Normal Life

SAN DIEGO - A veteran teacher at a Catholic school has lost her job because school officials are worried her ex-husband, now serving a jail sentence for domestic abuse and stalking, will pose a danger to students and teachers when he is released. When Martin Charlesworth, 41, showed up at Holy Trinity School in El Cajon in January, school officials put the school on lockdown and called police. By coming to the school, he was in violation of a restraining order, court records indicate.

KABUL, Afghanistan - When he saw the flowing blood, Mohammed Anwar at first thought his son was dead. Five-year-old Muqadas had been shot in the head in June during a firefight between U.S. forces and Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan. But Anwar's quick response not only saved his son's life, it also secured modern medical treatment that has allowed Muqadas to resume a normal life. Thousands of Afghan civilians are killed or maimed each year in warfare, and most are doomed to rudimentary medical care in this impoverished country.

Say what you will about Snooki, but the hard-partying "Jersey Shore" star has taken quite a turn since having her baby boy, Lorenzo. Snooki, the pint-sized star whose real name is Nicole Polizzi, appeared on the "Today" show Wednesday for her first live interview since having her baby with fiance Jionni LaValle. The couple sat down with Savannah Guthrie to discuss her transformation and shift in priorities since wrapping up the final season of the MTV reality series. "It's crazy because, you know me, I just always wanted to have a good time," Snooki said.

As the end of the year nears, you no doubt have been receiving a lot of mail requesting your charitable dollars. More donations are made at this time of year than in any other month. But to which organizations should you give, and why? To your house of worship? Or to your school or college? What about to medical research, or to the arts? My answer: None of the above. Given the huge discrepancy between how much most Americans have and how little the world's poorest people have, your dollars are likely to do more good if you give to charities helping people living in extreme poverty in developing countries - as long as you are careful to give only to the most effective ones.

Like a man who has paced the same prison cell for more than three years, author Salman Rushdie said Tuesday that he is ready to break out--even if it isn't quite safe to do so. In a rare interview, Rushdie talked boldly of pushing back the frontiers of his freedom and stealing back the ordinary life that has eluded him since he was forced underground in February, 1989.

Eighteen months ago, Channon Phipps wouldn't go outside to play because he was afraid his friends didn't like him anymore. Last week, the 12-year-old was fidgeting at the kitchen table of his family's El Toro condominium because he was in a hurry to go skateboarding with his friend, Tommy. A hemophiliac who has tested positive for AIDS antibodies, Channon spent six months at home before a court order allowed him to return to Rancho Canada Elementary School in February, 1986.

"Normal Life" is normal life for TV comedy--infinite high jinks yielding few laughs--and that's the biggest problem. The premiere on CBS (8 tonight on Channels 2 and 8) puts its two left feet forward. Meet the Harlows: Parents Anne (Cindy Williams) and Max (Max Gail), and kids Tess, 22 (Moon Unit Zappa); Jake, 19 (Dweezil Zappa), and Simon, 13 (Josh Williams). They're zany. As a bonus, Tess' friend Prima (Bess Meyer) is ditzy and the family's neighbor Bob (Jim Staahl) is klutzy.

Prince Takamado, a member of the Japanese royal family known for his love of sports and efforts to make the closeted imperial system more accessible to average Japanese, died Thursday. He was 47. The prince, seventh in line to the throne and a cousin of the current emperor, collapsed while taking a squash lesson at the Canadian embassy. According to Japanese media reports, he slumped over around 4 p.m.

The day after a judge's ruling changed their lives, Mark and Crispina Calvert looked to all the world like many other young married couples: He went off to work and she stayed home with the baby. But there was a telling sign that the emotional tumult that spilled into this house in the wake of a nationally watched test-tube baby case had not yet disappeared--on a sunny California day, the curtains were drawn.

A young militiaman with an impish face stood amid a litter of empty cartridge cases in the rubble of an unfinished apartment building, playfully waving his arms like an orchestra conductor to the sound of mortar- and automatic-rifle fire. His name, he said, is John, and he is 16 years old. For most of his life, people have been shooting at one another here in southern Lebanon. Three weeks before, John was a high school student.

With 20 years of screen credits behind him, Jake Gyllenhaal is a 31-year-old actor with a résumé that defies expectations. He was raised by parents in the business (director Stephen Gyllenhaal and producer/writer Naomi Foner) and with an actress sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal), but Jake forged his own path with a mix of blockbusters ("Day After Tomorrow"), iconic indies ("Brokeback Mountain") and highly personal projects, like his recent "End of Watch," a $7-million indie about East L.A. cops that took in $39.1 million worldwide.

Say what you will about Snooki, but the hard-partying "Jersey Shore" star has taken quite a turn since having her baby boy, Lorenzo. Snooki, the pint-sized star whose real name is Nicole Polizzi, appeared on the "Today" show Wednesday for her first live interview since having her baby with fiance Jionni LaValle. The couple sat down with Savannah Guthrie to discuss her transformation and shift in priorities since wrapping up the final season of the MTV reality series. "It's crazy because, you know me, I just always wanted to have a good time," Snooki said.

Comic Tig Notaro will publish a collection of humorous, autobiographical essays with Ecco in 2015, the publisher announced Tuesday. Notaro , who has had her own 30-minute special on Comedy Central, has written for TV, has been heard on "This American Life" and regularly appeared on the full gamut of late-night shows, did a set at Largo in August that brought her special attention. Scheduled to appear for her monthly show at Largo with Louis CK as a special guest, Notaro first went to a doctor's appointment.

Irom Sharmila's mother has a simple dream: sitting down to a meal with her daughter. Irom hasn't willingly ingested food or water for 11 years, in protest of a law granting legal immunity to the armed forces for human rights abuses. As the anniversary of her hunger strike nears, her mother imagines what might be. "I'm still waiting for her to come home," said Shakhi Devi, 78, holding an album of her daughter's photos. She rarely visits the 39-year-old, the world's longest-serving hunger striker, because it's too painful.

Fighting continued in the Libyan capital Thursday as rebel forces pressed the search for the country's longtime ruler, Moammar Kadafi, who was dislodged from his command-and-control center this week and remains in hiding. Rebels who overran the city and all but toppled Kadafi's decades-long rule said they had a group of Kadafi loyalists surrounded in an apartment building close to his Bab Azizya compound, which was ransacked by lightly armed rebel forces following a rapid advance from three directions on the capital.

Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. It's a drumbeat most middle-aged and older patients hear from their doctors every year. But for those with Type 2 diabetes, these basic lifestyle factors can play a key role in controlling the disorder and preventing serious complications such as blindness, nerve disorders and kidney failure. People with Type 2 diabetes aren't able to respond properly to insulin, an essential hormone that helps transfer sugar from the bloodstream to cells, where it is used for energy.

Melvia Darden, a colon-cancer patient, lost her apartment because of the medical bills. Tracy Newsome said she had to leave home after her boyfriend threatened her with a butcher knife. Ann Quakenbush, who took a bus to Los Angeles from Grand Rapids, Mich., ran out of money and had no place to stay. At Harmony House, a 62-bed women's shelter in South-Central Los Angeles, these women receive the basics to begin a new life. The six-year-old center at 911 E. 25th St.

Alison Ashcraft has grown up under a microscope. Like the renowned "boy in the bubble," whose vulnerability to illnesses forced him to live in an isolated environment, she was born with severe combined immuno-deficiency disease. But unlike the child made famous by a TV movie, Alison has been able to lead a relatively normal existence because of medical advancements. At age 17, the Laguna Hills High School junior is one of the oldest living sufferers of SCID.