*SERIOUSLY? – Saudi Man Gets 10 Years for Tweets
A Saudi man has received 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes as punishment for expressing his atheism on Twitter. Al-Watan online daily reported Saturday that police in charges of monitoring social networks found more than 600 tweets expressing anti-Islamic sentiments and, for example, ridiculing Quranic verses. The report said the 28-year-old admitted his atheism and refused to repent.

Yoko Ono has been hospitalized with “extreme” flu-like symptoms, according to her publicist. Ono, 83, was taken to the hospital on Friday night. “Her doctor thought it would be a good idea for her to get checked,” said publicist Elliot Mintz. Mintz denied reports that Ono had suffered a stroke and said that she would likely be discharged Saturday.

*LBN-MY REVIEW: “I admire the fearless independence of LBN. I feel like you present the news in an unbiased and unafraid manner. I read it daily and share it with all of my smart friends. Keep up the good work.” —– Stella W. an LBN reader from Berlin, Germany

*LBN-INVESTIGATES: Americans buy over 29 million bottles of water every year. Making all those bottles uses 17 million barrels of crude oil annually, which would be enough fuel to keep 1 million cars on the road for one year. Only 13% of those bottles are recycled. Plastic bottles take centuries to decompose – and if they are burned, they release toxic byproducts such as chlorine gas and ash containing heavy metals.

*‘Making a Murderer’ Creators Plan Sequel

The filmmakers behind immensely popular Netflix docu-series Making a Murderer have reportedly begun planning a second installment of the series that told the story of Steven Avery, a DNA exoneree in Wisconsin who found himself the prime suspect in a murder case as he attempted to expose local corruption. During an panel event Thursday evening, directors Laura Riccardi and Moira Demos said they have continued to talk with Avery: “From our perspective this story is obviously not over,” Ricciardi said. “To the extent that there are significant developments, we would like to continue documenting this [case].” However, a continuation of the series could prove difficult as the directors have become the butt of “hostility” among locals who feel they’ve been misrepresented.

*LBN-WHERE THE ELITE AND UNDERDOGS MEET

*LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: In an unusually public flare-up, one of MSNBC’s television personalities clashed with the network on Friday in a dispute about airtime and editorial freedom and said she was refusing to host the show that bears her name this weekend.The host, Melissa Harris-Perry, wrote in an email to co-workers this week that her show had effectively been taken away from her and that she felt “worthless” in the eyes of NBC News executives, who are restructuring MSNBC. “Here is the reality: Our show was taken — without comment or discussion or notice — in the midst of an election season,” she wrote in the email, which became public on Friday. “After four years of building an audience, developing a brand and developing trust with our viewers, we were effectively and utterly silenced.”

*LBN-HEALTH WATCH: A cure for dementia could be found within five years, the leader of the global council on the disease has said. Dr. Dennis Gillings, outgoing chairman of the World Dementia Council, said recent scientific progress had surpassed his expectations, with two potential breakthroughs now on the horizon.

*LBN-NOTICED:   ***Oscar Party Summit Meeting- Last night at Larry Gagosian’s annual Oscar Nominees reception at his Beverly Hills Gallery,  music icons Elton John and agentNorby Walters of The Night of 100 Stars Oscar Party,  chatting about their competing Oscar bashes.

*LBN-SPOTLIGHT: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobswww.TheExcelCommunity.com

*LBN-R.I.P.:   ***Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Elvis Presley’s personal physician in the decade before his death in 1977, who lost his medical license for overprescribing addictive drugs for years to numerous patients, died on Wednesday in Memphis. He was 88. Memorial Park Funeral Home in Memphis announced his death in a post on its website.

*LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:…

*LBN-OVERHEARD: Despite what everyone else may think,Jennifer Garner claims that her ex-nanny had nothing to do with her divorce from Ben Affleck. “Let me just tell you something,” the actress, 43, said in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair. “We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation.”