Lashes

When it comes to lashes, the bigger the better. Women are on a constant quest for fuller, longer lashes, and sometimes, a fancy mascara wand simply won't cut it. When you really want your eyes to pop, faux lashes are the only way to go. A new wave of affordable, natural looking falsies is the new norm at makeup studios around Los Angeles. Here are some options for getting a lush lash for holiday parties: Eyelash extensions If you want low maintenance eye makeup but still want to get that full lash look every day, eyelash extensions are a worthy investment.

A year ago and after weeks of demonstrations and protests, George Zimmerman was arrested and charged with murder for shooting an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin. On Thursday, Zimmerman's mother celebrated the anniversary by angrily denouncing the justice system and the media for the pushing for the arrest of her son  “solely to placate the masses.” Zimmerman, 29, has acknowledged that he shot 17-year-old Martin to death on the rainy night of Feb. 26, 2012, while the teenager was returning from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla. After weeks of protests that roiled the national debate on civil rights, racial profiling and self-defense law, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder;  his trial is scheduled for June 10. “April 11 2012 will be forever remembered by the Zimmerman family as the day the justice system failed us as Americans, and as a consequence an innocent man was arrested for a crime he did not commit, solely to placate the masses,” Zimmerman's mom, Gladys, wrote in a letter distributed via Twitter by her son, Robert.

Justin Bieber hasn't had the best March. He's been booed for being late onstage, he's landed in the hospital, almost got into a fight with a paparazzo and, on top of everything else, his hamster died. That's a lot for any 19-year-old, multi-platinum pop star, and now the singer is lashing out at the negative press that has surrounded him for the last few weeks. In an open letter to his fans that he posted as one long photo caption on the photo-sharing app Instagram, Bieber lashed out at what he calls “countless lies.” PHOTOS: Celebrity meltdowns “I'm 19 with 5 number one albums, 19 and I've seen the whole world.

It's April, which is good news for the roughly 180,000 music fans who have tickets to the sold-out Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, set for the weekends of April 12 and April 19. But for those who find themselves shut out of the annual festival in the desert, there are numerous noteworthy concerts happening closer to home. Most even feature modern amenities such as air conditioning, and many, in fact, include artists performing at Coachella. Granted, you won't be seeing 100-plus acts over a three-day span, but for less than the cost of one $349 general admission Coachella wristband, one can undertake a more than worthy pop-music crash course over the next four weeks.

LONDON -- Morrissey, the former frontman for the Smiths, is a little cross these days. What else is new? Veteran observers of the often-controversial singer are well accustomed to his rants on politics and various music-industry feuds, including one truly bizarre riff on Elton John. Come to think it, he might be well-positioned as a talk-show host, well equipped at repackaging rage. Right now, Morrissey is a man with a serious thorn in his side: the Olympics. The Guardian newspaper managed to to get a copy of a recent angry letter from the singer, addressed to his fan club: "I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event.

Tropical Storm Isaac pummeled southwest Florida and the Keys with rain and wind as it headed toward the Gulf Coast, where it could hit land as a Category 2 hurricane by Tuesday. “Folks along the northern Gulf Coast need to be taking this storm seriously,”  National Weather Service Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said Sunday. Residents of coastal Alabama, Mississippi, the Florida Panhandle and parts of Louisiana were advised to begin gathering supplies and preparing for the storm while the weather is still calm.

Lindsay Lohan got a bit of a legal respite Monday: Prosecutors weren't ready to proceed with a misdemeanor assault charge related to her November nightclub dust-up, and her attorney predicted the case eventually would be dropped. "We've come forward with a witness who was able to share her personal assessment and witnessing of the event that caused the arrest," attorney Mark Heller told reporters Monday morning, "and it may very well be that this case does not move forward. " Heller told CNN that his client didn't hit anyone but did "verbally request her privacy" in an incident with Palm Beach, Fla., psychic Tiffany Mitchell.

Village elders have sentenced two men to 50 lashes with a cane and an $80 fine for raping a housewife in the village of Bagmara in northern Bangladesh, news reports said. Hundreds of women held a weekend rally at a town 10 miles east of Dhaka to protest a recent increase in rapes and other attacks against women.

Cristobal, the first tropical storm to menace the Southeast seaboard this hurricane season, sent outer bands of intermittent rain lashing the eastern Carolinas on Saturday as forecasters predicted it could dump several inches in parts of drought-stricken North Carolina.

Audra McDonald, the four-time Tony-winning actress, has taken to Twitter to blast a noisy audience member at a recent performance of "The Gershwins' 'Porgy and 'Bess' " at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York. McDonald lashed out Wednesday evening on her Twitter account at the unknown individual for "crinkling ur bag of chips like it was a musical instrument. " The actress plays Bess in the revisionist revival of the classic musical, which opened on Broadway in December.

Justin Bieber hasn't had the best March. He's been booed for being late onstage, he's landed in the hospital, almost got into a fight with a paparazzo and, on top of everything else, his hamster died. That's a lot for any 19-year-old, multi-platinum pop star, and now the singer is lashing out at the negative press that has surrounded him for the last few weeks. In an open letter to his fans that he posted as one long photo caption on the photo-sharing app Instagram, Bieber lashed out at what he calls “countless lies.” PHOTOS: Celebrity meltdowns “I'm 19 with 5 number one albums, 19 and I've seen the whole world.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The often-volatile U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai grew increasingly strained Sunday as Karzai accused the United States and Taliban insurgents of having a secret understanding to foment violence as a pretext to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan. The comments were the latest - and perhaps the most baffling - broadside by the mercurial Afghan leader against one of his nation's closest allies, leaving U.S. officials privately fuming and publicly struggling to limit the fallout.

In sync with the '60s spirit in fashion, eye makeup is going Mod. Think shadows in bold Pop art brights, feathered liner, mega lashes and graphic brows. Makeup artist François Nars channeled the signature look of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol's muse and one of the era's style icons, at the Marc Jacobs spring fashion show. Anchored by strong brows, dramatic eyes were the focal point, punched up with dark liner and loads of mascara for a spidery-lashed look without false lashes. "Adding a darker shade to the [lower rim]

The Lash Where: 117 Winston St., L.A. When: 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., daily Price: Beer, wine and cocktails, $6 to $12 Info: http://www.thelashsocial.com

Sandwiched between Los Angeles and Main streets off a tiny road called Winston, the new downtown L.A. club the Lash may be situated off an alley, but from there any sense of place starts feeling a little fuzzy. A glowing door in a wall painted with diagonal black-and-white strips leads to a small set of steps that take you to the club's main bar. Inside, walls made of smashed white subway tiles, modern modular furniture, off-kilter mirrors and bleacher seating create an oddly cold but inviting minimalist space.

FT. MEADE, Md. -- An alleged top Al Qaeda lieutenant charged with four other defendants in the Sept. 11 conspiracy angrily lashed out Monday against the military tribunal system, saying the process had zapped any desire for “us to come to court” to defend against possible death sentences in the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Accused Al Qaeda training camp steward Walid bin Attash apparently spoke for his co-defendants, including alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in voicing his disgust during the first day of pretrial hearings this week at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

CAIRO - An Egyptian human rights lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and 300 lashes by a court in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of smuggling drugs into the kingdom. Ahmed Gizawy was arrested with his wife on their way to a pilgrimage to Mecca in April, allegedly carrying 20,000 prescription anti-anxiety pills. The Egyptian consulate in the kingdom said it would appeal the ruling, according to Egypt's state news agency. The court also convicted an Egyptian who was traveling with Gizawy to six years and 400 lashes, the news agency reported.

Hours before one of the largest storms on record makes landfall in southern New Jersey Monday evening, Hurricane Sandy was speeding up and lashing the East Coast, pushing floodwaters in low-lying areas from Maryland to New York, bringing transportation systems to a halt and snapping electrical connections. Even though the superstorm was still about 200 miles offshore, Sandy's relentless march to land sped up to 28 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Flooding was reported in southern New Jersey and along the coastal areas in Manhattan where highways were closed as the East River continued to rise.

CAIRO - An Egyptian human rights lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and 300 lashes by a court in Saudi Arabia after being found guilty of smuggling drugs into the kingdom. Ahmed Gizawy was arrested with his wife on their way to a pilgrimage to Mecca in April, allegedly carrying 20,000 prescription anti-anxiety pills. The Egyptian consulate in the kingdom said it would appeal the ruling, according to Egypt's state news agency. The court also convicted an Egyptian who was traveling with Gizawy to six years and 400 lashes, the news agency reported.

“The Daily Show” returned Monday after an unusually newsy holiday hiatus that included the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and the manufactured drama of the fiscal cliff negotiations. In his first broadcast of 2013, Jon Stewart chose to direct his attention at another big story that took place over the break: the failure of the outgoing House of Representatives to approve (or even vote on) a relief package for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Regular “Daily Show” watchers may recall a couple of years ago when Stewart launched a crusade against conservative lawmakers who were reluctant to provide health benefits for 9/11 first responders . Thanks in part to the public shaming, the bill eventually passed.