Publisher pulls book

Publisher pulls book
NEW YORK -- Rarely has an author succeeded, then failed, so quickly as Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard University sophomore who acknowledged lifting material from another author's work for her debut novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life."
Just weeks after her book was released with a first printing of 100,000 and a wave of favorable attention, publisher Little, Brown and Company announced Thursday that "all editions" would be pulled from store shelves and that retailers had been asked to return unsold copies for "full credit."
Viswanathan, 19, has apologized repeatedly to author Megan McCafferty, saying she had read McCafferty's books voraciously in high school and unintentionally mimicked them.
But McCafferty's publisher, the Crown Publishing Group, believed Viswanathan guilty of "literary identity theft" and urged Little, Brown, which initially said her novel would remain on sale, to withdraw the book.
Little, Brown has said "Opal Mehta" would be revised
Snoop leaves Britain
LONDON -- Snoop Dogg flew out of Britain on Friday after his arrest over a fracas at Heathrow Airport in which seven police officers were injured.
The 34-year-old rapper boarded a Virgin Atlantic flight bound for Johannesburg, South Africa, late Friday. He was due to perform in Durban today.
Snoop and five other men were arrested Wednesday on charges of violent disorder and affray -- or starting a brawl -- and spent the night in jail, the Metropolitan police said.
Police said Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, and the other men, all U.S. citizens in their 30s, had not been charged with any offenses. They were released Thursday, but must return to London next month for further questioning.
Stern draws complaints
BALTIMORE -- Some commuters hoping to ease into their day with National Public Radio or Christian broadcasts are hearing shock jock Howard Stern instead.
Their favorite stations aren't broadcasting Stern's show, which has moved to satellite radio provider Sirius. Instead, poorly installed or defective satellite radio units, which act as mini-FM transmitters, are being blamed.
"Usually they're upset, because they don't know what's going on. This isn't what they tuned in to [hear]," Charles W. Loughery, president of the Word FM Radio Network, a group of contemporary Christian stations in eastern Pennsylvania, told The (Baltimore) Sun.
Some of the units use FM signals to broadcast the satellite signal to the car's audio system, using frequencies low on the FM band such as 88.1, often reserved for noncommercial, religious or educational stations.
Today's birthdays
Actress Celeste Holm is 87. Poet Rod McKuen is 73. Actor Keith Baxter is 73. Bluesman Otis Rush is 72. Country singer Duane Allen (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 63. Singer Tommy James is 59. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 52. Actress Kate Mulgrew is 51. Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 49. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer is 48. Actress Eve Plumb is 48. Singer Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips) is 38. Actress Uma Thurman is 36. Tennis player Andre Agassi is 36. Rapper Master P is 36. Country singer James Bonamy is 34. Actor Zane Carney is 21.
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