressure. He was 81.

Tanya Tucker and the Imperials, Randy Travis, The Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Travis Tritt, Kid Rock, Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Chesney and Wynonna Judd all paid tribute to Jones during a service that lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes.

All four Nashville TV stations carried the event live.

After Jackson left the stage, a spotlight shone on the yellow flower-draped coffin, and family members began to exit as a recording of Jones' voice filled the Grand Ole Opry with "When the Last Curtain Falls."

It was Jones' final farewell to the Grand Ole Opry, the home of the venerable radio show in which he had been a cast member since 1956, almost from the East Texas beginnings of a career that was celebrated by musicians, politicians and other guests throughout the service.

ELDER STATESMAN OF COUNTRY MUSIC

Although the stunningly successful early years of his career were celebrated, the spotlight was on the last 30 years and his marriage to the former Nancy Ford Sepulvado, who Jones frequently said "saved my life."

During his career, Jones' drug and alcohol abuse and the incidents that accompanied them often gained more headlines than his legendary voice.

But country's King of Broken Hearts - with the help of his wife - was able to chase away those demons for the most part and live out his career as a revered elder statesman of country music.

Brad Paisley was among the performers to take their turns on a stage that was filled with floral arrangements, photographs and a rocking chair, a salute to Jones' classic "I Don't Need Your Rocking Chair."

"I'm lucky enough to have met George when he had gotten right, beat the demons, found Nancy and found God," Paisley said.

CBS chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer talked about the voice, the songs and the dreams they fueled.

"Nobody could sing like George Jones unless you were George Jones," said Schieffer, a part-time country musician by hobby.

Former first lady Laura Bush, who sat next to Nancy Jones during the service, said she heard Jones' voice frequently during her White House years.

"We've had few sounds more lovely than the voice of George Jones," she said. "I heard White Lightning' as George W. worked out on the treadmill listening to George J."

"He was blessed to be able to walk through the last 30 years with wife Nancy by his side," she said.

(Editing by Brendan O'Brien and Cynthia Johnston, Gary Hill)

The archdiocese sent a subpoena to President Barack Obama's administration in February asking for documents from White House staff, including Obama himself, for use in a church lawsuit against the contraception mandate.

Citing the burden involved and calling a subpoena of the president's office inappropriate, the White House asked a federal judge to toss out the subpoena on April 4.

A notice filed in U.S. District Court in Washington late on Monday said the archdiocese agreed to withdraw its subpoena. It did not say why.

A lawyer for the archdiocese declined to comment on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department, which represented the White House in court, had no immediate comment.

The archdiocese is continuing its lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court challenging the Obama administration's health policy requirement that employers generally include coverage of birth control in health insurance plans they offer workers.

The Catholic Church teaches that artificial birth control is sinful because it violates natural law.

Part of the 2010 healthcare law championed by Obama and congressional Democrats, the birth control mandate has some exceptions for religious employers but the New York archdiocese said it expected to incur nearly $200 million each year in penalties if it refuses to comply.

(Reporting by David Ingram; editing by Andrew Hay)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The people and information sources parents surround themselves with may influence their choice to vaccinate their children or not, according to a survey from one county in Washington state.

Of almost 200 parents who took the survey, almost all said they had groups of people offering advice on vaccination, but those who chose not to fully vaccinate their children were more likely to have larger social groups and to turn to other sources, such as books, pamphlets and the Internet, for guidance.

"The take-home message from this is that the social networks for the majority of parents are extremely important in affecting vaccination decisions," said Emily Brunson, the study's author from Texas State University in San Marcos.

"Especially the people in the parents' networks suggesting nonconformity is greater than anything else - including the parents' own beliefs on vaccination," she added.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends young children under the age of six years old get a series of shots that protect against 14 preventable diseases, including chickenpox, measles and whooping cough.

The latest report on vaccination rates from the CDC shows 95 percent of kindergarten-aged children receive their vaccinations, but many children still receive their shots late (see Reuters story of August 23, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/YimdGn and Reuters Health story of January 21, 2013 here: http://reut.rs/YimPvG).

The fear is that parents who don't vaccinate or who delay vaccinating their children put their own kids as well as others at risk for developing preventable disease, such as whooping cough.

Last year the U.S. experienced one of the largest whooping cough outbreaks in half a century, which health officials attributed both to vaccines wearing off and to parents simply skipping the pertussis vaccinations for their children (see Reuters story of July 20, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/Yina1x).

For the new study, Brunson surveyed parents to see what impact a person's social group and information sources had on their decision to vaccinate their children.

The people who took the survey were recruited from around King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle, and were U.S.-born, first-time parents with children younger than 18 months old.

Overall, 126 "conformers" - people who vaccinated their children according to the recommended schedule, and 70 "nonconformers" - people who didn't stick to the schedule - took the survey between March and July 2010.

Of those 70 "nonconformers," 28 were getting their children all the recommended shots, but not on time. Another 37 were only partially vaccinating their children and five were not vaccinating their children at all.

About 95 percent of all parents reported having a group of people offering advice on vaccination, but "nonconformers" tended to have larger groups of people to tap for information than "conformers."

"Nonconformers" typically reported about seven people who gave them advice, compared to about five people in "conformer's" social groups.

The people included in those groups were similar among the two types of parents. Spouses and partners were usually the most important advisers, followed by doctors, family and then friends.

Typically, "nonconformers'" groups included about 72 percent of people who recommended against vaccination in some way. That compared to 13 percent among "conformers."

"Nonconformers" were also more likely to seek outside sources, such as books, news programs and the Internet. Compared to 80 percent of "conformers" who said they used those outside sources, all "nonconformers" said they did.

Brunson writes in the journal Pediatrics that her findings show healthcare providers are only a part of parents' social networks.

She adds that it's essential for programs trying to increase vaccination rates to also focus on "communities more broadly so that the other people parents are likely to consult are also included."

Dr. Joseph Anthony Bocchini, Jr., chairman of Pediatrics Medicine at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, said the new study adds additional information by using a social network approach for the first time to understand parents' decisions about vaccinating their children.

"I think that what needs to be done is that everybody needs to understand the importance of vaccines. And they're not only important for the people who receive them but they're also important for the community," said Bocchini, who was not involved in the new research.

He said that in addition to doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC have valuable information on their websites about vaccinations for children.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/HjQ8dI Pediatrics, online April 15, 2013.