Liz Claiborne is pulling its namesake brand's wholesale business from Germany, Sweden and Russia, the company said on Friday. The decision affects only the Liz Claiborne brand, which it had just begun to roll out in those markets, a company spokesperson told Reuters in an e-mailed statement.

Liz, along with other brands such as Mexx and Kate Spade, intends to focus on better established European markets such as France, Belgium and Iberia instead of expanding into new ones, the spokesperson said.

The report first appeared Friday morning in trade publication Women's Wear Daily.

Liz has struggled recently due to falling demand for traditional upscale brands and lower sales from consolidating department stores that increasingly promote their own labels. The company also recently cut its profit outlook for the year.

(Photo: Reuters)

Saddleback Valley Community Church, one of the largest evangelical churches in the United States, admits conservative Christians have been "late to the party" when it comes to active involvement in fighting HIV/AIDS.So the Church is making good use of acrostics to explain its stratgey to the 22,000 people who attend its weekly services in Southern California, as well as millions overseas who have been influenced by Pastor Rick Warren's inspirational book "The Purpose Driven Life."

Neatly side-stepping the controversial issues of homosexuality and condoms that have caused many a dilemma for U.S. conservative Christians, Saddleback has put its efforts into the way local churches around the world can help care and support victims -- especially AIDS orphans in Africa.

Saddleback's approach is an interesting contrast to the ABC of AIDS prevention (Abstinence, Being faithful, using Condoms) promoted by the Bush administration and several African countries.

The six things that followers can do at the outset are laid out in the simple to remember formula C.H.U.R.C.H.:

Care and support the sick
Handle testing and counseling
Unleash volunteers
Remove the stigma
Champion healthy behavior
Help with nutrition and medication.

P.E.A.C.E. is another acrostic that Saddleback has adopted to sum up the strategy Jesus might adopt on the AIDS pandemic, and which was heard repeatedly during a three-day conference this week on the Church's role in the AIDS crisis:

Promote reconciliation
Equip servant leaders
Assist the poor
Care for the sick
Educate the next generation.

In the past three years, Saddleback has sent out more than 7,500 members to test its P.E.A.C.E. plan in 69 countries.

Producer and director Aaron Woolf's new film "King Corn" has provoked a rich debate among moviegoers about the wisdom of U.S. farm subsidies, but taking on big corn was so difficult  it has left him poor. 

The film profiles two recent East Coast college graduates, who after reading reports of the declining nutritional value of U.S. food,  move to Iowa to grow one acre of corn.

The neophyte farmers attempt to follow the corn they grow from the field to the plate and don't always like what they see.  Family farmers tell them that U.S. subsidies and competition from big farms cause them to grow "the poorest quality corn the world's ever seen."  The two young men visit Colorado feed lots where scientists tell them that corn feed causes so many ulcers in cows that farmers have to pump them full of antibiotics. They go to Brooklyn, New York where doctors tell them that consumption of "liquid candy" soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup have helped lead to high rates of diabetes in the city where one in eight people suffer from the disease.

Woolf said at a showing of the film at the Reuters Americas headquarters in New York this week that the film is $100,000 debt.  "This was a film that was really really hard to raise money for," he said.  He said he could not afford to take on agricultural giants like Cargill and ADM in the film because, "It's very hard to make a documentary in America and get corporate buy-in."

Now Woolf has to moonlight in order to get back in the black, but he's still concentrating on food - in a the next few weeks he will open an organic grocery store in Brooklyn.

Producer and director Aaron Woolf's new film "King Corn" has provoked a rich debate among moviegoers about the wisdom of U.S. farm subsidies, but taking on big corn was so difficult  it has left him poor. 

The film profiles two recent East Coast college graduates, who after reading reports of the declining nutritional value of U.S. food,  move to Iowa to grow one acre of corn.

The neophyte farmers attempt to follow the corn they grow from the field to the plate and don't always like what they see.  Family farmers tell them that U.S. subsidies and competition from big farms cause them to grow "the poorest quality corn the world's ever seen."  The two young men visit Colorado feed lots where scientists tell them that corn feed causes so many ulcers in cows that farmers have to pump them full of antibiotics. They go to Brooklyn, New York where doctors tell them that consumption of "liquid candy" soft drinks made with high fructose corn syrup have helped lead to high rates of diabetes in the city where one in eight people suffer from the disease.

Woolf said at a showing of the film at the Reuters Americas headquarters in New York this week that the film is $100,000 debt.  "This was a film that was really really hard to raise money for," he said.  He said he could not afford to take on agricultural giants like Cargill and ADM in the film because, "It's very hard to make a documentary in America and get corporate buy-in."

Now Woolf has to moonlight in order to get back in the black, but he's still concentrating on food -- in a the next few weeks he will open an organic grocery store in Brooklyn.

Don't mess with this pretty woman! Hollywood actress Julia Roberts has joined the growing number of stars who are fed up with being tailed by the paparazzi incessantly. The mother-of-three reportedly lost her cool after seeing photographers filming her near a Los Angeles school and raced after them in her Mercedes four-wheel drive, blasting her horn and gesturing to them to pull over. Videotape of the incident was broadcast by U.S. television show Inside Edition.

She scolded them for filming near a school and ordered them to turn off a camera filming her. "Listen, you can turn your video camera off. You're at a school where children go. Turn it off," she said, according to Web site TMZ.com.

The list of stars losing their cool with the paparazzi is growing:

- Last week George Clooney struck out at the "bounty hunters" -- accusing them of putting the saftey of bystanders at risk as they chased celebrities

-  British actor Hugh Grant was arrested earlier this year after he was accused of attacking a photographer outside his home with a tub of baked beans, but he did not face changes

- former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan is being investigated on possible assault charges against a photographer

- British actor Jude Law was cleared in October of assaulting a photographer outside his London home

Bet none of them were too sad when they saw Britney Spears in October driving over a photographer's foot as she tried to negotiate her way out of a car park, leaving him crumbled up on the floor as she drove off.

I'm the reader who asked a few months ago what your most popular postings were.

We now keep a multimedia scrapbook, and reread your best stuff at family get-togethers. Can you update it with the best of November? It would mean a lot as relatives gather for the holidays.

Geez, Mom, this is embarrassing. There were some very popular items in the past 30 days, about such uplifting seasonal themes as stupid homemade submarines, buck-naked jogging pumpkin-heads, and vengeful flight attendants. Enjoy:

Gosh, this sub really dives fast!

I'm not naked, I'm wearing a pumpkin!

Escape is futile! Get a grip!

"I told you to SHARE the peanuts!"

Vitameatavegamin! It's so tasty, too!

Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton on Friday called on rival Barack Obama -- who has been closing the gap with her in key early-voting states -- to stop airing his television advertisement on health care because she says it contains false promises about providing universal coverage.
 
"Even Senator Obama himself has admitted that his plan would not cover everyone, calling the plan 'virtually universal,'" Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle said in a letter to Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. Clinton has proposed a plan that would require all Americans to get health insurance.
 
The Clinton camp cited an opinion piece by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman that criticized Obama's plan: "He shied away from doing what was necessary to make his claim true." 
 
Obama spokesman Bill Burton shot back that the advertisement has been out for a month, "and the only thing that's changed since then is the poll numbers."
 
"The truth is, Barack Obama would offer health coverage to every single American who can't afford it, and he'll do it by bringing Republicans and Democrats together like he's done before," Burton said.

-- Photo credit: Steve Marcus

So maybe you missed the doorbuster promotions, your family already has a Wii, or the emphasis on the material just doesn't make your heart go pitter-pat. What then, come the holidays?
    
As the gift-giving days loom ever closer, a slew of organizations are touting non-traditional gifts, from adopting a lemur to jumping out of an airplane.
    
According to gift-giving company Excitations, 41 percent of consumers don't even remember that amazing holiday gift you gave them last year. But maybe funding a Mexico City soccer league, cataract surgery in Ghana, or helping conservation efforts in Angola might not be so easily forgotten.
 
At the World Wildlife Fund, you can adopt a proboscis monkey, red-footed booby or Galapagos Island tortoise (and get a cute furry stuffed-animal equivalent). At Utah's Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, you'll be sure to find a wet-nosed dog, cat, bunny or even goat who needs to be sponsored (our personal feline favorites are the rotund Buddy Boy and the fanged Scooter). 
    
At http://www.changingthepresent.org, gift-givers can choose their favorite cause, from human rights to disaster relief and landmines. Choices include giving money to fund a cellphone for an African farmer, funding brain cancer research, paying for a child's cleft palate surgery or helping homeless American veterans. 
    
Looking for something more hedonistic? Http://www.excitations.com offers the opportunity to drive a Formula 2000 race car, attend the NFL Player of the Year dinner, take a falconry excursion, or master the art of mixing through a cocktail master class for two.

Gift cards even exist in the realm of charity. At http://www.charitygiftcertificates.org gift recipients can choose their favorite charity in spending their gift from you. 

Happy Shopping! (and don't forget the lemurs)

Photo from World Wildlife Fund Web Site. 

Sears Holdings Chairman Edward Lampert apparently wasn't happy with the media coverage an analyst comments following the retailer's disappointing earnings report Thursday.
 
"While we were not pleased with these results, much of the commentary in the media and on Wall Street following the results ignores the strength of our company and the progress that we have made," Lampert said.
 
Read the entire letter  and tell us if you agree or disagree.

(Photo: Reuters)

When Pope Benedict expressed his closeness to victims of AIDS in advance of World AIDS Day on December 1, one thing was conspicuously absent from his comments -- either a specific mention or a reference to the use of condoms.

The Pope, speaking at his weekly general audience on Wednesday, called for increased efforts to stop the spread of AIDS and said victims of the disease should not be treated with disdain. He criticised international agencies he said were spreading abortion. The C-word was not present in either in letter or spirit in his two-paragraph comments in Italian.

When his predecessor John Paul spoke of AIDS, whether he was speaking in the Vatican or during his trips abroad, he often mentioned, either directly or indirectly, that condoms were not the answer.

The Catholic Church opposes the use of condoms in general because they block the possible transmission of life and teaches that fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence are the best way to stop the spread of AIDS. It says promoting condoms fosters immoral and hedonistic behaviour that will only contribute to its spread. It teaches that homosexual acts are immoral in the first place.

In fact, the Catholic Church's position on the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS has never been made totally clear or definitively pronounced.

Perhaps by not mentioning condoms, Pope Benedict has decided to take a more subtle approach to the problem.

In recent years, several top Church officials have called for a change in Vatican policy on condoms to allow their use by married couples where one partner is affected by HIV or AIDS. But the Vatican has so far been loath to issue any document that could be interpreted as a green light for the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS, fearing it would endorse promiscuity.

Little has been heard about a possible Vatican document recently. In November, 2006, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, head of the Vatican's Council for Health Pastoral Care, told reporters a study commissioned by the Pope had effectively passed its first hurdle.

"This is something that worries the Pope a lot," Barragan said of AIDS at the time. The study, which Barragan at the time said was carried out from both a scientific and moral point of view, had been passed on to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and would eventually be passed up the Pope for his use as he saw fit in a document of his own or a pronouncement. It is not clear at what stage the document is now but perhaps, judging by the Benedict's words, he has decided not to confront the issue the way his predecessor did -- at least for now.