Transgender man has baby

People

Thomas Beatie, 34, a transgender man whose pregnancy received international attention, has given birth to a healthy girl in Bend, Ore. Beatie and his wife, Nancy, 46, own a T-shirt printing business in Bend. In March, Beatie revealed he was pregnant, landing the couple on the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and in People magazine, which reported that Beatie delivered via natural birth at a hospital June 29. Beatie began life as a woman and legally switched to a male identity while preserving his female reproductive organs.

Bindi Irwin to be a doll

Bindi Irwin, 9, daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, is getting her own doll. The 10-inch doll sports khakis, puffy pigtails and hiking boots, and comes with binoculars, a camera and other outback gear, as well as a cockatoo, wombat and python. A talking version says such phrases as, "Crikey! Let's go help wildlife." The doll will cost $15 to $20, with a portion going to help pay for efforts to breed endangered species and rescue animals.

Sold!

A royal request: gin

Collectors paid thousands of dollars Saturday for letters from British royalty to a trusted servant, including a note from the late Queen Mother Elizabeth requesting the aide to pack bottles of gin and Dubonnet for an outing, "in case it is needed." The undated note sold for $32,000 at an auction of mementos belonging to royal servant William Tallon. Tallon, nicknamed "Backstairs Billy" by the press, joined the royal household at age 15 and served the family for 51 years, rising to become the queen mother's steward and Page of the Backstairs. He died in November, aged 72.

Upbeat

Music magic donated

A collection of 78 rpm records — valued at $1 million, weighing 50 tons and representing more than 50 years of U.S. music history — is being donated to Syracuse University by the estate of Morton Savada, a prominent New York City record-shop owner who died in February from lung cancer at 85. The more than 200,000 records represented the entire inventory of Records Revisited, Savada's landmark Manhattan store.

Commentary

Off with his head

A visitor decapitated a wax figure of Adolf Hitler just minutes after the Berlin branch of Madame Tussauds opened its doors for the first time Saturday. The 41-year old Berliner, the second visitor on the opening day of the museum, jumped over a rope meant to keep visitors back from the sculpture and ripped the head off the likeness of the Nazi leader, a police spokesman said. A museum employee was injured slightly in the incident. Police arrested the man, who apparently was making a protest, on suspicion of causing bodily injury and damage to property.

Oops

Sorry, wrong address

A mistaken FedEx delivery tipped off police to a 200-pound shipment of marijuana that someone tried to send from Pembroke Pines, Fla., to Baltimore via the shipping company. Police told The (Baltimore) Sun they learned about the shipment when it was delivered Tuesday to the wrong resident. Authorities posed as FedEx employees and arrested the shipment's intended recipient. Officials said Richard Gwatidzo, 30, was charged Thursday with possession of a large quantity of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute along with other drug-related charges. Police, who had not discovered the sender's identity, seized eight other FedEx boxes with nearly 400 pounds of marijuana.

Today in History

1535: Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high treason.

1944: 168 people died in a fire that began in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn.

1945: President Truman signed an executive order establishing the Medal of Freedom.

1988: 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when a series of explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform.

2003: Liberian leader Charles Taylor accepted an offer of asylum in Nigeria.

Today's Birthdays

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, 87. Singer-actress Della Reese, 77. Actor Ned Beatty, 71. Actor Burt Ward, 63. President Bush, 62. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone, 62. Actor Fred Dryer, 62. Actor Geoffrey Rush, 57. Rapper 50 Cent, 32. Actresses Tamera and Tia Mowry, 30. Actress Eva Green, 28.

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