Newborns

LAKE ARIEL, Pa. - A northeastern Pennsylvania man is accused of fatally striking his newborn with a cinder block twice because he and his girlfriend couldn't afford a second child. Christopher Fitzpatrick, 20, of Lake Ariel, near Scranton, led state police to the baby's body, telling them he killed the baby May 28 because he and his girlfriend, Jennifer Barrise, already had a 1-year-old child and couldn't afford another baby, investigators said. Fitzpatrick and Barrise were arrested Friday.

Draped in violet silk chiffon, mom-to-be Natalie Portman looked sensational at the Academy Awards, baby bump and all. But for Tamar Klaiman, like most other women, the home stretch of pregnancy was anything but glamorous. With an aching back and swollen feet, the last thing Klaiman wanted in the weeks before her due date was a baby shower. "I had no desire to be in a room full of people paying all their attention to me and to open presents in front of everyone," said the first-time mother, whose son, Abraham, was born in April.

TRENTON - Newborns in New Jersey would have to be tested for congenital heart disease under legislation that continues to advance in the Legislature. It would require that pulse oximetry - a noninvasive and painless test - be administered at least 24 hours after a child's birth. Proponents call it a commonsense way to potentially save lives, and note that some hospitals already require it. Experts say roughly one child in 100 is born with structural problems in the heart, most of which are not diagnosed before birth.

Nigerian leader seeks election ABUJA, Nigeria - President Goodluck Jonathan announced Wednesday on Facebook that he would run in the oil-rich nation's January presidential election, ending months of speculation over his plans after he assumed power after the death of Nigeria's elected leader. The announcement, as well as a campaign rally Wednesday by former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida - who is also a candidate - signaled the start of campaigning ahead of the Jan. 22 vote in Africa's most populous nation.

This review originally appeared Tuesday. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - the third installment in the supernatural sexual-abstinence series that pits hot-blooded werewolves against cold-blooded vampires, with mopey-blooded Bella Swan in between - begins with a poem. It's Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice," and Bella (Kristen Stewart) recites it, splayed in a field of violets alongside her pallid beau, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). "Some say the world will end in fire," she says, "some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire . . . . " And that's as good (very good)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - the third installment in the supernatural sexual-abstinence series that pits hot-blooded werewolves against cold-blooded vampires, with mopey-blooded Bella Swan in between - begins with a poem. It's Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice," and Bella (Kristen Stewart) recites it, splayed in a field of violets alongside her pallid beau, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). "Some say the world will end in fire," she says, "some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire . . . . " And that's as good (very good)

Babies Just in time for Mother's Day, this beautifully shot nature doc follows four newborns - newborn humans, that is - hailing from Namibia, Mongolia, Japan, and the United States. Contrasting cultures and child-rearing philosophies, the film is guaranteed to elicit a tsunami of ooohs and a wwws from audiences. PG The Secret in Their Eyes Foreign-language Oscar-winner from Argentina plays like Law & Order: Buenos Aires, but in a good way. Really. R The Square A sinfully tricky film noir from Australian stunt-man-turned-director Nash Edgerton.

The rain forced Janaya Moscony to slow her usual breakneck pace as she drove her black Audi convertible to Paoli Hospital. She was nervous about the big needle they would stick in her belly for the amniocentesis. What if it hit the baby? Was it worth taking a chance, even a small one? But she was 35, an age that technically made the pregnancy "high risk. " So she had taken a few hours off that Tuesday morning last September to get the test, just to be sure everything was OK. Her financial clients could wait.

After listening to tearful, impassioned pleas for probation for a 20-year-old Drexel Hill woman accused of killing her newborn son, a Delaware County Court judge imposed an unconventional prison term: 21 1/2 weekends. Judge Patricia Jenkins concluded yesterday that Mia Sardella's actions to conceal her son after giving birth on Jan. 1, 2007, outweighed the case's mitigating factors, such as her acceptance of responsibility and absence of a record. Police were contacted on Jan. 22, 2007, after Sardella's mother, Stephanie Piscopo Leone, borrowed her daughter's car and found the corpse, which had been stuffed in a pink duffle bag in the trunk for three weeks.

As the fireworks burst over Penn's Landing, and long before most of us even had the chance to break any of our New Year's resolutions, the first babies of 2009 were being delivered at hospitals across the eight-county Philadelphia region. Luke Timothy Raines came into the world just seven minutes - about 420 seconds - after the clock struck midnight and New Year's celebrations across the region jumped into full swing. Luke was on time, arriving on his due date at Chester County Hospital in West Chester.