'Arrested Development' banana stand takes Manhattan ahead of show's return

By Leora Arnowitz

Published May 13, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  A banana stand, based on the series "Arrested Development," is set up in New York City, N.Y., on May 13, 2013.FNN

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NEW YORK –  A long line of diehard “Arrested Development” fans crowded the streets of midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon for a chance to try one of the famed frozen bananas frequently featured on the show.

The yellow, banana-shaped hut was set up to promote the return of the beloved series, which was cancelled back in 2006. New episodes of the show have now been taped and are set to be released on Netflix on May 26.

A rep for the series said about 2,000 chocolate dipped frozen bananas were being given away Monday to celebrate the show’s upcoming season.

“They started this in London last week, and people were waiting in line for six hours to get bananas,” she said.

The rep added that the stand would “pop up” around New York City through Thursday before heading to Los Angeles to promote the series.

“It’s been crazy. People are really into it.”

“Arrested Development” originally aired on FOX from 2003 to 2006. The show, produced by Ron Howard, follows Michael Bluth (played by Jason Bateman) and his quirky family. The star-studded cast includes Michael Cera, Will Arnett and Portia de Rossi.

Past seasons of the show are currently available on Netflix

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Christian author takes on Muslim group's $30M suit- Is US military preparing to court martial Christians?

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  Mubarak Ali Gilani, the shadowy founder of Muslims of the Americas, is believed to be living in Pakistan. (Christian Action Network)

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  Christian Action Network vows to bring Gilani, founder of Muslims of the Americas, into a U.S. court if the $30 million defamation suit proceeds. (Christian Action Network)

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  Gilani, who is believed to be in his eighties, fires a weapon in a training video made by Muslims of the Americas. (Christian Action Network)

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  Muslims of the Americas has rural bases in several states, including South Carolina and New York.

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The shadowy leader of an American Muslim organization accused of running terror training camps in the U.S. could find himself being questioned under oath if his outfit follows through on its $30 million defamation suit against the Christian group that leveled the charges in a best-selling book.

Muslims of the Americas, a group founded in the 1980s by elusive Pakistani Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, is suing the Christian Action Network for defamation and libel following CAN’s recent publication of the book “Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamist Terrorist Training Camps Inside America.” Co-authored by CAN founder Martin Mawyer and Patti Pierucci, the book accuses MOA of “acting as a front for the radical Islamist group Jamaat al-Fuqra.”

In the suit, filed this year in federal court in Albany, N.Y., the Muslim group accuses Mawyer, Pierucci and CAN of "malicious, repetitious and continuous pronouncements and publication of defamatory statements against plaintiff."

"We're calling their bluff," said Mawyer. "I would have thought this would have been dropped a while ago, but I guess they feel they have to defend themselves to their own members."

Many of the book’s allegations are based on the claims of a former NYPD undercover informant who spent eight years posing as a member of the Muslim group, which has secretive bases in rural areas around the country, including Hancock, N.Y., and York County, S.C.

“We're calling their bluff.”

- Martin Mawyer, founder of Christian Action Network

The book alleges organized criminal activity on the part of MOA and claims profits from “street crimes, drugs, brothels, unemployment fraud and other offenses” have been funneled to Jamaat al-Fuqra. Part of the money has been used to establish a series of Jihadi training camps on American soil, according to the book.

Both Muslims of the Americas -- made up primarily of African-American converts to Islam -- and the Pakistan-based Jamaat al-Fuqra, are guided by Sheikh Mubarik Ali Gilani, a highly controversial cleric who lived in the U.S. during the 1980s and who was the subject of an investigation by the late Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.

In 2002, Pearl was in Pakistan on his way to a pre-arranged interview with Gilani when he was kidnapped by Al Qaeda and eventually beheaded in a brutal case that shocked the world. Gilani was questioned in relation to the investigation but released without being charged.

“Twilight in America” highlights some 17 purported terrorist training camps inside the U.S. Mawyer said he learned of the camps from NYPD informant Ali Aziz, who said one of the camps – often attended by 100 or more followers -- was only 30 miles away from the CAN office in Forest, Va.

Aziz allegedly passed on vital information to authorities about MOA’s plans, its activities across the U.S., and the powerful presence of Gilani.

“If Gilani told everyone, ‘Set yourselves on fire,’ everybody would burn themselves,” Aziz told www.christianaction.org. “This has been going on for 30 years. And people praise him. They give him money. They kiss his feet. It’s crazy.”

Despite the evidence presented in the book, neither MOA nor Jamaat al-Fuqra is currently designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

"The chapters on the former undercover agent really put them over the edge, as their members knew who Ali Aziz was,” Mawyer told FoxNews.com. “It then became very difficult for the leadership to continue to convince the women and children on the compounds that they weren’t associated with terrorists. They had to sue us to protect the wealth that they derive from the thousands of members they have in the U.S. I fully expect us to win this lawsuit.”

Mawyer and Pierucci say in the book that MOA has been linked to 10 unsolved assassinations and 17 bombings since the 1980s, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Gilani, who describes himself as “Vice Chancellor of the International Qur’anic Open University, Imam of the Muslims of the Americas and a direct Descendant of the Holy Last Messenger [the Prophet Muhammed],” has previously been accused of inspiring so-called “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid and John Allen Mohammed, the Beltway sniper attacker who, with a young accomplice, killed 10 people during a brief reign of terror in October 2002.

Mawyer said if the civil suit goes to trial, he will move to bring Gilani to the U.S. and put him on the stand. For an organization that so jealously guards its privacy, that may be enough to drop the suit.

“I think they hoped that we would not have the money to fight it and it would serve the purpose of telling their own members, ‘See, we took care of that Martin Mawyer fellow,’” Mawyer said. “They say we have declared war on Islam, but I can tell you that is definitely not the case. This group is against Christians, Hindus, Hari Krishna, Jews, and any Imams who do not preach their strict view of Islam.”

MOA officials could not be reached, and the group's attorney, Tahirah Clark, did not return calls. But in a January statement on The Islamic Post website, the group’s official mouthpiece, Gilani denied claims he is a radical. He said he has weeded out militant Muslims who had infiltrated his inner circle, including a man he said was a hitman for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Mawyer and the CAN have no intention of backing out of the legal fight with Muslims of the Americas, a group described by the Anti-Defamation League as “virulently anti-Semitic Holocaust deniers.”

“People’s concerns about home-grown terrorism have obviously been raised by the recent events in Boston,” said Mawyer. “They should know that this is the group that has led the way in the U.S. for 30 years.”

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.com and can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster

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'Iron Man 3' rules world, 'Pain & Gain' takes top box office spot in US

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  US actor Robert Downey Jr arrives for the UK premiere of Iron Man 3, at a central London cinema, Thursday, April 18, 2013. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP)

LOS ANGELES –  "Iron Man 3" was the heavy-lifter at theaters with a colossal overseas debut that overshadowed a gang of mercenary bodybuilders in a sleepy pre-summer weekend at the domestic box office.

The Marvel Studios superhero sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. got a head-start on its domestic launch next Friday with a $195.3 million opening in 42 overseas markets, distributor Disney reported Sunday.

That topped the $185.1 million start for Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 39 markets over the same weekend last year a week ahead of its record-breaking domestic debut of $207.4 million.

"You don't know that you could ever repeat the kind of experience we had a year ago, and here the Marvel team brought together another incredible movie," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney. "We've had this as a pattern for Marvel films to kind of let momentum internationally help signal to the domestic audience that the film is coming, something big is coming."

Director Michael Bay's true-crime tale "Pain & Gain" muscled into first-place domestically with a $20 million debut.

The Paramount release starring Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie knocked off Tom Cruise's sci-fi adventure "Oblivion" after a week in the No. 1 spot. Universal's "Oblivion" slipped to second-place with $17.4 million, raising its domestic total to $64.7 million.

Lionsgate's all-star nuptial comedy "The Big Wedding" tanked at No. 4 with just $7.5 million. The ensemble cast includes Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, Susan Sarandon and Katherine Heigl, but the movie was almost universally trashed by critics and held little interest for audiences.

Paramount, which distributed the earlier "Iron Man" movies and still has a financial stake in the comic-book flicks after Disney bought Marvel, had a small-scale success with "Pain & Gain."

A passion project for Bay, who has made Paramount a fortune with his "Transformers" franchise, "Pain & Gain" was shot for a modest $26 million, spare change compared to the director's usual budgets.

The movie has the director taking a breather from his usual sci-fi action spectacles for a story based on a kidnapping-extortion caper carried out by bodybuilders in the 1990s. Yet "Pain & Gain" still has Bay's usual visual flair, and the reviews generally were better than what he's used to.

"With that kind of budget, to open to $20 million the first weekend is a very strong opening," said Don Harris, Paramount's head of distribution. "You see what a director really in his prime, at the top of his game, can do with a small budget, what he can make a movie look like."

"Oblivion" was down a fairly steep 53 percent from the movie's $37.1 million domestic debut the previous weekend.

Overseas, "Oblivion" took in $12.8 million to lift its international haul to $134.1 million and worldwide total to just under $200 million.

Hollywood's domestic downturn continued, with revenues totaling $90 million, off 18.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Think Like a Man" led with $17.6 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Receipts have trailed 2012's for most of the year, with 2013 domestic ticket sales running at $2.9 billion, nearly 12 percent behind last year's.

That pattern could continue as Hollywood opens its summer season domestically this coming weekend. Despite a huge haul expected for "Iron Man 3," the film will be competing against that gigantic start over the same weekend last year for "The Avengers," the only movie to open with more than $200 million domestically.

"Iron Man 2" debuted with $128.1 million over the first weekend in May 2010. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian has been pegging the "Iron Man 3" potential at $125 million-plus, though the mammoth international start could fire up domestic prospects even higher.

"This ups the ante in a big way for "Iron Man 3," Dergarabedian said. "It just raises the profile of the film. It raises expectations. But to expect something in the realm of $207.4 million? Well, the fact that we're even talking about it is really amazing."

Said Disney's Hollis: "I wouldn't even want to get ahead of ourselves on something like that. But to say we're encouraged by the results this weekend would be a gross understatement."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Pain & Gain," $20 million.

2. "Oblivion," $17.4 million ($12.8 million international).

3. "42," $10.7 million.

4. "The Big Wedding," $7.5 million.

5. "The Croods," $6.6 million ($13.1 million international).

6. "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," $3.6 million ($10.2 million international).

7. "Scary Movie 5," $3.5 million.

8. "Olympus Has Fallen," $2.8 million.

9. "The Place Beyond the Pines," $2.7 million.

10. "Jurassic Park" in 3-D, $2.3 million ($410,000 international).

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REMOVING RELIGION: School Takes Down Jesus Portrait Under Legal Threat

Published April 03, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  Feb. 12, 2013: A painting of Jesus Christ, upper left, hanging above an entrance to Jackson Middle School in Jackson, Ohio, next to a 'Hall of Honor' showing famous Jackson residents and school alumni. (AP)

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  Feb. 7, 2013: A portrait of Jesus hangs in the hallway at Jackson Middle School in Jackson, Ohio. (AP)

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A portrait of Jesus that had adorned a southern Ohio public school district building since 1947 has been taken down after officials decided they could not risk losing a lawsuit to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The superintendent of Jackson City Schools told The Associated Press that the decision was made after the district's insurance company declined to cover litigation expenses. Phil Howard said a student club that the school says owns the portrait took it down Wednesday morning at his direction.

"At the end of the day, we just couldn't roll the dice with taxpayer money," Howard said. "When you get into these kinds of legal battles, you're not talking about money you can raise with bake sales and car washes. It's not fair to take those resources from our kids' education."

The ACLU and the Freedom from Religion Foundation had sued on behalf of a student and two parents, calling the portrait an unconstitutional promotion of religion in a public school. An ACLU spokesman says the lawsuit remains in effect, but will be dropped if the portrait stays down.

The "Head of Christ," a popular depiction of Jesus, had been in an entranceway's "Hall of Honor" in a middle school building that was formerly a high school. It was near portraits of dozens of prominent alumni and people with local roots such as the late four-term Ohio Gov. James Rhodes. The portrait was moved recently by a Christian-based service club to the current high school building.

A complaint that triggered the February lawsuit put the 2,500-student district in the midst of the ongoing national debate over what religious-themed displays are permissible.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Adkins takes over at Reading

Nigel Adkins ... former Saints boss is back in the EPL with Reading. Source: Steve Parsons / AAP

Former Southampton boss Nigel Adkins is to take over as manager at struggling Barclays Premier League club Reading.

The Royals, who have been searching for a new head coach since they sacked Brian McDermott two weeks ago, have offered Adkins a contract until 2016.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	29	24	2	3	38	74
2	Man City	29	17	8	4	25	59
3	Chelsea	29	16	7	6	28	55
4	Tottenham	30	16	6	8	14	54
5	Arsenal	29	14	8	7	23	50
6	Everton	29	12	12	5	11	48
7	Liverpool	30	12	9	9	18	45
8	West Brom	30	13	5	12	2	44
9	Swansea	30	10	10	10	2	40
10	Fulham	29	9	9	11	-4	36
11	Stoke	30	7	13	10	-8	34
12	Norwich	30	7	13	10	-18	34
13	Newcastle	30	9	6	15	-11	33
14	West Ham	29	9	6	14	-11	33
15	Sunderland	30	7	10	13	-9	31
16	Southampton	30	7	10	13	-10	31
17	Aston Villa	30	7	9	14	-25	30
18	Wigan	29	7	6	16	-21	27
19	Reading	30	5	8	17	-22	23
20	QPR	30	4	11	15	-22	23

The 48-year-old had been out of work since surprisingly losing his job with the Saints in January, with his sacking coming after back-to-back promotions.

Long-time assistant Andy Crosby will join Adkins at Reading and the pair will be in charge for the first time at Arsenal this weekend before hosting Southampton.

Reading are currently second bottom of the Premier League, level on points with Queens Park Rangers and seven points adrift of safety from relegation.

Reading owner Anton Zingarevich said the deal with Adkins had been sealed early Tuesday (EDT).

"I am delighted to bring Nigel to our club because he is perfect for us,'' he said.

"He has great respect within the game, his CV speaks for itself and he has many attributes as a manager, he is progressive, he develops players, his teams play attacking, passing football but most of all he knows how to win games at all levels.

"This is an appointment we have made both with the short and long-term in mind and Nigel can take our club forward.

"I know our supporters have been keen to hear news over the past two weeks and I am certain they will join me in saying it was worth the wait.''

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INDIANA STANDOFF: Sniper Takes Out Gunman Who Killed One, Took Kid

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  March 20, 2013: Armed officers surround a house in Fort Wayne, Ind., where police say a man suspected of killing a bus passenger earlier in the day is holding a 3-year-old child hostage.AP/The Journal Gazette

A man pulled a woman off a bus in Indiana on Wednesday and fatally shot her in front of several witnesses before fleeing, cutting between houses in a neighborhood where he holed up in a house with a 3-year-old during a police standoff.

The man and woman had both been riding a Citilink bus, but Fort Wayne police spokeswoman Raquel Foster said it wasn't clear whether they were companions. Nonetheless, police do not believe the shooting was random and "have a good idea who (they're) looking for," she told The Journal Gazette.

Foster later told WANE-TV that the man was barricaded in a home and holding a 3-year-old hostage. It was not clear if the child was related to the man.

The man pulled the woman, described as a young adult, off the bus about 8 a.m. and fatally shot her about 25 feet away before fleeing on foot into the surrounding neighborhood, police said. A backpack lay at the feet of the victim, whose body was covered by a sheet.

The Allen County Coroner's Office has identified the woman as Jacqueline Bouvier Hardy, 49, of Fort Wayne, The Journal Gazette reports. 

The street was busy with morning traffic, including children waiting at school bus stops, when the shooting happened, and police said there were a number of witnesses. Fort Wayne Community Schools spokeswoman Krista Stockman told WANE-TV that two elementary schools were nearby, and some children saw the shooting on their way to school. She said the schools were taking extra precautions.

Citilink General Manager Kenneth Housden said police will be reviewing video and audio equipment from the bus for their investigation.

Housden said the incident, though tragic, was an isolated one and people should continue to feel safe on Citilink buses.

"We have video and audio on all the buses," Housden said. "Of course, the police department will be reviewing that and it will be pretty definitive. We do take safety and security very seriously and respond very quickly to any incident."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Click for more from The Journal Gazette.

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CLEANEST ENERGY?Process Takes Coal's Energy Without Burning It

Researchers have discovered a stunning new process that takes the energy from coal without burning it -- and removes virtually all of the pollution.

The clean coal technique was developed by scientists at The Ohio State University, with just $5 million in funding from the federal government, and took 15 years to achieve.

“We’ve been working on this for more than a decade,” Liang-Shih Fan, a chemical engineer and director of OSU’s Clean Coal Research Laboratory, told FoxNews.com, calling it a new energy conversion process. “We found a way to release the heat from coal without burning.”

The process removes 99 percent of the pollution from coal, which some scientists link to global warming. Coal-burning power plants produced about one-third of the nation’s carbon dioxide total in 2010, or about 2.3 billion metric tons, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

'We found a way to release the heat from coal without burning.'

- Liang-Shih Fan, a chemical engineer and director of OSU’s Clean Coal Research Laboratory

Retrofitting them with the new process would be costly, but it would cut billions of tons of pollution.

“In the simplest sense, conventional combustion is a chemical reaction that consumes oxygen and produces heat,” Fan fold FoxNews.com. “Unfortunately, it also produces carbon dioxide, which is difficult to capture and bad for the environment.”

And simply put, the new process isn't.

Heating, Not Burning, Coal
Fan discovered a way to heat coal, using iron-oxide pellets for an oxygen source and containing the reaction in a small, heated chamber from which pollutants cannot escape. The only waste product is therefore water and coal ash -- no greenhouse gases. As an added benefit, the metal from the iron-oxide can be recycled.

“Oxidation” is the chemical combination of a substance with oxygen. Contrast this with old-fashioned, coal-fired plants, which use oxygen to burn the coal and generate heat. This in turn makes steam, which turns giant turbines and sends power down electric lines.

The main by-product of that old process — carbon dioxide, known chemically as CO2 — is released through smokestacks into the earth’s atmosphere.

Fan’s process, called “coal-direct chemical looping,” has been proven in a small scale lab at OSU. The next step is to take it to a larger test facility in Alabama, and Fan believes the technology can be commercialized and used to power an energy plant within five to 10 years, if all goes smoothly. The technology generated 25 kilowatts of thermal energy in current tests; the Alabama site will generate 250 kilowatts.

Can Coal Ever Be 'Clean'?
Some environmentalists are skeptical of the technology, and of the idea of clean coal in general.

“Claiming that coal is clean because it could be clean -- if a new technically unproven and economically dubious technology might be adopted -- is like someone claiming that belladonna is not poisonous because there is a new unproven safe pill under development,” wrote Donald Brown at liberal think tank Climate Progress.

Yet the federal Department of Energy believes that the process can create 20 megawatts to 50 megawatts by 2020, said Jared Ciferno, the agency’s director of coal and power-production research and development, in a statement.

The government plans to continue to support the project, as well as the concept of "clean coal" in general.

Meanwhile, Fan is exploring the possibility of establishing a start-up company and licensing the process to utilities, and has the potential to patent 35 different parts of the process.

Other scientists and experts are enthused about the prospects for this technology.

Yan Feng with Argonne National Laboratory's Environmental Science Division, Climate Research Section, called it “an advancement in chemical engineering. “It is very important that we act on CO2 capturing and sequestration as well as emission controls of other warming agents like tropospheric ozone and black carbon."

Adds Rebecca Taylor, a spokesman for Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Company, a global Fortune 250 chemical manufacturer that works in clean energy, “researchers continue to uncover innovative ways to use coal efficiently/sustainably.”

Concludes Dawei Wang, a research associate at OSU, the technology's potential benefits even go beyond the environment and issues like sustainability.

"The plant could really promote our energy independence. Not only can we use America's natural resources such as Ohio coal, but we can keep our air clean and spur the economy with jobs,” he said.

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Angry Wenger takes aim at critics

Arsene Wenger ... 'There are a lot of experts who are not necessarily always right.' Source: GLYN KIRK / AAP

Angered by criticism of Arsenal and claims about his future, Arsene Wenger's irritation boiled over publicly ahead of this week's UEFA Champions League showdown with Bayern Munich.

Arsenal's last chance to end a trophy drought stretching back to 2005 is in Europe after being knocked out of the FA Cup by second-tier Blackburn last weekend.

Wenger was frustrated by continued questions about that loss, and grew angrier when asked about a report claiming he is in talks about a new contract.

"That is the wrong information and I work for 16 years in England,'' Wenger said.

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	26	21	2	3	31	65
2	Man City	26	15	8	3	24	53
3	Chelsea	26	14	7	5	27	49
4	Tottenham	26	14	6	6	14	48
5	Arsenal	26	12	8	6	21	44
6	Everton	26	10	12	4	8	42
7	Liverpool	27	10	9	8	15	39
8	Swansea	27	9	10	8	4	37
9	West Brom	26	11	4	11	1	37
10	Stoke	26	7	12	7	-5	33
11	West Ham	26	8	6	12	-9	30
12	Fulham	26	7	8	11	-6	29
13	Sunderland	26	7	8	11	-6	29
14	Norwich	26	6	11	9	-15	29
15	Southampton	26	6	9	11	-9	27
16	Newcastle	26	7	6	13	-12	27
17	Aston Villa	26	5	9	12	-25	24
18	Reading	26	5	8	13	-15	23
19	Wigan	26	5	6	15	-21	21
20	QPR	26	2	11	13	-22	17

"I think I deserve a bit more credit than wrong information that has only one intention: to harm.''

Turning to one reporter, Wenger asked: "Why do you look at me?''

"Because it's your press conference,'' the reporter snapped back.

"I just thought you had given this information out,'' Wenger responded, referring to the report of contract talks.

The Frenchman is facing mounting calls from some Arsenal fans to leave the club he has managed since 1996.

"What is important is not what people say it is what happens on the pitch,'' Wenger said.

"We live in a democracy of experts and opinions, but we have to live with that and cope with that and show we have the mental strength to deal with any opinion.

"There are a lot of experts who are not necessarily always right.''

What is indisputable is Arsenal's Barclays Premier League position: fifth, 21 points behind leader Manchester United and four points behind the fourth spot to qualify for the Champions League.

The only way to qualify for Europe's elite competition for a 16th straight season could be by winning the European Cup for the first time in May.

First, though, Arsenal must negotiate the two-legged last-16 match against Bayern, which has a 15-point lead in the German title race.

"Football is about skill, intelligence and some things as well are a bit unpredictable,'' Wenger said.

We know well what is going on here. What is important is to forget what people say and focus on our strengths.''

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