Followers

LOS ANGELES - "Some people say: 'Maude Apatow is my spirit animal.' I get that a lot," Maude Apatow said. "They tweet it to me. " Over a coconut milk smoothie at a trendy vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, Maude was describing the rather intense fascination she has inspired on Twitter, where she has more than 62,000 followers. That may not compare to Lady Gaga's total, but considering she is a 14-year-old just out of braces, not a celebrity and not someone who has done anything outrageous on YouTube, it's an impressive fan base.

ISEE THE leftists are screaming about Christine O'Donnell's "shady past. " Maybe they should look into Obama's past, and the czars he has around him. Ayres. Holdren. Holder. Jennings. Lloyd. Dunn. Jarrett. Sunstein. Nice Marxists, all of them. Pat Dougherty Philadelphia

Jim Wise thinks about Phil Bengtson. "Most people never heard of us, Phil Bengtson and me," he says, "because there is no slot in the record books for what you might call famous followers. " Phil Bengtson, you may not remember, was coach of the Green Bay Packers for three years in the late '60s and early '70s. All he had to do was follow the legendary Vince Lombardi, whose teams won league championships in each of the three years before Bengtson's takeover. Bengtson never made the playoffs during his three years as head coach.

Three former Church of Our First Love members say church leader Anthony Marcolongo has an unquenchable desire to control the lives - and minds - of his followers. The three, who spoke on condition that they not be named, say Marcolongo, who started his church in 1983, made rigorous demands on his group. Marcolongo, a 33-year-old Glenolden native, demanded that followers fast Wednesday through Friday, attend one-hour morning prayer sessions five days a week and evening prayer services three times weekly, they said.

Jingduan Yang's mother wants him to shut up. Stop talking, she tells him in her phone calls from China. Her youngest son, a Thomas Jefferson University Hospital psychiatrist, is only getting his big sister in more trouble. "She's in again and it's all because of you," Yang said his 79-year-old mother, Sun Yixia, told him. "Don't say anything. Be quiet. " But Yang refuses. The 40-year-old native of Hefei, in China's Anhui Province, wants anyone who will listen to know that his sister, Jingfang Yang, is imprisoned in China because of her belief in the spiritual meditation practice of Falun Gong.

Her devotees believe she is the Hindu goddess of knowledge: a reincarnation of Divine Mother Saraswati, consort of Brahma. But officials at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wynnewood say Hindus have no business using their Christian campus to promote their beliefs. Yesterday, the seminary canceled tonight's scheduled lecture by Indian holy woman Sri Karunamayi, who is in her late 30s and is nearing the end of a 13-city U.S. tour that began April 5 in Dallas. "It is our understanding that this woman is representing Hinduism," said Scott Rodin, vice president for advancement at the 460-student seminary.

Last Sunday morning, Alexander Menn, one of the most beloved Russian Orthodox priests in the Soviet Union, set out on his accustomed route to church. It was 6:30 a.m. The stocky, handsome, gray-bearded priest left his wooden house, set in a grove of birch and pine, and headed for the train station of this country town. His route took him through a 300-yard stretch of forest cloaked in early morning gloom. The train would take him 15 miles to the village of Novaya Deryevnya, where he was a fabled preacher during the long years of Soviet religious oppression.

David Brandt Berg, leader of the embattled Children of God religious sect, apparently has died the way he lived: shrouded in mystery. His followers say they don't know where or exactly when he died, or under what circumstances. But spokesmen for the sect in the United States and Europe say Berg's wife notified them Tuesday - in a letter from an unknown location - that their 75-year-old leader, in hiding since the early 1970s, had died. If Berg is gone (international police authorities are expressing doubts)

Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, a national leader for African American Muslims who preaches personal responsibility and brotherhood between the races, urged his followers yesterday to practice love in the family and in government. "No one can become a believer or have faith until he practices love between his brothers and sisters," he told about 400 African American Muslims who gathered in the auditorium of Willingboro High School. The event was sponsored by eight New Jersey masjids, or congregations.

Death seems to follow Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman like a distant echo - there often seems to be a connection to his words, but it's never quite clear. There was the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat, which reportedly came after the blind Muslim cleric issued a decree denouncing Sadat's negotiations with Israel. There was the 1990 slaying of radical Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York. There was the killing two years ago of a Muslim man in Brooklyn who had clashed with the cleric.

Want to take the same trip as the Maple Glen Garden Club? Here are the eight plant nurseries and farm markets they visited. (The nurseries are closed Sundays and religious holidays. Some are closed Tuesdays, too. Best to call ahead.) 1. Conestoga Nursery , 310 Reading Rd., East Earl, Pa. 17519, 717-445-4076. Sells trees, shrubs, perennials. 2. Horst Farm Market , 582 Reading Rd., East Earl, Pa. 17519, 717-445-9514. Sells fruit, vegetables, homemade baked goods.

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AMSTERDAM - Millions of Dutch people dressed in orange flocked to celebrations around the Netherlands on Tuesday as the nation welcomed its first king in 123 years. With his mother, Queen Beatrix, 75, abdicating after 33 years, Willem-Alexander, at 46, becomes the youngest monarch in Europe and the first Dutch king since Willem III died in 1890. Like Beatrix before him, Willem-Alexander assumes the throne at a time of social strain and economic malaise. Although the Dutch monarchy is largely ceremonial, he immediately staked out a course to preserve its relevance in the 21st century.

If Andy Reid were still the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, there is no question what the team would do with the fourth pick of the NFL draft on Thursday night. Reid would request that the player-personnel department run by Howie Roseman take the biggest offensive tackle still available. That would have been a solid decision, just as it will be if Chip Kelly makes the same one, but it is also in keeping with the straight line of Reid's draft history. In nine of the 14 drafts with Reid as head coach, depending on which side of the ball required more attention that year, the Eagles took either an offensive or defensive lineman with their initial selection.

Brandon Copeland enjoyed a stellar senior season with Ivy League champion Penn and continued the momentum during offseason workouts. Now the Penn defensive end hopes to hear his name called in the NFL draft this weekend or to be signed as a priority free agent. Copeland, a first-team all-Ivy League player this past season, would be keeping up a family tradition if he does indeed enter the NFL. His grandfather Roy Hilton played 11 seasons in the NFL as a defensive lineman, nine with the Baltimore Colts (who have since moved to Indianapolis)

FLEMINGTON, N.J. - There are no heroin kingpins in Hunterdon County, according to prosecutor Anthony Kearns, and he wants to keep it that way. Most people don't associate the mostly rural county of 130,000 with drug trafficking, but as the number of young prescription pill addicts turned heroin junkies balloons throughout the state, Hunterdon has become a battleground. The number of New Jerseyans between 18 and 25 who are in treatment for heroin addiction jumped 12 percent from 2010 to 2011, records show, and Hunterdon felt the brunt of that boom.

The regular signing period for a number of NCAA sports begins Wednesday, and Jessie Graham will become the first tennis player in Academy of Notre Dame history to complete a letter of intent with a Division I school. It's a neat distinction. It's a distinction that Graham doesn't think she deserves. It's a distinction that needs an asterisk. About 22 years ago, a terrific young tennis player walked the halls of Notre Dame and signed a letter of intent with the University of Florida.

BOSTON - Carlos Arredondo ran across Boylston Street, jumped the security fence and landed in the middle of fallen bodies. Two women lay motionless. Another woman was standing, frozen, looking down at the wounded and repeating, "Oh my God. " Arredondo had come to the Boston Marathon to watch National Guardsmen run the race in honor of fallen soldiers, including the son Arredondo lost in Iraq. He carried a camera and a small American flag. On the other side of the fence now, he dropped the flag.

BEIRUT - Syrian rebels on Friday captured a strategic town near the border with Jordan after a day of fierce clashes that killed at least 38 people, activists said, as opposition fighters expand their presence in the south, considered a gateway to Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 16 rebels were among the dead in the fighting in and around Dael. The town lies less than 10 miles from the Jordanian border in Daraa province, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime began two years ago. The rebel gains have coincided with what regional officials and military experts say is a sharp increase in weapons shipments to opposition fighters by Arab governments in coordination with the United States in the hopes of readying a push into Assad's stronghold in the capital, Damascus.