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MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine woman who acknowledged giving birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then leaving him in the trash on the plane said she was raped by her employer, a lawmaker said Thursday.

The baby was found by a security guard at Manila's airport last Sunday in a trash bag unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. The trash apparently came from the plane's bathroom.

Rep. Lani Mercado said she met Thursday with the woman, who told her that she had been raped by her employer while working as a maid in Qatar and became pregnant. She said her employer's wife then forced her to return home, and she managed to hide her pregnancy and board a flight.

"She had labor pains in the plane," Mercado told The Associated Press. "Then she gave birth."

Mercado said the woman told her she abandoned the baby because she was afraid of what her family would say.

Mercado, who serves on legislative committees on children and women, said she met with the woman at Manila's National Bureau of Investigation headquarters to try to help her.

The woman gave birth while the plane was approaching Manila, according to the bureau's chief, Magtanggol Gatdula. The woman has been shown a picture of the child, and "she's very eager to see her baby," he said.

The woman left in June last year to work in Qatar for three years, and her family was surprised when she suddenly returned home, said police Inspector Jeffrey Vicente, quoting her husband in northern Apayao province with whom she has two children.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has reached out to longtime Republican Rep. Mike Castle after his upset loss to a tea party-backed candidate in Delaware's Senate primary.

A senior administration official says Obama thanked Castle for his service during nine terms in the House. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Castle was the choice of the GOP establishment for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden. He lost this week to tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell. Many analysts believe that gives Democrat Chris Coons a much better shot at winning the Nov. 2 election.

Biden was traveling to Delaware Friday afternoon to join Coons in rallying volunteers.

Casey Affleck has admitted that 'I'm Still Here,' his documentary that chronicles Joaquin Phoenix's two-year descent into madness as an aspiring rapper, was a stunt.

"It's a terrific performance, it's the performance of his career," he told the New York Times.

Here's an excerpt from the interview, read the whole thing here:

Virtually none of it was real. Not even the opening shots, supposedly of Mr. Phoenix and his siblings swimming in a water hole in Panama. That, Mr. Affleck said, was actually shot in Hawaii with actors, then run back and forth on top of an old videocassette recording of "Paris, Texas" to degrade the images.

"I never intended to trick anybody," said Mr. Affleck, an intense 35-year-old who spoke over a meat-free, cheese-free vegetable sandwich on Thursday. "The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind."

Still, he acknowledged that Mr. Letterman was not in on the joke when Mr. Phoenix, on Feb. 11, 2009, seemed to implode his own career by showing up in character as a mumbling, aimless star gone wrong.
Watch Joaquin's bizarre Letterman appearance here. He is booked to return to the 'Late Show' September 22.

Nina Garcia has weighed in on her "Project Runway" co-star Tim Gunn's feud with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. In his new book, Gunn claims he saw Wintour's bodyguards carry her down five flights of stairs after a 2006 fashion show--a story he's stuck to during multiple on-air appearances, joking with Regis & Kelly that he's in a witness protection program thanks to Wintour's wrath and telling Jon Stewart that Conde Nast would be well-served by straitjackets.

Garcia talked to UsMagazine.com about the pair's riff, admitting, "To be honest with you, I haven't seen Anna being carried. I really have no comment about her being carried or not." She added, "She's a brilliant woman who has done great things for fashion...I am a big admirer of her and think she's done great things for the business."

The eighth season premiere has the best ending ever. If you haven’t watched, don’t read on because I’m totally going to spoil it for you.

None of my friends believe me, but The CW’s One Tree Hill can be really good. At its best, it’s car crashes and school shootings and psycho murderers on prom night. The Sept. 14 season premiere comes vaguely close to that with a clever mixture of the show’s trademark romantic gobbledigook and the best twist ending ever!

Ready? OK, so for the entire hour we’re led to believe that Clay (Robert Buckley) only dreamt that he and Quinn (Shantel VanSanten) got shot, and it’s very disappointing. But in the last two minutes, they both start bleeding from their bullet wounds and we see that their bodies are definitely still laying in pools of blood at Clay’s house.

ATLANTA — A woman has filed a temporary restraining order against TV analyst and former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe.

The woman filed the petition on Thursday in Atlanta's Fulton County Superior Court. The case is classified under the "family violence" category.

No court hearing has been scheduled. It was not immediately clear why the restraining order was filed.

The ex-Denver Bronco and Baltimore Raven is under consideration for the Hall of Fame. He is currently an analyst for CBS.

A representative for Sharpe could not be immediately located and officials at CBS Sports declined to comment on Saturday.

AnnaLynne McCord set things straight (so too speak) about dating Kellan Lutz…and who’s really in charge in the relationship!
You’ve got to hand it to AnnaLynne McCord — she’s not afraid to lay it all out there! During the On Air With Ryan Seacrest radio show Sept.10, the 90210 starlet spilled all the juicy secrets of her relationship with the hunky BF Kellan Lutz…and let’s just say, she really got intimate!

“Well, I am wearing pants right now, honey!” gushed the 23-year-old actress to Ryan Seacrest, 35, when he asked who wears the pants in their relationship.

“He’s a wild child…he’s a wild child! We share the control. I am a closet bottom, so it’s fine.”

One of our favorite Hollywood couples, AnnaLynne and Kellan, 25, have been dating on-and-off since early summer 2009. We love that they both run the relationship in different ways…hopefully AnnaLynne can keep him tame!

WASHINGTON — The government may resume funding of embryonic stem cell research for now, an appeals court said Thursday, but the short-term approval may be of little help to research scientists caught in a legal battle that has just begun.

It is far from certain that scientists actually will continue to get federal money as they struggle to decide what to do with research that is hard to start and stop.

After U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth issued a preliminary order barring the funding on Aug. 23, the National Institutes of Health suspended work on funding new research projects on embryonic stem cells. While NIH didn't immediately comment Thursday on the temporary stay from the appeals court, the government's process for approving these grants is unlikely to resume before a final court resolution.

With appeals, that could be many months off.

"No way this would be a scientific reprieve," said Patrick Clemins of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Scientists who already have received taxpayer money for stem cell experiments can continue their work until their dollars run out, but 22 projects that were due to get yearly checks in September were told after Lamberth's order that they'd have to find other money. Most of the researchers have multiple sources of funding and are working now to separate what they can and can't continue, Clemins said.

Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments, they believe.

The Obama administration is asking the appeals court in Washington to strike down a preliminary injunction by Lamberth that blocked the funding. Lamberth left little doubt that he is inclined to issue a final order barring that funding, but he has yet to issue that ruling, which inevitably will set off a new round of appeals.

Lamberth concluded that those who challenged the government support had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success in their lawsuit. He said the clear intent of a law passed by Congress was to prohibit federal spending on research in which a human embryo is destroyed.

WASHINGTON — The House is expected to reconsider a bill this month to provide up to $7.4 billion to workers sickened during cleanup of World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11 attacks, lawmakers from New York said Wednesday.

House Democratic leaders agreed to bring the bill to a vote after Congress returns next week from its summer break, U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler said.

The bill would provide free health care and compensation to 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who fell ill after working in the trade center ruins.

In July, the bill failed to win the two-thirds majority that was needed under the procedure that Democratic leaders used to bring up the bill to block potential amendments. The bill fell short, 255-159. The vote was largely along party lines, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats supporting the measure.

Maloney and Nadler said that this time, the bill will need only a simple majority.

Maloney and Nadler said they are approaching the vote "with the expectation and belief that neither side will play politics with this vitally important legislation."

The July vote sparked an angry exchange between two New York congressmen, Republican Peter King and Democrat Anthony Weiner.

During floor debate before the vote, Weiner criticized King, a Long Island Republican.

"The gentleman is providing cover for his colleagues rather than doing the right thing," bellowed Weiner, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens. "Republicans wrapping their arms around Republicans rather than doing the right thing on behalf of heroes. It's a shame, a shame."

King, a key backer of the bill, had accused Democrats earlier of staging a "charade."

The harsh words were sparked by the decision by Democratic leaders to use the procedure that required the two-thirds majority vote.

King said Democrats were "petrified" about casting votes on amendments, possibly including one that would ban aid from going to illegal immigrants sickened by trade center dust.

King's comments angered New York Democrats, who blamed Republicans for not supporting the bill and accused King of not doing enough to win more GOP support for the measure.

The legislation is named for James Zadroga, a police detective who died at age 34. His supporters say he died from respiratory disease contracted at ground zero, but New York City's medical examiner said Zadroga's lung condition was caused by prescription drug abuse.

Members of Congress from New York and New Jersey have been pushing such a measure for years.

Similar legislation is pending in the Senate.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks a "disrespectful, disgraceful act."

Others in the Obama administration weighed in against the proposed burning, including Attorney General Eric Holder, who called it idiotic and dangerous. A State Department spokesman branded the planned protest "un-American" while other officials warned that it could threaten U.S. troops, diplomats and travelers overseas.

The Christian minister organizing the Quran burning said he will go ahead in spite of the government's concerns. Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small, evangelical Christian church in Gainesville, Fla., with an anti-Islam philosophy, said he had received more than 100 death threats and had taken to wearing a pistol on his hip.

In Washington, a broad coalition of religious leaders from evangelical, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim organizations called Jones' plan a violation of American values.

Clinton condemned the threat to burn the Quran during her remarks at a State Department dinner she hosted in observance of Iftar, the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths," Clinton said.

At the White House, spokesman Robert Gibbs echoed concerns raised by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, about the plans. Petraeus said earlier that images of the event would be used by extremists "to inflame public opinion and incite violence."

"Any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm's way would be a concern to this administration," Gibbs told reporters.

Holder met Tuesday with religious leaders to discuss recent attacks on Muslims and mosques around the United States. The meeting was closed to reporters, but a Justice Department official who was present confirmed that Holder said the plan to burn the holy book was idiotic. The official, who requested anonymity because the meeting was private, also said Holder was quoting Petraeus when he used the word "dangerous."