Lindsay Lohan arrested for fighting at NYC nightclub: police

John Shearer/Invision/AP

Lindsay Lohan at a dinner celebrating the premiere of "Liz & Dick" last week

Lindsay Lohan is in hot water again.

The troubled starlet, 26, was arrested early this morning after getting into a fight at a New York City nightclub, police told The Post.

LiLo was at club Avenue in Manhattan — and after exchanging words with a fellow clubgoer, she punched the 28-year-old woman, causing bruising and swelling to the victim's face, cops said.

Law enforcement sources said the victim was initially scuffling with another woman before Lohan got involved.

Police were called, and the victim identified Lohan as her attacker. Lohan was later taken to the 10th Precinct Station House for processing, accused of misdemeanor assault. She's likely to receive a desk appearance ticket, sources said.

The arrest comes days after Lohan's latest career comeback attempt, the Lifetime movie "Liz & Dick," debuted.

But the legal sidetracks continue to build. As TMZ reported last week, Lohan is expected to be charged with lying to LA police about a June traffic accident.

Lohan was accused of clipping a pedestrian with her car outside of the Dream Downtown Hotel earlier this year, but Manhattan prosecutors decided not to pursue a case.

She is currently on probation from a July 2011 jewelry theft. Other previous offenses include DUIs and failed drug tests, ongoing issues for the "Mean Girls" actress whose career once seemed so bright.

Lohan discussed her troubles and growth in an interview last week with Jay Leno.

"I kind of am still a kid, in a way. I'm 26," she said. "You get caught up in everything, and it's important to kind of find yourself and keep yourself through that, and I went through that."

Lohan was actually banned from Avenue years ago, after tweeting about Justin Timberlake's dating blunders, but that ban was later lifted.

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City National Bank of Florida and its Spanish parent have four years to evaluate the Miami bank’s future ownership

City National Bank of Florida, the Miami bank purchased by Bankia (formerly Caja Madrid) of Spain in November 2008, said Wednesday that its parent has a “four-year window to evaluate alternatives” for the bank’s future ownership and will work closely with management in Miami during the process.

The Spanish government has reached and agreement with the European Union related to Spain’s financial system problems, which will result in a recapitalization of Bankia and other institutions, the bank said. The agreement calls for Bankia to sell non-core assets and its holdings outside of Spain so that Bankia will emerge with a solid capital position and be more focused on its core domestic business.

“Because City National Bank is so well capitalized, profitable and well positioned in the marketplace, we are going to take our time to fully evaluate all of our strategic alternatives,” City National Bank President and CEO Jorge Gonzalez said in a statement. “This does not impact our ongoing strategy of profitable growth and diversification or our commitment to the markets we serve. Our focus continues to be taking excellent care of our clients and employees. ”

City National, founded 65 years ago, has $4.32 billion in assets and 26 branches from Miami-Dade County to the greater Orlando area.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Group to begin reviewing Miami-Dade’s elections practices

A group tasked with making recommendations to improve Miami-Dade elections will begin meeting Tuesday morning, three weeks after Election Day was marked by long lines and a surge of absentee ballots that took several days to count.

County Mayor Carlos Gimenez convened the advisory group to examine state and local elections laws and practices, and suggest changes. The first meeting is expected to feature an overview of legal issues, an outline of the county’s approach to elections and a tour of Miami-Dade’s elections headquarters.

The elections department has not yet submitted its “after-action report,” a post-mortem detailing how things went during the election.

The group will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the county’s Doral elections department, 2700 NW 87th Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

In addition to Gimenez, the group includes 13 members he appointed. Among them are four county commissioners: Lynda Bell, Sally Heyman, Dennis Moss and Rebeca Sosa.

The other members are: Alice Ancona of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce; the Rev. Victor Curry, president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP; Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert; former County Attorney Murray Greenberg; Lovette McGill, an activist who has been involved with African-American trade unionists; Gepsie Metellus, executive director of Sant La, a Little Haiti-based social services agency; C.J. Ortuño, executive director of the gay-rights advocacy group SAVE Dade; and elections attorneys Kendall Coffey and Robert Fernandez, who represented Gimenez and newly elected Property Appraiser Carlos Lopez-Cantera in recent elections challenges.

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The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners

The Complete List: 'Dancing with the Stars' Winners

On Tuesday night, TV personality and former Bachelor contestant Melissa Rycroft became the latest Dancing with the Stars victor! Click through the gallery for a look back at all the previous mirror ball winners.

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3 BP employees to be arraigned on criminal charges over Deepwater Horizon spill

NEW ORLEANS — Two BP rig supervisors and a former BP executive were scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on criminal charges stemming from the deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and the company's response to the massive 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine were indicted this month on manslaughter charges in the death of 11 rig workers. The federal indictment accuses them of disregarding abnormal high-pressure readings that should have been glaring indications of trouble just before the blowout of BP's Macondo well.

Reuters

Fire boat response crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in April 2010.

Former BP executive David Rainey was charged separately with concealing information from Congress about the amount of oil that was leaking from the well.

Their defense attorneys have vowed to fight the charges.

The hearing comes a day after a BP lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for the company as it was arraigned on related criminal charges. The plea Tuesday in federal court was a procedural move paving the way for the company to plead guilty at a later date.

BP announced earlier this month that it will plead guilty to manslaughter, obstruction of Congress and other charges and pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties to resolve a Justice Department probe of the disaster.

Attorneys for BP and the Justice Department are scheduled to meet Dec. 11 with a federal judge to discuss a date for pleading guilty.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by Transocean Ltd. but operated on behalf of BP, was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast the night of April 20, 2010, when it was rocked by an explosion. The rig burned for about 36 hours before sinking to the Gulf bottom a mile below the surface.

The bodies of 11 workers were never recovered.

The blast led to the nation's worst offshore oil disaster as millions of gallons of crude oil spewed from BP's well.

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Gift ideas for the techie on your list

The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.

Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.

Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.

IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER

What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.

Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.

It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.

Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.

Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.

What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.

Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.

NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION

What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.

There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.

The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.

The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.

Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.

Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.

Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.

What does it cost? $179

Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com

3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT

What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).

The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.

The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.

It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.

What does it cost? $25

Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.

STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR

What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.

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FPL’s request for nuclear energy costs gets OK

The Florida Public Service Commission Monday approved $151 million in advance nuclear costs for Florida Power & Light Co., the total amount the utility requested.

The unanimous vote means that a customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month will be charged $1.69 a month for the advance costs beginning in January, the PSC said. This year that customer is paying $2.20 a month.

The commission also approved $142 million in nuclear costs for St. Petersburg-based Progress Energy Florida.

FPL’s breakdown for the costs includes $20 million for two proposed new reactors, Turkey Point 6 and 7, in South Miami-Dade.

Roughly $131 million is for expansions of two existing reactors at Turkey Point and two at the St. Lucie nuclear plant on Hutchinson Island.

The costs were approved despite objections from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which has said that FPL has failed to demonstrate its intent to actually build the new Turkey Point reactors.

“The PSC accepted all of the PSC staff recommendations issued earlier this month — an unfortunate trend of rubber-stamping that we have seen year after year in spite of major obstacles and pitfalls that have made new reactor proposals in Florida less and less feasible,” SACE executive director Stephen Smith said in a statement Monday.

The group’s challenge of the constitutionality of a Florida law passed in 2006 that allows utilities to recover nuclear costs for expenses such as reactor design and licensing before construction is awaiting a decision by the Florida Supreme Court.

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India: 2 policemen suspended, magistrate transferred for arrest of 2 women over Facebook post

NEW DELHI – An Indian official says two senior policemen have been suspended for arresting two women over a Facebook post criticizing the shutdown of Mumbai for the funeral of a powerful politician.

Maharashtra state Home Minister R.R. Patil said Tuesday the policemen were suspended indefinitely and the magistrate who registered the case against the women has been transferred to another district.

Police also arrested nine men who vandalized a medical clinic run by the uncle of one of the women, Patil said.

One of the women had posted a Facebook comment complaining that Mumbai had come to a standstill after the death of rightwing leader Bal Thackeray. Her friend “liked” the post.

Their arrest last week was seen as a misuse of Internet laws and an attempt to curb freedom of expression.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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How Zero Dark Thirty Copied Bin Laden's Compound

Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow reteams with her Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty, a chronicling of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and the two opened up to Nightline about how they recreated bin Laden's compound.

VIDEO: Zero Dark Thirty Trailer

The filmmakers built a full-scale version of the compound in Jordan, and Bigelow says that everything from the carpet to the marks on the walls were taken from ABC News footage that she studied frame by frame.

"Everything we could find from that video we replicated," Bigelow said. "Every conceivable piece of information that we could find we replicated."

As to the controversy over whether or not the filmmakers received classified information to make the movie, Mark Boal says, "I certainly did a lot of homework, but I never asked for classified materials. To my knowledge I never received any."

Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt and Jennifer Ehle, hits theaters January 11.

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Experts exhume Arafat's remains, test for poison

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian authorities on Tuesday opened Yasser Arafat's grave and foreign experts took samples from his remains as part of a long-shot attempt — eight years after the iconic leader's mysterious death — to determine whether he was poisoned, as relatives and some political successors have claimed.

The exhumation began before dawn, under the cover of huge sheets of blue tarpaulin draped over Arafat's mausoleum in his former government compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

By mid-morning, the grave was reclosed, said Tawfik Tirawi, a former Palestinian intelligence chief who heads the investigation into Arafat's death.

Getty Images

Secretary General of the Palestinian Presidency Tayeb Abdel Rahim places a wreath of flowers at the tomb of Yasser Arafat during a ceremony Tuesday.

Arafat died in November 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill at his Ramallah compound, which was at the time besieged by Israeli troops. The immediate cause of death was a stroke, but the underlying reasons were unclear, leading to widespread belief in the Arab world that Israel poisoned the 75-year-old symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

Israel has denied involvement in Arafat's death.

An investigation was launched at the time, but it then lay dormant for years, only to be revived this summer when a Swiss lab detected elevated traces of a lethal radioactive substance, polonium-210, in biological stains on his clothing.

The lab said the tests were inconclusive and that it needed to examine the remains for a clearer picture. Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, authorized the exhumation despite strong cultural and religious taboos against disturbing a gravesite, apparently to avoid any suggestion that the current leadership was standing in the way of a thorough investigation.

Since mid-November, workers have been drilling through thick layers of concrete encasing the tomb.

The grave was opened before dawn Tuesday, according to a Palestinian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the exhumation with the media.

The official said some of the remains were moved to a nearby mosque, but that the team then encountered technical difficulties. He would not elaborate. The experts decided to return the remains to the grave and take the samples without moving what was left of the body, the official said.

The exhumation was attended by experts from Switzerland, France and Russia who will examine the samples in their home countries, the official said. Earlier, samples were also taken from Arafat's bedroom, office and personal belongings, he said.

Public reaction in the West Bank was mixed.

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