Doctors needed

Celebrity gossip, famous birthdays and other tidbits, compiled from Seattle Times news services.

Upbeat

Doctors needed

After studying in one of the world's most violent cities, 20 men and women graduated from Benadir University medical school on Thursday in a ceremony inside the barricaded walls of the Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu, the bullet-scarred capital of a country that has not had an effective central government since 1991. Given Somalia's chaos, it is likely the medical degrees will be recognized only in Somalia, not overseas.

People

Nixon supporter

For all the disclosures former President Nixon makes in "Frost/Nixon," director Ron Howard has one of his own. Howard says he voted for Nixon in 1972. "Yeah I did," Howard said at a discussion following a Hollywood screening late last month. Five years later, Nixon granted English journalist David Frost the famous four-part interviews upon which the film is based. Howard supported Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 election.

Rowling has a hit

The latest magical tome by J.K. Rowling has started to fly off bookstore shelves. Rowling launched "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" on Thursday with a tea party for 200 schoolchildren at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, the city where she lives. The author is donating royalties from the book to a charity, which hopes it will raise millions to help vulnerable children. Recession-hit booksellers hope the book — a collection of five fables mentioned in Rowling's saga about boy wizard Harry Potter — will give them a festive boost.

Passages

Paul Benedict, 70, the actor who played the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the sitcom "The Jeffersons," was found dead Monday on Martha's Vineyard.

Today in History

1776: The first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

1792: George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.

1848: President James K. Polk triggered the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California.

1933: National Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

1955: The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany.

1991: Richard Speck, who'd murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in 1966, died in prison a day short of his 50th birthday.

1994: Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the house in four decades.

Today's Birthdays

Singer Little Richard, 76. Author Joan Didion, 74. Author Calvin Trillin, 73. Musician J.J. Cale, 70. Actor Jeroen Krabbe, 64. Opera singer Jose Carreras, 62. Pop singer Jim Messina, 61. Actress Morgan Brittany, 57. Country singer Ty England, 45. Rock singer-musician John Rzeznik (The Goo Goo Dolls), 43. Country singer Gary Allan, 41. Comedian-actress Margaret Cho, 40. Writer-director Morgan J. Freeman, 39. Actress Alex Kapp Horner, 39. Rock musician Regina Zernay (Cowboy Mouth), 36. Actress Amy Acker, 32. Actor Nick Stahl, 29. Actor Frankie Muniz, 23. Actor Ross Bagley, 20.