Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan dies at 89

n">(Reuters) - Marcella Hazan, whose cookbooks brought the rich taste of authentic Italian food into kitchens across the United States, has died at the age of 89, her family said.

Hazan lived in Longboat Key, Florida, with her husband and lifelong collaborator and writing partner Victor. Her death was announced by her daughter-in-law Lael Sara Caplan Hazan on her Facebook page.

"The world of authentic home cooking has lost a giant today. My mother-in-law Marcella Hazan, melted away peacefully, my father-in-law Victor, was at her side," Caplan Hazan wrote.

Marcella Hazan was born in Italy in 1924, moving to the United States with her husband after World War Two. She claimed that she did not really learn how to cook until she was married and living in New York.

She taught her first cooking class when she was in her mid-40s and the first of her six cookbooks, "The Classic Italian Cookbook," was published when she was nearly 50, according to epicurious.com.

Perhaps her most famous recipe - tomato sauce - exemplified her culinary philosophy of simplicity. It required a can of peeled plum tomatoes, five tablespoons of unsalted butter, one small white onion and salt.

Asked in an interview with epicurious.com what she believed the keys to success were for the home cook was, she replied "taste. That is very important. They don't have to do very complicated things. And good ingredients."

Among the garlands she received over a long career as both a cookery teacher and author were a James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and a knighthood in her native Italy.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Eric Walsh)

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For yogi Hilaria Baldwin, pregnancy was an easy stretch

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK | Mon Sep 30, 2013 4:03am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yoga teacher and fitness expert Hilaria Baldwin practices what she preaches and credits her easy pregnancy and labor to exercising - every day and sometimes during the night.

During her pregnancy, the wife of Emmy award-winning actor Alec Baldwin and new mother to 5-week-old Carmen Gabriela, said she gave up spinning classes for a less vigorous fitness regimen that included jogging.

But yoga, the 3,000-year-old practice that marries movement to breath, was the 29-year-old's primary thing.

"When I had aches and pains in the middle of the night, I'd just get out of bed and stretch," said Baldwin, who teaches at Yoga Vida in New York and will release a fitness DVD, "@Home with Hilaria Baldwin: Fit Mommy-to-Be Prenatal Yoga," on Tuesday.

"A lot of people are so afraid to exercise they do damage by becoming sedentary," she added.

In the absence of complications, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most, if not all, days for pregnant women.

Dr. Raul Artal, an expert on exercise and pregnancy who helped develop the ACOG guidelines, said women who are physically active have easier labor and recovery than sedentary women.

"There are also positive effects on mood that may prevent depression," said Artal, a professor and chairman of the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women's Health at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Artal said women should not hesitate to do yoga, as long as any movement is moderate and hydration is encouraged.

"Pregnancy is one of the main contributors to obesity," he noted. "Obese women have a higher incidence of infants with birth defects."

Exercise physiologist and yoga instructor Jessica Matthews, of the American Council on Exercise, said experienced yogis don't have to abandon their practice during pregnancy.

But there are necessary tweaks and modifications.

"In the first trimester most standing poses (and) balancing postures are still accessible," said Matthews. "As the belly starts to grow, some balancing may require the support of a wall."

As pregnancy progresses, she urges women to use pillows and other props, and added that during the second trimester the body really starts to change and aches, pains and discomfort sets in.

"In the third trimester yoga's greatest benefit is not so much asana (postures) but focus on relaxation and breath work that can help with the whole delivery process," she said.

Matthews has seen the egos of even the most daring, arm-balance and inversion-loving yogis recede during pregnancy.

"They really do already have the instinct to protect their child. Ego starts to take a back seat," she explained. "And often those who came with a more physical focus find that after pregnancy they connect to yoga in a different way."

Baldwin plans to pass on her yoga expertise to her daughter, who already has two baby yoga mats.

"She's going to totally do yoga," she said, "I have high hopes for her."

Baldwin's 55-year-old husband, who appears in her DVD, practices with her.

"We do yoga together. I think we should do more," she said. "She is (Carmen) going to tell her father to get off his butt."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Doina Chiacu)

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Gods forbid: India's temples guard their gold from government

A view of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, February 20, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui

By D. Jose

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India | Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:18pm EDT

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (Reuters) - India's Hindu temples are resisting divulging their gold holdings - perhaps nearly half the amount held in Fort Knox - amid mistrust of the motives of authorities who are trying to cut a hefty import bill that is hurting the economy.

The central bank, which has already taken steps that have slowed to a trickle the incoming supplies that have exacerbated India's current account deficit, has sent letters to some of the country's richest temples asking for details of their gold.

It says the inquiries are simply data collection, but Hindu groups are up in arms.

"The gold stored in temples was contributed by devotees over thousands of years and we will not allow anyone to usurp it," said V Mohanan, secretary of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad organization in Kerala state, in a statement.

Indians buy as much as 2.3 tonnes of gold, on average, every day - the weight of a small elephant - and what they don't give to the gods is mostly hoarded. Jewelry is handed down as heirlooms and stored away with bars and coins as a hedge against inflation or a source of quick funds in an emergency.

That is costing the economy dear. Gold imports totaled $54 billion in the year ending March 31, 2013, the biggest non-essential item shipped in from overseas and a major factor in swelling the current account deficit to a record in 2012/13.

Guruvayur temple, in Kerala, one of the most sacred in India and boasting a 33.5-metre (110-ft) gold-plated flagstaff, has already told the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) it won't divulge any details.

"The gold we have is mostly offered by the devotees. They would not like the details to be shared with anybody," said V M Gopala Menon, commissioner of the temple's administrative board.

The World Gold Council estimates there are about 2,000 tonnes of gold locked away in temples - worth about $84 billion at current prices - which Indian devotees have offered in the form of jewelry, bars, coins and even replicas of body parts, in the hope of winning favors from the gods or in thanks for blessings received and health restored.

Curbing gold imports and getting the gold squirreled away back into circulation has become a priority for the government and RBI this year. Import duty is at a record 10 percent and the latest new rule - that 20 percent of all imports must leave the country as jewelry exports - caused confusion that dried up buying for two months.

The head of the Hindu nationalist main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kerala state, V Muralidharan, said the RBI wanted to "take possession" of the gold and maybe sell it for dollars.

DATA COLLECTING?

The central bank said there was "no proposal under its consideration to convert idle gold into bullion at this juncture".

But its letters, sent to leading temple trusts in Kerala, were prompted by a report looking at "issues related to gold imports" and loans outside the banking system in February, which zeroed in on temples and domestic hoards for fresh supplies.

Under the heading "supply-related measures", the report looks at recycling domestic gold and notes: "Temples in India hold large quantities of gold jewelry offered by devotees to the deities."

Subha Unnikrishnan, a clothes shop owner worshipping at one of the temples in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram, said whatever had been given to the temple should stay there.

"We have given it to the god with a purpose," he said. "Nobody can take them away."

Of the three major temple boards in Kerala, which administer more than 2,800 temples, Cochin board has also decided against providing details of its gold, while another has yet to decide and a third says it has not yet received a letter from the RBI.

Some of them cite security reasons for their reticence - and the wealthiest temples do have tight controls and metal detectors at gates to keep their assets safe.

There has been no inquiry from the RBI yet at the centuries-old Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, where two years ago treasure then estimated to be worth over $20 billion - more than India's education budget - was discovered in secret subterranean vaults. But its hoard is already being checked by the Supreme Court to make sure it is adequately protected.

There are some, for sure, who feel the temples should divulge their centuries of gold offerings.

"Everything the temple gets should be known to the devotees," said Shankaram Kutty, head of an advertising firm based in Cochin, who goes at least once a year to Guruvayur with an offering. "I feel every temple should declare their assets."

Mumbai's Shree Siddhivinayak Ganpati temple, often visited by Bollywood celebrities, had already put 10 kg (22 lbs) of its gold into a bank deposit scheme. It still has 140 kg in its vault.

"The gold we have is the nation's property, we will be proud if the nation can benefit from it," said Subhash Vitthal Mayekar, chairman of the temple's administrative trust. He has not yet received an inquiry from the RBI.

It is not alone. The Tirupati temple in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, considered one of India's richest, has lodged 2,250 kg of gold with the State Bank of India, which pays it interest.

As the central bank ponders its options, it could take heart that the temples themselves are already doing their bit to circulate the gold.

"We use some of it for making gold lockets that we sell in our temple counter. For making the lockets, we send some gold to the Mumbai mint through the State Bank of India, which is one of our bankers," said a source at the Guruvayur temple's administration.

($1 = 62.0650 Indian rupees)

(Additional reporting by Siddesh Mayenkar and Suvashree Dey Choudhury in MUMBAI; Malini Menon in NEW DELHI; A. Ananthalakshmi in SINGAPORE; Writing by Jo Winterbottom; Editing by Alex Richardson)

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Diesel founder taken aback by race for young designers

Founder of Diesel clothing company Renzo Rosso gestures as he poses in front of Rialto Bridge in Venice December 14, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Manuel Silvestri

By Astrid Wendlandt

PARIS | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:43am EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - Renzo Rosso, the founder of Diesel, says competition for hot designers is now as intense as for football stars, as shown by the speed at which big luxury groups such as LVMH are investing in promising new fashion names.

"Fashion is like soccer, only champions make a difference," said the tattooed 58-year-old entrepreneur as he sat in the showroom of one of his brands, Maison Martin Margiela, in a converted 19th century convent in Paris.

Earlier this month, two fledgling British fashion brands Rosso had been following for more than two years, J.W. Anderson and Nicholas Kirkwood, were taken over by LVMH, the industry leader.

"We also considered investing in them but we never expected LVMH to move so quickly," Rosso told Reuters before the Margiela show at Paris Fashion Week.

Rosso made an estimated $3 billion fortune from the stone-washed jeans brand Diesel he founded in 1978 and which grew with the help of off-the-wall advertising campaigns.

Rosso also runs fashion brands Viktor & Rolf and Marni through his OTB (Only the Brave) holding company. His Staff International unit makes and distributes clothes under license for brands including Just Cavalli, DSquared2 and Vivienne Westwood.

Rosso spends much of his time surveying the work of young designers to see if one day they could work for him or if their labels have the potential to become global brands.

The race among big luxury groups such as LVMH and Kering to attract young designers comes as at a time when growth has slowed down at their big brands, Louis Vuitton and Gucci respectively.

"What groups like LVMH are doing, is preventing young designers like Anderson from working for somebody else," Rosso said.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

LVMH last week appointed Anderson, known for his urban androgynous style, as creative director of its Spanish luxury handbag brand Loewe.

LVMH has also invested in young French fashion label Maxime Simoens while Kering has bought stakes in British designer Christopher Kane and in U.S. brand Altuzarra.

Rosso said he was in talks to invest in a brand, whose name he declined to reveal, and hoped to finalize the deal next year. He knows it takes time to turn a fashion brand into a profitable business. Margiela, which now generates around 80 million euros in annual sales, only recently became profitable more than a decade after Rosso invested in it.

OTB is often compared to a small LVMH, being one of the only Italian fashion groups alongside Tod's, which owns Roger Vivier and Schiaparelli, which are regarded as industry consolidators. But Rosso says his ambition is not to build a giant group.

"I don't want to be a giant, I just want to be cool and modern," said the president of OTB, whose motto "Be stupid" is about being "bold, daring, breaking the rules and following your instinct".

Rosso, a father of six who was born into a farming family in Padua, northern Italy, and studied textile manufacturing, said he was looking for brands that were contemporary and original and knew "how to marry creativity with lifestyle".

He regretted not being able to buy Valentino, acquired last year by the Qatar royal family for 700 million euros, as the Italian fashion brand now appeared to be going from strength to strength.

Rosso also missed out on Milanese jeweler Pomellato, bought in April by Kering for 380 million euros.

SUCCESSION ASSURED

Companies often change hands when there is no clear succession plan or when descendents become too numerous and divided and some simply want to cash in.

Rosso said he felt his succession was assured, having named his 34-year-old son Stefano as his No. 2 this year. He also appointed his older son Andrea, 36, as creative director of Diesel's younger line 555DSL and the brand's licensing businesses in watches, sunglasses and perfume.

Rosso said he was not interested in an initial public offering as his group did not need cash, having 235 million euros on its balance sheet at the end of 2012.

"All my friends who are quoted advise me against doing it," he said.

If he wanted to make a major acquisition, Rosso estimated he could raise as much as 500 million euros in debt. OTB last year made earnings before interest and tax of 140.6 million euros on 1.5 billion euros of sales.

NO RECOVERY IN ITALY

Unlike fashion groups such as Prada, which spotted signs of recovery in Europe over the summer, particularly in Italy, Rosso said trading remained tough in southern Europe.

"I smile when I hear politicians say there is an economic improvement in Italy," Rosso said.

Rosso forecast OTB's revenue growth this year will come below the 10.1 percent recorded in 2012 due to lacklustre trading in Europe, which suffered from poor weather in the spring, and the weak yen, which also depressed the value of OTB's revenues.

The lower growth is also due to the pruning of Diesel's distribution network in countries such as Italy, where it makes between 10-15 percent of its sales.

Diesel is trying to move upmarket and has hired the designer Nicola Formichetti, Lady Gaga's ex-stylist and former artistic director at Thierry Mugler, the fashion brand owned by family-controlled cosmetics brand Clarins.

Rosso said business in northern Europe remained strong, particularly in countries such as Germany where sales growth is above 10 percent as "Germans become more fashion oriented".

(Additional reporting by Isla Binnie in Milan; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Modern Etiquette -The pluses and perils of instant communication

By Jo Bryant

LONDON | Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:38am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Email and texting enable us to communicate instantly, but the ease and spontaneity of communication can present us with a multitude of digital dilemmas.

Email

More formal than a text message and less formal than a letter, emails are quick and convenient. They should, however, be approached with the same care and attention that a more traditional form of written communication would receive.

Always include a proper salutation at the beginning of an email (ie ‘Dear Mr Debrett'). Formal emails mimic letters, but for most emails, sign-offs such as ‘Best wishes' or ‘Thanks' are quite acceptable.

Beware of using capital letters too often; use italics or underlining for emphasis. Don't litter emails with exclamation marks, and avoid abbreviations or emoticons for business correspondence.

Be cautious of sarcasm and subtle humor, unless you know that the reader will ‘get it'. If in doubt, err towards the polite and formal. Similarly, think carefully before hitting ‘send' if your email is written in haste or when emotions are running high.

Use ‘reply all' discriminately; don't spam friends and colleagues. Don't overload your emails with system-slowing extras.

Texting

Texts are for conveying short, instant messages. Important information may need a more lengthy explanation; if in doubt, send an email where you have more flexibility and space. Texting is a blunt instrument - do not send a text message if tact or subtlety is required.

Use as much conventional grammar, punctuation and spelling as necessary to ensure that you make yourself clear. Tailor your text message to the recipient - using abbreviated language and emoticons may look unprofessional or confuse a recipient not used to them.

If you have to cancel an appointment or communicate some important information, make a phone call. Don't let the convenience of texting be an excuse for always being late and never respond to bad news by text message. A handwritten letter or a phone call is always preferable.

In business, sign off with your name. Your recipient may not have your contact details stored in their phone.

(Jo Bryant is an etiquette advisor and editor at Debrett's, the UK authority on etiquette and modern manners (www.debretts.com). Any opinions expressed are her own.)

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Pesticide ban cuts South Korea's high suicide rate - a bit

1 of 4. A man walks past a statue of a person comforting another on the Mapo Bridge, one of 25 bridges over the Han River, in central Seoul September 27, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Lee Jae-Won

By Ju-min Park

SEOUL | Mon Sep 30, 2013 3:13am EDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - Jang Chang-yoon was drunk and weepy one rainy night, troubled by debts from his divorce. On a dark impulse, the South Korean waiter bought a bottle of pesticide to end it all with a few toxic swigs.

At the last minute, he changed his mind when his young daughter grabbed his arm and begged him: "Daddy, don't die."

Unlike Jang, many people do not pull back from the brink in South Korea, which has had the highest suicide rate in the developed world for nine straight years, often drinking pesticide as their way out.

But a decade after Jang's brush with death, a ban on fatal pesticides is credited with cutting the number of suicides by 11 percent last year, the first drop in six years. The government restricted production of Gramoxone, a herbicide linked to suicides, in 2011 and outlawed its sale and storage last year.

"The number of suicides by poisoning including Gramoxone fell by 477, which accounts for about 27 percent of the total decrease in the number of people committing suicide," Lee Jae-won, an official at Statistics Korea, said last week after the government released the latest figures.

Pesticide was the method of choice for almost a quarter of the South Koreans who killed themselves between 2006 and 2010, according to a government report to parliament.

In the highly competitive society of Asia's fourth-largest economy, experts say people who end up alone battling pressure for good school grades or from financial burdens have little in the way of a safety net.

Despite the improvement in the suicide rate, more than 14,000 South Koreans killed themselves last year. Elderly people living in rural areas are a particularly high-risk group.

Since the 1950s, older generations have been fixated on South Korea becoming more competitive and productive, a side effect of rapid industrialisation that turned a war-damaged country into one of the richest in the world.

STIGMAS AND PAIN

Kim Hyun-chung, a psychiatrist at the Korean Association for Suicide Prevention, sees social stigmas as a major reason for the high suicide rate. Many South Koreans who are depressed or under heavy stress are reluctant to bring up issues like mental illness or an inability to cope, he said.

"The ban on toxic pesticides obviously led to the decline in the suicide rate because that is the easiest means of suicide for elderly people in rural towns," Kim said. "But we still have bridges and charcoal briquettes."

To help limit access to lethal chemicals, the Life Insurance Philanthropy Foundation launched a campaign to provide pesticide lockers to farming towns with high rates of depression.

The foundation, set up by private insurance firms, says no one from the villages with the lockers has committed suicide over the past three years, compared with one or two people from each village who had killed themselves in past years.

"The lockers help reduce the impulse to get hold of pesticides because they have to find keys to open them," Chung Bong-eun, an official at the foundation, told Reuters.

The 2012 figures may offer a glimmer of hope, but the latest comparisons by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showed South Korea was by far the most suicidal society, followed by Hungary, Russia and Japan.

For Jang, working two jobs is still tough, but he regrets trying to kill himself and is happy to have his life to share with his two daughters. While he sees the ban on pesticides as a positive step, he feels for others who are under duress.

"Old and young people have their own pain from either quick economic development or unemployment," he said. "I hope the government will care more about people's health."

(Editing by John O'Callaghan and Ron Popeski)

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Half of British pilots admit to falling asleep in cockpit - survey

By Sarah Young

LONDON | Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:33am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - More than half of British airline pilots say they have fallen asleep in the cockpit, a survey said, ahead of an EU vote on flying hours which a pilots' association said could compromise flight safety.

According to the British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA), 56 percent of 500 commercial pilots admitted to being asleep while on the flight deck and, of those, nearly one in three said they had woken up to find their co-pilot also asleep.

Pilot exhaustion grabbed the headlines this week when a newspaper reported two pilots on a British long-haul flight fell asleep in the cockpit, leaving the packed jet travelling unsupervised on autopilot.

The survey, released by BALPA, came ahead of a vote in the European Parliament on Monday on new rules which could replace British regulations.

BALPA, a trade union for pilots, voiced concerns that these proposed changes would water down British safety standards.

The rule changes would mean that pilots could work a maximum of 110 hours in a two-week period, more than the 95-hour limit under British regulations, and at night could be expected to fly for up to 11 hours, against a current 10-hour limit.

"Tiredness is already a major challenge for pilots who are deeply concerned that unscientific new EU rules will cut UK standards and lead to increased levels of tiredness, which has been shown to be a major contributory factor in air accidents," BALPA General Secretary Jim McAuslan said in a statement.

The proposals, devised by the European Aviation Safety Agency to harmonize the rules regarding pilots' hours across the European Union, would also mean they could be called to work at any time on their days off. Currently, restrictions are in place to help them plan their rest on days off.

The survey of pilots, by pollster ComRes, found 84 percent of respondents believed their abilities had been compromised over the last six months by tiredness with almost half saying pilot exhaustion was the biggest threat to flight safety.

British lawmakers, in a report published earlier this month, expressed concern that the new European rules set the limit for the flight duty period at night too high.

But the Association of European Airlines, which represents 31 European airlines, urged support for the proposals, saying they would ensure all airlines followed the same rules.

"The new ... rules would ensure that Europe will continue to have one of the strictest rules in the world, even stricter than today," the body's acting Secretary-General Athar Husain Khan said in a statement.

The Civil Aviation Agency, Britain's aviation regulator, dismissed worries about the new rules.

"We think the new European flight time limitation regulations maintain the UK's current high safety levels, and will actually increase safety for UK passengers travelling on some other European airlines," it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Belinda Goldsmith and Pravin Char)

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Online retailers go hi-tech to size up shoppers and cut returns

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Italian pasta king puts company in hot water with anti-gay comment

By Steve Scherer

ROME | Fri Sep 27, 2013 6:38pm EDT

ROME (Reuters) - When pasta king Guido Barilla found himself pilloried on social media for saying he would never use a gay family in his advertising, rival pasta maker Buitoni was quick to capitalize.

A picture on its Facebook page of an open door looking out onto a courtyard featured the caption: "At Buitoni's house, there's a place for everyone."

It was a stark demonstration of the rising power of social media. Barilla's comments to a medium-sized Italian radio station on Wednesday quickly became a global public relations disaster with a likely knock-on effect on sales.

The comments that he would "never" do an ad "with a homosexual family" to a station that has barely more than 2 million daily listeners spread like wildfire on Twitter and Facebook, sparking worldwide calls to boycott products by the world's biggest pasta maker on Thursday.

The outcry will weigh on U.S. sales in the short term, and Barilla's immediate response to the uproar was "muddled and odd", Ashley McCown, a crisis communications expert at Solomon McCown in Boston, told Reuters.

"In the U.S. people want to feel good about the things they buy and who they buy them from," she said.

In a written statement on Thursday, Barilla said he was sorry "if I offended some people".

Late on Friday the 55-year-old company chairman posted a video on Facebook saying he respected everyone, "including gays and their families".

Speaking English, the great-grandson of the man who founded the privately owned Barilla company more than 130 years ago pledged to meet "representatives" of those he offended.

"I have heard the countless reactions to my words in the world which have depressed and saddened me. It is clear that I have a lot to learn about the lively debate concerning the evolution of the family," he said.

Seeking to boost sales outside of crisis-hit Italy, Barilla has recently focused on expanding in the United States, its second biggest pasta market, by introducing microwaveable meals and more ready-made sauces.

Barilla's radio comments came after the interviewer asked him about accusations this week from Laura Boldrini, president of the lower house of parliament, that Italian advertising was full of gender stereotyping.

Barilla, whose ads often picture mothers serving their families at the dinner table, disagreed, and was then asked whether he would feature a gay family.

After saying he would not, he spoke at length about his belief in the "classic family", adding however that he supported gay marriage, which is illegal in Italy, but not adoptions by gay couples.

In the United States, gay marriage is legal in 13 states and, unlike in Italy, the gay rights movement continues to build momentum and break down barriers.

"I'm Italian, I'm gay, I'm married legally to a man, I have three adopted children. I had Barilla pasta for dinner last night. Today, tomorrow and forever more I will choose another brand of pasta. Good bye Barilla! You lose!!!" David De Maria wrote on Barilla's U.S. Facebook page.

SPAGHETTI IS STRAIGHT

The controversy generated Internet satires. BuzzFeed featured a picture showing heterosexual couples lovingly eating pasta together with the words: "Spaghetti is straight".

Another image posted widely on Twitter and Facebook showed the trademark blue Barilla pasta box with the letters "Bigotoni" on it, rather than "Rigatoni".

While Barilla's comments were condemned by most, others said the gay community was over-reacting.

"We may not agree with him but he is just expressing his opinion and doing it in a respectful way," said JasonD79, who said he was gay, in reaction to a news story on Facebook. "He is not saying gays can't work for them or anything, he is just saying he will not do an ad with a gay family."

Only time will tell how much the boycott will hurt Barilla, which saw profits tumble 21 percent in 2012.

"In the short term, it is a threat to sales. What's yet to be seen is, is there really going to be a long-term impact?" McCown said.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Xavier Briand)

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Drug 'Molly' is taking a party toll in the United States

1 of 2. Ecstasy pills, which contain MDMA as their main chemical, are pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Credit: Reuters/U.S. DEA/Handout via Reuters

By Victoria Cavaliere

NEW YORK | Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:25am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Artist and therapy student Anna and her friends marked a birthday in New York recently with a familiar ritual: They pumped up the electronic music, danced, and celebrated with a special guest called Molly.

"It was a group of about 12 people at someone's house and we were all just celebrating," Anna recalled. "Somebody had it and, and you know, it was a pretty electronic music kind of crowd."

Molly, an illegal stimulant frequently sold in pill form, has become prominent in the electronic music scene over the past decade, said Anna, 26, who did not want to give her full name because she is in school and "counseling people to be healthy."

Molly is the street name for a drug that is pushed as the pure powder form of a banned substance known as MDMA, the main chemical in ecstasy. In the last five years, Molly has made its way into popular culture, helped by references to it made by entertainers such as Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West.

The drug's dangers became more clear after a rash of overdoses and four deaths this summer, including two at a huge annual electronic music festival in New York City.

The parties of the late 1980s and early '90s saw the heyday of ecstasy, but its popularity began to wane a decade ago after a number of deaths and hospitalizations.

That's when Molly made her way onto the scene.

Over the last few years, drugs sold under that name have "flooded" the market, said Rusty Payne, a spokesman with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In some states, there has been a 100-fold increase - the combined number of arrests, seizures, emergency room mentions and overdoses - between 2009 and 2012, according to DEA figures.

The drug is accessible and marketed to recreational drug users who believe it to be less dangerous than its predecessor, which was often cut with other substances, from Ritalin to LSD.

Like ecstasy, Molly is said to give a lengthy, euphoric high with slight hallucinogenic properties.

In reality, however, the promised pure MDMA experience "doesn't exist," said Payne.

'SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT'

Most of the Molly is one of several synthetic designer drugs that have been flooding the U.S. and European marketplace from chemical labs primarily based in China, Payne said.

"A lot of people are missing the boat here," he said. Molly could be anything ... 80 to 90 percent of the time we are given a chemical or substance believed to be Molly, we're finding most of the time it is something completely different."

Four recent deaths attributed to Molly have thrust the club drug into the national spotlight. On August 31, a 23-year-old Syracuse University graduate and a 20-year-old University of New Hampshire student died after taking what they believed to be Molly during an electronic music concert in New York City. The deaths, and several other reported overdoses, prompted the Electric Zoo festival to cancel the final day of the concert.

A University of Virginia student died at a rave in Washington, D.C., the same weekend, after taking what her friends said was Molly. Days earlier in Boston, a 19-year-old woman died in a club and three concert-goers overdosed at the waterfront, police said.

In Atlanta, this weekend's TomorrowWorld music festival organizers warned on its website of zero-tolerance for MDMA use, but noted: "If you or someone around you has taken something that you are concerned about or need help, it is important that you tell our staff. We are here to help and never judge."

The number of visits to U.S. emergency rooms involving MDMA has jumped 123 percent since 2004, according to data compiled by the Drug Abuse Warning Network. In 2011, the most recent year on record, there were 22,498 such visits.

In the New York concert deaths, the medical examiner found lethal mixtures of MDMA and methylone, a synthetic stimulant, the DEA said.

"It's exactly the same phenomenon that occurred with ecstasy a decade ago," said Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine and an expert on MDMA. "Ecstasy had terrible reliability and it's the same with Molly. Though it's being marketed as pure MDMA, it's a hoax."

Overdose symptoms can include rapid heart beat, overheating, excessive sweating, shivering and involuntary twitching.

Grob said references in pop culture can fan misconceptions.

Miley Cyrus admitted in July that a lyric in her new dance anthem "We Can't Stop" was a reference to Molly. Last year at a Miami concert, Madonna, the mother of a teenager, asked: "How many people in this crowd have seen Molly?" She later said she was referring to a friend.

The illusion that MDMA is somehow less harmful has been branded with Molly, according to Anna.

"I have definitely heard that people think that it's pure. I have some friends that are like 'I only want to do Molly. I won't do other stuff' because it's marketed as something that's somehow better," said Anna. "But actually no one knows what's in it. All of it is a gamble."

(Editing by Scott Malone and Gunna Dickson)

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Miss Philippines crowned Miss World 2013 after protests

JAKARTA | Sat Sep 28, 2013 12:21pm EDT

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Miss Philippines was crowned Miss World 2013 on Saturday at a tightly guarded ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, after the contest was plagued by protests from Muslim hardliners and fears that extremist groups could try to disrupt the event.

U.S.-born Megan Young, a 23-year-old studying digital film, accepted the crown from last year's winner, Wenxia Yu of China, and promised to "be the best Miss World ever".

Thousands of members of the radical Islam Defenders Front took to the streets over the past month to protest holding the pageant in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, calling it "pornography".

The protests forced organizers to move the event from a venue outside Jakarta to Nusa Dua in southern Bali, a predominantly Hindu resort island.

Event organizers announced in June that contestants would eschew bikinis this year in favor of sarongs and one-piece swimwear to avoid causing offence.

The embassies of the United States, Britain and Australia issued travel warnings for Indonesia, saying extremist groups could be planning violence to disrupt the pageant.

However, Indonesian police said there were no reports of unrest surrounding the contest on Saturday.

The new Miss World will spend the next year travelling to represent the Miss World Organization and help raise money for its charitable causes.

Marine Lorphelin, a 20-year-old medical student from France, took second place. From Ghana, Carranzar Naa Okailey Shooter, 23, also a medical student, came third.

(Reporting by Fergus Jensen and Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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China artist Liu Xiaodong goes local in London for first UK show

Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong poses for a portrait in front of his painting titled ''Green Pub'' at the Lisson Gallery in London September 26, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Winning

By Paul Casciato and Minnie Brookfield

LONDON | Fri Sep 27, 2013 11:52am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - One of China's best known artists, Liu Xiaodong, headed down to the pub for inspiration for his first London show.

The soft-spoken, bespectacled 50-year-old artist has spent the last three decades capturing the lives of ordinary people in his paintings, painted-over photographs, diaries and films from China to Europe and the Middle East.

His "Half Street" exhibition depicts the lives of people Liu befriended over six weeks in two pubs and an Egyptian café, just steps from the Lisson gallery where the large oil-on-canvas paintings are displayed alongside acrylic photo-paintings.

"It's such an exciting thing to share with other people," said Liu, a leading figure among Chinese Neo-Realist painters and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).

Liu likes to spend time getting to know his subjects. The Beijing-based artist writes and draws in a journal and then takes photographs before building a temporary studio in situ, to paint 'en plein air' or 'xiesheng' in Chinese.

It's a technique he has used previously living and painting among local people from Tibet to Israel. Critics have compared his work to that of British painter Lucian Freud.

"The background is important," he told Reuters in an interview this week.

In London he was invited into the homes of the staff at The Perseverance pub, had dinner with them, smoked with them and walked their dogs.

"I very much enjoyed painting here because at first we didn't know each other," Liu said. "After painting we are close, we know each other and feel very good."

"Green Pub" depicts The Perseverance with its staff and trusty dog Mati, painted from life over four consecutive days during opening hours.

"All our customers were all in the pub as it was taking place, so it created a really good vibe," said the pub's 46-year-old landlady, Margaret Finnegan, originally from New Jersey in the United States.

Photographs with touches of paint from Liu add small details such as rain drops, but also figures and in one case a portrait of Finnegan's late father painted into a photograph alongside her husband working in the kitchen.

When she saw it, Liu said: "She was almost crying ... I was crying too."

French chef Sebastien Lambot, his Polish wife Marta, their 17-month-old son and a reveler dressed as a cowboy riding a horse are the subjects in "White Pub", an oil-on-canvas painting Liu created after befriending the couple and asking permission to paint them in The Chapel pub where Sebastien works.

"When we Googled his name we found out he was a world-famous artist," Sebastien said. "We've become immortal in a way."

The final location, shown in the painting "Egyptian Restaurant", is an upstairs meeting room of an eatery on the Edgware Road in London, itself a former Art Deco cinema.

It is depicted empty, with the television off and the chairs either recently vacated or waiting for new occupants.

The work was painted just after the Muslim celebration of Eid, the feast following the fasting of Ramadan.

A few steps from the door of the gallery, an image of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei spray-painted on a wall in the style of British street artist Banksy shouts out: "You can cage the singer, but not the song."

Liu would not be drawn on questions about Ai, who was detained without charge in April 2011 for 81 days.

"Every artist is different," he said. "Every artist has their own background.

The exhibition will run until November 2.

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Planned tax breaks for UK married couples rapped as 1950s throwback

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron talks to cancer patients during a visit to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, southern England September 28, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Eddie Keogh

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON | Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:38am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Activists and opponents accused Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron of discriminating against single parents and promoting a fantasy 1950s lifestyle through his plans to give tax breaks to some married couples.

Fulfilling a long-standing pledge by his Conservative party to "recognize marriage in the tax system", Cameron has proposed married couples in which neither spouse is a higher-rate taxpayer should get breaks worth up to 200 pounds ($320) a year.

If approved by parliament, the measure will come into force in April 2015, just one month before the next national election. It is expected to benefit around 4 million couples.

"All we're saying is that marriage is a good thing for our country - it's the ultimate form of commitment under the law - and we want to show our support for it," Cameron wrote in an article published in Saturday's Daily Mail newspaper.

The measure will also apply to same-sex couples in civil partnerships. From next year, same-sex couples will be able to marry under a new law passed by parliament in July.

"This summer I was proud to make equal marriage the law. Love is love, commitment is commitment," Cameron wrote.

The main opposition Labour party said the measure would benefit a minority of married couples to the detriment of other groups, and any benefit was outweighed by a range of welfare benefit cuts introduced by Cameron's government since 2010.

"He's so out of touch he thinks people will get married for 3.85 pounds a week," lawmaker Rachel Reeves said for the party.

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman took to Twitter to denounce possible consequences of Cameron's plan. "Married man's tax allowance will go to man on his third wife but not to first two wives looking after his children!" she tweeted.

A campaign group called Don't Judge My Family said the plan discriminated against widows and widowers, single parents, the one in four children whom it said grow up in single parent families, and unmarried cohabiting couples, among other groups.

"It's about promoting a fantasy 1950s family and won't go to many of the families who need support the most. In these tough times the government should be helping families, not judging them," the group said on its website.

The Conservatives' junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, said the measure was "the wrong priority".

"You don't build a fairer society by using the tax system to favor one type of family over another," said Lib Dem treasury spokesman Stephen Williams.

"It is also not clear to me why a single person should pay more tax on their income than someone who is married," he said.

Under the coalition agreement signed by the Conservatives and Lib Dems in 2010, Lib Dem lawmakers will be able to abstain on a bill introducing the measure without breaking the alliance. ($1 = 0.6203 British pounds)

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Gambling pro Archie Karas charged with defrauding casino

By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO | Fri Sep 27, 2013 9:51pm EDT

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - World-renowned professional poker player Archie Karas, has been arrested on charges of cheating and defrauding a casino after authorities say he was caught marking cards at a California blackjack table.

Karas, 62, best known for reputedly building a beginning stake of $50 into a $40 million fortune during a record three-year winning streak, was taken into custody on Tuesday at his Las Vegas home, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office said on Friday.

He will be extradited to San Diego to face a criminal complaint filed last week charging him with burglary, winning by fraudulent means and cheating, the prosecutor's office said.

If convicted, Karas, whose real name is Anargyros Karabourniotis, faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

"This defendant's luck ran out thanks to extraordinary cooperation between several different law enforcement agencies who worked together to investigate and prosecute this case," said county District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

According to prosecutors, Karas was spotted by surveillance cameras marking cards - using tiny smudges of dye secretly wiped onto the backs of jacks, queens, kings and aces - while playing blackjack in July at the Indian-owned Barona Resort and Casino in Lakeside, California.

The marks gave Karas an unfair advantage by helping him identify the value of cards before they were dealt as he chose whether to take another card, or hold, in an effort to reach the winning value of 21 without going over, prosecutors said.

The scheme worked so well that he managed to cheat the casino out of more than $8,000 before he was caught, district attorney's office spokesman Steve Walker said.

'THREAT TO THE GAMING INDUSTRY'

California Justice Department spokeswoman Michelle Gregory said Karas was doing the marking with dye inserted into a hollowed-out gambling chip that he would inconspicuously swipe over the cards while playing through a deck.

A search warrant executed on Karas's home turned up hollowed-out chips from other casinos, but so far no other gambling establishments have lodged complaints against him, Gregory said.

But authorities said Karas has been accused of cheating before.

"The Nevada Gaming Control Board has investigated Karas on multiple occasions resulting in four arrests," said Karl Bennison, that agency's enforcement chief, said in a statement. "Karas has been a threat to the gaming industry in many jurisdictions."

Karas set the record for the largest and longest documented winning streak in gambling history from 1992 to 1995, arriving in Las Vegas with $50 in his pocket and going on to amass $40 million from high-stakes poker.

He subsequently lost most of those winnings at baccarat and dice games in three weeks, according to Tom Sexton, who publishes the online gambling magazine Poker News. Karas returned to the poker table many times, often with backers, and cleaned out many of the best players in the world, according to Sexton.

He is considered by many to have been the greatest gambler of all time and often has been compared with Nick "the Greek" Dandolos, another high-stakes gambler and high roller who died in 1966.

San Diego County has 19 federally recognized Indian tribes and 10 Indian casinos, more than any other county in the United States. Industry experts estimate that casinos nationwide lose tens of millions of dollars a year in various cheating scams.

(Reporting by Marty Graham; Editing by Steve Gorman, Bernard Orr)

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Tunisia court sentences rapper over insults to government: lawyer

TUNIS | Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:36pm EDT

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian court sentenced a local rap singer on Thursday to six months in jail for a song insulting the police and government in a case likely to fuel debate over free speech under the Islamist-led government, his lawyer said.

Critics say free expression has been threatened under the governing coalition led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which won an election after a 2011 uprising ousted a secular dictatorship. The government rejects those accusations.

"Tunisian rapper Ahmed Ben Ahmed, known as Klay BBJ, has been sentenced to six months in jail for insulting the authorities in his songs," Ghazi Mrabet, his lawyer, told Reuters after the decision.

He said the sentencing related to songs performed insulting the government and the police at a Tunisian festival.

Last July, a Tunisian court released a rap singer named Wled 15, who was detained after he described police as dogs in one video.

Critics have accused Ennahda authorities of encouraging intolerance for secular views and lifestyles by failing to prevent militant Islamist Salafi attacks on certain cultural institutions and individuals.

Hardline Salafis disrupted several concerts and plays last year, saying they violated Islamic principles. They also ransacked the U.S. Embassy in September 2012 during worldwide Muslim protests over an internet video.

The North African nation, which started the 2011 "Arab Spring" revolts, has been caught in a political deadlock since July between Ennahda and its secular opponents who want the government to step down and make way for elections.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Patrick Markey and Peter Cooney)

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