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There’s technically no law against faking your own death, but it’s usually impossible to pull off without committing other crimes. For example, creating a fake identity is considered identity fraud. Cashing in on your life insurance policy after faking your death is insurance fraud. Committing pseudocide to avoid legal problems is also illegal. People often get caught because they do this in a rush. The more time someone has to carefully map out the logistics of their plan and their new life, the better their chances of succeeding....

Multiple days of protests, rioting and looting erupted in Guadeloupe, which has a population of about 400,000 people, after France announced mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for health care workers and the COVID-19 health pass, required to enter restaurants among other venues. During the riots, the woman was hit by a bullet while on her balcony. At least two others have been injured, according to local authorities. France’s central government sent in police special forces to try to restore order, as emergency workers said they were unable to reach neighborhoods barricaded by angry crowds....

Inclusion. As many community members as possible should be involved in the process. Nobody should be excluded or left out (unless they ask to be excluded). Participation. Not only is every person included, but each and every person is also expected to participate by contributing opinions and suggestions. While there are various roles that others may have, each person has an equal share (and stake) in the final decision. Co-operation. All the people involved collaborate and build upon each other’s concerns and suggestions to come up with a decision or solution that will satisfy everyone in the group, rather than just the majority (while the minority is ignored)....

In the 1930s, an atypical La Niña triggered a period of severe drought, strong winds, and above-average temperatures in the American Great Plains. The soil was already degraded from decades of overuse. But the La Niña was the final straw, causing intense dust storms and widespread crop failure that lasted several years. The country’s wheat and maize production plummeted, dropping 36 and 48 percent respectively over the course of the 1930s....

This holiday season, however, brought an untraditional blight. Ever since Aspen became Hollywood on ice, an u written “No gawking” code has been decorously observed by locals and visitors alike. But last week the stargazing reached a rude peak. Apparently, a record blitz of glitterati attracted a blizzard of out-of town paparazzi (even some of the tabloid TV shows popped up), triggering an avalanche of frenzied fans. At the trendy mountainside Little Nell Hotel, where real estate tycoon Marvin Davis holed up with his entourage (including Sean Connery, Harry Hamlin and wife Nicollette Sheridan), a concierge had to constantly tell the camera-toting, autograph-seeking “looky-loos” camped outside to take a powder....

Any Given Sunday Warner Bros., opens Dec. 22 The matchup of Oliver Stone and pro football makes a not-so-surprisingly good fit: after all, Vince Lombardi often compared football to war, and war is Stone’s favorite cinematic turf. Using all the weapons in his overflowing technical arsenal, Stone hurls the audience onto the field, surrounding us with the most bone-crunching, earth-shaking game of football ever put on film. The Miami Sharks–coached by veteran Tony D’Amato (Al Pacino)–lose two quarterbacks to injury, opening the way for third stringer Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx) to take his shot at glory....

2d lowest utility bills: (Colo. Public Utilities Commission) Most Lovable City: (Great Expectations Dating Service) 2d best for sound fiscal management: (City and State mag)

Warners may be a little too cocky. By opening ““Conspiracy Theory’’ this week, not just in the dog days of August but also in the wake of the Harrison Ford blockbuster ““Air Force One,’’ the studio is testing the limits of the ““Lethal Weapon’’ magic. Gibson’s offbeat performance is gripping, and his costar, Julia Roberts, has renewed strength off the success of ““My Best Friend’s Wedding,’’ but conventional wisdom says that their especially strong portrayals may find only a middling audience by the blockbuster standards of summer....

To be sure, literary comics (or “graphic novels” as laymen call them to differentiate from daily strips like, say, “Dilbert”) have steadily been gaining cachet in the mainstream popular culture since 1986, when Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” the story of his father’s Holocaust survival, won the Pulitzer Prize. The “American Splendor” series was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film in 2003. “Jimmy Corrigan” author and hipster darling Chris Ware edited the wildly popular 2004 McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern Issue Number 13 devoted to comics....

The romantic distress that results, as both women fall for Brian’s self-effacing charm, requires a certain suspension of disbelief: only a very tone-deaf Englishman could confuse these voices. Happily, it requires no stretch at all to succumb to Garofalo’s charm, wit and brainy sensuality. It’s a tricky challenge playing a woman who must be both unglamorous and irresistible, but Garofalo, with her unforced comic timing, makes it look easy. (Contrast the unfortunate casting of TV talk-show host Ricki Lake in the laborious “Mrs....

His job there was one of the toughest in Iraq: making raw Iraqi recruits ready and able to take over the fight against the militants. Secher found the task exasperating and often discouraging; in e-mails and letters home, he expressed doubt that the Iraqi military would ever be ready for a handover, and criticized the way the Bush administration had directed the war. “Without the U.S., this army will fail and get eaten alive by the insurgents,” he told his father in an e-mail this past April....

The new cop in town, William J. Bratton, must now stem this horror. It is a tall order. Bratton is the brash former New York police commissioner who forged a reputation as a man who could mix both with street toughs and with high society. In New York, he presided over a steep decline in crime, before being forced out by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani after a battle of titanic egos....

We know what you’re thinking: in the name of Richard Hatch, what channel is that on? Well, put down your TV Guide. “The Contenders,” a reality-television show in which six randomly chosen players must kill each other until there is one (ahem) survivor, is not real. It’s the fictional centerpiece of a new film called “Series 7,” a mordantly funny satire by first-time writer-director Daniel Minahan, and it owes as much to Shirley Jackson as it does to tricky Rich....

The Chicago Tylenol murders not only claimed the lives of seven people but also nearly destroyed McNeil Consumer Products, a subsidiary of behemoth drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the maker of Tylenol. In what is now routinely used as a crisis management case study, at the height of the Tylenol panic, McNeil Consumer Products issued mass public warnings and recalled all existing Tylenol bottles, 31 million in total. McNeil Consumer Products also assured the public that all tampering occurred outside the factory....

Many party insiders say Clark is really playing another game: angling for the vice presidential nomination. According to this analysis, Clark can’t possibly raise the money to sustain a candidacy this late in the game. “It’s preposterous,” sniffs one rival strategist. (The same financial burden holds for another possible late entry: Sen. Joe Biden.) Clark doesn’t completely reject the veep scenario. He’s “honored” to be considered, but insists that’s not his goal....

GARANG: That does injustice to the real situation. In the SPLA we have lots of Muslims. It is more of a religious war from the other side, because they are the people who have declared jihad. But you cannot put it in a one-dimensional way. There are religious elements, historical elements, cultural elements, definitively economic elements to it. Actually, the economic aspect concerning oil is begging to take prominence. In the end of the day, it is a struggle for the definition of the Sudan....