Divorce

Carlo Ponti, the Italian producer of films such as La Strada, Doctor Zhivago and Blowup and the longtime husband of actress Sophia Loren, whom he discovered as a teenager, has died. He was 94. Mr. Ponti, who had been hospitalized for about 10 days with pulmonary complications, died Tuesday at a hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, his family said in a statement yesterday. Mr. Ponti was a producer on more than 140 movies, including La Strada, Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup, Zabriskie Point and The Passenger.

For more than 20 years, the husband-and-wife developer team of Clark and Debbie Turner had the routine down: He built the homes, and she sold them. Together, they made millions working on some of the highest-profile projects in Harford County. When they separated in late 2003, they resolved to continue working together to reap the benefits of their combined skills. The post-marriage business honeymoon didn't last long. Within a year, she had accused him in court filings of siphoning tens of millions of dollars from their businesses to a "parasitic, secretly-formed" company that didn't include her and said he was taking lavish trips using company money.

NEW YORK -- Chana Taub peered through a gap in the recently built plasterboard wall that sliced her three-story house in two. Straining to look at what used to be her living room, she worried that her husband was lurking on the other side. "I can't be near him," she whispered, just in case he was eavesdropping. "If I see him, I run the other way." Chana and Simon Taub are in the middle of a bitter divorce. Out of stubbornness - and to irritate each other - each refused to move out of the house they shared for 18 years.

Dear Mr. Azrael:My question concerns a deed on a property taken out by joint tenants in entireties.Subsequent to the execution of that deed there was a divorce, and the property is still held by both myself and my ex-spouse. I'm wondering if I need to change that joint tenants by entireties or does it change automatically. How would I deal with that?Karl Goslin Artemas, Pa. Dear Mr. Goslin:Couples who get divorced need to carefully consider the effect their divorce will have on real estate they acquired together while married.

25 years ago: Possibly the first course of its kind in Maryland will be offered in the school system through the Adult Education Division. "Alcohol and Adolescents" is a comprehensive look at alcohol, its effects psychologically, sociologically and physically. This course will be aimed at helping parents feel more comfortable communicating with their children around the inevitable contact children will have with alcohol. -- Community Reporter, Jan. 11, 1974.50 years ago: At a meeting of the Carroll County War Memorial Fund Committee, it was decided to turn back to the original committee, The Inter-City Club, the matter of securing a permanent chairman.

The big brains at the Freedom Forum's Newseum in Arlington, Va., have come up with a list of the 100 least significant news stories of the century. Here are some of them:Millennium mania, 1999.Yakov Smirnoff immigrates to America, 1978.Wiffle Ball, 1953.World War II temporarily disrupts production of porcelain pixie Hummel figurines, 1942.Supermodels enter restaurant business, 1995.Menudo-mania, 1984.Back to LouisianaWillie Nelson was among the performers who took the stage celebrating the Louisiana Hayride.

Legislation that sought to allow divorced Orthodox Jewish women to remarry within their faith died yesterday in the General Assembly.The House Judiciary Committee, which had overwhelmingly approved the measure, changed its mind after concerns were raised about the bill -- showing how reticent legislators can be about writing laws dealing with religion.The measure sought to end a practice in which Orthodox men get divorced in civil court but refuse to submit to a divorce sanctioned by their faith -- creating a situation in which, under biblical law, they can remarry but their wives cannot.

The mother of two toddlers shot to death while they were strapped into their car seats was granted a divorce yesterday from the children's father, who is accused of killing them.A Howard County judge granted the divorce to Lisa Spicknall, whose husband, Richard Wayne Spicknall II of Laurel, has pleaded not guilty and not criminally responsible for the killings in September of his 2-year-old son, Richard Wayne Spicknall III, and his daughter, Destiny Array Spicknall, 3.The couple married Nov. 18, 1995, and separated Dec. 6, 1998.

Shortly after a judge ruled on his divorce yesterday afternoon, a Columbia man armed with a shotgun and handgun fatally shot his estranged wife and critically injured her daughter in a parking lot outside the historic courthouse in Ellicott City, police said.Police said Tuse S. Liu shot his wife, So Shan Chan, and her daughter Wing Sau Wu, both of Baltimore, at close range about 2: 30 p.m. as they were walking through the lot.Liu fired at least two shotgun rounds, Howard County police spokesman Sgt. Morris Carroll said.

Maryland's highest court will take up today The Case of The Crumbled Marriage, a divorce case so strange and steamy that names of the participants have been hidden in court papers as "Doe v. Doe."For the first time, the Court of Appeals will consider whether a cuckolded husband can sue his wife for fraud and distress for lying to him about the paternity of "their" children.A lot of money is at stake. In a divorce, spouses divide up only the property acquired during their marriage. But in a civil matter alleging harm, a spouse can go after all the other person's assets.

Jon & Kate Plus 8, a TV show about a large family that millions of viewers have come to care about, returns to prime time Monday night as a tabloid-ravaged tale of divorce. With its return comes a host of questions that will perhaps tell us as much about ourselves as the Gosselins. Will viewers come back to the TLC reality series about a family with sextuplets and twins now that Dad's got a condo and a lady friend in Manhattan, and Mom's reported to have a condo and a boyfriend in Maryland - and the kids are living in the family mini-mansion in Pennsylvania with only one parent at a time?

The Montgomery County man accused of drowning his three children, one by one, in the bathtub of an Inner Harbor Hotel filed an insanity plea yesterday - for the second time in an increasingly erratic defense. Several months ago, Mark Castillo's case began with an insanity plea. His lawyers then withdrew the filing as Castillo launched a series of hysterics, efforts to fire his lawyers, and a public request to plead guilty and receive the death penalty. Yesterday, the strategy came full circle as a calm, well-dressed Castillo stood by as his lawyer said she would renew the insanity plea.

Studio executive seeks divorce from 'Private Practice' star Walsh Private Practice star Kate Walsh, 41, is getting divorced after a year of marriage. The actress' husband, Alex M. Young, a top-ranking executive at 20th Century Fox, filed for divorce this week in Los Angeles. His petition cites "irreconcilable differences" but offers no details. The pair married September 2007, and the documents say they separated Nov. 22. A phone message left for Walsh's publicist Thursday was not returned.

First stage of divorce for Madonna, Guy Ritchie expected today in London A court schedule says Madonna and Guy Ritchie will be granted the first stage of their divorce today. London's High Court lists "Ciccone M L v Ritchie G S" as one of 16 cases for "matrimonial and civil partnership causes for pronouncement of decree." A judge will grant the couple a preliminary divorce decree. After six weeks and a day, they likely will be granted a decree and the divorce will become final. They are not expected to appear in court.

The quick conclusion to Clark Rockefeller's abduction of his daughter Reigh to Baltimore ended what could have been a protracted and potentially harmful voyage for the young girl. While abduction of any length poses an emotional and physical threat to a child's well-being, the lengthier the abduction, the greater the threat, regardless of whether the abductor is the father or the mother. I have spent the last year working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to study the long-term impact of abduction on children who were taken by a parent many years ago. The people I have interviewed are now ages 21 to 53 and were missing as recently as four years ago and as long ago as 40 years ago. They are men and women of different races and religions who were taken by fathers and mothers and grew up in hiding all over the United States and in Europe.

There's nothing Tabloid America resents like a quiet divorce. We want celebrity breakups public. We want them messy. We want to turn on the TV and see courthouse paparazzi scrums. We want to lean over the checkout counter for tawdry details. Cheating accusations? Yes, please! Good names muddied? If at all possible! Compromising photos? All that you got! So, Kevin Costner, thanks for nothing. Paul McCartney and Heather Mills? That's what we're talking about. And already this summer, we're talking about quite a bit. There's Christie Brinkley vs. Peter Cook, in court now and spewing more muck than a sewage treatment plant.

Saying "I divorce thee" three times, as men in Muslim countries have been able to do for centuries when leaving their wives, is not enough if you're a resident of Maryland, the state's highest court ruled yesterday. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals rejected a Pakistani man's argument that his invocation of the Islamic talaq, under which a marriage is dissolved simply by the husband's say-so, allowed him to part with his wife of more than 20 years and deny her a share of his $2 million estate.

The minute Paula Bisacre decided to remarry after a divorce, she was overwhelmed with questions: What to wear for her second sashay down the aisle? What was the best way to include the former in-laws of her future husband, a widower? How do you manage a honeymoon with their combined brood of five kids? Where would they live? Would Buster, her 5-pound miniature Pinscher, and Hunter, his 100-pound golden retriever, ever become friends? Bisacre bought a bunch of wedding magazines, but quickly found they had little for her. "I wasn't looking for a long, white, poofy dress again," she said.

Splitting from a spouse? It may be painful, but don't forget the long-term view. Getting your retirement nest egg through a divorce takes more time, patience and short-term cash than many people can muster during such a traumatic period. Often, this leaves them vulnerable to problems down the road, said financial planners who cater to divorcing couples. And when the split happens near retirement, it can be particularly painful. "A lot of people [at or near retirement] just stay in unhappy marriages because the economics are more than they can contemplate.

Controversy surrounding the divorce case of the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant - the flashy, influential pastor of the Empowerment Temple - will likely be addressed at the annual conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church next month. Bishop Adam J. Richardson Jr., who presides over the Second Episcopal District, which includes Maryland, said that although he was not aware of any formal complaints about Bryant's pending divorce and his wife's allegation of adultery, Richardson planned to broach the topic at the conference in Baltimore.