Octuplets’ mom signs TV show deal

Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to octuplets in January, will star in a reality television series about her family, a TV executive said. The Eyeworks executive, who asked not to be named, confirmed a Us magazine report that quoted Suleman’s lawyer, Jeff Czech, saying a deal has been reached after months of negotiations. The “quasi-reality TV series” would be “an arrangement whereby several events in the children’s lives would be filmed in a documentary series,” Czech told Us

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Staff’s kids help Leno say goodbye to ‘Tonight’

Jay Leno ended his 17-year reign as the host of "The Tonight Show" Friday with the children of people who met and started families while working at the long-running late-night show during his tenure, according to audience members who attended the taping.

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Why our ‘amazing’ science fiction future fizzled

At the 1964 New York World’s Fair, people stood in line for hours to look at a strange sight. They wanted to see the “Futurama,” a miniaturized replica of a typical 21st century American city that featured moving sidewalks, computer-guided cars zipping along congestion-free highways and resort hotels beneath the sea

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Queen Elizabeth Snubbed: Britain Declares War on France

France and England have fought each other in the 100 Years’ War, the Seven Years’ War, the Napoleonic Wars and scads of less memorably named conflicts. And more recently, the French and English have treated the blood-and-tears clashes between their national rugby and soccer teams as fetishes for those battles of yore.

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Thomas the Tank Engine helps autistic kids identify emotions

Thomas the Tank Engine, whose television adventures on the fictional island of Sodor have delighted children around the world for years, is now on a real-life mission to help kids with autism. The steam locomotive and his friends are the stars of a new game in Australia, designed to help autistic children recognize emotions. Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), a nonprofit that provides services to people diagnosed with the developmental disorder, unveiled the game on its Web site Tuesday

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Why India’s Communists Are Losing Ground

For decades, they have been a familiar sight in the sun-kissed Indian state of Kerala or the country’s crumbling eastern metropolis of Kolkata. The somber portraits of dead white men — a bearded Marx, a bespectacled Lenin, and Stalin, his moustache bristling — peer down at passers-by from banners strung up over palm trees or street-corner billboards, accompanied by the less-hallowed visages of local comrades. India’s Communists have been key players in the hurly burly of the world’s largest democracy, dominating the ballot box in states like West Bengal, where Kolkata is the capital, and where a Communist government has ruled for over thirty years.

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