Fighting

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

A Baltimore judge postponed the trial of a second man accused of nearly beheading three young relatives nine years ago until October so that lawyers have more time to prepare arguments on DNA evidence. Adan Canela, 26, is charged with multiple murder and conspiracy counts in the deaths of three of his young relatives, who were killed in May 2004. His uncle, Policarpio Espinoza Perez, 31, was convicted on murder conspiracy charges in the case earlier this year and sentenced to life in prison last month.

The plumes of black smoke rising this week from a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and the sound of gunfire are eerily reminiscent of the country's decades-old civil war and the ethnic fault lines that kept it going for 15 years. The difference now is that Lebanon's military is fighting to rout a new band of extremists, clearly well armed and reportedly influenced by al-Qaida. The government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is asserting itself - as it must to protect this fledgling democracy.

A large group of teenagers were involved in a fight near the Inner Harbor in Baltimore on Monday afternoon, with several of the teens taken into custody, police said. One police officer was injured responding to the brawl when she fell after chasing one of the teenagers, scraping her legs and knees on the ground, Baltimore Police spokesman Detective Vernon Davis said. Witnesses said dozens of teens were involved in the fight, which started about 3:15 p.m. on the plaza in front of the Gallery on Pratt Street.

THE PROMOTIONAL billboards for a new movie about the life of a popular rap star struck an angry chord with parents living in a tough South Central Los Angeles community. The bare, bronze back. The outstretched arms. The hands, one holding a microphone and the other a pistol. The imagery was intolerable, and the anger spread to urban neighborhoods in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Philadelphia, and crescendoed around the country. By the time the noise died down, the little guys had won. Paramount Pictures agreed to take 21 billboards down, bowing to the sensibilities of parents offended by the blatant glorification of thug life and violence.

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LAS VEGAS -- A month ago at Mexico City's Azteca Stadium, Julio Cesar Chavez was greeted by the strangest sound he had ever heard. The four-time world champion was roundly booed by more than 100,000 of his countrymen after being introduced at an NFL preseason game between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers.Witnesses said Chavez smiled weakly, trying to hide his dismay and damaged ego.For more than a decade, while winning his first 89 professional fights and capturing titles at 130, 135 and 140 pounds, he was Mexico's patron saint of boxing, worshiped the same way American sports fans idolize Michael Jordan.

Charlotte, North Carolina. -- Three dozen Charlotte neighborhoods, ranging from dirt-poor to affluent, met in May to adopt a ''Declaration of Interdependence'' -- a kind of mutual assistance pact to fight for equal attention from city and county governments on every issue from crack houses to parking, crime fighting to neighborhood policing to housing.The neighborhoods are agreeing to assist each other with information, education, training and plain old political infighting. For some of the most afflicted neighborhoods, that could mean a set of powerful new friends.

For nearly 1 1/2 years, trainer Nancy Heil nursed a strained tendon on 5-year-old gelding Fighting Notion.During that time, owners Arlene and Herb Kushner paid bill after bill on the injured animal.Yesterday at Pimlico Race Course, their patience and perseverance paid off.The horse won the $42,175 Duck Dance Handicap, his first stakes victory since he set a stakes record in the Mister Diz Stakes at Pimlico more than two years ago.The horse's task was made a lot easier when five of the nine horses in the field were scratched after the track came up muddy.

Mortal Kombat is an old chestnut for gamers, a series that was controversial for its over-the-top violence in its day (the early 1990s), but now seems quaint next to a new generation of blood-'n'-guts game play. Now, Midway Home Entertainment updates the franchise with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, a nimble fighting game that improves upon MK and its sequels with a deeper fighting system, improved graphics and a multitude of extras to discover and unlock using "kurrency" earned in the game.

As a journalist, I'm a big believer in free speech, but also in the idea that bigotry and wrongdoing are fair game for scrutiny. Regardless of your political leanings, it's fair to say that publicly ridiculing others in a confrontational and unconstructive way deserves calling out. Today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, a campaign to confront bigotry as it exists across the globe. According to its 2012 annual report, the campaign launched in 2004 and chose May 17 "to commemorate the World Health Organization's decision in 1990 to remove homosexuality from the list of mental disorders.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun publishes a Q&A with a college lacrosse player or coach to get you more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Notre Dame junior midfielder Jim Marlatt , a Clarksville native and River Hill graduate who leads the team's midfielders in goals with 18 and assists with 10. The Fighting Irish (11-4), who are the second seed in the NCAA tournament, will meet seventh-seeded Duke (13-5) in a quarterfinal Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

A school police officer at Pikesville High School was assaulted after responding to a fight in the gym this morning, Baltimore County police said. The fight broke out between two students shortly before 9:40 a.m., said Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. No injuries were reported. Charges are pending against both students, Batton said. alisonk@baltsun.com twitter.com/aliknez

A 28-year-old man who police were initially told died after being hit over the head with a beer bottle by a stranger in Curtis Bay was killed by a family member who punched him during a brawl, police say. Bobby Mack Jr., a cousin of victim Cyril Montel Holland, is now facing one count of manslaughter. Mack's attorney said the incident was an "unintended tragedy as a result of horseplay between family members. " Holland died April 10 at Maryland Shock Trauma Center after suffering a fatal blow to the back of the head.

WASHINGTON -- Democrats and Republicans quickly squared off Thursday over the confirmation of Labor Secretary nominee and Marylander Tom Perez -- preparing for a fight that is likely to intensify after a Senate committee voted along party lines to advance his nomination to the full Senate. House Democrats crafted a letter with 137 signatures to Senate leaders calling for a quick vote. "America's workers deserve a Labor Department operating at full capacity, especially as our economic recovery moves forward," Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Southern Maryland lawmaker and minority whip, said in a statement.

Anna Whetstone, 23, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when she was 17. She was a high school junior in Hershey, Pa., playing on her school's field hockey team when she got hit in the head with a ball. "I was feeling fine at the time," she said, but over the next few days she had trouble with balance and "wasn't feeling well overall. " Computed tomography scans and an MRI discovered the telltale lesions that are signs of the degenerative disease. After the diagnosis, Whetstone switched from playing to coaching field hockey, but she continued dancing and she earned a neuroscience degree, with honors, at Moravian College in Pennsylvania.

SECOND AD. It aired on networks during such highly rated programs as ABC's Monday Night Football, college football, jTC NBC's "Miss America Pageant" and a number of prime-time sitcoms and drama series including "Going to Extremes," "Homefront" and "Unsolved Mysteries."COST: $2.5 million.SCRIPT: George Bush: "The world is in transition. The defining challenge of the '90s is to win the economic competition. To win the peace, we must be a military superpower, an economic superpower, an export superpower.

In a 60-second television spot that aired during professional football games on Sunday, President Bush vowed to voters and sports fans that he would continue fighting for U.S. jobs by seizing export opportunities.To help make his point, the president's voice delivered the message while the screen showed a container being loaded on a ship bearing a good American-sounding and environmentally friendly name -- Evergreen -- sailing out of port.The only problem, as people in the transportation business know, is that Evergreen is a Taiwanese shipping company.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee vote on Labor Secretary nominee Tom Perez was postponed hours before it was set to take place Wednesday, highlighting what appears to be a growing partisan fight over the confirmation of the former Maryland official.  Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee accused Republicans of relying on an obscure rule to delay the committee vote, which had been moved back once before. Republicans said Perez has failed to answer questions they say are critical to understanding his record.

It should've been the shot heard around the world. Chances are, you didn't hear it. An ominous sort of history was made last week near Austin, Texas, but it seems to have largely escaped notice. There was some media coverage, yes, but less than, say, Lindsay Lohan's latest stint in rehab, certainly less than you'd think for something whose ramifications will likely shadow us for years. On May 2, you see, a group called Defense Distributed, led by law student and self-described anarchist Cody Wilson, accomplished what was apparently the first successful firing of a gun "printed" entirely by a 3-D printer.