Mama June's Weight Loss Wows Readers, While Kate's Baby Bump Draws Love

By Andrea Billups

02/09/2013 at 01:35 PM EST

Mama June (left) and mama-to-be Kate

Pacific Coast News; TOP STAR PICTURES

What's on the minds of PEOPLE readers this week? We love seeing your responses, and as always, you weighed in with plenty of angry, sad and LOL feedback to all of our stories.

From Here Comes Honey Boo Boo's Mama June, who lost 100 lbs. by simply running around filming her show, she says, to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville's admission that she charged her vaginal reconstruction surgery to her ex-husband's credit card, readers responded.

Check out the articles with the top reactions on the site this week, and keep clicking on the emoticons at the bottom of every story to tell us what you think!

Yes, a royal baby is indeed on the way, and the world watched this week as photos emerged of pregnant Kate stepping out with a small bump. Although the stylish Duchess of Cambridge covered up with a Tartan-print cape over black leggings and riding boots, it was clear that her figure was changing as her pregnancy continued after early weeks of severe morning sickness that had sent her to the hospital. She is due in July.

Our readers expressed anger over Kim Kardashian's ongoing divorce fight with estranged husband Kris Humphries as she pleaded with a judge to declare her marriage over because she is pregnant with another man's baby and doesn't want to be wed when her child arrives. She also told the judge she feared financial entanglement if the case lingered, including purchase of a new residence. Humphries is seeking an annulment of their 72-day marriage based on claims of fraud.

Readers were wowed by a much-smaller Mama June. The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo matriarch says she's dropped more than 100 lbs., as she dashes from place to place shooting her popular TV show – and not through diet or exercise. "They have me running around and going different places ... I guess it's paying off," she told TMZ of her weight-loss strategy.

Oh no she didn't! Her husband Eddie Cibrian may have cheated on her and left her for another woman, but outspoken The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville, 40, opened up in her new book, Drinking & Tweeting that she got him back in an usual way: using his credit card to charge a $12,000 vaginal rejuvenation surgery. Readers laughed out loud at Glanville, who dishes plenty of other family dirt in her book. She and Cibrian have two children, Mason, 9 and Jake, 5. He is now married to country star LeAnn Rimes.

Readers felt sadness for Emma Bunton, who lost her beloved chocolate Labrador Phoebe after the dog went missing on a daily walk. The Spice Girl, 37, Tweeted that she and fiancé Jade Jones were "devastated," by the loss of their pet, who had been microchipped. "To all the amazing people who supported us at this horrible time, our precious Phoebe has been found and it's terrible news," Bunton Tweeted Wednesday. Bunton and Jones, who are parents to two sons, also thanked those who helped them in their search, including Dog Lost, a database for lost and found dogs in the U.K.

Check back next week for another must-read roundup, and see what readers are reacting to every day here.

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After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

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Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Tunisian Islamists rally to show "power of street"

TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Islamists marched in Tunis on Saturday in a show of strength, a day after the funeral of an assassinated secular politician drew the biggest crowds seen on the streets since Tunisia's uprising two years ago.

About 6,000 supporters of the ruling Ennahda movement rallied to back their leader Rachid al-Ghannouchi, who was the target of angry slogans raised by mourners at Friday's mass funeral of Chokri Belaid, a rights lawyer and opposition leader.

"The people want Ennahda again," the Islamists chanted, waving Tunisian and party flags as they marched towards the Interior Ministry on Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the city centre.

The demonstration was dwarfed by the tens of thousands who had turned out in Tunis and other cities to honor Belaid and to protest against the Islamist-led government the day before, shouting slogans that included "We want a new revolution".

Belaid's killing by an unidentified gunman on Wednesday, Tunisia's first such political assassination in decades, has shaken a nation still seeking stability after the overthrow of veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

The family of the slain politician has accused Ennahda of responsibility for his killing. The party denies any hand in it.

"We are here to support legitimacy, but if you prefer the power of the street, look at the streets today, we have this power," Lotfi Zitoun, an Ennahda leader, said in a speech to the Islamist demonstrators in Tunis.

Tunisia's political transition has been more peaceful than those in other Arab nations such as Egypt, Libya and Syria, but tensions are running high between Islamists elected to power and liberals who fear the loss of hard-won liberties.

FREEDOMS THREATENED

"We have gained things - the freedom of expression, the freedom to meet, to form organizations, parties, to work in the open," said Radhi Nasraoui, a veteran human rights campaigner.

"The problem is that these freedoms are still threatened, and there are attempts (by Islamists) to touch the gains of women," she told Reuters.

After Belaid's death, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali promised to form a non-partisan, technocratic cabinet to run the country until an election could take place, despite complaints from within his own Ennahda party and its two junior non-Islamist coalition partners that he had failed to consult them.

Jebali told France 24 television on Saturday that he would resign if political parties refused to support his proposal, which he said was intended to "save the country from chaos".

The state news agency TAP said the prime minister would unveil his new government next week.

Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres, bars and individuals in recent months.

Prolonged political uncertainty and street unrest could damage an economy that relies on tourism. Unemployment and other economic grievances fuelled the revolt against Ben Ali in 2011.

Tunisia's stock exchange has fallen 3.32 percent since Belaid's assassination.

France, the former colonial power, ordered its schools in Tunis to stay closed on Friday and Saturday, warning its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.

Some of the Islamist demonstrators shouted "France, out", in response to remarks by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls which were rejected by Jebali, the prime minister, on Friday.

"We must support all those who fight to maintain values and remain aware of the dangers of despotism, of Islamism that threatened those values today through obscurantism," Valls had said on Europe 1 radio on Thursday in comments on Tunisia.

"There is an Islamic fascism which is on the rise in many places."

Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem described Valls's remarks as "worrying and unfriendly".

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Egypt court suspends YouTube over anti-Islam film

CAIRO (Reuters) – An Egyptian court ordered the suspension of online video service YouTube for a month on Saturday for broadcasting a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad, state media reported.

The country’s administrative court ordered the ministries of communication and investment to block YouTube, owned by Google, inside Egypt because it had carried the film “Innocence of Muslims,” said state news agency MENA.

The 13-minute video, billed as a film trailer and made in the United States, provoked a torrent of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of other Muslim countries in September.

The video depicts the Prophet as a fool and a sexual deviant. For most Muslims, any portrayal of the Prophet is considered blasphemous.

The court said it was ruling on a case brought about the film several months ago, without going into further detail.

YouTube had “insisted on broadcasting the film insulting Islam and the Prophet, disrespecting the beliefs of millions of Egyptians and disregarding the anger of all Muslims” the court said, according to MENA.

Egypt’s National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority said it would abide by the ruling as soon as it received a copy of the verdict.

Maha Abouelenein, a Google spokeswoman in Cairo, said the company had yet to receive any formal notification of the ruling.

(Additional reporting by Kevin Gray; Writing by Marwa Awad; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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Britney Spears Gets Another Dog

People Pets

02/08/2013 at 01:40 PM EST

Britney Spears and her new dog

Courtesy Britney Spears

It's a furbaby one more time for Britney Spears.

After bringing home pooch Hannah in November, Spears introduced her newest furry family member on her Facebook page Friday.

"Say good morning to my new baby people," she wrote, sharing an adorable photo of her and the little white pup snuggling.

And if this new addition is anything like its big sister, the dog will surely become as famous as its Mom soon. Hannah Spears (@HannahSpears) is already a Twitter phenomenon, with close to 40,000 followers and a devoted fan base that loves her quirky Tweets.

The start of the New Year has been an eventful one for Spears, who in addition to expanding her pet family, also split with fiancé Jason Trawick and left her post as a judge on The X Factor. She is currently mulling over a deal to set up a residency in Las Vegas.

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Health officials: Worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials say the worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread flu dropped again last week. By some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks. Deaths from the flu or pneumonia have been dropping for two weeks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the latest flu numbers on Friday.

This flu season started about a month earlier than normal. Outbreaks began in the late fall, and the dominant flu strain is one that tends to make people sicker.

It's been nine years since a flu season started like this one, and that proved to be one of the deadliest. So far, this season has been labeled moderately severe.

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Equities climb in wake of positive data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks extended gains on Friday, with the Nasdaq rising 1 percent, putting it within close reach of a 12-year high.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 47.66 points, or 0.34 percent, to 13,991.71. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 7.47 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,516.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 30.23 points, or 0.96 percent, at 3,195.37.

If the Nasdaq rises above 3,196.93, it would be the highest level since November 2000.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Violence mars funeral of Tunisian opposition leader

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Tunisians turned out on Friday to mourn secular opposition leader Chokri Belaid, whose assassination has deepened a political crisis and led to violent protests against the Islamist-led government.

Teargas and smoke from burning cars at times wafted over the Tunis cemetery where Belaid was buried in the country's biggest funeral since independence leader Habib Bourguiba died in 2000.

Braving chilly rain, at least 50,000 people gathered to honor Belaid in his home district of Jebel al-Jaloud in the capital, chanting anti-Islamist and anti-government slogans.

Belaid's assassination has shocked a country which had hitherto experienced a relatively peaceful political transition since an uprising that inspired others around the Arab world.

It has heightened tensions between dominant Islamists and their secular opponents against a backdrop of frustration at the lack of social and economic progress since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country in January 2011.

"The people want a new revolution," shouted mourners in Tunis, who also sang the national anthem.

Violence erupted near the cemetery as police fired teargas at demonstrators who threw stones and set cars ablaze. Police also used teargas against protesters near the Interior Ministry, a frequent flashpoint for clashes in the Tunisian capital.

Police arrested 150 people during the disturbances in Tunis, Interior Ministry spokesman Lotfi Hidouri said.

Crowds surged around an open army truck carrying Belaid's coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, from a cultural center in Jebel al-Jaloud towards the leafy Jallaz cemetery, as a security forces helicopter flew overhead.

"Belaid, rest in peace, we will continue the struggle," crowds chanted, holding portraits of the politician killed near his home on Wednesday by a gunman who fled on a motorcycle.

Some demonstrators denounced Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party. "Ghannouchi, assassin, criminal," they chanted. "Tunisia is free, terrorism out."

CLASHES IN GAFSA

Police fired teargas to disperse anti-government protesters throwing stones and petrol bombs in the southern mining town of Gafsa, a stronghold of support for Belaid, witnesses said.

Crowds there had chanted "The people want the fall of the regime", a slogan first used against Ben Ali.

In Sidi Bouzid, the southern town where the revolt against the ousted strongman began, about 10,000 marched to mourn Belaid and shout slogans against Ennahda and the government.

Banks, factories and some shops were closed in Tunis and other cities in response to a strike called by unions in protest at Belaid's killing, but buses were running normally.

Tunis Air canceled all its flights because of the strike, a spokesman for the national airline said, adding that normal service would resume on Saturday.

After Belaid's assassination, Prime Minister Hamdi Jebali, an Islamist, said he would dissolve the government and form a cabinet of technocrats to rule until elections could be held.

But his own Ennahda party and its secular coalition partners complained they had not been consulted, casting doubt over the status of the government and compounding political uncertainty.

On Friday Jebali reiterated his plan for a cabinet of technocrats, saying this would not need the approval of the National Constituent Assembly because he was not dissolving his government, but would replace all of its members.

"This government is ready," he told reporters, without disclosing the names of his new ministers.

"HOPE EXISTS"

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of Belaid, a lawyer and secular opposition figure.

His family have blamed Ennahda but the party has denied any hand in the shooting. Crowds have attacked several Ennahda party offices in Tunis and other cities in the past two days.

"Hope still exists in Tunisia," Fatma Saidan, a noted Tunisian actor, told Reuters at Belaid's funeral. "We will continue to struggle against extremism and political violence."

She called for national unity, saying: "We are ready to accept Islamists, but they don't accept us."

While Belaid had only a modest political following, his criticism of Ennahda policies spoke for many Tunisians who fear religious radicals are bent on snuffing out freedoms won in the first of the revolts that rippled through the Arab world.

Secular groups have accused the Islamist-led government of a lax response to attacks by ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamists on cinemas, theatres and bars in recent months.

The economic effect of political uncertainty and street unrest could be serious in a country which has yet to draft a new constitution and which relies heavily on the tourist trade.

Mohamed Ali Toumi, president of the Tunisian Federation of Travel Agencies, described the week's events as a catastrophe that would have a negative impact on tourism, but he told the national news agency TAP no cancellations had been reported yet.

France, which had already announced the closure of its schools in Tunis on Friday and Saturday, urged its nationals to stay clear of potential flashpoints in the capital.

The cost of insuring Tunisian government bonds against default rose to its highest level in more than four years this week and ratings agency Fitch said it could further downgrade Tunisia if political instability continues or worsens.

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What If the Wii U Were Just Its Tablet Controller? Meet the 7-Inch Wikipad

The Wii U made a splash with its personal tablet controllers. Sandwiching a 6.2-inch touchscreen in between a regular analog stick and buttons, the Wii U’s GamePad is like a Nintendo DS’ lower touchscreen for a home console, and even lets you play games right on its screen. It streams those games from the Wii U itself, though, meaning it’s basically useless when it’s out of range of the console.

Imagine a Wii U GamePad that was a self-contained console, and used an iPad-style capacitive touchscreen instead of a Nintendo DS-style resistive one. That’s the new 7-inch Wikipad in a nutshell, at least hardware-wise. It’s not made by Nintendo, however, and in terms of what games it plays — and how much it costs — it’s still very different.

Hardware differences

Besides being slightly taller and wider and a lot thicker than a GamePad, the Wikipad has one more major difference: The tablet part is detachable. Unlatch it from the surrounding game controller part, and it becomes a 7-inch Android tablet with an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 16 GB of flash memory, sort of like Google‘s popular Nexus 7.

It’s still a 7-inch Android tablet when the controller part is attached, though, and that’s the biggest difference.

Android software

Despite its resemblance to a certain popular game console accessory, the Wikipad is still a tablet running Google’s open-source Android operating system, when it comes down to it. It just happens to be one (of several) which includes its own game controller. And while some well-known games — like a few of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog titles and Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy games — have made it to the Google Play app store, for the most part you’d be playing mobile games, like the included Dead Trigger and ShadowGun: Dead Zone. Which is unfortunate, because most Android games don’t support game controllers, seeing as how they were designed for touchscreen-only gadgets like the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7.

On the plus side

Many of top-tier mobile publisher Gameloft’s titles support game controllers, which is unsurprising since they tend to be knockoffs of popular console games like Halo and Modern Warfare. And unlike most Android gadgets, the Wikipad is PlayStation Certified, which means it can run PlayStation Mobile games (small minigames designed for the PS Vita) plus a handful of old PSone titles.

Wikipad’s website has a list of more than 60 games which currently support its controller. You may have to consult it before playing each one, however, in order to find out which button does what.

Still worth getting?

The Wikipad will be available “from leading retailers in spring 2013 at a launch price of $ 249,” according to the company’s press release. That’s about $ 50 more than you’d pay for a similarly-specced Nexus 7, which doesn’t have PlayStation Mobile, expandable memory via microSD card slot, or a game controller. The Nexus 7 has 32 GB and 3G options available, however, and you can always buy a separate game controller for it.

A 10-inch Wikipad was announced late last year, but never made it to market. According to Droid Gamers, “some flaws were found during production.”

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

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Shirley MacLaine's Only Daughter Pens a Shocking New Tell-All

Seeing her mom, Shirley MacLaine, play a saucy septuagenarian on Downton Abbey, Sachi Parker couldn't help but smile.

"She was true to form," Parker says of MacLaine, 78, whose zinger-slinging turn as Lady Grantham's American mom shook up the big house this season. "It certainly hit home."

Hearing about Parker's relationship with MacLaine makes it easy to understand why.

Raised mostly by her dad, Parker grew up feeling distanced from her movie-star mother. She yearned for MacLaine's attention – so much so that when Parker, 56, also an actress, became a mom herself (to Frank Jr., 16, and Arin, 14, her kids with ex-husband Frank Murray), "I overcompensated," she tells PEOPLE. "But being a great mom is healing for me."

In her memoir Lucky Me, excerpted below, she shares her painful story (a story her mother, in a statement to PEOPLE, calls "virtually all fiction. I'm sorry to see such a dishonest, opportunistic effort from my daughter").

For all their ups and downs, she and her mom "love each other dearly," Parker says. "I've accepted who she is."

At age 2, Sachi was sent to live in Japan with her dad, producer Steve Parker. In the summers she visited MacLaine. "My visits in L.A. started at the airport, with Mom rushing up and giving me an all-encompassing hug. Once we got into the car she'd say, 'Let's have fun!'

"Sometimes we'd head down to the Piggly Wiggly and eat cookies from the bakery. They weren't supposed to be free, but Mom had no qualms about grabbing one. No one stopped her; she was a celebrity, after all."

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