■UNITED KINGDOM
Cameron ‘irritating, messy’
The wife of the leader of the main opposition said he was irritating and messy, but ready to oust Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a looming national election. Samantha Cameron, a distant descendant of King Charles II, used her first major interview to praise husband David Cameron’s kindness and passion for politics. In an interview being broadcast today, the 38-year-old offers an insight into Cameron’s domestic life — chastising his messy habits and TV channel surfing. She said Cameron, whose Conservative Party leads Brown’s Labour in opinion polls, was a huge fan of Westerns and The Godfather movie trilogy.
■UNITED STATES
Edwards’ aide avoids jail
A former aide to John Edwards avoided jail again on Friday in a dispute over a tape that allegedly shows the past presidential candidate and his lover in a sexual encounter. Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones ruled that Andrew Young was not in contempt of court for his accounting of how he handled items that Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter is seeking. The North Carolina judge had threatened to jail Young earlier this week and said he was troubled by a series of conflicting statements that Young has made under oath. Jones said he wasn’t sure if Young and his wife had purposely disobeyed his orders. “You know and God knows, but I don’t know,” he said.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Porn director runs for office
A woman who has directed 300 “female-friendly” sex films is to test the liberal-mindedness of voters and run for parliament in an election to be held within weeks. Anna Arrowsmith, 38, whose works under the name Anna Span include Be My Toy Boy, Hoxton Honey and Uniform Behaviour, is standing for the opposition Liberal Democrats in the Kent constituency of Gravesham. Her last-minute selection for the seat after the previous candidate dropped out made headlines across the country over the weekend as the opposition party met in Birmingham ahead of the election expected in May.
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