Violence

Movies The ABCs of Death An anthology horror film, with 26 chapters. Barbara In 1980s East Germany, a doctor runs into trouble with Communist authorities. German with subtitles. Dead Man Down See Steven Rea's preview on this page. Emperor See Steven Rea's preview on this page. Greedy Lying Bastards The makers of this documentary place the blame for the planet's deteriorating condition on politicians and big business.   Oz: The Great and Powerful See Steven Rea's preview on this page.

WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday passed and sent to President Obama a far-reaching extension of the Violence Against Women Act. The vote came after House Republican leaders, cognizant of divisions in their own ranks and the need to improve their faltering image among women voters, accepted a bill that cleared the Senate two weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote. The bill would renew a 1994 law that has set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse and prosecute abusers.

By Saturday, the stars were gone from the Match Play Championship in Marana, Ariz. But still remaining were Ian Poulter and Hunter Mahan , two of the best in match play. Poulter beat Steve Stricker to raise his record in match play over the last four years to 19-3-2. Mahan beat U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson , to put himself in position to join Tiger Woods as the only repeat winners of this World Golf Championship. Poulter and Mahan meet in one semifinal Sunday morning.

LIBERIA, Costa Rica - On a recent Friday morning at a gleaming new international airport in Costa Rica, hundreds of tourists from New York and Minnesota emerged blinking onto the sun-blasted tarmac. At the other end of the runway, eight Americans zipped into tan flight suits aboard a huge white surveillance plane. As four propellers roared, the P3 Orion flew out above the tourists and over the hotels and beach clubs of the Pacific coast, its bulbous radar dish scanning for speedboats loaded with U.S.-bound cocaine.

The Davona Dale Gulfstream Park, Race 9 - Post 4:35 $250,000 (Grade II), 3 y.o. fillies, 1-1/16 miles 1. Private Ensign. . . Javier Castellano. . . 4-1 2. Lady Banks. . . Joe Rocco Jr.. . . 6-1 3. Dreaming of Julia. . . John Velazquez. . . 4-5 4. Live Lively. . . Joel Rosario. . . 5-2 5. Twice Told Tale. . . Edgar Prado. . . 12-1 Dreaming of Julia's only loss was a pretty good third in the Breeders' Cup when she was closing against a strong speed/inside bias.

I'M SURPRISED that Nicholas "Sixx" King didn't get his butt whupped last week when he walked through Center City in a Ku Klux Klan costume. King did it to dramatize the fact that the No. 1 killer of black men in America isn't a racist hate group such as the KKK. It's other African-American men. Let's be honest. We've gotten used to the idea of young black males killing other young black males. In fact, we're almost numb to it. When it happens, there's a collective shoulder shrug.

WASHINGTON - By a robust bipartisan majority, the Senate voted Tuesday to renew the Violence Against Women Act with new assurances that gays and lesbians, immigrants, and Native Americans will have equal access to the act's anti-domestic-violence programs. The 78-22 Senate vote to reauthorize the two-decade-old act that has shielded millions of women from abuse and helped reduce national rates of domestic violence turns the focus to the House, where Republican leaders are working to come up with their own version.

HOURS AFTER a gunman opened fire at a courthouse in his home state of Delaware on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden held a roundtable on gun violence with a slew of local officials in North Philadelphia. Biden said that the group of law-enforcement officers and Democratic politicians supported much of President Obama's recently announced gun-control plan, including an improved system for background checks and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. "The nation is demanding that we act responsibly," Biden said of recent calls for gun control following the massacre in Newtown, Conn.

T HE REV. Terrence Griffith, who was reinstalled Sunday to a second term as the president of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, doesn't hold back when he talks about the root of violence in urban America. Don't blame poverty, he said, adding, "I grew up poor, and so did lots of successful black men. " And don't point the finger at single-parent households, he said. "My mom was a single mom and lots of folks grew up in single parent homes and raised their kids to be successful.