750 (with trims) by Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch in Beirut. MOVED

^Aid groups urge action to head off African famine<

^AFRICA-HUNGER:LA_

A similar emergency is unfolding in the arid Sahel region, affecting eight countries and around 10 million people across a stretch of Africa just south of the Sahara desert. This time, humanitarian agencies are determined to prevent a repeat of the famine in Somalia.

700 by Robyn Dixon in Johannesburg. MOVED

^India's biometric ID number plan divided by bureaucracy<

^INDIA-IDNUMBERS:LA_

On Friday, after a turf battle between two agencies over who would collect and control the fingerprints, retinal scans and other information gathered before issuing the 12-digit numbers, India's prime minister resolved the issue: Both bureaucracies will collect the information "with suitable provisions to eliminate avoidable overlap."

950 (with trims) by Mark Magnier in New Delhi. MOVED

^WORLD NEWS<

^Cruise ship passengers to receive $14,000 in damages<

^ITALY-CRUISESHIP:DPA_

Italy's main tour operator association, Astoi, announced that the Genoa-based Costa Crociere had made the decision on passenger reimbursement following talks with representatives of several national consumer rights associations.

The sum would be paid out to each passenger irrespective of age and is meant to cover "any damage to property suffered, including those related to the loss of baggage and personal effects, psychological distress and the damage suffered by a ruined holiday," Astoi said statement said.

600 by Peter Mayer in Rome. MOVED

^Questions loom over Costa Concordia disaster<

^ITALY-CRUISESHIP-QUESTIONS:USA_

The state-of-the-art ship carrying 4,200 passengers and crewmembers struck rocks off Italy's Tuscan island of Giglio on Jan. 13, opening a 160-foot hole in its side.

Experts on ships and salvage have questions about how that tear turned into the worst cruise ship disaster of recent times.

650 by Bart Jansen. MOVED

PHOTOS

^Egyptian protesters press their demand for end to military rule<

^EGYPT:LA_

The air was filled with an array of banners and anti-military slogans: "Down, down with military rule," "Free revolutionaries will continue the path" and "Speak out, don't be afraid, the army needs to leave." Major liberal forces, including the April 6th Youth, Kefaya and the Revolution Youth Coalition, also announced they would begin a sit-in, a move likely to set up a confrontation with police.

500 by Amro Hassan in Cairo. MOVED

^Suicide bombing at Baghdad funeral kills 32 people<

300 by Raheem Salman in Baghdad and Patrick J. McDonnell in Beirut. MOVED

^Notorious police figure from Mexico's 'dirty war' dies<

^MEXICO-DIRTYWAR:LA_

^But Nazar was quickly freed by a sympathetic judge. When he died Thursday night, so did any chance that he might shed light on the events that still haunt Mexican society_

300 by Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City. MOVED

^Death toll reaches 7 in Rio building collapse<

^BRAZIL:DPA_

About 20 people were still missing from the late Wednesday collapse of three adjacent office buildings _ 20, 10 and 4 stories high _ in the heart of the city. At the time of the collapse, most of the occupants had already left work.

400 by Diana Renee in Rio de Janeiro. MOVED

^Egyptians argue over fate of charred Mubarak party building<

Activists want to turn the building into a museum of the revolution, with exhibits honoring slain protesters. The military-led government, however, has proposed cashing in on the prime Nile real estate by developing a state-of-the-art tourism complex. As the building's de facto owner, the state is sure to prevail _ one more setback for protesters who complain that Egypt's interim military rulers still dismiss their demands a year after the popular uprising.

1150 (with trims) by Hannah Allam in Cairo. MOVED

PHOTOS, GRAPHIC

^Syria economy on the ropes<

^SYRIA-ECONOMY-ADV29:LA_

"This market is based on tourists," said Abu Adnan, who works in one of the many fabric emporiums.

But the tourists stopped coming when antigovernment protests erupted across Syria in March, prompting a violent crackdown. Now, even local homemakers no longer stop by to purchase bolts of imported cotton and silk.

In some parts of the capital, long lines form to buy scarce heating and cooking oil.

Months of unrest, increasing international sanctions and questionable fiscal policies _ as Syria lurches toward outright civil warfare _ are taking a heavy toll on the nation's economy. Yet it remains unclear what effect this will have on President Bashar Assad's grip on power.

1450 (with trims) by Alexandra Zavis and Alexandra Zavis in Damascus, Syria. MOVED

^A shiny bowl of Grandma<

^SKOREA-DEATHBEADS-ADV29:LA_

Because land is at a premium, burial was out, and she found the idea of a heap of ashes stored in an urn sort of creepy. So the 51-year-old widow paid $900 to transform her husband's remains into a few handfuls of tiny bluish beads that have the look of beluga caviar.

Even though the beads look like pebble-sized gems, they aren't meant to be strung into a necklace. Instead, some mourners keep them in dishes and glass containers, the point being to keep a lost loved one close by.

700 by Jung-yoon Choi in Icheon, South Korea. MOVED

PHOTO

^Tracking down Colombia's missing manhole covers<

^COLOMBIA-MANHOLECOVERS-ADV29:LA_

Thieves steal a stunning 10,000 manhole covers a year from the streets of the Colombian capital, lured by their value as scrap or as contraband resold to sewer systems elsewhere in the country.

Normally the thefts of the iron or composite plastic covers go unchallenged in the face of weak law enforcement and the menacing mafias who control the lucrative trade.

But Gildardo Pineda, whose Bogota-based manufacturing company is a major supplier of the city sewage system's manhole covers, fought back when thieves targeted him too.

750 by Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia. MOVED

PHOTO

^UNITED STATES<

^US lawmakers' meeting sets back Obama's Afghan agenda<

^USAFGHAN:WA_

Instead, Ambassador Marc Grossman found himself last week putting out a fire ignited by a meeting between four U.S. Congress members and Afghan opposition leaders in Germany. At that meeting, the American lawmakers discussed constitutional reforms that would devolve power from Afghanistan's central government to the provinces _ triggering suspicions that the United States was secretly plotting to partition Afghanistan along ethnic lines.

The U.S. Embassy said there was no such plan, and immediately denounced the reports. But the damage had been done.

1000 (with trims) by Jonathan S. Landay in Washington. MOVED

^Holocaust survivor shares his story on Remembrance Day<

^HOLOCAUST:WA_

For Greenbaum, other survivors and rememberers across the world, Friday was a time of particular reflection. Jan. 27 is the United Nations-declared International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day that the Soviet Red Army liberated the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Friday marked the seventh annual day of reflection since the U.N. General Assembly designated it in 2005.

"Children and the Holocaust" was this year's theme, in memory of the 1.5 million children who didn't survive that brutal era and, as Greenbaum put it, "the lucky ones," like him, who did.

650 (with trims) by Emily Seagrave Kennedy in Washington. MOVED

^Contest may take new route as Romney rebounds, Gingrich sags<

^CAMPAIGN-OVERVIEW:WA_

After storming into the state with a head of steam from a surprising win last Saturday in South Carolina, Gingrich's support has waned and polls now suggest that he could lose Florida's primary when voting ends Tuesday, perhaps by a wide margin.

He's run into a newly energized, hard-hitting opponent in Mitt Romney, a TV-dominated mega-state where he can't afford to play and a diverse state in which transplanted Northeasterners and Midwesterners aren't as welcoming to his message.

At the same time, the party establishment is rallying to stop him. And he heads from Florida into a weeks-long stretch with no TV debates, once the lifeblood of his cash-poor campaign.

650 (with trims) by Steven Thomma in Orlando, Fla. MOVED

^Pentagon call for U.S. base closures a political move, lawmakers say<

^DEFENSE:WA_< Legislators on Capitol Hill vowed Friday to resist a recommendation from the Pentagon to close unneeded military bases around the country as a way to save money, saying communities could not afford it and defense budget cuts could be made elsewhere.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said proposing domestic base closures was "dangerous." Many legislators said they wouldn't support closing any U.S. bases unless the military looks first at Europe, where the Army plans to draw down two combat brigades by 2015. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said earlier this week that he wouldn't support closing domestic bases before U.S. bases in Europe were shuttered.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said many installations overseas are "relics of the Cold War."

1000 (with trims) by Nancy A. Youssef and Sean Cockerham in Washington. MOVED

^Is oil drilling in Cuban waters safe?<

^CUBA-OIL-ADV29:MI_

After traveling half-way around the world, the rig has moved into place some 22 miles north of Havana and about 70 miles south of the Florida Keys. Repsol, the Spanish company that is leasing the rig for $511,000 day, said drilling began last week.

But already, without finding a drop of oil, the hulking Scarabeo 9 has become one of the most analyzed, discussed and vilified rigs to ever sink an exploratory well.

Not only has its location raised fears that a blowout could dump oil on Florida's beaches and damage sensitive mangroves, sea grass, coral reefs and marine life, but the U.S. embargo against Cuba also has made preparedness and recovery from a possible oil spill particularly tricky.

1300 (with trims) by Mimi Whitefield in Miami. MOVED

ARCHIVE GRAPHIC

^BUSINESS<

^New Vizio HDTV breaks wide-screen barrier for movies, apps<

^CPT-TV-WIDTH:USA_

Today's high-definition sets evolved to a rectangular 16-by-9 shape from the more square analog TVs. But a wider 21-by-9 display standard is in the works at the Consumer Electronics Association.

Vizio's 58-inch 3-D LED CinemaWide display is expected to be the first 21-by-9-inch HD-TV to market. It's due in stores in March in time for the NCAA men's and women's March Madness basketball tournaments and will be $3,499.99, including four pairs of 3-D glasses.

450 by Mike Snider. MOVED

^Big quarter made Apple world's largest smartphone seller, analyst says<

^CPT-PHONESALES:SJ_

Samsung sold 36.5 million smartphones in the final three months of 2011, Strategy Analytics reported, slightly below Apple's total. Those sales figures gave Apple 23.9 percent of the market and Samsung 23.5 percent of the market for the quarter.

300 by Jeremy C. Owens in San Jose, Calif. MOVED

^FEATURES<

^Mary Tyler Moore is proud of her cutting-edge TV shows<

^TV-MOORE-ADV29:LA_

Instead, Moore's name keeps coming up because 42 years after she helped create the single-gal comedy genre, a slew of female-centric shows hit the networks, raising hopes that a new version of the classic and still-resonant "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" would emerge. (It hasn't.)

By midseason, critics were blatantly holding up the new to the old. "No Mary Richards" was how several chose to characterize the fictionalized version of comedian Chelsea Handler in her new show, "Are You There, Chelsea?" Well, no, obviously not, since Mary was a well-dressed, carefully coiffed professional woman trying to balance a career and a meaningful personal life and Chelsea's show is centered on a bartender / drunken skank.

If anyone involved hopes Moore herself is watching, I'm here to tell you that's she's not. "Oh, I don't watch any of them," she said recently from her office in New York. "Why would I? That story has been done, and I think we did it pretty well. I don't need to watch another version."

1350 (with trims) by Mary McNamara in Los Angeles. MOVED

PHOTO, ARCHIVE PHOTO

^'Robot & Frank' offers Frank Langella 'a remarkable experience'<

^MOVIE-SUNDANCE-LANGELLA-ADV29:LA_

The resulting picture, the sly and delightful "Robot & Frank," brought the 74-year-old actor to the Sundance Film Festival for the first time. Sitting in a comfortable corner of an Italian restaurant and watching a near-blizzard develop outside, Langella added, "I really do believe that all of life is happenstance, careers especially."

800 by Kenneth Turan in Park City, Utah. MOVED

ARCHIVE PREMIUM PHOTO

^'Goats' puts David Duchovny in Sundance spotlight<

^USAC-MOVIE-DUCHOVNY:USA_

But walking down the snowy sidewalk here at the Sundance Film Festival, he was pleased to get a new shout-out.

"This total stranger just yelled out, 'Hey, Goat Man!' a moment ago," says Duchovny, 51. "I was very pleased. Now that's a first."

It probably will not be the last time. Duchovny's performance in the coming-of-age drama "Goats" was an instant standout after premiering Tuesday at the gathering of independent filmmakers.

The usually clean-cut actor plays the wild-haired Goat Man, a philosophical, marijuana-smoking goatherd who serves as a mentor to a 15-year-old boy (played by Graham Phillips from "The Good Wife"). Duchovny captures the oddball character's essence, even if the hair had to be added in the makeup chair.

650 by Bryan Alexander in Park City, Utah. MOVED

PREMIUM PHOTOS

^The goat protocol for 'Goats'<

^USAC-MOVIE-DUCHOVNY-GOATS-:USA_

"Normally if goats get a moment in film, they are brought in just to eat something important," says David Duchovny, who stars with two of them in his new film. "Like they'll show a goat eating an important map."

That changes when Duchovny spends much of his screen time with goats Freida and Lance in "Goats," which made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week.

300 by Bryan Alexander. MOVED

^SPORTS <

^Davis says he's 100 percent for return to UFC's Octagon<

^MMA-UFC-OCTAGON:PD_

Certainly not the opponents he has had to injure and embarrass to make his commanding rise to the top of UFC's light-heavyweight division.

Or the exchange of insults he's had with fellow UFC light-heavyweights, specifically Rashad Evans in preparation for their upcoming main event Saturday at UFC from the United Center in Chicago.

Missing his chance at Evans when UFC's caravan rolled into Philadelphia last August for UFC 133 at the Wells Fargo Center? Well, that's one thing Davis, a Harrisburg, Pa., native, can't shrug off so easily.

800 by Kerith Gabriel. MOVED

^Veteran Al Michael gets the Super call for NBC<

^TV-HIESTAND-COLUMN:USA_

And Michaels, 67, figures he might as well enjoy himself. "The greatest advice I got was from (broadcaster) Curt Gowdy, who I maybe admired more than anybody, was to relish the moment _ don't get jaded. I know what to expect, to see where the game takes you."

He says his preparation won't change much just because it's for a broadcast where 30 seconds of air time for commercials goes for about $3.5 million. "It's like you always hear players say, 'You've got to do what got you here in the first place.' And the older you get, it's like with players _ you savor it."

Michaels' first Super Bowl call came in 1987 when Washington beat Denver, 42-10 _ "that's your biggest fear, a blowout." He figures Pittsburgh's 27-23 win vs. Arizona in 2008, which turned out to be John Madden's last TV game, was his second-favorite outing. His call of the U.S.-USSR hockey game in the 1980 Winter Olympics, predictably, is No. 1: "That sits on a shelf by itself. Nothing will knock it down."

1000 by Michael Hiestand. MOVED

^BEST OF INTERNATIONAL<

^<

The following stories moved during the past week and remain suitable for use:

^<

^For many Mexicans, security concerns trump democratic ideals as election approaches<

^MEXICO-POLITICS:DA_

The city, once a beacon of prosperity and hope, has sunk with much of the rest of northern Mexico into a swamp of lawlessness and drug-related violence, capped by the torching of a casino last summer that killed more than 50 daytime patrons.

Now, with Mexico's presidential campaign about to begin in earnest, Monterrey residents _ along with their compatriots elsewhere _ are asking whether the political change they voted for more than a decade ago, turning out the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, is worth the insecurity they now face daily, evidenced by soldiers manning roadblocks, bodies riddled with bullets, and corpses hanging from bridges.

1400 (with trims) by Alfredo Corchado in Monterrey, Mexico. MOVED

GRAPHIC

^North Korea defector learns to trust the stranger who saved him<

^NKOREA-DEFECTOR:LA_

Krys Lee is no stranger now. The Korean-American writer is more like a fussy parent.

That morning, Lee had greeted Kim as he emerged from a high-security facility near Seoul, the South Korean capital, that serves as a decompression chamber for defectors from the North.

Their unlikely relationship was forged along the underground railroad that moves North Korean refugees to China and then to Southeast Asian nations en route to South Korea.

1350 (with trims) by John M. Glionna in Gyeongju, South Korea. MOVED

PHOTO

^Honduras 'at the border of an abyss'<

^HONDURAS:MI_

"We are rotten to the core," he said of the drug-related graft infecting virtually every layer of law enforcement in Honduras. "We are at the border of an abyss. These are criminal organizations inside and out."

The soft-spoken, bespectacled former deputy drug czar had been fired, sued for libel and saw his last boss murdered.

Two weeks later, the 71-year-old security expert was dead. Hit men on motorbikes approached him at a traffic light Dec. 7 and peppered the driver's side window of his Kia sedan with bullets.

Landaverde has become another tragic figure in the country's ongoing struggle with corruption that threatens nearly every major government institution in Honduras.

2150 (with trims) by Frances Robles in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. MOVED

^Older South Koreans flock to the smartphone and learn to wield it<

^SKOREA-PHONES:LA_

She's aggressive, hyper-confident in her navigation of her hipster device. She's also 63.

Lee, her cheeks lightly smudged with rouge, is among the rapidly growing ranks of older South Korean technology users, veteran consumers who feel compelled to keep pace with younger residents of this restless society.

850 (with trims) by John M. Glionna in Seoul, South Korea. MOVED

PHOTO

^Chinese investor's grad plans for US take a stumble<

^USCHINA-INVESTMENT-BIZPLUS:LA._

Some dreams rolled out as planned. The battery scientist and clean-energy promoter bought control of four Southern California specialty vehicle makers. The University of California-Riverside renamed a building as Winston Chung Hall, saying that the $13 million he provided for green power research was the biggest donation in campus history.

But other ventures skidded off course, the biggest failure being a bid to step into the social spotlight by purchasing the Balboa Bay Club and Resort, a Rat Pack-era landmark where Republican power brokers mingled and John Wayne tossed back Conmemorativo tequila.

1550 (with trims) by E. Scott Reckard in Orange County, Calif., and David Pierson in Beijing. MOVED

PHOTO

^Super Bowl ads get racier, but does sex really sell?<

^MKTG-RACYADS:USA._

That's because GoDaddy.com, the godfather of sultry if not tacky Super Bowl spots, is headquartered here. The domain name registrar let a USA Today reporter inside its fortress-like headquarters as it shot one of its two 2012 Super Bowl commercials. Its new, multimillion-dollar production studio is buzzing this day with sights and sounds aimed to tease, titillate _ and taunt.

Here's Danica Patrick, arguably as famous for her GoDaddy spots as for her race car driving, standing on the set in 4 1/2-inch stilettos. Here, too, is Jillian Michaels, the shapely fitness guru and official GoDaddy Girl. She's helping Patrick strategically apply body paint to what will appear, in the ad, to be a nude model.

1700 (with trims) by Bruce Horovitz in Scottsdale, Ariz. MOVED

^Vintage eyeglasses provide clear path to Hollywood<

^MOVIE-OLDGLASSES:LA_

Campbell isn't a big-shot producer or a studio honcho. He's the owner of Old Focals, a vintage eyewear store in Pasadena that over the last 2 1/2 decades has supplied glasses for movies, television and commercial productions.

950 (with trim) by Jasmine Elist in Pasadena, Calif. MOVED

PHOTO

^Castaways on Fiji: Notes from the Coral Kingdom<

^WLT-FIJI:MCT_

"You can't go home until you've seen the Malolo Barrier Reef," said Kima Tagitagivalu, dive guide at Castaway, a family-friendly resort on Fiji's northwest coast. He checked off our names and handed us our swim fins. "A few years ago the district chief, Ratu (Chief) Seva Vatunitu, made it tabu for fishing and collecting. The people _ even the fishermen _ respect that decision and the fish have come back."

Being there, in the Mamanuca Archipelago, was kismet. If a last-minute schedule change hadn't delayed our flight back to Los Angeles, we would never have washed up on Castaway at all. But as often happens here in the carefree South Pacific, changes can be lucky.

1550 by Anne Z. Cooke and Steve Haggerty. MOVED

PHOTOS

^'The Artist' star Jean Dujardin finds his voice in the USA<

^USAC-MOVIE-DUJARDIN:USA_

So you wouldn't blame Jean Dujardin, who scored an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best actor and won a best-comedy-actor Golden Globe for his starring role in the silent film "The Artist," for reeling a little from all the attention he's getting.

Following news of the Oscar nominations, he's feeling "proud, shocked, daunted and lucky," he tells USA Today from Paris, where he watched the announcement with his nominated co-star Berenice Bejo and her husband, director Michel Hazanavicius. "It's proof that you have to listen to yourself and trust the movie and to never try to make a success and make unique and singular personal movies."

But the composed French actor with the expressive brows is maintaining his equilibrium. "My name means 'of the garden,' so it isn't very complex," he says, matter-of-factly, explaining how he stays grounded.

1500 (with trim) by Donna Freydkin in New York. MOVED

PHOTOS

^The verdict is in on climate change<

^ENV-CLIMATE-COMMENTARY:LA_

But most Americans do not work for the fossil fuel industry, and most Americans accept that there is an appropriate role for government to protect human and environmental health. So why has the denial of climate change achieved so much traction?