Episodes of US comedy series Family Guy and American Dad were dropped on Sunday in the wake of Friday's shootings in a Connecticut school, which left 26 dead. Fox TV instead showed repeats of the shows to avoid broadcasting any potentially sensitive content. The billed Family Guy episode had featured a retelling of the nativity while in American Dad, a demon punished naughty children at Christmas. Meanwhile, director Quentin Tarantino has defended violence in movies. Tarantino's latest film, spaghetti western Django Unchained, features graphic violence, including buckets of blood exploding from characters as they are shot. He said at a press junket in New York for the film on Saturday that he was tired of defending his films each time the US is shocked by gun violence. "I just think you know there's violence in the world, tragedies happen, blame the playmakers," he said, adding: "It's a western. Give me a break." More»

E.L. James' erotic romance novel "Fifty Shades Freed: Book Three of the Fifty Shades Trilogy" was the best-selling book on Amazon this year, followed by the thriller "Gone Girl," the online retailer said on Friday. "This was truly the year of the billionaire bad boy in romance," said Sara Nelson, editorial director of books and Kindle at Amazon.com. "While E.L. James published the first two books in her Fifty Shades trilogy in 2011, so they aren't eligible for our 2012 list, the series really took off this year and propelled the third installment and the omnibus edition onto our Top 10 list," she added in a statement. Sylvia Day's "Bared to You: A Crossfire Novel" came in at No.4 and "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden" by Mark Owen was fifth. Day had two novels in Amazon's Top 10: "Reflected in You: A Crossfire Novel" captured the seventh spot, just ahead of John Grisham's "The Racketeer" and William Landay's "Defending Jacob: A Novel." "The Marriage Bargain (Marriage to a Billionaire)" by Jennifer Probst was No. 6 and David Baldacci's "The Innocent" rounded out the Top 10. More»

A novel drug to fight alcohol dependency was given a green light by European regulators on Friday, providing a boost to Danish drugmaker Lundbeck at a time when its top product faces a big drop in sales. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Friday it recommended approval of Selincro in conjunction with counseling for the reduction of alcohol consumption in adults dependent on drink. Recommendations from the EMA are normally endorsed by the European Commission within two or three months, implying the drug could be launched in Europe early next year. That is good news for Lundbeck, which needs new drugs to replace lost sales from antidepressant Cipralex, sold as Lexapro in the United States and Japan, which is now coming off patent. More»

Hundreds of marijuana enthusiasts huddled near Seattle's famed Space Needle tower on Thursday night with pipes, bongs and hand-rolled joints to celebrate Washington's new status as the first state in the nation to legalize pot for adult recreational use. The public gathering at the downtown Seattle Center, like a smaller turnout at a nearby spot hours earlier, defied a key provision of the state's landmark marijuana law, which allows possession of small amounts of cannabis but forbids users from lighting up outside the privacy of their homes. Police kept their distance from both gatherings, underscoring mixed law enforcement messages about the new statute, known by its ballot designation as Initiative 502. The measure took effect on Thursday. Seattle's city attorney issued a stern warning on Wednesday that public pot puffing would not be tolerated and that violators faced citations with $100 fines. But the Seattle Police Department said its officers had been directed to limit any enforcement actions related to Initiative 502 to verbal warnings only, at least for now. More»

Norman Rockwell's World War Two painting "Willie Gillis Food Package from Home" fetched $2.8 million from a private buyer at an auction in Chicago on Saturday, the auction house said. The winning bid for the iconic artwork was less than the up to $5 million estimated ahead of the auction, said Emily Betts Susanin, director of marketing and communications for Susanin's Auctions in Chicago. But it was "great news" nonetheless, she said, adding that no other painting had ever fetched more at a Chicago auction. Renowned American artist Rockwell did a series of Willie Gillis paintings for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post magazine, starting with the "Package from Home" on October 4, 1941, and continuing through "Willie Gillis in College" on October 5, 1946. "Package from Home" had been privately held in Chicago for decades. Susanin did not disclose the identity of its new owner. More»

Fifteen Nepali artists were closeted for a month with a heap of 1.5 metric tons (1.7 tons) of trash picked up from Mount Everest. When they emerged, they had transformed the litter into art. The 75 sculptures, including one of a yak and another of wind chimes, were made from empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, food cans, torn tents, ropes, crampons, boots, plates, twisted aluminum ladders and torn plastic bags dumped by climbers over decades on the slopes of the world's highest mountain. Kripa Rana Shahi, director of art group Da Mind Tree, said the sculpting - and a resulting recent exhibition in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu - was aimed at spreading awareness about keeping Mount Everest clean. "Everest is our crown jewel in the world," Shahi said. "We should not take it for granted. The amount of trash there is damaging our pride." Nearly 4,000 people have climbed the 8,850 meter-high (29,035 feet) Mount Everest, many of them several times, since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. Although climbers need to deposit $4,000 with the government, which is refunded only after they provide proof of having brought the garbage generated by them from the mountain, activists say effective monitoring is difficult. More»

Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too. Researchers who studied 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses also said they think yawning is a developmental process which could potentially give doctors a new way to check on a baby's health. While some scientists have previously suggested that fetuses yawn, others disagree and say it is nothing more than a developing baby opening and stretching its mouth. But writing in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday, British researchers said their study was able to clearly distinguish yawning from "non-yawn mouth opening" based on how long the mouth was open. The researchers did this by using 4D video footage to examine all the times when fetuses opened their mouths. More»

The new red gold Or steel Admiral’s Cup Legend 42 Interpreted in two-tone versions is adorned with the same metallic blue colour that graced its first modern version in 1983. This tribute to the historical model will be issued in a strictly limited 400-piece edition. When the Admiral’s Cup was first released in 1960, it immediately established itself as one of the first perfectly water-resistant shaped sports watches. 23 years later, when its design was reinterpreted through adopting its current identity codes – 12 nautical pennants from the maritime international code of signals serving as hour-markers, along with a twelve-sided case – it became a truly phenomenal success. In homage to this model that has come to symbolize the House, CORUM now presents a limited series reflecting the vintage “gunmetal blue”: the Admiral’s Cup Legend 42. The Admiral’s Cup collection is composed of several distinct worlds: the sturdy and sophisticated Seafender line designed for adventurers; the sporty yet distinguished Challenger line suitable for wear on all occasions; and finally, the Legend line introduced in 2011 and which flirts with the frontiers of classic elegance in a gently refined manner. While the new variations feature a more modest size, more curving lugs and softer angles, they maintain the same unique identity codes of the Admiral’s Cup. All of which ensures that these new classics imbued with a casual spirit subtly yet effectively proclaim their sporting origins. More»

An end to the worldwide AIDS epidemic is in sight, the United Nations says, mainly due to better access to drugs that can both treat and prevent the incurable human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes the disease. Progress over the past decade has cut the death toll and helped stabilize the number of people infected with HIV, the U.N. AIDS program said in its annual report on Tuesday. "The global community has embarked on an historic quest to lay the foundation for the eventual end of the AIDS epidemic. This effort is more than merely visionary. It is entirely feasible," UNAIDS said. Some 34 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2011, the report said. Deaths from AIDS fell to 1.7 million in 2011, down from a peak of 2.3 million in 2005 and from 1.8 million in 2010. Worldwide, the number of people newly infected with HIV, which can be transmitted via blood and by semen during sex, is also falling. At 2.5 million, the number of new infections in 2011 was 20 percent lower than in 2001. More»

The Royal Variety Performance has marked its 100th anniversary with a show in front of The Queen at London's Royal Albert Hall. Host David Walliams arrived on stage as James Bond, complete with jet pack. Girls Aloud, One Direction, 2012 Britain's Got Talent winners Ashleigh Butler and dog Pudsey, and Sir Bruce Forsyth were among the British artists. Kylie Minogue, Alicia Keys, Neil Diamond and Andrea Bocelli were among the international stars. The performance of song, comedy and skits began with mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins singing the National Anthem. She also later performed with classical superstar Placido Domingo. Jenkins, appearing at her fourth Royal Variety Performance, said: "It's an honour. It does make you nervous when the Queen is watching you. You want to do your best." Girls Aloud sang The Promise, while One Direction sang number one single Little Things. More»