Danny Puff

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Imprisoned serial child sex offender Jerry Sandusky lives under tight restrictions for his own safety, a corrections official said on Saturday, after the former Penn State football coach asked for more prison privileges.

"He is being housed in the appropriate facility in order to assure his safety," said Susan McNaughton, press secretary for the Pennsylvania state Department of Corrections.

She responded to questions from Reuters after one of Sandusky's lawyers complained that his client was confined to his cell 23 hours a day.

"He's being treated like the worst of the worst in the state prison system in terms of his daily routine," attorney Karl Rominger said on Saturday.

He said Sandusky is treated like extremely violent offenders, or those on death row.

Sandusky, 68, Penn State's former defensive coordinator, was convicted in June of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, some in the football team's showers. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

The scandal sparked a national debate over child sex abuse, embarrassed the university and implicated a number of its top officials including legendary football head coach, the late Joe Paterno.

There has been speculation that Sandusky would be threatened by other inmates in prison if he was given more privileges.

Rominger said he visited Sandusky Friday and found that he has bounced back emotionally from the trial and sentencing.

"This is the strongest, sharpest I've seen him since the trial," Rominger said.

"He has books and material to read to study for the case, to do some legal research, and can do some writing. I think it's really helped his spirits."

Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence, is in a 1,800-inmate maximum security prison that serves as death row for the state.

"If he was any other sex offender besides Jerry Sandusky he would have a job, he would be out of his cell six hours a day plus, he would have access to a pay phone at all times, he would be able to interact freely with other people during recreation time, he would be able to go to bed check and showers," Rominger said.

"He's not being treated like every other sex offender in Pennsylvania, and the security issues have nothing to do with his crimes, and everything to do with the publicity around him and his crimes," he said.

Rominger said he will ask prison officials to increase Sandusky's telephone privileges from two calls per month to two personal calls, and 10 calls to his legal team to prepare for future legal proceedings.

Rominger said he would like to see Sandusky transferred to a less restrictive prison that houses inmates who are less violent.

McNaughton said Sandusky has a television in his cell, which is unusual for new inmates. Prison officials regularly review the situation of inmates, she said.

"He needs to be patient and let the process work," McNaughton said.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Bill Trott)

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NEW YORK (AP) The Lenox Lounge, a cabaret in New York City's Harlem neighborhood with a supercool, Art Deco style that made it a favorite of jazz greats like Billie Holiday, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, is closing its doors on New Year's Eve.

Longtime owner Alvin Reed says that with rents rising, he can no longer afford the lease on the jazz landmark. It opened in 1942.

He says the landlord wanted $20,000 per month.

The space is set to be taken over in the new year by Richard Notar, a managing partner at Nobu Restaurants.

Notar tells The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/UMwETJ ) he hopes to keep the bar as "an old watering hole" with live music, but he hasn't worked out a deal with Reed yet to use the Lenox Lounge name.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is headed to the altar again - with the blonde Playmate who ditched him five days before their planned wedding in 2011.

Hefner, 86, and his former "runaway bride" Crystal Harris, 26, obtained a marriage license in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, Los Angeles County Recorder spokeswoman Elizabeth Knox said.

Celebrity website TMZ.com said the couple, who reunited earlier this year, are planning a New Year's Eve wedding.

Harris was Playboy magazine's Miss December 2009 and appeared on the July 2011 cover of the adult magazine with a "runaway bride" sticker covering her bottom half.

In what was described at the time only as a "change of heart," Harris dumped the magazine mogul and left his Playboy Mansion five days before a lavish June 2011 wedding before 300 guests.

This time around, the couple are playing it low-key, staying mum on their busy Twitter accounts with Hefner's spokeswoman declining to confirm or deny their plans.

Hefner, founder of the Playboy adult entertainment empire, has been married twice before. He and his second wife Kimberley Conrad, also a former Playmate, divorced in 2010 after a lengthy separation. His first marriage to Mildred Williams ended in divorce in 1959. He has two children from each marriage.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant)

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LONDON (AP) It started out as a joke, but ended in tragedy.

The sudden death of a nurse who unwittingly accepted a prank call to a London hospital about Prince William's pregnant wife Kate has shocked Britain and Australia, and sparked an angry backlash Saturday from some who argue the DJs who carried out the hoax should be held responsible.

At first, the call by two irreverent Australian DJs posing as royals was picked up by news outlets around the world as an amusing anecdote about the royal pregnancy. Some complained about the invasion of privacy, the hospital was embarrassed, and the radio presenters sheepishly apologized.

But the prank took a dark twist Friday with the death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, three days after she took the hoax call. Police have not yet determined Saldanha's cause of death, but people from London to Sydney have been making the assumption that she died because of stress from the call.

King Edward VII's Hospital, where the former Kate Middleton was being treated for acute morning sickness this week, wrote a strongly-worded letter to the 2DayFM radio station's parent company Southern Cross Austereo, condemning the "truly appalling" hoax and urging it to take steps to ensure such an incident would never happen again.

"The immediate consequence of these premeditated and ill-considered actions was the humiliation of two dedicated and caring nurses who were simply doing their job tending to their patients," the letter read. "The longer term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words."

The hospital did not comment when asked whether it believed the prank call had directly caused Saldanha's death, only saying that the protest letter spoke for itself.

DJs Mel Grieg and Michael Christian, who apologized for the prank on Tuesday, took down their Twitter accounts after they were bombarded by thousands of abusive comments. Rhys Holleran, CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, said the pair have been offered counseling and were taken off the air indefinitely.

No one could have foreseen the tragic consequences of the prank, he stressed.

"I spoke to both presenters early this morning and it's fair to say they're completely shattered," Holleran told reporters on Saturday.

"These people aren't machines, they're human beings," he said. "We're all affected by this."

Details about Saldanha have been trickling out since the duty nurse's body was found at apartments provided by the private hospital, which has treated a line of royals before, including Prince Philip, who was hospitalized there for a bladder infection in June.

The nurse, who was originally from India, had lived with her partner Benedict Barboza and a teenage son and daughter in Bristol, in southwestern England, for the past nine years. The hospital praised her as a "first-class nurse" who was well-respected and popular among colleagues during her four years working there.

Just before dawn on Tuesday, Saldanha was looking after her patients when the phone rang. A woman pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II asked to speak to the duchess, and, believing the caller, Saldanha transferred the call to a fellow nurse caring for the duchess, who spoke to the two DJs about Kate's condition live on air.

During the call which was put online and later broadcast on news channels worldwide Grieg mimicked the Britain's monarch's voice and asked about the duchess' health. She was told Kate "hasn't had any retching with me and she's been sleeping on and off." Grieg and Christian, who pretended to be Prince Charles, also discussed with the nurse when they could travel to the hospital to check in on Kate.

Three days later, officers responding to reports that a woman was found unconscious discovered Saldanha, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Police didn't release a cause of death, but said they didn't find anything suspicious. A coroner will make a determination on the cause.

In the aftermath of Saldanha's death, some speculated about whether the nurse was subject to pressure to resign or about to be punished for the mistake. Royal officials said Prince William and Kate were "deeply saddened," but insisted that the palace had not complained about the hoax. King Edward VII's Hospital also maintained that it did not reprimand Saldanha.

"We did not discipline the nurse in question. There were no plans to discipline her," a hospital spokesman said. He declined to provide further details, and did not respond to questions about the second nurse's condition.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates radio broadcasting, said it has received complaints about the prank and is discussing the matter with the Sydney-based station, which yanked its Facebook page after it received thousands of angry comments.

Holleran, the radio executive, would not say who came up with the idea for the call. He only said that "these things are often done collaboratively." He said 2DayFM would work with authorities, but was confident the station hadn't broken any laws, noting that prank calls in radio have been happening "for decades."

The station has a history of controversy, including a series of "Heartless Hotline" shows in which disadvantage people were offered a prize that could be taken away from them by listeners.

Saldanha's family asked for privacy in a brief statement issued through London police.

Flowers were left outside the hospital's nurse's apartments, with one note reading: "Dear Jacintha, our thoughts are with you and your family. From all your fellow nurses, we bless your soul. God bless."

Officials from St. James's Palace have said the duchess is not yet 12 weeks pregnant. The child would be the first for her and William.

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GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Software guru John McAfee, fighting deportation to Belize, was rushed to a hospital in Guatemala on Thursday after his lawyer said he had two mild heart attacks earlier in the day, and doctors said he was suffering from anxiety and hypertension.

Reporters saw McAfee carried out on a stretcher from an immigration service cottage where he was detained after crossing illegally into Guatemala from neighboring Belize, where police want to question him in connection with his neighbor's murder.

The 67-year-old U.S. software pioneer's hospitalization came after Guatemala denied a request for asylum.

McAfee was posting on his blog www.whoismcafee.com in the morning, the time his lawyer said he suffered the heart attacks.

"I don't think a heart attack prevents one from using one's blog," said the lawyer, Telesforo Guerra.

On Thursday afternoon he was carried out, wrapped in a blanket with his eyes shut and taken to a police hospital.

Guerra's assistant, Karla Paz, said she found McAfee lying on the ground and unable to move his body or speak.

Oscar Enrique Gonzalez, head of medical services at the hospital, said McAfee showed "a syndrome of anxiety and hypertension". He said doctors were still studying his heart.

McAfee was detained by Guatemalan police on Wednesday for illegally sneaking across the border with his 20-year-old girlfriend to escape authorities in Belize. He has said he fears authorities in Belize will kill him if he returns.

Guatemala's foreign minister, Harold Caballeros, said McAfee's request for asylum was rejected.

Constitutional lawyer Gabriel Orellana, a former foreign minister, said the government should have given more weight to the asylum request rather than simply judge him over his illegal entry into Guatemala.

"We should take into account the fact that McAfee has not been accused of any crime in Belize," he said.

Police in Belize want to quiz McAfee as "a person of interest" in the killing of fellow American, Gregory Faull, with whom he had quarreled. But they say he is not a prime suspect in the probe. McAfee says he has been persecuted by Belize's ruling party because he refused to pay around $2 million he says it is trying to hustle out of him, he said.

Belize's prime minister denies this and has described McAfee, who made millions from the Internet anti-virus software that bears his name, as "bonkers." McAfee later lost much of his fortune and turned to a life of semi-reclusion by the Belizean beach.

After his arrest, McAfee spent the night in a cottage belonging to the immigration department. He passed much of the night reading his blog and posting his thoughts on a laptop he said was lent to him by the warden.

One person asked him if he felt like committing suicide.

"I enjoy living, and suicide is absurdly redundant," he wrote. "The world, from the very beginning, hurls viruses, accidents, hungry animals, defective DNA - and uncountable more - in an attempt to kill us. It always succeeds. Suicide is simply aiding and abetting."

McAfee's earlier posts spoke of his relief at arriving in Guatemala, thinking he had found a way out of his troubles.

One of his readers posted a message offering him just that.

"John. I have a special ops team near the La Aurora International Airport. I can get you out of jail and provide safe passage back to the States for a fee. Please let me know if this interests you."

DRUG PAST

Government spokesman Francisco Cuevas said on Wednesday the eccentric tech entrepreneur, who loves guns and young women and has tribal tattoos covering his shoulders, would be expelled to Belize within hours. However, an immigration department official later said immediate deportation had been ruled out.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of McAfee's arrest and its embassy was providing "appropriate consular services," but said it could not comment further.

On the large Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived for about four years, residents and neighbors say he is eccentric and at times unstable. He was seen to travel with armed bodyguards, sporting a pistol tucked into his belt.

The predicament of the former Lockheed systems consultant is a far cry from his heyday in the late 1980s, when he started McAfee Associates. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was sold to Intel Corp.

McAfee was previously charged in Belize with possession of illegal firearms, and police had raided his property on suspicions that he was running a lab to produce illegal synthetic narcotics. He says he has not taken drugs since 1983.

"(Before then) I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day. I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," he told Reuters before his arrest. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

(With reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Simon Gardner and Dave Graham; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)

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GUATEMALA CITY (AP) A lawyer for software company founder John McAfee said Friday that the self-styled fugitive is feeling better after suffering chest pain and that he has filed three separate legal appeals in hopes his client can stay in Guatemala, where his political asylum request was rejected.

Attorney Telesforo Guerra told reporters outside the detention center where McAfee is being held that the creator of the McAfee antivirus program is in good health.

Guerra said he filed an appeal for a judge to make sure McAfee's physical integrity is protected, an appeal against the asylum denial and a petition with immigration officials to allow his client to stay in this Central American country indefinitely.

Police in neighboring Belize want to question McAfee in the fatal shooting of a U.S. expatriate who lived near his home on a Belizean island. McAfee has denied involvement in the killing and says Belizean authorities are persecuting him because he knows about official corruption.

The appeals could take several days to resolve, Guerra said. He added that he could still use several other legal resources but wouldn't give any other details.

Fredy Viana, a spokesman for the Immigration Department, said that before the agency looks into the request to allow McAfee to stay in Guatemala, a judge must first deal with the appeal asking that authorities make sure McAfee's physical integrity is protected.

"We won't look into (allowing him to stay) until the other appeal is resolved," Viana said. "The law gives me 30 days to resolve the issue."

McAfee went on the run last month after Belizean officials tried to question him about the killing of Gregory Viant Faull, who was shot to death in early November.

McAfee acknowledges that his dogs were bothersome and that Faull had complained about them, but denies killing Faull. Faull's home was a couple of houses down from McAfee's compound in Ambergris Caye.

McAfee has led an eccentric life since he sold his stake in the anti-virus software company that is named after him in the early 1990s and moved to Belize about three years ago to lower his taxes.

He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had lost all but $4 million of his $100 million fortune in the U.S. financial crisis. However, a story on the Gizmodo website quoted him as describing that claim as "not very accurate at all."

He has dabbled in yoga, ultra-light aircraft and the production of herbal medications.

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DOHA, Qatar (AP) Bleary-eyed negotiators from nearly 200 countries haggled through the night over new draft agreements on emissions cuts by rich countries and aid for poor as United Nations climate talks spilled into Saturday.

The two-week conference was set to finish Friday, but as so often in the annual U.N.-led talks, negotiators struggled to reach an agreement, especially on money matters.

After all-night wrangling, the latest drafts Saturday lacked the strong commitments on climate action and financing by rich countries that poor countries had hoped for. But they did include a text on "loss and damage," a relatively new concept which relates to damages from climate-related disasters.

Island nations under threat from rising sea levels have been pushing for some mechanism to help them cope with such natural catastrophes, but the United States has pushed back over concerns it might be held liable for the cleanup bill since it is the world's second-biggest emitter behind China.

A final agreement from the talks was expected Saturday.

Countries plan to adopt a new climate pact by 2015. The Doha conference focused on side issues such as extending an existing emissions treaty for rich countries and increasing financing to help poor countries deal with global warming.

Poor countries came into the talks demanding a timetable on how rich countries would scale up climate change aid for them to $100 billion annually by 2020 a general pledge that was made three years ago.

But rich nations, including the United States, members of the European Union and Japan are still grappling with the effects of a financial crisis and were not interested in detailed talks on aid in Doha.

The latest texts included no reference to any mid-term financing targets, just a general pledge to "identify pathways for mobilizing the scaling up of climate finance."

Quamrul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, lead negotiator for the group of least developed countries, said it was the "weakest outcome" he had seen since the U.N. climate talks started two decades ago.

"We are reluctant to accept it. But anyhow we have to look at it. Most of our delegation has already left," he said.

The goal of the U.N. talks is to keep temperatures from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius), compared to preindustrial times. Temperatures have already risen about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 Celsius) above that level, according to the latest report by the U.N.'s top climate body.

A recent projection by the World Bank showed temperatures are on track to rise by up to 7.2 Fahrenheit (4 Celsius) by the year 2100.

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Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter and Michael Casey Casey at www.twitter.com/mcasey1

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LOS ANGELES (AP) "The Walking Dead: The Game" took a bite out of the Spike Video Game Awards.

Telltale Games' interactive episodic series based on the zombie comic book franchise was selected as game of the year at Friday's extravaganza, which honors outstanding achievements in the video game industry over the past year.

"Look, 'Walking Dead' fans, this is obviously for you," beamed "Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman. "Thank you so much. You guys watch the TV show. You read the comics. You play the video games. You make all this possible."

"The Walking Dead" also won the best downloadable and adapted game prizes, as well as best performance by a human female for Melissa Hutchison as young survivor Clementine and studio of the year for Telltale Games.

"The Avengers" star and shooter fan Samuel L. Jackson served as host of the much-censored 10th annual ceremony at Sony Pictures Studios, marking his fourth time hosting the show.

"You know me," warned Jackson at the start of the ceremony. "Whoever's in charge of the bleep button, keep your finger ready 'cause this is gonna be one heck of a show, (expletive)."

Gearbox Software's cartoony shoot-'em-up sequel "Borderlands 2" swept the VGAs with the most awards, picking up trophies for best shooter, multiplayer, performance by a human male for Dameon Clarke as villain Handsome Jack and character of the year for chatty robot Claptrap.

Other titles winning multiple trophies included 343 Industries' sci-fi shooter "Halo 4" as best Xbox 360 game and graphics; Queasy Games' musical platformer "Sound Shapes" as best handheld game and song for "Cities" by Beck; and thatgamecompany's artsy downloadable adventure "Journey" as best independent, PlayStation 3 game and original score.

"We made 'Journey' for you, to show that games can be something different independent, experimental, moving, emotional, modern, inclusive, different," said "Journey" executive producer Robin Hunicke. "That's why we made it."

Arkane Studios' stealthy first-person game "Dishonored" was picked as best action-adventure game. BioWare's sci-fi saga "Mass Effect 3" won as best role-playing game. Valve Software's "Half-Life 2" was chosen as the best game of the decade.

The two-hour ceremony, which featured performances from Linkin Park and Tenacious D, put more emphasis on hyping upcoming games than handing out trophies though.

The show featured new footage from such upcoming titles as "The Last Us," ''South Park: The Stick of Truth," ''Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2" and "BioShock Infinite." It also served to unveil never-before-seen games like "Dark Souls II" and "The Phantom Pain," which is apparently connected to the "Metal Gear Solid" franchise.

For the first time, the VGAs were streamed on Xbox Live, the online service for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. During the ceremony, online viewers could vote on show components like what songs and clips would be played during the VGAs.

The winners of most of the show's categories were chosen by an advisory council, while viewer votes selected character of the year and most anticipated game, which went to "Grand Theft Auto V."

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Online:

http://www.spike.com/events/video-game-awards/

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

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BOSTON (AP) New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, have announced the birth of their second child, a girl named Vivian Lake.

Bundchen announced the birth on her Facebook page, saying their daughter was born at home on Wednesday and is "healthy and full of life."

"We feel so lucky to have been able to experience the miracle of birth once again and are forever grateful for the opportunity to be the parents of another little angel," Bundchen wrote in her Facebook posting.

The couple also has a son, Benjamin, who turns 3 on Saturday. Brady also has a 5-year-old son, John, with actress Bridget Moynahan.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Singer Toni Braxton has been hospitalized in Los Angeles.

The R&B performer says in a Tweet on Friday that she's been hospitalized because of "minor health issues" related to Lupus. A spokeswoman confirmed the hospitalization but had no other details. "But no worries!," Braxton wrote to fans. "I will be out any day now."

The 45-year-old singer of "Un-break My Heart" revealed two years ago she has Lupus, a potentially deadly autoimmune disease that killed Braxton's uncle. She also suffers from a narrowing of the blood vessels in her heart.

Braxton said in a recent "20/20" interview that doctors told her the Lupus diagnosis meant her performing career would likely be diminished and the disease helped push her into a recent bankruptcy.

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Online:

http://tonibraxton.com

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