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Les Misérables is the big-screen version of the world's longest-running stage musical (take that, Cats!). Since its 1985 debut, the show has been seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages. Mon Dieu! For this eagerly anticipated adaptation, the Oscar-winning director of The King's Speech, Tom Hooper, shifts his focus from stuttering British royalty to singing French paupers in the 19th century. Victor Hugo's epic tale follows fugitive Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) as he's hunted for decades by relentless Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), through the Paris Uprising of 1832. Whether you're a Les Mis...

Les Misérables is the big-screen version of the world's longest-running stage musical (take that, Cats!). Since its 1985 debut, the show has been seen by more than 60 million people in 42 countries and in 21 languages. Mon Dieu! For this eagerly anticipated adaptation, the Oscar-winning director of The King's Speech, Tom Hooper, shifts his focus from stuttering British royalty to singing French paupers in the 19th century. Victor Hugo's epic tale follows fugitive Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) as he's hunted for decades by relentless Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe), through the Paris Uprising of 1832. Whether you're a Les Mis...

Authorities exhumed the body of a man killed in 1969 in hopes modern technology can help them crack a 43-year-old cold case. Law enforcement doesn’t know the identity of the homicide victim, just that his bullet-riddled remains were found in a drainage ditch along Interstate 93 years ago. Initially, the victim’s remains will be taken to the medical examiner’s office to be re-autopsied. Investigators hope to learn more about the man’s exact age and a better sense of his height and weight. There’ a possibility the autopsy can lead to the victim’s DNA being entered into the FBI missing persons...

Full title: David Gregory Mocks NRA Leader for Proposing Armed Guards in Schools But Sends His Kids to a School with 11 Armed Guards In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, Rep. Louie Gohmert told Fox News’ Chris Wallace that he wished the principal had a gun to prevent the carnage from taking place. NRA leader Wayne LaPierre agreed with the idea of having armed guards in our schools, saying that, “It’s the one thing we can do immediately that can make our children more safe.” NBC’s David Gregory mocked LaPierre’s proposal, however, which brings to light (yet again)...

WELLSTON, Ohio (WSAZ) -- Two men have been arrested in connection with the brutal beating and robbery of a 90-year-old man inside his coin shop business early this month. Larry Hart Jr. of Athens County was charged with aggravated robbery, and Dale Canter of Hamden, Ohio, is awaiting formal charges. John Queen, the business owner, suffered serious head injuries in the incident after he was struck with a crowbar. About $12,000 was taken from his business. Queen was transferred to a Columbus hospital before being released days later. “We have all kinds of crimes in Wellston; we don't normally have...

Of the twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare, below are the five worst that will be foisted upon Americans for the first time on January 1, 2013: The Obamacare Medical Device Tax – a $20 billion tax increase: Medical device manufacturers employ 409,000 people in 12,000 plants across the country. Obamacare imposes a new 2.3 percent excise tax on gross sales – even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. In addition to killing small business jobs and impacting research and development budgets, this will increase the cost of your health care – making...

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced tonight Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz will replace the late Sen. Daniel Inouye as the U.S. senator from Hawaii -- not Sen. Inouye's first choice. On the day he died, the late senator wrote a letter to Abercrombie asking that he pick Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, to replace him. Hanabusa made it to the final round of consideration, but she did not win the nomination. "The charge of the central committee was to take all points of view into account, from Sen. Inouye and from the rank and file -- the Democratic grass roots," Abercrombie said...

Anton Geiser, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who fought deportation after settling in Pennsylvania, has died, his lawyer said. He was 88. Geiser, a retired mill worker with three American-born children, was an armed guard for the Nazis at the Buchenwald concentration camp, federal prosecutors said. Geiser, who was originally born in Croatia but settled in Sharon, Pa., after the war, said he was forced into service by the Nazis as a teenager and never participated in the systematic slaughter of Jews and other prisoners inside the camp. Federal prosecutors disagreed and were seeking his deportation to face a...

A Scottish brewing company said its Christmas beer gets an extra touch of holiday cheer from the tips of spruce trees. The Williams Brothers Brewing Co. in Alloa said the Nollaig Festive Ale, which includes the tips of needles from spruce trees, is based on a Viking recipe and all 800 bottles made this year have sold out, The Scotsman reported Wednesday. The company said production of the $20-per-bottle beer will be boosted to 10,000 bottles next year due to the popularity of the beverage. Brewery Chairman Scott Williams said the ale uses the tips of spruce tree needles picked...

Russia's legendary rifle-designer Mikhail Kalashnikov was recovering in stable condition in intensive care Tuesday after being hospitalised with general fatigue, reports said. An aide to the 93-year-old father of the AK-47 said Kalashnikov had been having heart problems and feeling poorly since March. "When I visited him at home last week, he told me that nothing seemed to hurt, but that he simply had no strength left," assistant Nikolai Shklyayev told the RIA Novosti news agency.

A very impressive bike ride

In response to Gannett's Jounal News headquartered in White Plains, New York publishing an interactive map containing the names and addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties (previous related posts are here and here), blogger Robert Cox at NewRochelleTalk.com (HT Instapundit) has produced an interactive map at a post entitled "Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?" It contains names, addresses, and various forms of Internet presence. Some of his narrative follows the jump: Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2012/12/26/blogger-creates-interactive-map-employees-paper-which-published-names-an#ixzz2GCvSyQf8

The outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, talked about the recent Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conn., discounting the argument put forward, including by many Christians in the United States, that "it's not guns that kill, it's people." "People use guns. But in a sense guns use people, too. When we have the technology for violence easily to hand, our choices are skewed and we are more vulnerable to being manipulated into violent action," the leader of the world's 80 million-strong Anglican Communion said, delivering BBC Radio 4's "Thought for the Day" on Saturday.

Tehran is developing its own plans for continuing the Syrian war and maintaining its grip on the country – even as Washington and Russia press on with secret discussions on the fate of Syrian president Bashar Assad, backed by UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s mediation efforts in Damascus. Tuesday, Dec. 25, the envoy said after meeting Assad that he would stay on for another six days in the hope of persuading the parties to end their bloody hostilities. At the same time, Iran is putting its military and intelligence assets in place ready for the day after Assad’s departure. In...

The list of angry fans who were stood up by a sports promoter at the Cowboys-Steelers game two weeks ago is growing. It stretches literally around the world and into the hundreds... All say they are victims of the Maximum Sports Connection and Ronni Sokol. Just before kickoff, they say she told them the game had been "oversold." "I don't expect to get any money back, because with her track record, it doesn't look good," said Kerry Vincent of the Mechanicsburg Police Department in Pennsylvania.

Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) became the oldest lawmaker to ever serve in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Hall, 89, beat out Rep. Charles Manly Stedman (D-N.C.), the previous record holder, who was 89 years, 7 months and 25 days old in Sept. 1930 when he died. all was elected to his 17th term in Congress in November. Hall recently said he might even run for reelection again. "I’m just an old guy — lived pretty clean," Hall said according to The Associated Press. “I have no ailments. I don’t hurt anywhere. I may run again. I’ll just wait and...

Accountability: As with Fast and Furious, the designated scapegoats for the deaths of Americans at the hands of administration bungling will merely be switching desks. Only the maker of that irrelevant video is in jail. Reports of the resignation of four State Department officials after the Accountability Review Board's (ARB) review of State Department actions before during and after the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, may have been greatly exaggerated. Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, has not resigned from the department, as a State Department spokeswoman indicated Dec. 19. Boswell is instead...

<p>HOUSTON (AP) — A spokesman says former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital.</p> <p>Bush's spokesman, Jim McGrath, said late Wednesday that the former president was admitted to the ICU on Sunday at Methodist Hospital, "following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever."</p>

The concept of 'equal marriage' is fundamentally flawed as it presupposes a questionable notion of 'equality' and ignores the essential and defining components of conventional marriage. Gay marriage falsely judges parenting roles as interchangeable. Same sex marriage wrongly assumes that the benefits of marriage are automatically transferable to same-sex couples who 'enter' the same institution. There is no evidence that same-sex couples will benefit from the 'commitment device' invoked by marriage. Gay marriage introduces a disturbing, unproven and socially risky new norm into society, that children do not need both a mother and father for optimal development, when all the...