MAXIGM

utorak, 19.05.2009.

Moonlight" fans' prayers have been answered: The show's star, Alex O'Loughlin, is back on CBS with the new medical drama "Three Rivers."

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – "Moonlight" fans' prayers have been answered: The show's star, Alex O'Loughlin, is back on CBS with the new medical drama "Three Rivers."

The network went mostly for star vehicles in its first new series picks for next season with "Rivers"; the "NCIS" spin-off, toplined by LL Cool J and Chris O'Donnell; legal drama "The Good Wife," starring Julianna Margulies; and the Jenna Elfman-starring comedy "Accidentally on Purpose."

CBS also handed a series order to the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced ensemble medical drama "Miami Trauma."

The network also has picked up unscripted series "Undercover Boss," a hidden-camera show based on a British format in which an executive goes undercover at his or her company.

Two other drama hopefuls, "House Rules" and "U.S. Attorney," got the green light from the network to begin making staffing offers.

The "NCIS" spin-off, "Rivers," "Wife" and "Accidentally" all are produced by CBS sister studio CBS TV Studios, while "Trauma" comes from Warner Bros. TV.

There had been speculation that CBS might launch only one medical drama, but the network ultimately opted to go with "Rivers" and "Trauma." (If writer offers for "U.S. Attorney" are followed by a firm series pickup, it and "Wife" would give the network two legal dramas as well.)

The "Trauma" pickup makes for another strong pilot season for Bruckheimer. Both of his pilots, this one and ABC's "The Forgotten," were picked us as series.

At CBS, where he is the predominant drama series producer, Bruckheimer got more good news Sunday night when the network closed a deal to bring back his veteran crime drama "Cold Case."

Meanwhile, his drama "Without a Trace," which was on the bubble -- walking a fine line between renewal and cancellation -- appears to be dead, as does his freshman procedural "Eleventh Hour."

Also looking unlikely to return is CBS' military drama "The Unit." (CBS might reserve final call on some on-the-fence series until it's clear whether "Medium" will return to NBC; it could move to the Eye, whose sister studio produces the series.)

The multicamera "Accidentally," from writer Claudia Lonow, is about a movie critic (Elfman) who gets pregnant after a fling with a younger man and the unconventional family that results from the mistake. Jon Foster, Ashley Jensen and Grant Show co-star on the show, which could be a good companion for "The New Adventures of Old Christine," whose renewal is still pending.

It also means that Jensen, who left "Ugly Betty" at the end of this season, will be back in primetime.

The "NCIS" spin-off, introduced in two episodes of the veteran crime drama this spring, hails from "NCIS" executive producer/showrunner Shane Brennan, who will run both series.

Written by Robert King and Michelle King and directed by Charles McDougall, "Wife" stars Margulies as a politician's wife who joins a law firm as an associate.

Penned by Carol Barbee, "Rivers" is a medical show that looks at organ transplants from three points of view: those of the doctors, the donors and the recipients.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)

At a dusty complex outside the Afghan capital Kabul, hundreds of police officers are

KABUL (AFP) – At a dusty complex outside the Afghan capital Kabul, hundreds of police officers are being driven through basic training, taught how to patrol, enact the law and dispense first aid.

Under the watchful eye of a private US contracting company -- which declined to speak publicly to reporters -- around 420 recruits are put through their paces over eight weeks, to prepare for one of Afghanistan's most dangerous tasks.

"Right now, it's very, very dangerous to be a police officer," Brigadier General Khadadad Agha told reporters, as whistles shrilled and commanders barked orders at a clutch of recruits on a white gravel parade ground.

"The problems we face are due to the fact that police don't get the training or the equipment that is adapted to their needs," he said.

Dozens of officers have been killed in insurgent attacks this year, some in suicide bombings, others shot at checkpoints that dot major cities across the strife-torn country, gripped by increasingly deadly Taliban violence.

But as police die on the frontline of the US-led fight against extremists, EU nations bicker over how to bolster Afghan police training while officials say recruits lack the weapons and techniques to protect themselves.

Taliban-led insurgents or Al-Qaeda fighters can be armed with rockets, suicide vests and car bombs. A policeman on the beat in Afghanistan has handcuffs, a baton, and the cold comfort of an old AK-47 assault rifle.

"More police are killed than army soldiers because our officers are on the frontline," said Esmatulla Alizai, police chief in the relatively calm western Herat province, where just 2,600 officers police about four million people.

"The international community should increase its support in order to help cut down on the number of police casualties."

As presidential and provincial elections approach in August -- a poll seen as a key test of Western-led efforts to foster democracy and help reconstruct Afghanistan after decades of war -- many fear that unrest will grow.

At least six EU nations agree in principle to allow their joint paramilitary police team to help train the Afghans in the more robust techniques needed to defend themselves against conventional and suicide attacks.

But the process is taking time. Nations, including the United States, have disagreed over whether the European Union or NATO should take final responsibility and on how the gendarmes would be protected.

Yet the need for such training could not be more stark.

Afghan police "are getting killed every day" said EU police mission (EUPOL) chief Kai Vittrup.

"The only way forward is training in paramilitary techniques and, after that, basic police training. This is the only way they can survive," he said.

In special courses over a three-week period, instructors plan to train about 500 officers especially for the elections.

But they face huge obstacles, not least illiteracy and poverty.

Officials say roughly two out of every three police cannot read or write.

"They are not illiterate because they are stupid, they are illiterate because they never got the chance to go school," Vittrup said. "There's a long way to go for them to be police officers."

EUPOL staff say it takes at least four months to bring a recruit up to the point where they can read enough to carry out the most basic tasks.

Money too is a major consideration. Internal corruption has been cut down by ensuring that officers are paid directly into their accounts, rather than in cash, which can be skimmed off by their superiors.

But police putting their lives at risk every day are sometimes tempted by bribes and a few are known to have demanded money from drivers.

"If you consider the salary of a policeman on a checkpoint, he earns only 6,000 Afghanis (around 120 dollars) per month. How can he expect to pay his living costs?" said Alizai.

"Even Al-Qaeda gives around 10,000 Afghanis to their fighters and they can make more money on the side through kidnappings," Alizai said.

Despite the very obvious dangers, the Kabul recruits were obviously proud of their new jobs in a country where unemployment is rife.

"I have to protect my country so foreigners don't come and do it for me," Abdul Malik, a recruit in one classroom, said, perhaps emboldened by the presence of the brigadier general and around 30 classmates.

Alicia Istanbul woke up one recent Wednesday to find herself locked out of the Facebook account she opened in 2007

NEW YORK -

Alicia Istanbul woke up one recent Wednesday to find herself locked out of the Facebook account she opened in 2007, one Facebook suddenly deemed fake.

The stay-at-home mom was cut off not only from her 330 friends, including many she had no other way of contacting, but also from the pages she had set up for the jewelry design business she runs from her Atlanta-area home.

Although Istanbul understands why Facebook insists on having real people behind real names for every account, she wonders why the online hangout didn't simply ask before acting.

"They should at least give you a warning, or at least give you the benefit of the doubt," she said. "I was on it all day. I had built my entire social network around it. That's what Facebook wants you to do."

Facebook's effort to purge its site of fake accounts, in the process knocking out some real people with unusual names, marks yet another challenge for the 5-year-old social network.

As Facebook becomes a bigger part of the lives of its more than 200 million users, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is finding that the huge diversity and the vast size of its audience are making it increasingly difficult to enforce rules it set when its membership was smaller and more homogenous.

Having grown from a closed network available only to college students to a global social hub used by multiple generations, Facebook has worked over the years to shape its guidelines and features to fit its changing audience. But requiring people to sign up under their real name is part of what makes Facebook Facebook.

To make sure people can't set up accounts with fake names, the site has a long, constantly updated "blacklist" of names that people can't use.

Those could either be ones that sound fake, like Batman, or names tied to current events, like Susan Boyle. While there are dozens of Susan Boyles on Facebook already, people who tried to sign up with that name after the 47-year-old woman became an unlikely singing sensation had more difficulty doing so.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt acknowledged that Facebook does make mistakes on occasion, and he apologized for "any inconvenience." But he said situations like Istanbul's are very rare, and most accounts that are disabled for being fake really are.

"The vast, vast, vast majority of people we disable we never hear from again," he said. Because the exceptions are so rare, he said, prior notification is "not something we are doing right now."

Facebook is available in more than 40 languages — and growing — and its user base is larger than Brazil's population.

But financially it is still a startup.

Although the Internet research firm eMarketer estimates that Facebook generated about $210 million in U.S. advertising revenue last year, that's well below the $585 million estimated for the News Corp.-owned rival, MySpace.

Facebook is still looking for ways to become self-sustaining and reduce its reliance on outside investors. In 2007, Microsoft Corp. bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company for $240 million, though Facebook later concluded it wasn't worth anywhere close to the $15 billion market value implied in that investment.

Because Facebook has only about 850 employees worldwide, getting complaints answered can take a long time. Istanbul, whose father is from the city of Istanbul in Turkey, said it took three weeks to get her account reinstated.

Without being able to log in for that time, she said she felt "completely cut off" from her contacts. Frustrated, she wrote e-mails, then mailed letters to 12 Facebook executives. To keep in touch with her friends and monitor her business pages, Istanbul said she sort of "hijacked" her husband's account.

"I think they just assume you can't have an interesting name," she said of Facebook. "I kept my maiden name because it's such an interesting name, I didn't want to give it up. And now I am having to defend my name."

The suspension of Robin Kills The Enemy's account inspired a friend to create the group "Facebook: don't discriminate against Native surnames!!!" on the site. The group has more than 3,200 members, including some with Native last names who've had their account disabled.

"If you deal with this kind of thing all the time, and on top of that Facebook wants you to prove your identity, ... it's adding insult to injury," said Nancy Kelsey, a graduate student at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, who started the Facebook group. She said Facebook should remedy the problem so that it "wouldn't be so offensive" each time a real name is deemed fake.

"Native American surnames mean something," she said. "They are points of pride, points of identity. It's not someone trying to make up a fake name."

Istanbul's sister, Lisa Istanbul Krikorian, also got locked out of her Facebook account, which she opened a year and a half ago. So she opened another one that omits her maiden name. Their mother and their cousin, who both joined the social network more recently, were not even allowed to sign up under their real names.

"They had to misspell their last names," Alicia Istanbul said, so that Facebook's system of weeding out fake accounts wouldn't recognize them. Her mom added an extra "n" to spell "Istannbul," and her cousin added an "e" to become "Istanbule."

The last name Strawberry also raises a red flag with Facebook, so to get around the namebots many Strawberrys have resorted to misspelling their names — to "Strawberri," "Sstrawberry" or "Strawberrii."

But that makes it difficult to reconnect with old classmates and long-lost friends, something Facebook prides itself in helping facilitate.

"No one is going to find you if your last name is spelled wrong," Istanbul said.

Unlike many other social networks, Facebook wants a real name behind each person's account. Bands, brands and businesses are supposed to use fan pages and groups; regular accounts are for real people.

Facebook says its "real name culture" is one of the site's founding principles. It creates "accountability and, ultimately, creates a safer and more trusted environment for all of our users," Schnitt said. "We require people to be who they are."

Once the site disables an account it deems fake, its holder has to contact Facebook to prove it is real. In some cases, the company may require that the person fax a copy of a government-issued ID, which Facebook says it destroys as soon as the account is verified.

Yet an informal search on Facebook shows that efforts to weed out fake names may be a Sisyphean task. A recent search for "stupid," for example, turned up more than 27 people matches, most looking dubious at best. They join some 20 "I.P. Freely" accounts and 13 "Seymour Butts."

Although many of the fake accounts are created as sophomoric humor or as a vehicle for malicious activity, others are to protect users from having their postings create problems when they later look for jobs or apply to school. Facebook has extensive privacy settings, but they are complicated and many people don't know how to properly use them.

Steve Jones, professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said having real people behind personal accounts helps Facebook maintain credibility.

"If they let fake names and accounts proliferate people are going to take it less seriously," he said.

Still, he believes that Facebook should notify the holders of purportedly fake accounts.

"The first step in any sort of takedown action is to notify," he said. "What's the rush? Why not give somebody 24, 48 hours?"

FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be sued by a former Sept. 11

WASHINGTON – FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot be sued by a former Sept. 11 detainee who claimed he was abused because of his religion and ethnicity, a sharply divided Supreme Court said Monday in a decision that could make it harder to sue top officials for the actions of low-level operatives.

The court overturned a lower court decision that let Javaid Iqbal's (Ick-ball) lawsuit against the high-ranking officials proceed.

Iqbal is a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002. He had argued that while Ashcroft and Mueller did not single him out for mistreatment, they were responsible for a policy of confining detainees in highly restrictive conditions because of their religious beliefs or race.

But the government argued that there was nothing linking Mueller and Ashcroft to the abuses that happened to Iqbal at a Brooklyn, N.Y., prison's Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit, and the court agreed.

"The complaint does not show or even intimate, that petitioners purposefully housed detainees in the ADMAX SHU due to their race, religion or national origin," said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion. "All it plausibly suggests is that the nation's top law enforcement officers, in the aftermath of a devastating attack, sought to keep suspected terrorists in the most secure conditions available until the suspects could be cleared of terrorist activity."

The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had said the lawsuit could proceed.

Richard A. Samp, lawyer for the Washington Legal Foundation, welcomed the court's ruling. "It ensures the ability of senior national security officials to perform their duties without the distraction of having to defend against claims for money damages," he said.

"The decision's effect will be widespread. By enabling all defendants to win dismissal of unsubstantiated claims, it will make it more difficult for plaintiffs to coerce settlements from defendants seeking to avoid the costs of discovery," Samp said.

The court's liberal justices — David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and John Paul Stevens — dissented from the court's opinion.

"Iqbal contends that Ashcroft and Mueller were at the very least aware of the discriminatory detention policy and condoned it and perhaps even took part in devising it," Souter said. He should be given chance to prove his claims in court, Souter said.

Kennedy said the Sept. 11 attacks were carried out by Arab Muslim hijackers who counted themselves members of al-Qaida.

"It should come as no surprise that a legitimate policy directing law enforcement to arrest and detain individuals because of their suspected link to the attacks would produce a disparate, incidental impact on Arab Muslims, even though the purpose of the policy was to target neither Arabs nor Muslims," he said.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts. Iqbal could have a case against others, Kennedy said.

His "account of his prison ordeal could, if proved, demonstrate unconstitutional misconduct by some governmental actors," Kennedy said. "But the allegations and pleadings with respect to these actors are not before us here."

Iqbal was arrested at his Long Island home on Nov. 2, 2001, and charged with nonviolent federal crimes unrelated to terrorism. Two months later, he was moved to a holding facility in Brooklyn, where he was in solitary confinement for more than 150 days without a hearing, his lawsuit alleges.

He said he was subjected to physical and verbal abuse, including unnecessary strip searches. On the day he entered solitary confinement, he says, he was thrown against a wall, kicked in the stomach, punched in the face and dragged across a floor by federal prison officers.

He was cleared of any involvement in terrorism and was deported in January 2003 after pleading guilty to fraud and being sentenced to a year and four months in prison.

The appeals court said it recognized the gravity of the situation confronting government investigators after the 2001 terrorist attacks and agreed that some forms of government action that otherwise would not be proper are permitted in emergencies.

But it said most of the rights cited in the lawsuit "do not vary with surrounding circumstances, such as the right not to be subjected to needlessly harsh conditions of confinement, the right to be free from the use of excessive force and the right not to be subjected to ethnic or religious discrimination."

A 2003 Justice Department report found "significant problems" with the treatment of post-Sept. 11 detainees at the facility in Brooklyn, including physical abuse and mistreatment.

The case is Ashcroft and Mueller v. Iqbal, 07-1015.

ponedjeljak, 18.05.2009.

Toyota rolled out the revamped Prius on Monday, and said it already had 80,000 advance orders

TOKYO – Toyota rolled out the revamped Prius on Monday, and said it already had 80,000 advance orders in Japan for the remodeled hybrid amid intensifying competition with Honda's rival offering, the Insight.

The world's largest automaker said it aims to sell up to 400,000 units globally a year of the car.

"We are resting the future of cars in this model," said incoming president Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, who drove the new model onto a stage at a packed Tokyo showroom.

Both Toyoda's presence and new Prius are symbolic of Toyota Motor Corp.'s pursuit of a turnaround from its worst annual loss since its 1937 founding.

The Prius, now in its third generation since its 1997 introduction, is the best-selling hybrid in the world, racking up a cumulative 1.256 million units sold in more than 40 nations and regions.

But now Toyota faces a challenge from Honda Motor Co., whose more cheaply priced Insight has sold briskly since it was introduced in Japan in February. In April, the Insight ranked as the top-selling vehicle in Japan — the first time a hybrid clinched that spot.

Toyota said its Japan prices for the Prius would start at 2.05 million yen, or about $21,600 at current exchange rates, less than its predecessor model.

But in an unusual move aimed at competing against the Insight, Toyota also said it will continue to sell the current Prius in Japan — and cut its price. It targets rental and corporate customers, and will sell for 1.89 million yen, the same price as the Insight.

Toyota had already given the U.S. prices for the 2010 Prius — starting at $22,000, unchanged from the base price for the 2009 model. It is also promising a more basic U.S. model as well for later this year starting at $21,000.

The Insight, which is smaller than the Prius, carries a lower manufacturer's suggested retail price of $19,800 for the base model in the U.S.

Honda has sold 19,492 Insights in Japan since it went on sale in February, and 2,665 Insight vehicles in the U.S. since March.

"We've come up with a price that we think is close to what will make people happy," Toyoda said.

Toyoda, 53, was tapped in January to take the helm at the world's biggest automaker, the first time in 14 years it has turned to the charisma of its founding roots for top leadership — mainly to bring employees and affiliates together and steer the automaker through deep troubles.

The new Prius gets a combined 50 miles per gallon, compared with 46 mpg for the 2009 model, according to Toyota.

It does even better under Japanese government testing standards, according to Toyota. Hybrids tend to offer better mileage in slow-speed and stop-and-go driving common on Japanese streets, rather than on highways — just the reverse of standard gas engine cars.

Toyota is promising 38 kilometers per liter, which converts to 90 miles per gallon, in Japan, for the latest Prius.

Although global demand for hybrid vehicles has grown in recent years, when oil prices were surging, that interest has settled somewhat as oil prices subside and a global slowdown squeezed auto sales overall.

Toyota reported a 42 percent drop in U.S. vehicle sales for April, weighed down by a 62 percent slide in Prius sales as consumers awaited the launch of the 2010 model.

Ravaged by a global slump, tight credit in the critical U.S. market and the strong yen, Toyota racked up a larger-than-expected 436.94 billion yen ($4.4 billion) loss for the fiscal year ended March 31, a dramatic reversal from the record profit of 1.72 trillion yen it earned the previous year.

President Barack Obama strode head-on Sunday into the stormy abortion debate and told graduates

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – President Barack Obama strode head-on Sunday into the stormy abortion debate and told graduates at America's leading Roman Catholic university that both sides must stop demonizing one another.

Obama acknowledged that "no matter how much we want to fudge it ... the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." But he still implored the University of Notre Dame's graduating class and all in the U.S. to stop "reducing those with differing views to caricature. Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that always has been the Notre Dame tradition."

One of the noisiest controversies of his young presidency flared after Obama, who supports abortion rights but says the procedure should be rare, was invited to speak at the school and receive an honorary degree. "I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away," the president said.

The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, introduced Obama and praised the president for not being "someone who stops talking to those who disagree with him." Jenkins said too little attention has been paid to Obama's decision to speak at an institution that opposes his abortion policy.

Ahead of Obama's address, at least 27 people were arrested on trespassing charges. They included Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff identified as "Roe" in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. She now opposes abortion and joined more than 300 anti-abortion demonstrators at the school's front gate.

More than half held signs, some declaring "Shame on Notre Dame" and "Stop Abortion Now" to express their anger over Notre Dame's invitation to Obama.

Obama entered the arena to thunderous applause and a standing ovation from many in the crowd of 12,000. But as the president began his commencement address, at least three protesters interrupted it. One yelled, "Stop killing our children."

The graduates responded by chanting "Yes we can," the slogan that became synonymous with Obama's presidential campaign, as well as "We are ND." Obama seem unfazed, saying Americans must be able to deal with things that make them "uncomfortable."

The president ceded no ground. But he said those on each side of the debate "can still agree that this is a heart-wrenching decision for any woman to make, with both moral and spiritual dimensions.

"So let's work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term."

He said he favored "a sensible conscience clause" that would give anti-abortion health care providers the right to refuse to perform the procedure.

Before taking on the abortion issue, Obama told graduates they were part of a "generation that must find a path back to prosperity and decide how we respond to a global economy that left millions behind even before this crisis hit an economy where greed and short-term thinking were too often rewarded at the expense of fairness, and diligence, and an honest day's work."

Obama's appearance appeared additionally complicated by fresh polls that show Americans' attitudes on the issue have shifted toward the anti-abortion position.

A Gallup survey released Friday found that 51 percent of those questioned call themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42 percent "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as "pro-life" since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

Just a year ago, Gallup found that 50 percent termed themselves "pro-choice" while 44 percent described their beliefs as "pro-life."

A Pew Research Center survey found public opinion about abortion more closely divided than it has been in several years.

Pew said its latest polling found that 28 percent said abortion should be legal in most cases while 18 percent said all cases. Forty-four percent of those surveyed were opposed to abortion in most or all cases.

Gallup said shifting opinions lay almost entirely with Republicans or independents who lean Republican, with opposition among those groups rising over the past year from 60 percent to 70 percent.

The abortion issue also is front and center as Obama considers potential nominees to fill the vacancy left by the retirement this summer of Justice David Souter. Abortion opponents are determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned, but only four court justices out of nine have backed that position. Souter has opposed arguments for overturning the ruling.

The Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations hold that abortion and the use of embryos for stem cell research amount to the destruction of human life, are morally wrong and should be banned by law.

The contrary argument holds that women have the right to terminate a pregnancy and that unused embryos created outside the womb for couples who cannot otherwise conceive should be available for stem cell research. Such research holds the promise of finding treatments for debilitating ailments.

Within weeks of taking office in January, Obama eased an executive order by President George W. Bush that limited research to a small number of stem-cell strains.

On the Notre Dame campus, members of an abortion rights group also protested while a plane pulling an anti-abortion banner circled above. Tara Makowski of Seattle, who received a master's degree Saturday from the school, said she was dismayed by the way Notre Dame was being characterized.

"Seeing us being portrayed nationally as radical conservative has been really tough," she said. "People need to realize that the majority of students and faculty" favored Obama's visit.

But Bishop John D'Arcy, whose diocese includes Notre Dame, skipped commencement. He attended an open-air Mass and rally. He said he wanted to support the students protesting Obama's speech.

"All of you are heroes, and I'm proud to stand with you," he said.

Obama was the ninth president to receive an honorary degree from Notre Dame and sixth sitting president to address graduates. Other commencement speakers have included Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Before returning to Washington, Obama stopped in Indianapolis for two fundraisers. About 40 people attended a $15,000-per-couple Democratic National Committee event, which raised between $300,000 and $400,000.

About 650 people attended a second fundraiser for four Indiana Democratic congressmen. That dinner cost $250-$5,000 per person.

Indiana is a traditionally conservative state that Obama carried in the presidential election.

nedjelja, 17.05.2009.

NBC says an estimated 8.9 million people watched a documentary about Farrah Fawcett's battle against cancer.

LOS ANGELES – NBC says an estimated 8.9 million people watched a documentary about Farrah Fawcett's battle against cancer.

The film, "Farrah's Story," aired Friday on NBC, detailing the former "Charlie's Angels" treatment and hopes for recovery.

The 62-year-old Fawcett was diagnosed in 2006 with anal cancer that has since spread to her liver.

According to preliminary ratings released Saturday, "Farrah's Story" was NBC's most-watched program in its Friday night time slot in more than a year, excluding the Olympics.

But it was edged out by CBS' airing of the season finale of "Numb3rs." The crime drama drew an estimated 9.6 million viewers Friday.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects film title to `Farrah's Story' sted `Farah's Song.'.)

South Korea has not ruled out the possibility that a joint industrial complex in North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea has not ruled out the possibility that a joint industrial complex in North Korea will ultimately be shut down, a news report said Saturday, after the North announced it was canceling contracts for companies operating there.

North Korea told the South on Friday that all contracts on running the factory park in Kaesong, just north of the border, are invalid. It said it will write new rules on taxes, rent and wages on its own and that the South should unconditionally accept them or pull out of the complex.

The move was a major blow to a project seen as a symbol of collaboration between the wartime foes, though the communist regime has previously taken steps undermining the complex in protest against tough approaches to it by conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

More than 100 South Korean companies employ some 38,000 North Koreans at the zone to make everything from electronics and watches to shoes and utensils, providing a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped North.

North Korea's announcement signals a sharp raise in taxes, rent and wages at the complex — a move that would significantly reduce the appeal of operating factories in the North where arbitrary border restrictions and closures have meant losses for South Korean companies.

South Korea denounced the announcement and called the North irresponsible.

"This is a measure that fundamentally threatens the stability of the Kaesong complex, and it is not acceptable at all," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said Friday.

On Saturday, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Seoul is bracing itself for the park's closure.

"Our position is that we will risk Kaesong's shutdown in the worst case," it quoted an unidentified official as saying. The newspaper said the government plans to compensate the Kaesong companies for losses if the complex is closed.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim said the government is not considering the park's closure. "Our position is to save the complex," he said.

Spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo told a briefing later Saturday that South Korea will continue to seek talks with the North, though it has not yet responded to an offer to meet next week.

Relations between the two Koreas have significantly deteriorated since President Lee took office in February last year. Since then, reconciliation talks have been cut off and all key joint projects except the factory park have been suspended.

North Korea claims the South is benefiting from "preferential treatment" at Kaesong — including free rent and cheap labor. The regime scrapped those benefits Friday, blaming Seoul's "confrontational" stance.

"We cannot provide favors forever to those seeking confrontation," the North said.

North Korean workers in the complex are paid about $70 a month on average — about half the salary of Chinese laborers at South Korean factories in China, according to South Korean officials.

Analyst Kim Yong-hyun at Seoul's Dongguk University said the North is using brinksmanship in an attempt to force South Korea to change its policy.

The association representing the companies operating at Kaesong issued a statement saying they are "deeply worried and perplexed" by the North's decision. It also called for both governments to resolve the situation through dialogue.

Last month, the two Koreas held their first government-level talks since Lee took office, but the meeting made little progress with the North refusing to free a South Korean worker detained in late March for allegedly criticizing the regime's political system.

The North said it had intended to negotiate new terms for the complex with South Korea, but that the South was insincere and kept raising the issue of the detained worker, which it said was not on the agenda.

The industrial park opened in 2004 at a time of budding reconciliation between the sides, and has provided the North with badly needed hard currency that some fear is being diverted to its nuclear and missile programs.

Nuclear tensions are also high on the divided peninsula because the North has quit disarmament talks and threatened to conduct an atomic test following its widely criticized April 5 rocket launch. North Korea also has arrested two American journalists who are to go on trial in early June for allegedly entering the country illegally.