"I remember sitting there in the dark, arguing with myself," Katherine Stone said of the nights several years ago when her baby simply would not go to sleep.

A women's health advocate and Babble blogger living in Atlanta, Ga., Stone hadn't slept through the night in months, and she was at her wits' end.

"It's torture," she said. "It's like, 'When is this ever going to end?'"

Inevitably, she found herself uncertain about whether to let her baby cry.

"If I go in too soon, will she not learn to self-soothe?" Stone recalled herself thinking. "If I go in too late, have I taught my baby that I'm not reliable? It was a nightmare."

Stone's story is a familiar one among many new parents. Nearly half of mothers with babies over six months of age report problems with their baby's sleep. This common problem not only leads to sleepless nights for parents, but it also doubles the risk that moms will suffer from feelings of depression.

Now, a new study released today in the journal Pediatrics suggests it is OK to let babies cry while trying to fall asleep -- a finding that may help settle a long-running debate among both parents and experts over whether allowing a baby to cry itself to sleep harms the child in the long run.

Australian researchers looked at 225 babies from seven months to 6 years of age to compare the difference between parents who were trained in sleep intervention techniques and those who were not. Specifically, researchers allowed parents in the sleep intervention group to choose one of two sleep training techniques to use with their baby. Parents who chose "controlled crying" responded to their infant's cry at increasing time intervals. Parents who chose "camping out," also called "adult fading," sat with their infant until they fell asleep, removing themselves earlier each night over three weeks.

Parents in the control group were not taught the sleep training techniques and instead provided their own routine care.

What the researchers found was that children and mothers in the sleep training group had improved sleep, and the mothers were less likely to experience depression and other emotional problems. These benefits lasted up to the time the babies turned 2.

Moreover, the study looked at various factors to determine whether harm was done to children in the sleep training group, including mental and behavioral health, sleep quality, stress, and relationship with their parents. They found no differences between children in the two groups, leading researchers to conclude that these sleep training techniques are safe to use.

"[P]arents can feel confident using, and health professionals can feel confident offering, behavioral techniques such as controlled comforting and camping out for managing infant sleep," the researchers write in the study.

In the world of the web trolls, this was an unqualified call to arms.

When Big Apple Pizza owner Scott Van Nuzer bear-hugged and hoisted President Obama off the ground during their brief meeting in Fort Pierce, Fla., Sunday, it wasn't only the (startled) press corps that took notice.

Earlier today, users flooded the rate and review website Yelp, sending Big Apple Pizza's overall rating in a tailspin.

"Talk about committing business suicide. After picking up Obama, your (sic) books are gonna be in the red pretty soon. Not too smart," wrote one commenter, who delivered his one star (out of five) rating from Cottonwood, Ariz., about 2,200 miles away.

But just as quickly as Big Apple's stars disappeared, they were back. The backlash to the backlash was delivered swiftly. By late afternoon, Van Nuzer's pizza spot was back up in the rankings, registering a full five stars.

Another user, this one checking in from Brooklyn, N.Y., 1,165 miles away, chirped: "Really, conservatards? You try to trash a man's business because he likes a different political candidate than you? What scum you all are. Go crawl back in your holes. SCOTT VAN DUZER IS MY HERO!"

Of the 229 comments listed on the page (30 of them "filtered," one removed for violating terms of service), only two were published pre-bear hug, the most recent coming in 2010.

The oldest review, the first posted on the Big Apple page, delivers a less partisan evaluation.

"Nice variety of food for lunch or dinner," Bob O. from hometown Fort Pierce wrote on Dec. 26, 2009. "Love the Pizza, wings, subs and the best strombolie in town. Great atmosphere in newly renovated dinning area, and flat screen TV's to enjoy sports. Family setting as Scott VanDuzer (sic), Fish and the rest of the staff make you feel right at home. 'Special People' and good food make for a local favorite."

Lana Del Rey claimed the title of British GQ's "Woman of the Year" and got naked for the cover of the risque issue.

Wearing nothing but diamond and sapphire jewelry and bright red lipstick, Del Rey poses nude for the cover of British GQ's "15th Annual Men of the Year Awards Special Issue."

The magazine has been criticized for sexism in the wake of the release. Tinie Tempah, Robbie Williams, Mad Men actor John Slattery and James Corden each appear clothed on alternate covers. Del Rey, the sole female, is the only one who appears disrobed.

"Objectification is complicated—I don't have a problem with a naked lady here and there per se, but when ALL YOUR LADIES ARE NAKED, those of us ladies with clothes on start to wonder why you even keep us around," wrote Jezebel's Lindy West. "Like, you're just going to have one lady...and she has to be naked?"

While Del Rey's nude British GQ photo shoot will surely attract viewers (and critics), her winning "Woman of the Year" has a lot more to do with her rocketing career than it does with her naked body. British GQ explains:

    Having provoked equal amounts of debate and outrage throughout an incredible year, she fufills one of the key requirements for any good pop star: she gets talked about. Following the all-conquering "Video Games" and her number one debut album Born To Die, Del Rey signed to NEXT models, wrote the best song on Cheryl Cole's last album, teamed up with ASAP Rocky and has acted as a muse and model to Mulberry, Jaguar and H&M. Truly 2013 is hers for the taking.

Del Rey, born Lizzie Grant, has surely come a long way from her days growing up in Lake Placid, N.Y. At 18 years old, the self-proclaimed "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" moved to New York City to pursue her dreams, singing at open mike nights and moving into a trailer park in New Jersey, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Emma Watson is living out another fantasy – the life of a high school kid that she missed out on growing up in the Harry Potter fold.

For her first major film role since leaving the world of Potter behind, Watson chose "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," in which she plays an American teen who's part of a clique of hip outsiders at a Pittsburgh school.

The 22-year-old British actress said it gave her a taste of a whole different life considering her cloistered upbringing on the set of the Potter franchise, in which she was cast as bookish young hero Hermione Granger at age 9.

"It felt pretty exotic to me. It really did. It was a very voyeuristic experience," Watson said in an interview Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Perks" played ahead of its U.S. theatrical release Sept. 21. "Getting to go to Friday night football and Olive Garden, school dances and all of that stuff. That was really another world to me."

She's rich and world-famous because of the eight "Harry Potter" films, and Watson shares Hermione's studiousness, spending a couple of years at Brown University years before launching into a busy post-"Potter" film schedule.

Yet for all the worldliness that comes with her Hollywood experience, Watson said that growing up in a bubble of celebrity has left her feeling like a kid when it comes to many things.

"There are some parts of me that feel very old, and then there are other parts of me that are, like, I have a sense of my own arrested development," Watson said. "There are some parts of me right now that are probably going through adolescence."

Her work ethic is fairly grown-up, though. While attending Brown and working on last year's "Harry Potter" finale, Watson squeezed in a small role in the Marilyn Monroe drama "My Week with Marilyn."

After "Perks," she co-starred in Sofia Coppola's 2013 release "The Bling Ring," playing one of a group of celebrity-obsessed Los Angeles teens who burgle the homes of Hollywood stars. Watson also has a cameo role in Seth Rogen's upcoming comedy "The End of the World," playing a version of herself alongside other stars coping with the apocalypse during a party at James Franco's place.

Watson came to Toronto for the "Perks" premiere on a break from her next project, co-starring with Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Anthony Hopkins in director Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic "Noah." She heads back to work Tuesday on that film, which also features her "Perks" co-star Logan Lerman.

Adapted by director Stephen Chbosky from his own novel, "Perks" casts Lerman as a deeply troubled high school freshman who falls in with a crowd of smart, nurturing seniors dealing with plenty of issues of their own. Watson's Sam becomes his dream girl, an old soul with a dark past herself earlier in her teen years.

After a decade as Hermione, Watson aims to give "Harry Potter" fans a taste of what she can do outside the world of witches and wizards.

No, this isn't a remake of Madonna's rom-com "Who's That Girl?" (1987), it's "The Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence, vamping it up for last night's Toronto International Film Festival premiere of her buzzy new film, "Silver Linings Playbook."

Lawrence looked nothing like the stunner who made everyone say, "Who's THAT girl?" while walking the 2011 Academy Awards Red Carpet (above right), when she was nominated for her lead role in "Winter's Bone" (2010). On that red carpet, then 20-year-old Lawrence stole many a headline while rocking a Fancisco Costa designed Calvin Klein Collection gown that made Jessica Rabbit look frumpy.

In Toronto, Lawrence's look was… well, different. In fact, she's nearly unrecognizable! We're not saying she doesn't look amazing and elegant in her mostly-crimson, somewhat gothic, strapless Christian Dior Haute Couture gown and Dior black shoes, but Lawrence does look significantly more severe. The pencil-straight auburn hair stands out in sharp contrast to her easy, breezy, carefree blonde waves we've gotten used to. And the dark makeup and fingernails gravely accentuate the striking difference.

Perhaps Lawrence's new dramatic look is an early marketing push to land her an Oscar? There is certainly plenty of Oscar worthy buzz surrounding the quirky dramedy "Silver Linings Playbook," directed by David O. Russell and co-starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. Lawrence and Cooper play two messed up, over medicated, therapy magnets who come together in hopes of finding some sanity in this crazy world, or at least some good company.

The Hollywood Reporter gushed over the film, especially over Lawrence and Cooper's obvious synergy: "The chemistry between Cooper and Lawrence makes them a delight to watch, their spiky rapport failing to conceal a mutual attraction."

Deadline notes the film "will almost certainly put stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro all in major contention for acting nominations. In fact, in what has previously looked like a pretty weak field for lead actress this year, Lawrence leaps to the front of the pack with a revelatory performance that seemed to knock most observers out."

 Russian opposition punk band Pussy Riot have released a new video in which they set fire to a portrait of President Vladimir Putin in a stunt likely to anger the Kremlin.

Three of the band's members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - were last month given two-year jail sentences each after storming the altar of Moscow's main cathedral and staging a "punk prayer", calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

Their jail sentences - for the crime of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred - drew sharp international criticism with opposition groups saying the case was part of a Kremlin crackdown on dissent.

In August, the all-female collective said that two other band members who had taken part in the same cathedral protest had fled the country - the whereabouts of the roughly dozen other members who did not take part in the stunt is unknown.

In the new video, which was released on the Internet and featured three anonymous band members who were performing on behalf of their jailed friends, women donning balaclavas - the band's trademark -
are shown abseiling down the facade of an abandoned or under construction building.

A giant white banner depicting a guitar-wielding woman in a red miniskirt with the caption "Pussy Riot" is unfurled on the building's facade and, beneath it, smaller cardboard portraits of Putin and of Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, are shown hanging.

"We've been fighting for the right to sing, to think, to criticise. To be musicians and artists, ready to do everything to change our country, no matter the risks. We go on with our musical fight in Russia and our country is dominated by an evil man," female voices, speaking in English, exclaim in turns.

A MUM and daughter are about to go head to head  in the Miss Plus Size  International beauty pageant for bigger women.

Here, single mum of four and tea shop owner Michelle, 41, and budding  baker  Bianca, 23, from Charlton, south-east London, talk to JENNIFER  TIPPETT.


Michelle says

“FOR us, this is the ultimate mother-and-daughter experience — and to both  make the final after 400 ladies from around the world entered is a real  honour.

“We both really want to win and that’s great.

“And we’re the only mum-and-daughter BBW (Big Beautiful Women) team competing  in pageants globally.

“It just shows that us full-figured girls from south-east London can set the  standard and show the rest of the world how it’s done.

“I don’t consider either of us large. We’re in the middle.

“We’ve never dieted and I don’t consider it necessary.

“Sometimes we over-indulge on special occasions but who doesn’t?

“I have taught all my children the value of healthy food.

“We don’t sit around stuffing our faces. Everyone assumes because we are big  that we are lazy, which is just not true.

“It’s about time people appreciated that big women are part of society.

“As mum and daughter, we represent different ages and different sizes.

To be fair, a dancer doing their thing in public doesn't need any props to get noticed, but Scheinbert insists "it's not about the nudity."

"Now [pole dancing] is about acrobatics and trying to compete with somebody," Scheinbert said. "It's like playing H-O-R-S-E. One person does a move and another person tries to top it."

Andrew Katzander, founder of PoleRiders, a group of pole-based performance artists, believes that the activity is starting to become more mainstream and differentiated.

"There's a lot of dancers that have stayed with the whole high-heels and sexy moves, and others who have moved toward the gymnastic and athletic side of it," Katzander said. "Others are moving towards the more dance side of it."

A 12-year-old New York boy and his three 13-year-old friends accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl over three days and attempting to rape another 12-year-old claimed in court today that the sex was consensual.

The boys, all students of Chestnut Ridge Middle School in Ramapo, have told the Rockland Family Court that they did not illegally enter the girls home and rape her on two different occasions and sexually attack another girl.

Giving evidence by closed circuit television to the court, the girl who is now 15, said that on the second day the boys let themselves into her home uninvited early on June 12th and took it in turns to rape her – only leaving that morning to catch a bus to school for an exam they didn’t want to miss.
One of the four boys who have not been identified accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl walks away from Rockland Family Court with his parents with a jacket over his head

One of the four boys who have not been identified accused of gang raping a 14-year-old girl walks away from Rockland Family Court with his parents with a jacket over his head

In late August, the 15-year-old girl gave evidence from another room in the family court because prosecution psychologists had deemed it damaging for her to see the four defendants who are currently free under house supervision.

The teen claimed in evidence that the boys raped her again in the afternoon on the 12th and and finally returned on the 13th of June to rape her again but she told them she was menstruating and instead the boys attempted to attack a 12-year-old girl who was present in the home.

The older girl said that the attacks began on the morning of June 11th, when the boys entered the home, held her down and stripped her of her clothes, which she said she tried to resist.

‘I was yelling and screaming to leave me alone,’ she said, adding she felt ‘pain’ at being penetrated multiple times.

The 15-year-old claimed that in the afternoon of the 12th after they returned from school, the boys discovered her hiding in her parents  bedroom, overpowered her and held her down by her wrists while they took it in turns to rape her again.

Claiming that the boys knew where a key  to her front door was kept, the 15-year-old girl has testified that the  boys came back on the 12th and took it in turns to rape and sodomise her inside the bathroom.

The 15-year-old and 12-year-old girl who is now 13, didn’t tell their parents until a two days  after the alleged attacks.

In her testimony to the family court, the younger girl said that she kicked and screamed and bit two of the four boys as they tried to rape her on June 13th.

‘They pulled me into (the other girl’s) room. I was screaming, ‘Get off of me!’’, the girl told Rockland Family Court Judge Sherri Eisenpress according to The Journal News.

have pushed the price of smokes so high in some areas, it is literally more profitable to hijack a truck filled with cigarettes than an armored car.

The problem is worst in New York, which has the highest cigarette taxes in the land. In New York City, that tax is more than $5 a pack. Smugglers rush there from Virginia, which has the lowest state taxes on cigarettes, just 30 cents.

Now, they’re selling loose cigarettes – loosies, for 75 cents apiece on the black market.

Even 10 years ago, well before bigger tax hikes, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officials were saying traditional organized crime is involved in New York’s black market smokes, along with terrorist groups and street gangs. Numerous murders and shootings resulted.

You know who profits the most off of tobacco, besides smugglers?

That’s right, federal and state governments.

Tobacco companies’ operating profits are less than 50 cents a pack.

The feds get twice that, a whole dollar, thanks to a giant increase in 2009.

And many states, like New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, make five to ten times as much in taxes than the manufacturers’ profit.

That’s why it costs more than $11 bucks for a pack of smokes in Manhattan.

And with a pack costing about $4 here, you can see the business opportunity for smugglers.

America’s history and tobacco are joined at the hip. Gold brought waves of settlers here in the mid 1800s, but before that, it was the golden leaf.

That’s why tobacco leaves adorn the state capitol.

Alexander Hamilton was the first to push tobacco taxes shortly after we declared independence, but we didn’t get serious about it until the Civil War drained the Union’s economy.

Tobacco taxes have soared in the past 20 years as smoking became one of the most reviled behaviors in the land.

Not only has it been blamed for deadly diseases, tobacco has been wrongly been labeled a financial drain to our society.

This is what happens when a legal product becomes so politically incorrect that we suspend the usual fair trade rules and allow governments to sin tax the hell out of it.

But no matter how horrible we say tobacco is, we don’t have the guts to make it illegal because we’re right there in bed with the tobacco companies.

And do you know who gets screwed the most? Poor people.