Free Republic

In one of the most elegant cities on earth, France's Parliament has moved to make it a crime to use anorexic models or encourage anorexia, as authorities try to crack down on the glorification of dangerously thin women. Other countries including Israel and Spain have taken similar action. The French measure would only apply within France, but could have symbolic impact beyond, because of its outsized influence in setting style and image trends around the world.

A former member of the New York Knicks now playing for the Indiana Pacers was stabbed in the abdomen — and his wife slashed — during an argument at 1 OAK club in Chelsea early Wednesday, cop sources said. Chris Copeland’s attacker was arrested, and two members of the Atlanta Hawks, Pero Antic and Thabo Sefolosha, were also booked, for trying to prevent police from setting up a crime scene, the sources said.

Hell yeah to the chief. Rapper Azealia Banks, in an interview with Billboard magazine, confessed to a major crush on President Obama. “He’s so fine,” declared the 23-year-old Banks. “Those big-ass white teeth and ears hanging off his head? I’m like, ‘Oh my God... ”

CHICAGO (STMW) — Four people were killed and at least 18 others wounded in shootings across Chicago throughout the weekend.

Riviera Beach man stole a Maserati, police said, and took his friends for a spin before being arrested by Palm Beach Gardens police. According to an arrest report, Byron Desravines, 19, was spotted by officers in a Maserati just after 1 p.m. Thursday on the corner of PGA and RCA boulevards after police got a hit on the car's license plate that it was stolen.

A Philadelphia mom has been charged with planning to go overseas to join ISIS and martyr herself — going so far as to buy plane tickets. "That would be amazing... A girl can only wish," Keonna Thomas allegedly told an ISIS fighter in Syria who asked over the Internet if she would be involved in a suicide mission. "I can make that wish come true," the unnamed fighter allegedly replied.

Two women living in Queens have been charged with planning to build a bomb, in a plot revealed by a monthslong undercover investigation that found the women had discussed the merits of various types of bombs and had obtained four propane gas tanks. The women, Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, who until recently were roommates in Queens, were named in a complaint unsealed on Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where they appeared Thursday afternoon.

The woman who accused former Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Taylor of assault this past weekend has since recanted her statement to police and was subsequently arrested for giving a false report, according to authorities. Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit assistant commander Kip Hart said the 24-year-old woman, whose identity is being withheld, approached investigators and provided a written statement saying she fabricated the story.

Federal authorities on Tuesday identified the driver killed while trying to ram a stolen SUV through a security checkpoint at the National Security Agency headquarters as a Baltimore resident with a criminal history for robbery and prostitution.. The FBI named Ricky Shawatza Hall, 27, as the driver who died. According to police, Hall and another person ended up at the gates of the huge spy agency Monday morning after stealing the vehicle from a 60-year-old man with whom they had traveled to a budget motel in nearby Elkridge.

The Redskins nickname has been the forgotten NFL controversy of the past several months. With concussions and domestic violence dominating the off-field headlines, the nickname debate circling around the Washington NFL franchise has moved to the backburner recently. However, some interesting developments from The Associated Press could move it back front and center. The organization is considering whether to make a ruling against the polarizing nickname when it comes to the influential AP Stylebook.

The singer-songwriter best known for writing and performing the 1969 hit song "Spirit in the Sky" remained in a hospital Monday, two days after he was hurt in a car crash north of San Francisco that left a motorcyclist dead, according to the California Highway Patrol. Norman Greenbaum, 72, was brought to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in critical condition after the car he was a passenger in collided with a motorcycle, according to a statement from the California Highway Patrol (CHP

In early 2008 liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy blessed Barack Obama’s long shot presidential campaign, declaring the freshman Illinois senator the next great progressive leader in a symbolic passing of the torch. On Monday, Mr. Obama heads to Massachusetts to honor Kennedy, who died in 2009 — but liberals’ enthusiasm for the president has waned from those days, and the left has moved on to other champions, most notably Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who now sits in the seat Kennedy used to hold.

A Hub gang cop was seriously injured last night after being shot in the face during a Roxbury gun battle that left one suspect dead, an innocent bystander wounded and neighbors ducking for cover. “The officer here is in tough shape, but we’re all pulling for him and hopefully he’ll pull through. His family is with him, the clergy has been here, and again, let’s pray for him,” Boston police Commissioner William B. Evans said following the 6:40 p.m. shootout on Humboldt Avenue near Ruthven Street.

A Brooklyn city councilwoman wants to know why “blocs” of Asians are living in two Fort Greene housing projects — and suggested it would be “beneficial” to assign housing by ethnic group. “How is it that one specific ethnic group has had the opportunity to move into a development in large numbers?” Laurie Cumbo, who is black, said at a council hearing on public housing Thursday

The Swedish Academy's official dictionary has added a gender-neutral pronoun to its arsenal of words. "Hen" is the new pronoun to be affixed when a gender is not known, or is in transition, or when the writer deems gender to be irrelevant.

A Colorado woman accused of luring an expectant mother to a basement and cutting the baby from her belly will not be charged with murder, prosecutors said Thursday night. Catherine Olguin, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, said prosecutors won't bring the charge in the baby's death. But she declined to say why or what charges Dynel Lane, 34, will face.

The youths walked up to Stuhlman about 8:30 p.m., all wearing hoodies and backpacks. Hamilton allegedly produced a pistol - police still don't know how the boy got his hands on the weapon - and announced the robbery. Stuhlman pleaded for his life, begging kids young enough to be his grandsons not to shoot him. A fight broke out. A shot went off.

A young man hired by the Chicago Public Schools to help students during arrival and dismissal at a charter school has been charged with shooting a 17-year-old girl just blocks from the school on the Far South Side.

BRASELTON, Ga. — An NFL player's ex-girlfriend is behind bars accused of attacking him and breaking his new girlfriend's arm with a bat. Police say the football pro's girlfriend tried to hide out at a Gwinnett County hotel after breaking into his house not once, but three times.

A 26-year-old Longmont woman who was seven months pregnant showed up at a home Wednesday to buy baby clothes she'd seen in a Craigslist post. What police say happened then is horrific: The 34-year-old woman who lives at the home, in the 1600 block of Green Place in Longmont, stabbed the pregnant woman and "removed" her baby. The baby did not survive.