Movement for happiness launches in Britain, urges hugs and kindness
LONDON (AP) — Is there a science of happiness?
A growing band of economists, politicians and academics thinks so — and is putting theory into practice by starting a “mass movement for a happier society.”
Action for Happiness launched Tuesday in London, encouraging hugging, meditation and random acts of kindness. It is getting under way as the British government asks statisticians to measure the economically battered nation’s well-being.
The nonprofit group’s founders include a former Downing Street policy chief, Tony Blair’s biographer and an eminent economist. They say happiness — long regarded as the preserve of poets, philosophers and spiritual leaders — is a deeply serious issue.
Co-founder Richard Layard, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, says the group “doesn’t have any creed or dogma. It’s a secular movement, grounded in science.”
 
France, Britain urge NATO to put more pressure Moammar Gadhafi
AJDABIYA, Libya (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi’s forces fired rockets along the eastern front line and shelled the besieged city of Misrata on Tuesday as France and Britain said NATO should be doing more to pressure the Libyan regime.
Several rockets struck Ajdabiya, the main point leading into the rebel-held east, and witnesses also reported shelling in Misrata, the only major city in the western half of Libya that remains under partial rebel control.
Iceland’s bizarre penis museum finally gets human speciman
LONDON (AP) — In life, Pall Arason sought attention. In death, he is getting it: The 95-year-old Icelander’s pickled penis will be the main attraction in one of his country’s most bizarre museums.
Sigurdur Hjartarson, who runs the Phallological Museum in the tiny Icelandic fishing town of Husavik, said Arason’s organ will help round out the unusual institution’s extensive collection of phalluses from whales, seals, bears and other mammals.
Somber 150th anniversary of Civil War honored at Fort Sumter
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Booming cannons, plaintive period music and hushed crowds ushered in the 150th anniversary of America’s bloodiest war on Tuesday, a commemoration that continues to underscore a racial divide that had plagued the nation since before the Civil War.
The events marked the 150th anniversary of the Confederate bombardment of Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, which plunged the nation into a war costing more than 600,000 lives.
Several hundred people gathered on Charleston’s Battery in the pre-dawn darkness, much as Charleston residents gathered 150 years ago to view the bombardment of April 12, 1861.
Applebee’s in Michigan makes changes after child receives alcohol
MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — The Applebee’s restaurant chain says it’s changing the way it serves juice after a toddler was mistakenly given a small amount of alcohol at a Detroit-area location.
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News reported Tuesday that Applebee’s will pour juice for children from single-serve containers at the table starting this week. Applebee’s also plans to retrain workers. Madison Heights police say the drink mislabeled as apple juice was actually a leftover mixed drink combination.
Saints’ preseason schedule set despite ongoing NFL negotiations
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Saints now know who they’re scheduled to play in the 2011 NFL preseason — if there is a preseason.
Barring a prolonged work-stoppage related to negotiations over a new labor agreement between players and owners, the Saints are scheduled to open their four-game preseason at home against San Francisco and new 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.
The Saints would then travel to Houston and Oakland before wrapping up their preseason at home against Tennessee. The game at Oakland is scheduled to be televised nationally on Aug. 28.
Advocacy group, former legislator file suit over truck stop tiger
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An animal advocacy group and a former state legislator have filed suit against Louisiana wildlife officials, saying they violated the law when they issued a permit allowing a live tiger to be kept at a truck stop west of Baton Rouge.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund and former state Rep. Warren Triche Jr. are among plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed Monday in state district court in Baton Rouge.
 
 
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