After Mike confronts Katherine, she reaches for a knife

Nothing hurts like love: Katherine continues to head down the path to insanity, but this time, she tried to use Mike and Susan’s young son, M.J., as a pawn. First, she fills the young boy’s head with her woes and blames his mother. Then, she picks him up from a party without telling his parents. A furious Mike confronts her and ends up spitting out that he never loved her and thought of Susan every time he held or kissed Katherine. When he leaves, Katherine picks up a knife, calls for an ambulance, and then apparently cuts herself offscreen. Viewers hear a gasp and see the bloody knife, but not how serious the injury was. That was kind of a lot of blood on the blade, though.

Real name revealed: Katherine isn’t the only one who apparently tried to take her own life. When Julie tells Angie’s son Danny that she’ll never date him again, even though he says he’s forgiven her for seeing his father, he takes an overdose of pills. He survives, but in the hospital, he confesses to his nurse that his real name isn’t Danny, it’s Tyler. And in another revelation about the Bolen family mystery, Angie sputters out to Nick that she was the one who killed a man. Who and why, of course, has yet to be revealed.

Bitter office battle: When did Carlos, always a wonderful character, turn into an unfeeling jerk? When Lynette won’t take the Florida job, he takes her office away and puts her in a utility closet. For a moment, he and Gaby feel bad and try to make up with the Scavos, but by the time they do, Lynette has already sicced a lawyer on Carlos. When he’s served with legal papers, he becomes so angry that he ends up firing Lynette when she won’t give up Penny’s school Christmas pageant to work on an unreasonable project. Watch it, “Housewives.” You are seriously ruining one of the best characters in your cast.

A catered affair: Susan discovers Bree and Karl’s affair and takes it out on Bree in self-defense class. She later confronts the two together and lists off all the wrongs Karl committed against her during their marriage. But the sordid facts don’t bother Bree — in fact, they get her to confess, in front of both Karl and Susan, that she loves him. Finally, Susan admits that if they really think they’re in love, they should grab at the chance. Meanwhile, Karl and Bree are still proceeding with their plan to get blackmail photos of Orson consorting with a known felon, going so far as to dig up one of Orson’s old jailmates and telling him Orson wanted to see him.

Teen vampire sequel The Twilight Saga: New Moon drew in the crowds over a record-breaking holiday weekend to keep its grip on top of the US box office.

The film, which stars British actor Robert Pattinson, took $42.5m (£25.7m).

Coming close on its heels was real-life drama The Blind Side, which recounts the story of a homeless boy’s rise to the top of his sport.

Total takings of $275m (£166.6m) broke a previous record set in 2000 for the five-day Thanksgiving period.

Then, Dr Suess’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas and M Night Shyamalan thriller Unbreakable were among the chart-toppers, and takings were $244.4m (£147.9m).

Third in this week’s chart was end-of-the-world blockbuster 2012, which raked in $18m (£10.8m).

Among the new releases for the weekend was family comedy Old Dogs, starring Robin Williams and John Travolta, which entered at number four.

Thriller The Ninja Assassin, featuring Korean pop star Rain, was a new entry at number six, with $13.1m (£7.9m).

New Moon, based on the best-selling books by Stephenie Meyer, has so far taken $230.7m (139.4m) in the 10 days since it opened, surpassing the entire takings of its predecessor, Twilight, by $40m (£24.1m)

Seattle house surrounded after gunman slays 4 officers in coffee shop

SEATTLE - A suspect in the slaying of four police officers gunned down in a suburban coffee shop was in a Seattle house early Monday, wounded and possibly dead, police said.

Negotiators were trying to communicate with Maurice Clemmons, 37, using loudspeakers and explosions to try to prod him from hiding. At one point, gunshots rang through the neighborhood, which is some 30 miles from the original crime scene.

“We have determined that in fact he has been shot,” said Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff. “He may be deceased from his gunshot wound.”

NBC News reported Monday that police had not been able to make contact with Clemmons.

Authorities had speculated early Sunday that the gunman might have been wounded at the coffee shop by one of his victims. Troyer said interviews with others detained in the investigation confirmed that theory.

‘We are not going away’
Police surrounded the house late Sunday, and a negotiator used a loudspeaker early Monday to call him out by name, saying: “Mr. Clemmons, I’d like to get you out of there safely. I can tell you this, we are not going away.”

Any response from inside the house was inaudible from the vantage of a photographer for The Associated Press. But shortly thereafter, police began using sirens outside the house, and there were several loud bangs before the negotiator resumed speaking, saying: “This is one of the toughest decisions you’ll make in your life, but you need to man up.”

By 3 a.m. Pacific time, the loudspeakers and explosions had fallen silent.

Clemmons, 37, who had a lengthy prison sentence commuted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee nearly a decade ago, became the prime target Sunday in the search for the killer of Lakewood Police Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39; and Officers Ronald Owens, 37; Tina Griswold, 40; and Greg Richards 42.

Clemmons is believed to have been in the area around the time of the shooting, but Troyer declined to say what evidence might link him to the shooting.

On Sunday, Huckabee deflected blame with a statement on his Web site.

Pierce County Sheriff’s Dept. via AP Lakewood Police officers Greg Richards (top left), Mark Renninger (top right), Tina Griswold (bottom right) and Ronald Owens (bottom left) were shot and killed at a coffee shop in Parkland, Wash., on Sunday.

“Should he be found to be responsible for this horrible tragedy, it will be the result of a series of failures in the criminal justice system in both Arkansas and Washington State,” he wrote.

Investigators say they know of no reason that Clemmons or anyone else might have had to open fire on the four as they sat working on their laptops early Sunday morning, catching up on paperwork at the beginning of their shifts.

“We’re going to be surprised if there is a motive worth mentioning,” said Troyer, who sketched out a scene of controlled and deliberate carnage that spared the employees and other customers at the coffee shop in suburban Parkland, south of Seattle.

“He was very versed with the weapon,” Troyer said. “This wasn’t something where the windows were shot up and there bullets sprayed around the place. The bullets hit their targets.”

Extensive criminal history
Officer Richards’ sister-in-law, Melanie Burwell, called the shooting “senseless.”

“He didn’t have a mean bone in his body,” she said. “If there were more people in the world like Greg, things like this wouldn’t happen.

Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas. He also recently was arrested and charged in Washington state for assaulting a police officer, and second-degree rape of a child. Using a bail bondsman, he posted $150,000 — only $15,000 of his own money — and was released from jail last week.

Documents related to the pending charges in Washington state indicate an unstable and volatile personality. In one instance, he is accused of punching a sheriff’s deputy in the face, The Seattle Times reported. In another, he is accused of gathering his wife and young relatives and forcing them to undress, according to a Pierce County sheriff’s report.

“The whole time Clemmons kept saying things like trust him, the world is going to end soon, and that he was Jesus,” the report said.

Troyer said investigators believe two of the officers were killed while sitting in the shop, and a third was shot dead after standing up. The fourth apparently “gave up a good fight.”

“We believe there was a struggle, a commotion, a fight … that he fought the guy all the way out the door,” Troyer said.

In 1989, Clemmons, then 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Huckabee commuted a 95-year prison sentence. Huckabee, who was criticized during his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 for granting many clemencies and commutations, cited Clemmons’ youth. Clemmons later violated his parole, was returned to prison and released in 2004.

There was no indication of any connection between Sunday’s killings and the Halloween night shooting of a Seattle police officer.

Authorities say theman charged with that shooting also firebombed four police vehicles in October as part of a “one-man war” against law enforcement. Christopher Monfort, 41, was arrested after being wounded in a firefight with police days after the Seattle shooting.

The officers killed Sunday had received no threats, sheriff’s officials said.

“We won’t know if it’s a copycat effect or what it was until we get the case solved,” Troyer said.

Jose Mujica led movement that carried out robberies, bombings in ’60s, ’70s

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - A blunt-talking former guerrilla fighter won Uruguay’s presidential election Sunday, promising to leave behind his radical past and take a moderate path in one of Latin America’s most stable countries.

Jose Mujica, a 74-year-old ex-senator, claimed victory after his rival, conservative former President Luis Lacalle, conceded the race with pollsters’ projections showing Mujica ahead with around 51 percent of the vote.

Mujica is expected to maintain the investor-friendly policies of popular outgoing President Tabare Vazquez, who is from the same leftist coalition and has overseen strong economic growth.

“Thank you, Tabare,” Mujica said, addressing thousands of chanting supporters. “We have won because of your government and we will continue it.”

The president-elect said he aims to emulate Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Latin America’s leading moderate leftist, and dismissed critics who warned he may align Uruguay with the region’s hard-line left led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The vote crowned Mujica’s decades-long transformation from a militant who waged an armed revolt against Uruguay’s right-wing government in the 1960s and 1970s into one of the country’s most popular politicians.

Shot, tortured
Lacalle recognized Mujica’s victory before early official results were released. Thousands of Mujica supporters filled the streets of downtown Montevideo, honking car horns and waving flags to celebrate in a downpour of rain.

Known simply as “Pepe,” he was a leader of the Tupamaros guerrilla movement that carried out robberies, political kidnappings and bombings against the government.

He says he was shot six times, tortured, and held by security forces in solitary confinement in a deep well. He was freed under an amnesty enacted following the end of Uruguay’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship.

Mujica inherits an economy that has grown at an average annual rate of 7 percent under Vazquez, who took office in 2005 and ends his presidency with approval ratings above 60 percent.

The agricultural-based economy has been buoyed by beef exports and higher commodities prices in recent years.

Vazquez also pushed a progressive income tax to fund social programs that have reduced poverty and pushed unemployment to its lowest level in decades. The constitution does not allow presidents to seek a second consecutive term.

Mujica overcame concerns among some Uruguayans about his political history, saying he now believes economic development will stamp out poverty.

Rarely seen in a suit and tie, he is popular with the poor and working class who like his blunt manner. However, critics are troubled by his undiplomatic outbursts, including putdowns of the government in neighboring Argentina.

Sharp tongue
Mujica acknowledged his sharp tongue in his victory speech.

”If at some point my temperament, which is combative, has let my tongue get away from me, I ask for forgiveness,” he said.

Still, some Mujica supporters said they were drawn to his style. “I like the fact he speaks his mind even though I don’t always agree with him,” said Maria Noel Gonzalez, a 24-year-old cook.

Mujica became a key figure in transforming the Tupamaros into a political party, which joined with socialists and other leftists to create the Broad Front and ended more than 100 years of dominance by Uruguay’s traditional parties when Vazquez won the presidency.

Lacalle, a 68-year-year-old lawyer who was president from 1990 to 1995, campaigned on pledges to shrink the size of government and reduce crime.

Steep fall comes as trading resumes in UAE following extended holiday

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Dubai’s main stock exchange dropped more than 7 percent and Abu Dhabi markets slid more than 8 percent on the first day of trading in the United Arab Emirates since officials went public that conglomerate Dubai World was struggling with its $60 billion in debts.

Shares of DP World, a profitable port operating division of the debt-ridden Dubai World, were off nearly 15 percent in early trading Monday when the market opened. The overwhelming majority of companies whose shares traded Monday on the Dubai Financial Market, the city-state’s main bourse, were also deeply in the red.

“The sentiment is gone from investors’ perspective,” said Mohammed al-Ghussein, managing partner of Atlas Financial Services in Dubai. But “we expected that since we heard the news last week.”

The drop eclipsed the declines seen in world markets last week after Dubai officials on Wednesday announced that Dubai World, the emirate’s chief investment and development engine for years, would seek a six-month delay in paying creditors. The news stoked fears that the conglomerate — and the emirate’s — debt woes could be a symptom of broader financial instability elsewhere in a still fragile world economy.

Asian markets have begun to rebound since the announcement, while European markets were mixed in early trading Monday.

‘One of the biggest drops’
The steep fall came as UAE markets opened for the first time since an extended Islamic holiday that began on Thursday. Investors have had several days to digest Dubai World’s news, and clearly found it unpalatable.

“This is one of the biggest drops we’ve seen in both markets,” said Seif Fikry head of EFG-Hermes’ brokerage arm in the UAE.

Investors remained uncertain how Dubai would deal with its debt mess. Officials from the emirate have been meeting with their neighbors in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich city-state that is home to the UAE’s federal government.

In an effort to ward off the possibility of a run on the country’s banks — many of which are shouldering big chunks of Dubai’s at least $80 billion in debt — the UAE’s central bank on Sunday pledged to stand behind foreign and domestic banks in the country with an offer of cheap money.

The central bank said it would offer a “special additional liquidity facility” allowing banks to draw funds at half-a-percentage point above the three-month Emirates interbank offering rate — the local benchmark interest rate.

The move, which came shortly after ratings agencies said they had either downgraded or placed on review several UAE banks, appears unlikely to mitigate the immediate damage to the Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets. The bourses had recorded a strong rebound since January after taking a hammering in 2008 amid the global financial meltdown.

The central bank’s move appeared to indicate that Abu Dhabi was not prepared to let its troubled cousin collapse, if only because of concerns about the broader impact on the country’s economic welfare.