ESPN reporter Erin Andrews receiving death threats: Attorney

Erin Andrews has been getting death threats in a stream of emails to a media outlet, a lawyer for the ESPN reporter and "Dancing with the Stars" contestant said Friday.
Marshall Grossman said that a man had sent at least a dozen emails since September threatening Andrews. DirecTV provided them to Andrews' representatives Thursday, but it was not immediately clear to whom the emails were addressed. The emails were at first sexual, but the most recent were explicitly violent and "threatened Erin with murder," Grossman said. They also had details about location and method. The messages discuss the case of Michael David Barrett, who was sentenced last month to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for secretly shooting nude videos of the ESPN reporter. The FBI has been notified.

Indianapolis Star apologizes for drawing target on basketball coach

The Indianapolis Star newspaper has apologized to Duke University after some of Friday's editions included an illustration of coach Mike Krzyzewski, pictured, with horns and a target drawn on his head. The illustration on the front of the sports section accompanied a story titled "Despising Duke" that detailed how some fans strongly dislike the Blue Devils' program. Jim Lefko, the Star's senior editor/sports, said the paper pulled the illustration "when we realized it didn't meet our standards."

Supreme Court to hear link libel case

Can posting a link to someone else’s website constitute defamation?

The Supreme Court will examine the case of a former Green Party campaign manager who says it does. The top court granted Wayne Crooks leave to appeal today, after a B.C. judge ruled against him in 2008. Crooks argued that when a Canadian website posted links to two U.S. websites that featured defamatory statements, it was the same as publishing defamatory material itself. The B.C. judge had dismissed the lawsuit saying the links were like a footnote or a reference to a website in a newsletter. Crookes had launched several court actions against members of the Green Party of Canada, Google, Myspace.com and Wikipedia for libel.

Associated Press names global entertainment editor

Alicia Quarles, an award-winning multiformat reporter, producer and editor for The Associated Press for the past seven years, has been named AP's global entertainment editor. As entertainment editor, she will oversee staff coverage of music, film, television, books, social media and other areas of entertainment across formats worldwide. AP also has entertainment staff based in Nashville, Tenn., Hong Kong and Washington. Quarles, 28, joined the AP's Los Angeles bureau in 2003 after graduating from the University of Southern California. She worked as an entertainment producer and text reporter and helped coordinate coverage of the Academy Awards, the Grammys and other major entertainment awards shows.

British science writer wins appeal in libel case brought by chiropractors

A science writer who was sued by the British Chiropractic Association over a newspaper column has won a legal appeal for the right to argue his remarks constituted fair comment. Simon Singh was sued for libel over a 2008 column in The Guardian suggesting there is a lack of evidence for claims made by some chiropractors about treating childhood conditions including colic and asthma. Last year a judge ruled Singh could not use the fair-comment defense because his statements were presented as fact, not opinion. But the Court of Appeal overturned that decision Thursday. The case has become a rallying point for advocates of changes to Britain's claimant-friendly libel laws, which place the burden of proof on the defendant.