In the news

Susanna Ashton ,a professor of American literature at Clemson University in South Carolina, said she’s convinced that Harriet Beecher Stowe wouldn’t have written Uncle Tom’s Cabin if fugitive slave John Andrew Jackson hadn’t spent a night in Stowe’s Maine home in 1850 on his way to Canada.

Vasily Petrenko , the Russian chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic in Norway, faced anger from female conductors after he was quoted in the daily Aftenposten as saying orchestras react better to men than women because men “have less sexual energy and can focus more on the music.”

Miki Sudo , a Las Vegas woman who weighs 115 pounds, ate 178 chicken wings in 12 minutes at the U.S. Professional Wing Eating Championship, taking first prize and besting two other female competitive eaters.

Tony Abbott , the leader of the Australian opposition and a candidate for prime minister, came under fire after he remarked in a television interview that the Syrian civil war was “baddies versus baddies,” with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling it “the most simplistic analysis I’ve ever heard.”

Chris Webber , the president of the American Mead Makers Association, says the beverage is making a comeback, with up to 250 brewers in the U.S. selling the alcoholic mixture of fermented honey and water.

Youssou Ndour ,a Grammy-winning singer, is no longer Senegal’s tourism minister after newly appointed Prime Minister Aminata Toure announced the 32 members of her Cabinet but did not name the 53-year-old Ndour among them.

Jamie Diadium , a newlywed from northeast Ohio, had her Cleveland wedding ceremony to Mark Kent unexpectedly interrupted when the Beach Boys started performing a sound check next door, although she later got to join the fun when Mike Love invited her on stage to play the tambourine during “Fun, Fun, Fun.”

Ghazi Mrabet , a defense lawyer in Tunisia, said a court convicted, in absentia, his clients — rappers Alaa Yacoub and Ahmed Ben Ahmed — and sentenced them to 21 months in prison for singing excerpts of an anti-police song called “Police Are Dogs” at a concert.