TV News LIES

Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local high schools here this fall, dozens of gay students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city.

It was a turning point here and for the state, where administrators, teachers and even the Legislature have tried for years to block support groups for gay youths, calling them everything from inappropriate to immoral.

A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 16, when his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His 5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation.

But that brief moment of peace could not hide the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions remained about Sergeant Senft’s lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done more to prevent it.

In the event of his untimely death or long-term incarceration, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would make public all the leaked documents his group has, the activist reiterated Thursday in an interview with the broadcaster al Jazeera.

"If I am forced, we could go to the extreme and expose each and every file that we have access to," he said, according to media groups reporting on the interview.

"Did my child die or was he kidnapped?" is something no parent should ever have to ask, and still less so when the kidnappers are the government. But that is exactly the question hundreds of Spanish families are currently demanding that their courts resolve for once and for all about the so-called "lost children of General Franco".

They were already estimated to total around 30,000, and now, it appears, there may be many more.

Phoenix is setting zoning rules to regulate the medical marijuana system Arizona voters legalized in November, officials said. The state Health Department also is drafting rules on who can prescribe and receive a prescription and to ensure secure facilities, The Arizona Republic reported Saturday.

Phoenix planning director Debra Stark said the city aimed to make zoning laws strict enough to protect the community while allowing marijuana in the city.

The board of a Rio Linda church, whose pastor has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation, released a statement of support on Saturday.

Tom Gene Daniels, 48, pastor of the Rio Linda Baptist Church, is charged with suspicion of lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14 and engaging in 3 or more acts of sexual conduct with a child.

Starting Jan. 1, one of the liveliest spots aboard most submarines will wither away into the history books. RIP, Smoke Pit. Its death was scripted in April, when Navy officials announced smoking would no longer be allowed on submarines at sea. The reason: Testing showed that despite air filtering, there were "unacceptable levels" of secondhand smoke on submerged submarines.

Chief Petty Officer Robert Mueller Jr. used to head to the smoke pit before and after his shifts as assistant navigator aboard the submarine Albany.

When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully underrepresented.

Only one woman was named to Maliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq. Whether this fledgling nation becomes a liberal democracy or an Islamist-led patriarchy might well be judged by the place it affords its women.