Danny Puff

Accused Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was spending more time alone in the months leading up to the mass shooting as his mother, Nancy Lanza, attempted to encourage him to be independent despite his mental disabilities, a Hartford Courant/Frontline investigation has found. In a new documentary called "Raising Adam Lanza," which airs Tuesday night on PBS, reporters from the Courant attempt to retrace the steps taken by Nancy and Adam in the years leading up to the shooting, complicating the picture that has occasionally appeared in the media of Nancy as a gun obsessed mother who was in denial about her son's mental challenges.

Adam is believed to have shot his mother four times in the head as she slept on Dec. 14 before shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary, where he attended school as a child, and killing 20 children and six women. He then took his own life.

Frontline and The Hartford Courant provided Yahoo News with several previously unpublished childhood and teenage photos of Adam Lanza they uncovered in their investigation.

The 20-year-old had been spending more time alone in his mother's $500,000 home in the affluent Connecticut suburb in the months leading up the shooting, Courant reporters Alaine Griffin and Josh Kovner found. Adam's social world gradually began shrinking after he left Newtown High School at the age of 16 to enroll in a nearby college, where he made As and Bs before withdrawing there, as well. Since 2010, Adam had not attended school.

Between 2010 and 2012, Nancy took Adam to nearby gun ranges to practice shooting. Nancy purchased four firearms, including the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle Adam is believed to have used in the attack, during the same period. Her friends say Nancy used target practice as a way to bond with her withdrawn son. Police also uncovered thousands of dollars worth of violent video games in the Lanzas' home. Police believe Adam may have been inspired by the video games he played in the attack, since he changed the magazines of his weapons more frequently than was necessary, Frontline reported. Late Sunday, the Courant also reported that Adam may have felt that he was in direct competition with Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, based on news articles about Breivik's 2011 crime they found in the Lanzas' home.

In the months before the attack, Nancy took frequent trips and left Adam at home unsupervised--including on one trip this past Thanksgiving--in an attempt to make him more independent.

Her friends say Nancy is the forgotten 27th victim that day.

"She's been described as some sort of gun nut or survivalist and this other misconception that she was a bad mother," her friend John Bergquist told Frontline. But he said her life "revolved around caring for Adam."

Adam was diagnosed at a young age with sensory integration disorder, a medically controversial diagnosis that meant Adam had trouble coping with bright lights, loud noises, and knowing when he was in pain. Later, when he was in middle school, Adam was also diagnosed with Asperger's, a condition related to autism that can make social interaction challenging. (Medical experts cautioned that autism disorders are not associated with violent behavior.)

A friend of Nancy s remembered that when Adam was just six years old, he did not like to be touched. If children his age touched them, he recoiled or became upset. "He was angry with them," Marvin LaFontaine, Nancy's friend, told Frontline. Richard Novia, who co-founded the tech club Adam joined while he attended Newtown High School, told Frontline Adam would have "episodes" as a teen where he would completely withdraw from the world, sometimes sitting in a corner, motionless.

Nancy raised Adam and his older brother in their Newtown home on her own after she and her husband separated in 2001. In 2009, the couple officially divorced, and Adam abruptly cut off contact with his father in 2010 for reasons that are unclear.

Nancy's friends said she was planning on moving to either Washington or North Carolina to enroll Adam in college again, so that he could get a degree in history.

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NEW YORK (AP) David Axelrod, former strategist and aide to President Obama, has landed a new job at NBC News.

The network said Tuesday that Axelrod is joining as a senior political analyst. He'll contribute to broadcasts on both NBC News and the cable network MSNBC.

Axelrod helped run Obama's successful campaigns in 2008 and 2012 and worked as an adviser to the president during his first term. The former political writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune started his own political and media consulting firm in 1984.

NBC already employs Steve Schmidt, a top adviser to Obama's 2008 opponent John McCain, as an analyst.

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LONDON (AP) A novelist, a duchess and a tabloid newspaper have made an explosive combination in Britain.

The Daily Mail on Tuesday ran a front-page story about Booker Prize-winner Hilary Mantel's "venomous attack" on the former Kate Middleton.

In a speech earlier this month, Mantel characterized Prince William's wife as "a jointed doll on which certain rags were hung ... a shop-window mannequin" with "a perfect plastic smile."

Mantel's speech was about the public's complex and uneasy relationship with royalty. But for the Daily Mail, it was "an astonishing and venomous attack on the Duchess of Cambridge."

The topic split online opinion, with some readers slamming Mantel and others defending her.

Mantel won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012 for her Tudor novels "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies."

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hugh Grant announced on Saturday that he had become a father for the second time after Tinglan Hong gave birth to a baby boy.

"In answer to some journos (journalists)," the British actor posted on the social media website Twitter, "am thrilled my daughter now has a brother. Adore them both to an uncool degree. They have a fab mum."

"And to be crystal clear. I am the Daddy," he added in a second tweet.

Grant, 52, who is best known for such films as "Notting Hill" and "About a Boy," did not reveal the child's name on Twitter.

The actor and Hong had their first child in 2011, when his spokeswoman said in a statement that the baby girl was the result of a "fleeting affair" but Grant "could not be happier or more supportive."

Days later, Hong won a court injunction in Britain "prohibiting harassment" of her and the child after she said paparazzi had made her life unbearable. Grant is a strident critic of Britain's tabloid newspaper culture.

On his Twitter message on Saturday, Grant mentioned that the press had obtained his baby boy's birth certificate and were making inquiries. "Now I've confirmed ... hoping my family will be left in peace," he wrote.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Paul Simao)

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(Reuters) - A Texas mother had a one-in-70-million kind of Valentine's Day this year when she gave birth to two sets of identical twin boys, a Houston hospital announced on Monday.

The four brothers were delivered at 31 weeks to Tressa Montalvo, 36, via Cesarean section at The Woman's Hospital of Texas in Houston, according to a news release from the hospital.

Tressa and Manuel Montalvo Jr. were not using any fertility drugs and had just hoped for a little brother or sister for their 2-year-old son, Memphis, according to the release.

"We planned the pregnancy - I guess we just succeeded a little too much!" said Tressa Montalvo, quoted in the release.

When Montalvo was 10 weeks pregnant, her physician told her she was having twins, and on a subsequent visit, the doctor detected a third heartbeat. The Montalvos were later informed they were having four babies - not quadruplets but two sets of twins.

The odds of delivering two sets of naturally occurring identical twins is somewhere in the range of 1 in 70 million, according to the hospital. Two boys shared one placenta and the two other boys shared another placenta.

Ace and Blaine were born at 8:51 a.m. on February 14 and weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces (1.64 kg), and 3 pounds, 15 ounces (1.79 kg), respectively. Cash and Dylan followed a minute later, weighing 2 pounds, 15 ounces (1.33 kg), and 3 pounds, 6 ounces (1.53 kg), respectively.

"We tried to stick to the A-B-C-D theme when naming them," Tressa Montalvo said. "We didn't expect it, we were trying for just one and we were blessed with four."

Manuel Montalvo said in the release that they're not done yet - he still wants a girl.

(Reporting By Mary Wisniewski in Chicago; Editing by Eric Beech)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) - AU Optronics' plans to raise as much as $350 million in an overseas share issue sparked a surge in its shares, signaling that strong demand for high-definition displays in tablets and TVs is breathing new life into the loss-making panel maker's fortunes.

Shares in the Taiwanese company, which supplies screens for Apple Inc's iPad mini, surged their 7 percent daily limit for a second day in a row on Tuesday after it announced plans to sell 640 million to 800 million shares as American depositary receipts (ADRs).

"It's urgent and necessary for AU to raise the funds to upgrade its technology," said Oscar Chung, a fund manager at Capital Securities Investment Trust in Taipei, pointing to rising demand for high-definition panels.

"This year will be the first in a few years that sees the industry's gap between demand and supply narrowing," said Chung, who manages $372 million and has been accumulating AU shares this month.

The company did not put a figure on how much it aimed to raise or how the money would be used, saying only that proceeds from the sale will be used for raw material purchases. At AU's latest share price, the issue could raise up to $350 million.

CONFIDENCE IMPROVED

The company earlier this month posted a net loss for a second year in a row in 2012 as panel oversupply weighed on the industry.

The loss forced it to forgo a dividend payment, which it announced along with the rights issue late on Monday. It also said it would cut its capital expenditure budget by T$8.6 billion ($290 million).

"The cut in capex is in line with their peers in Taiwan. In the past 10 years capex was for new capacity, but the industry is in an oversupply situation now," said one technology analyst at a European bank.

"They don't need to build capacity, the money should be spent on new technology," the analyst said.

"The operating cash flow is improving and they should be able to pay down debt. They are in a better financial position compared with previous years so they should be able to negotiate new loans and be in a better position to raise money in the market as their customers are top-tier names, including Apple."

The company has T$77 billion cash in hand, which is more than enough to cover short-term debt of T$54 billion out of total borrowings of T$220 billion.

AU's stock has bounced more than 15 percent from a three-month low hit late last week, as its prospects brighten. It nevertheless is virtually flat with its level at the start of last year, compared with a nearly 15 percent rise in Taiwan's benchmark index.

Its convertible zero coupon convertible bonds due in 2015, while trading below par at $94/94.75, have recovered from their June low of $76 as confidence improves in its debt-servicing ability. The convertible bonds now trade like straight debt as they are far out of the money.

($1 = 29.6165 Taiwan dollars)

(Additional reporting by Umesh Desai in Hong Kong; Writing by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Richard Pullin)

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Somebody hacked Burger King's Twitter account on Monday, posting obscene messages and changing its profile picture to a McDonald's logo.

The tweets stopped after a little more than an hour, and Burger King said it had reached out to Twitter to suspend the account. A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to a phone message left on Monday.

Late Monday, Burger King tweeted: "Interesting day here at BURGER KING, but we're back! Welcome to our new followers. Hope you all stick around!"

Burger King, which usually tweets several times a week, typically does so to promote sales on chicken sandwiches, or to ask questions such as how many bites it takes to eat a chicken nugget.

But just after noon EST on Monday, someone tweeted via Burger King's account, "We just got sold to McDonalds!" They also changed the icon to rival McDonald Corp.'s golden arches and the account's background picture to McDonald's new Fish McBites.

About 55 tweets and retweets followed over the next hour and a quarter, including some that contained racial epithets, references to drug use and obscenities. The account tweeted: "if I catch you at a wendys, we're fightin!"

Monday's appropriation of Burger King's Twitter account was a relatively mild example of cybersecurity problems, which are causing increasing concern in Washington and for industry. Media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have all said this year that their computer systems were breached, while several NBC websites were briefly hacked in November. White House officials and some lawmakers are pursuing legislation that would make it easier for the government and industry to share information on how to defend against hacking.

Burger King didn't know who hacked the account, and no other social media accounts were affected, said Bryson Thornton, a spokesman for Miami-based Burger King Worldwide Inc. Its social media team and an outside agency manage the Twitter account, but Thornton declined to say how many people knew the account's password. Late Monday, Thornton issued an apology to the company's Twitter followers.

"Earlier today, our official BK Twitter Account was compromised by unauthorized users," Thornton said in a statement. "Upon learning of this incident, our social media teams immediately began working with Twitter security administrators to suspend the compromised account until we could re-establish our brand's official Twitter page. We apologize to our loyal fans and followers, whom might have received unauthorized tweets from our account. We are pleased to announce that the account is now active again."

Twitter acknowledged on Feb. 1 that cyber attackers may have stolen user names and passwords of 250,000 users. It said at the time that it notified users of the breach.

Competitors were sympathetic.

McDonald's responded on Twitter that it empathized with its Burger King counterparts. "Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking."

"My real life nightmare is playing out" on Burger King's twitter feed, wrote Wendy's social media worker Amy Rose Brown.

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HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) Mindy McCready threatened suicide after losing custody of her sons earlier this month, yet she was allowed to leave a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program just days before she apparently killed herself at her Arkansas home, her ex-boyfriend said Monday.

Billy McKnight, who was in a long, stormy relationship with McCready and is the father of her oldest child, Zander, said the 37-year-old mother of two stayed in the substance abuse treatment center for about 18 hours before she was allowed to walk free.

McCready died Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, a vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. She was found dead on the front porch, where her longtime boyfriend, musician David Wilson, died last month of a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities are investigating both deaths as suicides but haven't determined an official cause of death.

McKnight told The Associated Press during a phone interview from Tampa, Fla., that McCready and Wilson, the father of her youngest son, were recently engaged. He wondered how she was allowed to go free, given all the turmoil in her life.

"That was a big mistake on the part of whoever released her," McKnight said. "She was in a terrible state of mind. She doesn't perform any more. She wasn't working. She has two kids and her fiance was just killed. There's no way she should be out by herself in a lonely house with nothing but booze and pills. That was a really, really bad mistake, and the end result is tragic."

Arkansas courts were closed for the holiday Monday, so local case documents weren't immediately available.

Neighbors reported hearing two shots Sunday afternoon when they called the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office. Authorities found Wilson's dog dead next to McCready's body at the home, where yellow crime-scene tape looped through a grove of pine trees and around the one-story brick house Monday afternoon.

"Based on what we have found at the scene at this time, we do believe that she took the life of the dog that we are being told by family members belonged to Mr. Wilson before she took her own life," Sheriff Marty Moss said.

The sheriff said McCready's two sons were safe. McKnight said the boys remained in foster care, where they were at the time of their mother's death. McKnight said he was trying to get custody of his son, Zander, but that he was not privy to what was happening with her other son, Zayne, who was born last year.

McCready's sons were put in foster care and she was ordered into rehab earlier this month after McCready's father expressed concern. He told a judge his daughter had stopped taking care of her children and herself after Wilson's death, and that she was abusing alcohol and prescription drugs.

Moss said McCready's cause of death would be released soon, but that "all indicators" point to suicide. Her body has been sent to the state crime lab for autopsy.

For all the highs McCready had early in her career, thanks to the spunky anti-chauvinist hit "Guys Do It All The time," and her first album, "Ten Thousand Angels," which has sold more than 2 million copies, there were many more lows. She previously attempted suicide at least three times, and her fragile state of mindwas always a concern to family and friends. She acknowledged in a 2010 interview that her life was turbulent at times, sometimes self-inflicted.

Over the years her relationships often made the biggest headlines. McKnight was charged with attempted murder after being arrested for beating and choking her. She claimed to be in a long relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens that started when she was 15 and he was 28 and married, but Clemens denied the relationship. She was once engaged to actor Dean Cain.

She also was arrested several times on drug charges, probation violations and a misdemeanor assault charge against her mother.

But there was a period in her life where McCready thought she might be able to escape that pattern. She reluctantly joined the "Celebrity Rehab 3" cast with Dr. Drew Pinsky, and left the show believing she might be able to change.

"She was doing great," Bob Forrest, a chemical dependency counselor who frequently works with Pinsky and appeared on the show, told the AP on Monday. "She would go through these periods of three to six months where she didn't want to drink, didn't have an interest in drinking. And if she didn't drink, she didn't do drugs."

Just months after her appearance on the show in early 2010, McCready told the AP about the release of a new album, "I'm Still Here," her new love in Wilson and plans to reunite with her son, who was in her mother's custody at the time. But the progress seemed to unravel by late 2011. Her album debuted at No. 71 on the country albums chart and failed to gain significant radio airplay, and plans for a book and reality show failed to materialize.

She also was unable to immediately regain custody of Zander. McCready then took the boy from her mother, his legal guardian, and fled to Arkansas over what she said were child abuse fears. She was later found hiding in a home without permission.

McCready is the fifth participant in Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab" shows to pass away since appearing on the show, and the third from Season 3. Pinsky has been criticized for the deaths and for showing such personal struggles on television.

In a statement, Pinsky said he had recently reached out to the singer after hearing about Wilson's death.

"She was devastated," Pinsky wrote. "Although she was fearful of stigma and ridicule she agreed with me that she needed to make her health and safety a priority. Unfortunately it seems that Mindy did not sustain her treatment."

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AP writer Jeannie Nuss in Arkansas contributed to this report. Music Writer Chris Talbott wrote from Nashville, Tenn.

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Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .

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WASHINGTON (AP) With scant snowfall and barren ski slopes in parts of the Midwest and Northeast the past couple of years, some scientists have pointed to global warming as the culprit.

Then when a whopper of a blizzard smacked the Northeast with more than 2 feet of snow in some places earlier this month, some of the same people again blamed global warming.

How can that be? It's been a joke among skeptics, pointing to what seems to be a brazen contradiction.

But the answer lies in atmospheric physics. A warmer atmosphere can hold, and dump, more moisture, snow experts say. And two soon-to-be-published studies demonstrate how there can be more giant blizzards yet less snow overall each year. Projections are that that's likely to continue with man-made global warming.

Consider:

The United States has been walloped by twice as many of the most extreme snowstorms in the past 50 years than in the previous 60 years, according to an upcoming study on extreme weather by leading federal and university climate scientists. This also fits with a dramatic upward trend in extreme winter precipitation both rain and snow in the Northeastern U.S. charted by the National Climatic Data Center.

Yet the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University says that spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has shrunk on average by 1 million square miles in the last 45 years.

And an upcoming study in the Journal of Climate says computer models predict annual global snowfall to shrink by more than a foot in the next 50 years. The study's author said most people live in parts of the United States that are likely to see annual snowfall drop between 30 and 70 percent by the end of the century.

"Shorter snow season, less snow overall, but the occasional knockout punch," Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said. "That's the new world we live in."

Ten climate scientists say the idea of less snow and more blizzards makes sense: A warmer world is likely to decrease the overall amount of snow falling each year and shrink snow season. But when it is cold enough for a snowstorm to hit, the slightly warmer air is often carrying more moisture, producing potentially historic blizzards.

"Strong snowstorms thrive on the ragged edge of temperature warm enough for the air to hold lots of moisture, meaning lots of precipitation, but just cold enough for it to fall as snow," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. "Increasingly, it seems that we're on that ragged edge."

Just look at the last few years in the Northeast. Or take Chicago, which until late January had 335 days without more than an inch of snow. Both have been hit with historic storms in recent years.

Scientists won't blame a specific event or even a specific seasonal change on global warming without doing intricate and time-consuming studies. And they say they are just now getting a better picture of the complex intersection of man-made climate change and extreme snowfall.

But when Serreze, Oppenheimer and others look at the last few years of less snow overall, punctuated by big storms, they say this is what they are expecting in the future.

"It fits the pattern that we expect to unfold," Oppenheimer said.

The world is warming so precipitation that would normally fall as snow in the future will likely fall as rain once it gets above the freezing point, said Princeton researcher Sarah Kapnick.

Her study used new computer models to simulate the climate in 60 to 100 years as carbon dioxide levels soar. She found large reductions in snowfall throughout much of the world, especially parts of Canada and the Andes Mountains. In the United States, her models predict about a 50 percent or more drop in annual snowfall amounts along a giant swath of the nation from Maine to Texas and the Pacific Northwest and California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

This is especially important out West where large snowcaps are natural reservoirs for a region's water supply, Kapnick said. And already in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest and in much of California, the amount of snow still around on April 1 has been declining so that it's down about 20 percent compared to 80 years ago, said Philip Mote, who heads a climate change institute at Oregon State University.

Kapnick says it is snowing about as much as ever in the heart of winter, such as February. But the snow season is getting much shorter, especially in spring and in the northernmost areas, said Rutgers' David Robinson, a co-author of the study on extreme weather that will be published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The Rutgers snow lab says this January saw the sixth-widest snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere; the United States had an above average snow cover for the last few months. But that's a misleading statistic, Robinson said, because even though more ground is covered by snow, it's covered by less snow.

And when those big storms finally hit, there is more than just added moisture in the air, there's extra moisture coming from the warm ocean, Robinson and Oppenheimer said. And the air is full of energy and unstable, allowing storms to lift yet more moisture up to colder levels. That generates more intense rates of snowfall, Robinson said.

"If you can tap that moisture and you have that fortuitous collision of moist air and below freezing temperatures, you can pop some big storms," Robinson said.

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann points to the recent Northeast storm that dumped more than 30 inches in some places. He said it was the result of a perfect set of conditions for such an event: Arctic air colliding with unusually warm oceans that produced extra large amounts of moisture and big temperature contrasts, which drive storms. Those all meant more energy, more moisture and thus more snow, he said.

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CHICAGO (AP) The name on Hollywood audition lists and casting sheets must be unmistakably eye-catching: Rob Belushi.

The 32-year-old actor and comedian is from yes, that Belushi family. He's the son of Jim Belushi and the nephew of the late John Belushi and for the past decade or so an aspiring actor in his own right.

Rob Belushi has guest starred on TV shows like his dad's "According to Jim" and "The Defenders." He's appeared in made-for-TV movies and graced the stand-up stage. Now he's starring on the Spike TV reality program "The Joe Schmo Show" that airs on Tuesday nights.

He calls his famous last name a "double-edged sword."

"I would say people are very interested in seeing me or checking out what I have to offer," Belushi said in an interview in the lobby of a fancy downtown Chicago hotel. "I also think that they have their own expectations of what that will be and I am not my uncle or my father. That is pretty clear to see upon meeting me."

The Spike TV show requires Belushi to act off-the-cuff, using skills he learned in Chicago's improv scene where his father and uncle got their starts, too. Belushi grew up in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles to go to high school, but the family business didn't interest him at first. He was more interested in behind-the-camera work.

"My dad was actor and my mom was an actor and my uncle was an actor," Belushi said. "It seemed like maybe we hit our quota."

But a few small roles in college and influence from a teacher at Wesleyan University in Connecticut steered him in front of the lens. After college he headed back to Chicago.

"I moved to Chicago so that I could do it well and not just be some jerk with an unearned last name," Belushi said.

He spent time not only at Chicago's famous Second City, but at other improv comedy and theater schools. He also earned experience with dramatic stage performances and alongside actors like John Mahoney.

"When I first came to Chicago I really thought I had to be really special because I started in a town where my family is beloved," Belushi said. He describes working as a nanny and waiter to make money.

"My first job was as a host at Second City, where I essentially shushed drunk tourists and cleaned up throw-up in the bathroom with kitty litter," Belushi said. "But I also got to watch the show seven nights a week."

And while his famous father's mark is definitely on his career, Belushi says Jim Belushi "has had probably no influence and all the influence in the world." Jim Belushi didn't push his son toward acting, but offered support when needed like practicing for auditions, Belushi said.

Jim Belushi describes his son as funny, talented and good looking "the smartest Belushi you've got." Not a surprise for a father talking about his son. The pair owns a comedy club, The Comedy Bar, together in Chicago.

"I've given him a lot of advice," Jim Belushi said in an interview. "My main advice to him is just do what's right in front of you. It's basically stay in the moment."

Rob Belushi was a baby when his famous uncle, John, died of a drug overdose at age 33 in March 1982.

"I've always felt like John was out there somewhere looking down on me and hopefully smiling or frowning but as every actor wants, paying attention in some way," Belushi said. "We have a lot in common in a lot of ways, some are good, some are bad. So I would say, as with my dad, I feel very honored to carry on the tradition that comes from Chicago."

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Online: http://www.spike.com/shows/the-joe-schmo-show

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Follow Caryn Rousseau on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/carynrousseau

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