A 3-year-old girl found alive in the upside-down wreckage of an airplane survived because she was strapped in a car seat, rescuers said. They said they knew she was OK when she cried for her teddy bear.

Sunday's crash killed Kate Williams' pilot-grandfather, Allen D. Williams, 65, and another passenger, authorities said.

The plane was found nose down and flipped over in the icy water at the edge of a riverbank in the rugged mountains of southeast British Columbia.

''What saved her life was being strapped into that car seat,'' said Mike Plonka, a member of Golden's search-and-rescue team. ''You could see that she was very scared. Her big concern at the time was her little teddy bear. She didn't want to leave without it. ...

''She was just pointing at it and calling it 'Baby,''' he said Monday.

Full report: Toddler found alive in plane wreckage

Sleeping pills advertised for children, dangerous toys and bottled water taken from local reservoirs are among the world's worst products, a global consumer group said Monday.

In announcing its bad products awards for 2007, Consumers International said the top prize went to the US subsidiary of Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceuticals for promoting a sleeping drug for children.

The company ran a television advertisement in the United States which used images of children, chalk boards and a school bus to sell its drug Rozerem.

The "back-to-school" advertisements, which complied with US law, promoted the sleeping pills to parents without including health warnings for children, Consumers International said.

"This case demonstrates the lengths to which some drug companies will go to increase sales of their products, how direct to consumer advertising can promote irrational drug use, and how weak regulation can foster irresponsible corporate behavior," the group said.

Full report: Sleeping pills for kids top global list of bad products

He's played everything from a Wall Street vulture to the president, but these days Michael Douglas is focusing on his favorite role — father and husband.

"I've learned to kick back and be a family man," he says. "Since I married Catherine (Zeta-Jones), we've been raising a new family. I'm enjoying it immensely. And my priorities have changed enormously."

Since getting married in 2000, the two have had a son and daughter.

Douglas was in Savannah to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Savannah Film Festival.

Full report: Michael Douglas' New Role: Family Man

Some 1 million foam baby seats sold by Target Corp, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other large retailers are being recalled because of reports of young children falling out of the seats, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.

The safety agency said it received 28 reports of young children falling out of the seats, including three who suffered skull fractures because the seats had been placed atop tables.

The baby seats, made by Bumbo International of South Africa, sold for about $40 each from August 2003 through October 2007. Retailers that sold the product also included Sears Holdings, Kmart, Toys "R" Us, USA Babies, it said.

The round Bumbo Baby Sitter Seats are 15 inches in diameter and made of molded polyurethane foam that wraps around a child.

Consumers should contact Bumbo to obtain new warning label stickers and instructions for the recalled baby seats and should never use the infant seat on a table, countertop, chair or other elevated surface, the agency said.

Full report: Baby seats recalled due to head injuries

Other recalls: Baby Seats, Metal Jewelry, Diego Boats, Halloween Pails, Bobble Heads, Cake Decorations

A couple won't mark their 27th anniversary until Thursday, but they've already received the perfect gift: the wedding pictures they couldn't afford when they married as teenagers. Their photographer showed up last week at the diner where Karen Cline works and surprised her with a photo album from her big day in 1980.

"About a month ago, I was just cleaning out some of my old things and I found it," said photographer Jim Wagner, who's now 80. "I knew she didn't have any money back then, and I just thought she might like to have it."

"I just stood there and cried and cried and hugged him," Cline said afterward, tearing up again.

She recalled being a new bride at 18 and admiring the pictures, but feeling heartsick because she and her husband, Mark, who was 19 at the time, didn't have $150 to pay for them.

All these years, the Clines have had just one wedding picture that someone else took, of her walking down the aisle.

Wagner said he was able to track down Karen Cline after running into her stepfather a few weeks ago.

When the photographer showed up in the diner, she wrote him a check for the long-awaited $150 - and that's when he cried, she said.

Source: AP

A noisy parrot that likes to imitate sounds helped save a man and his son from a house fire by mocking a smoke alarm, the bird's owner says.

Shannon Conwell, 33, said he and his 9-year-old son fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. They awoke about 3 a.m. Friday to find their home on fire after hearing the family's Amazon parrot, Peanut, imitating a fire alarm.

"He was really screaming his head off," Conwell said.

The smoke alarm had activated, but it was the bird's call that caught Conwell's attention.

"I grabbed my son and my bird, and got out of the house," he said.

Full report: Parrot Imitates Fire Alarm, Saves Family

The trend seems as plain as the nose on your child's face, or an arrow through your head. There's Madonna, Billy Crystal and Jamie Lee Curtis. And Jerry Seinfeld. And John Lithgow. And Katie Couric.

All celebrities. All parents. All authors of children's books.

Now Steve Martin has written one.

But he doesn't have any children.

"I'm not sure why I did this. I don't know why an alphabet book popped into my head," Martin says of "The Alphabet From A to Y, With Bonus Letter Z," a collaboration with New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. "My idea was to write these rhyming couplets with the craziest images I could possibly think up, and then have Roz illustrate them."

The 62-year-old Martin, famous for his "wild and crazy" standup act in the 1970s, has turned increasingly to the page in recent years, writing plays, novels and humor pieces in The New Yorker, home to such literary wits (and children's authors) as E.B. White and James Thurber. A memoir comes out in November.

Full report: Steve Martin writes children's book

Moms and dads who both offer lots of support and reassurance when their young children express negative emotions may not be doing them a favor, new research shows.

Studies in four- and five-year-olds found that the children whose parents reacted with differing levels of support to their emotional setbacks were actually more emotionally mature and handled conflict better, Dr. Nancy L. McElwain of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her colleagues found.

"It's good to give your child some support, but also at the same time some space to manage the problem," McElwain told Reuters Health.

Parents' reactions to a child's negative emotions play a key role in social and emotional growth, McElwain and her team point out in the current issue of Child Development.

Most research has focused on how mothers interact with children, McElwain and her team note. To look at the role of mothers and fathers together, the researchers conducted two experiments, one evaluating children's emotional understanding and the other investigating friendship quality. Parents of children in both studies filled out questionnaires designed to measure their level of emotional support.

Full report: Too much support may hamper kids' development

The use of acupuncture before and during surgery reduces patients' post-operative pain as well as the need for pain-killing medication, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina analyzed the results of 15 clinical trials on the effectiveness of acupuncture -- a practice that originated in China of inserting thin needles into specific body points.

They concluded that it is valuable for pain control in surgery patients.

The 15 trials showed that patients getting acupuncture before or during various types of operations had significantly less pain afterward than patients who did not get acupuncture.

These patients also required less morphine or other opioid pain medication after surgery, which reduced the side effects like nausea and vomiting from these types of drugs, the researchers said.

Full report: Studies find acupuncture cuts post-surgical pain

Harry Potter might have waved his wand and cast a spell, but author J.K. Rowling sat down and cheerfully signed 1,600 books for schoolkids on Monday as she launched her first U.S. book tour in seven years.

"This is an amazing treat for me," Rowling said of the mass book signing and reading for cheering Harry Potter fans who gave her a pop star welcome in Los Angeles.

"I really miss being able to interact directly with the readers. Everyone keeps saying, 'it must be so onerous. Doesn't it hurt your hand?' But, honestly, that's the bit I really enjoy," Rowling told reporters.

The 42-year-old British author said that after 10 years of writing to a deadline, she now felt as if she was on vacation and has not yet started writing the promised Harry Potter encyclopedia that fans around the world are awaiting.

Full report: J.K Rowling launches U.S. book tour with mass signing