■ UNITED STATES
US `annexes' Canadian sight
The US appears to have annexed a major Canadian landmark as part of a tourism campaign. A video released by the departments of state and homeland security highlights majestic landscapes. About four minutes into the seven-minute production, viewers are treated to the impressive sight and sound of water roaring over Niagara Falls before the screen shifts to the Lincoln Memorial. Disney's filmmakers, however, chose the Horseshoe Falls, the only one of Niagara's three waterfalls to lie almost entirely on the Canadian side of the border separating western New York state from southern Ontario province.
■ UNITED STATES
Rhett returns to Georgia
Rhett Butler, the fictional Southern charmer who walked out of Scarlett O'Hara's life in Gone With the Wind, returns to Georgia next weekend -- on a book tour. The book, to be unveiled Saturday, is a kind of retelling of Margaret Mitchell's masterpiece from Rhett's perspective and traces Butler from his roots in South Carolina to Georgia, where he met the dramatic Scarlett. An Atlanta committee charged with protecting Mitchell's novel authorized the book, Rhett Butler's People. The novel begins long before Scarlett ever uttered her first "fiddle-dee-dee" and goes on for nearly 100 more pages beyond where Mitchell ended things with "Tomorrow is another day." The book was written by little-known Civil War novelist Donald McCaig.
■ UNITED STATES
Arnie says pot not a drug
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says marijuana is not a drug, a British magazine reported yesterday. But his spokesman said the governor was joking. Schwarzenegger told the British edition of GQ magazine that he had not taken drugs, even though the former bodybuilder and movie star acknowledged using marijuana in the 1970s and was shown smoking a joint in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron. "That is not a drug. It's a leaf," he told GQ. "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."
■ UNITED STATES
Iowa to remain in front
Iowa Democrats have voted to move their presidential primary caucuses to Jan. 3, the same date Republicans picked earlier this month, keeping the state's traditional position as the first primary contest in the race. The state's precinct caucuses had been scheduled for Jan. 14, but the parties decided to move them up under pressure from other states rushing to the beginning of the primary calendar to try to increase their influence on 2008 election. The move means the major remaining question about the calendar is the New Hampshire primary, originally scheduled for Jan. 22.
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