Drunken bedfellow gets Md. couple's reprieve

Oops!

Sorry, wrong house

Bob and Joanne Breiner returned to their Gaithersburg, Md., home from a night out last month to find a man with a white beard nestled in their bed, asleep. Once police showed up and the drunken stranger realized what had happened, he apologized and complimented the couple on their comfortable bed. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Joanne Breiner recalled him saying. The man, who had drunk too much, accidentally went to the Breiners' house after apparently getting off at a bus stop eight miles from his home, police said. The family decided not to press charges after learning the man had lost his job three weeks earlier, and police declined to identify him.

People

Dalai Lama update

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said the Tibetan leader will undergo surgery to remove a gallstone. The Dalai Lama was hospitalized in New Delhi early today, just days after a medical checkup cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader to resume foreign travel. In August, the 73-year-old Dalai Lama underwent tests for abdominal discomfort at a Mumbai hospital. Doctors said he was suffering from exhaustion. The Dalai Lama normally spends several months a year traveling the world to teach Buddhism and highlight the Tibetans' struggle for greater freedom in China.

No TV for them

Christie Brinkley wants her ex-husband to keep their children away from the television tonight when his interview with Barbara Walters airs on ABC. Brinkley lawyer Robert Stephan Cohen said Peter Cook must keep the couple's two children away from the "20/20" broadcast while he has custody of them this weekend. In the interview with Walters, Cook explains his affair with a teenager and his Internet porn proclivities, saying he was seeking a connection he couldn't find in his marriage. The divorce settlement gave Brinkley custody of the couple's son and daughter.

Hogwarts to Harvard?

"Harry Potter" star Emma Watson visited the Harvard campus Wednesday, says campus paper The Crimson, which reports that Wason checked out the dorms and visited the admissions office. So is Hermione transferring out of Hogwarts? No comment from Harvard's dean.

Milestones

Kalashnikovs out

Russian police are to replace the legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle and the Makarov pistol with Yarygin pistols and PP-2000 submachine guns, a senior Interior Ministry official said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Mikhail Sukhodolsky said the new weapons would use bullets with lesser ricochet effect and greater stopping power, which is advantageous for police operations in urban areas. In addition, police will receive stun guns and other nonlethal weapons, including remotely controlled devices.

Passages

Dr. George Palade, 95, the University of California, San Diego, Nobel laureate whose work isolating, imaging and identifying the function of minute organelles within cells prompted the Nobel committee to label him and his co-winners the fathers of cell biology, died Tuesday at his Del Mar home.

Today in History

1845: The U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Md.

1938: Germany completed its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

1967: The Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force.

1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accused of accepting bribes, pleaded no contest to one count of federal income-tax evasion and resigned.

Today's Birthdays

Playwright Harold Pinter, 78. Entertainer Ben Vereen, 62. Singer John Prine, 62. Actor Charles Dance, 62. Actress Jessica Harper, 59. Actor Bradley Whitford, 49. Actor Mario Lopez, 35. Singer Mya, 29.

Seattle Times news services

Information in this article, originally published October 10, 2008, was corrected October 11, 2008. A previous version of this story misspelled the last name of "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson.