Alexandra

Resistance is futile. The music of "Carousel," with its hypnotic score and soaring love songs ("If I Loved You," "You'll Never Walk Alone"), has survived telethons, high school graduations and Simon Cowell. Now this Rodgers and Hammerstein perennial is back in L.A. with a fresh take and a rising new star. Opening tonight at UCLA's Freud Playhouse, the Reprise staging of "Carousel" marks the American theater debut of Alexandra Silber, a Los Angeles-born talent already celebrated in London for her West End performance as Julie Jordan, a young mill worker in late-19th-century New England who falls hard for Billy Bigelow, a carnival barker torn between love and grift.

All dressed up with cool places to go, the pretty young things of "Lotus Eaters" are very rich and extravagantly bored. Alexandra McGuinness' first feature isn't quite as aimless as the millennial jet-setters it portrays, but it's at least as good-looking and stylish. And even though the handsome black-and-white lensing is no substitute for a compelling story, it helps, infusing the skin-deep sketches of emotional enervation with aesthetic energy - for a while. The movie's London clique partake of the usual sex, drugs and clubbing, the bathtubs full of bubbly, and, of course, accouter their pet lemurs with jeweled collars.

The Night Bookmobile A Graphic Novel Audrey Niffenegger Abrams Comicarts: 40 pp., $19.95 What would a library of your entire life's reading contain? What kinds of material ? not just books, but anything you've ever read, such as instruction manuals, classified ads and cereal box tops ? would you find? Can you remember every single thing you've ever read? If you can't, don't worry: Alexandra, the main character in Audrey Niffenegger's graphic novel "The Night Bookmobile," discovers that there's a mysterious power in the universe keeping track of such things.

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, a prolific British composer, arranger and pianist whose film scores were nominated three times for Academy Awards, has died in New York City. He was 76. Bennett died Dec. 24 after a brief illness, his publisher Novello & Co said in a statement. [For the Record, 2:50 p.m. PST, Dec. 30: A previous version of this post cited the title of the film "Far From the Madding Crowd" as "Far From the Maddening Crowd. " ] In 1967, Bennett was nominated for his first Oscar for the score of " Far From the Madding Crowd.

Your feature article "Mickey Goes to France," in the May 3 issue, prompted us to write you with a suggestion. Dump the mother and keep the kid. Alexandra made us laugh, and Marjorie reminded us how terribly sophisticated, "seen-that, been-there" writers discourage travel. Yeah, Alexandra. BARBARA POLLARD Santa Barbara

A highway and a mile-wide valley divide the glittering retail towers and leafy suburbs of Sandton from the exuberant chaos and squalid poverty of Alexandra township in South Africa. But on Mandela Day, the birthday of the nation's best-loved liberation hero, the gulf seems less impossible. Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday Monday with family at his home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, while adoring compatriots rolled up their sleeves and did some good. It's a day when people in South Africa try a little kindness — 67 minutes' worth — in honor of the 67 years that Mandela worked for equality in the African nation, from 1942 until his retirement from public life in 2009.

Ilya Levin awoke shortly after dawn Thursday, too excited to sleep. He and his wife, Yelena, two Soviet refuseniks, were savoring their first hours in America--in Los Angeles--a new world of sights, sounds and smells. He could sleep some other time. Only a few hours earlier, Levin, 42, and his wife, 41, had arrived here on a plane from New York, completing a 13-year struggle to leave their homeland. "It was a feeling of excitement," Levin said through an interpreter.

The most enduring and romantic legend of the Russian Revolution -- that two children of Czar Nicholas II and his wife, Alexandra, survived the slaughter that killed the rest of their family -- may finally be put to rest with the positive identification of bone fragments from a lonely Russian grave.

The actions of a Southern California woman who allegedly cut off her husband's penis has horrified men throughout the country, perhaps even the world. FOR THE RECORD: A previous version of this post mistakenly referred to Osiris when Isis was intended. The sentence as corrected: "Isis was able to collect and reassemble 13 of the pieces, but could not find the penis, which had been eaten by a fish. " In the midst of divorce proceedings triggered, perhaps, by "inappropriate relationships" on his part, Catherine Kieu Becker drugged her husband's meal to render him unconscious, tied him to a bed and cut off his penis with a 10-inch kitchen knife, police say. She then put the severed organ in the garbage disposal and turned it on before calling 911. Surprisingly, penis destruction is not that uncommon an event, and surgeons have developed a variety of techniques to deal with it. Most news stories about the incident cite the case of Lorena Bobbitt, who cut off the penis of her husband, John, and threw it out of a moving car. That penis was ultimately found and reattached, leading John Bobbitt to a brief career in porn movies.

Nathan Meade, one of Australia's premier divers, was killed when he apparently misjudged a dive during practice and smashed into the concrete diving platform Thursday at Brisbane, Australia. Meade, 21, was pronounced dead at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Doctors said he suffered massive brain damage. The Australian high-dive champion was a top contender for a spot on his nation's 1988 Olympic team.

NBCUniversal has promoted two veteran news executives -- Alexandra Wallace and Don Nash -- to manage its profitable but troubled morning program "Today," which has taken a dramatic tumble in the ratings. On Wednesday, NBC announced that it had elevated Nash, a 23-year veteran of the show, to the job of executive producer, overseeing the broadcast's operations. He replaces Jim Bell, who is moving to NBC Sports to manage editorial content for the company's Olympics broadcasts. In his new role, Nash, 47, will be responsible for all four hours of "Today," and will be the executive in charge of the show's staff.  He takes over Dec. 1, and will report to Wallace, who was promoted to the newly created role of "executive in charge" of the "Today" show.  "In that capacity, Wallace will have executive oversight of 'Today,' " NBC said in a prepared statement.

The finish to Alexandra Raisman's Olympics was so much more fabulous than the start. Raisman, an 18-year-old from Needham, Mass., who was often overlooked on this U.S. women's gymnastics team, did something no American woman has ever done. She won the Olympic gold medal in floor exercise. When Romanian Sandra Izbasa, the reigning Olympic floor champion, landed her last tumbling pass on her head and shoulder, Raisman could finally smile. Earlier Tuesday, Raisman had also won a bronze medal on the balance beam, but only after her coach protested her initial low score of 14.966.

  LONDON -- Gabrielle Douglas, a 16-year-old from Virginia Beach, took the women's gymnastics all-around lead on her first event, the vault, and never let it go Thursday. Douglas earned her second Olympic gold medal and became the first African-American Olympics all-around gold medalist by performing with ferocious power, high-flying aerial tricks on the uneven bars, a smartly cautious balance beam display and, finally, a joyfully exuberant tumbling romp on the floor exercise mat. The silver medal went to Russia's Victoria Komova, who wept in disappointment.

LONDON - When Gabrielle Douglas is doing her best gymnastics - when she is swinging so fast around the uneven bars that she makes the air buzz, or when she tiptoes across the balance beam and you notice her smile because she makes a somersault seem so routine - other gymnasts seem to fade away. Douglas, a 16-year-old from Virginia Beach, Va., has the dazzling personality and outstanding skills to make other gymnasts disappear into the background. But just when it seems time to pronounce her the best or most talented gymnast, there will be a thud.

LONDON - Alexandra Raisman is a good teammate. And in her heart she knows she's a great gymnast. As this Olympic quadrennial has progressed, as 17-year-old Jordyn Wieber and 16-year-old Gabrielle Douglas won all of the competitions and grew to be the face of the gold-medal-favorite U.S. Olympic team, Raisman did what she always does: Perform competent and mostly mistake-free routines, followed up by a few words of encouragement for herself and...

LONDON -- As a team, the United States women's gymnasts are well ahead of the field so far after three of five qualifying subdivisions Saturday. That isn't a surprise. The mighty Chinese, the well-respected Russians and the onrushing Romanians are still to compete in the women's qualification event. But a major upset has already happened. Defending world champion Jordyn Wieber, expected to battle her American teammate Gabrielle Douglas for the Olympic all-around gold medal, won't have that chance.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The two bullet-riddled bodies were found splayed on the road near a car. Both men - one an interpreter and the other a security guard - had worked at an international base outside Kabul. They knew their lives were in danger, relatives said. The Taliban had threatened to kill them if they did not come up with money and stop helping NATO-led forces. But the men were supporting large extended families. Their recent deaths provided a chilling reminder of the dangers faced by thousands of Afghans who have served as interpreters, cultural advisors and other support staff to foreign troops and diplomats during the 11 years of war in Afghanistan.

Venezuela's interim president, Nicolas Maduro, squares off Sunday with Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles in an election that will decide who will complete the term of Hugo Chavez, who died March 5 after designating Maduro as his political heir. Voters will be influenced by how they fared under Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution, which reduced poverty but also brought rampant inflation, soaring crime and food shortages. Here is a snapshot of Venezuala after 14 years of Chavismo. Economy: Pressing issues include a 20% inflation rate, a ballooning government deficit and a dearth of investment.

LONDON - Happy tears, sad tears, so many tears for the U.S. women's gymnastics team Sunday. The women qualified first for Tuesday's team final, but that was the secondary news. Jordyn Wieber, the 17-year-old from DeWitt, Mich., who was the defending world all-around champion and a co-favorite for Olympic gold in that event with her teammate Gabrielle Douglas, made uncharacteristic mistakes on vault, uneven bars and floor exercise and was unable to qualify for the all-around final.