Two weeks ago, Julie Esse, about nine months pregnant, looked as if she could turn into a further tragic footnote in Ivory Coast’s bloody conflict.

Instead, her story — with its twist ending — turned out to be some thing O. Henry could possibly have written, with a title about two bags of Sort O negative blood and details about scary guys brandishing Kalashnikovs and machetes.

Esse, 35, a hat and accessories designer, began having what she thought were contractions on April 6, the morning immediately after a mortar blast tore a hole in her family’s Abidjan apartment throughout the siege to capture Laurent Gbagbo, who refused to give up his presidency immediately after Alassane Ouattara was elected.

Esse, who has sickle cell anemia, was caught in a nightmare of airstrikes and sniper fire that turned Abidjan, 1 of Africa’s most modern and prosperous cities, into a war zone practically overnight.

“One day we had been living a peaceful, pleased life as well as the next day people had been becoming shot and killed outside our door,” Esse told AOL News at the time.

Christian Louboutin Lucifer

Spotted on Elle McPherson on the school run (seriously, how does she look that glamourous first thing in the morning?), Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez, Louboutin’s Lucifer Bow heels are only for the fearless – but boy are they worth the wobble.

The decorative double bow at the toe mixed with deadly sharp studs and spike heels make these pumps a fierce combination of pretty and punky, meaning they’ll work with pretty much any outfit (a la Elle’s skinnies or Kim’s mini).

We’re totally sold on them – as with all Louboutin’s, they turn any outfit into a show-stopper. See how the celebs are wearing theirs below…

Many residents said they won’t be spending as much this year on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, which kicks off the holiday shopping spree.

And on top of that, there’s not one special toy that all kids seem to want.

“There are no good toys this year. It’s very slow,” said Chong Lee, owner of Castle Hill Toys & Games at 1375 Castle Hill Ave. “Most people go to big stores on Black Friday to do last-minute shopping.”

The top seller year-round continues to be video games, from about $20 to $35, and players like Xbox 360, which go for $199.

GameStop, at 378 Fordham Road, will open at 12:01 a.m. Friday, the earliest it’s ever greeted customers, said Daniel Bernstein of the Fordham Business Improvement District.

“Video games are a hot item for kids,” Bernstein said. “Lots of stores are gearing up.”

And parents said their kids’ expensive tastes don’t end there – some as young as 7 have also been asking for laptops. The popular Apple Macbook sells for $999.

“My son is starting to get into computers, which is something I don’t really like,” said parent Darryl Brown, a stonemason from White Plains Road, who frequents local stores. “He wants another bike and video games, too.”

So, will Santa be good to son Tyler?

“He’s 7, so he doesn’t hear ‘cutbacks,’” said Brown, laughing. “I can’t deny him anything. He made Principal’s List at school four times in a row!”

But other parents worrying how to budget their spending will head to such staples as JCPenney, Macy’s and Toys ‘R’ Us.

“I only shop at department stores because I know what I’m getting,” said Sharice Duchatellier from Parkchester. “Only my son got something this year – his birthday is three days before Christmas!”

Yasmin Deaza said her budget tightened significantly after she lost her job as a nanny.

“This always happens – in the beginning of the year, I’m planning to buy something, and by the time it gets to November, I can’t do it,” said Deaza, who still plans on getting her son a mini-laptop and her daughter Ugg boots sale.

“I usually shop at department stores such (www.uggbootsfari.co.uk),” she added. “I look for sales.”

To this, Bernstein said people will be more satisfied with the “variety and ease of negotiation” at local independent stores, like those on Fordham Road.

“You have a healthy mix of small mom-and-pop shops and large national retailers,” he noted. “It gives you more of a choice.”

The persistently trendy boots are the subject of a new wave of criticism by health experts in the United Kingdom, who say that the furry footwear – and its many cheap knockoffs – are “harming the feet of a generation of young women,” according to the Mirror.

“Because these boots are warm and soft, young girls think they are giving their feet a break. In fact, they are literally breaking their feet,” Dr. Ian Drysdale, head of the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, told the paper.

“Their feet are sliding around inside. With each step, the force falls towards the inside of the foot and the feet splay,” Drysdale  explained. “This flattens the arch and makes it drop. The result can be significant problems with the foot, the ankle, and, ultimately, the hip.”

The original Uggs, made by Ugg Australia, were a cult favorite of surfers. The shearling-lined boots became a fashion craze in the mid- 2000s,  thanks to celebrity fans  such as Cameron Diaz, Katie Holmes and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Years later, Ugg boots are still popular – and while the slipperlike boots seem best suited for loafing around the house, many women wear their Uggs all day, every day.  And therein lies the problem, says Dr. Robin Ross, podiatrist and incoming president of the New York State Podiatric Association.

“If someone plans on going on a long hike or standing on their feet all day, [Uggs] are not good, whether it’s the brand or an imitation,” Ross said. “People tend to get pain on the outside of the ankle, the arches start to hurt, and they tend to get foot fatigue.”

Ugg Australia boots has said their boots are “comfort” not “performance footwear, ” and said buyers should beware knock-offs, which lack the reinforced heels or insoles of their boots, according to the Mirror.

But just because the brand name boot is better constructed doesn’t mean it will hold up during your daily commute, Ross warns.

“All of these types of boots do not offer the control, cushion or support that is necessary for long-term standing or walking,” she said. “We tend to walk on concrete, asphalt or industial flooring – very unforgiving surfaces.”

To give your feet a break while wearing Ugg boots uk, Ross recommends you have a podiatrist make you an orthotic – a custom-made foot mold that will fit in the shoe.

“I have a pair of Ugg boots uk,  and I always put my orthotics in them,” Ross said. “It holds the foot in a corrective position as I stand or walk. A podiatrist or foot specialist can fabricate them for you.”

And don’t forget to air out your boots after a long day of walking, Ross says, or you’ll have more than just achy feet to worry about.

“A lot of people will wear [Uggs] without socks,” Ross notes. “Once a week or so, if you wear them a lot, spray with Lysol and let them air out overnight. That will help to kill any fungus or bacteria.”

• Hodne retired as the pastor of the Fellowship Evangelical Free Church in Dallas in August. His retirement is, by his own admission, a mere technicality. He is retired from the administrative duties of pastoring a church, but plans to continue his ministry for many years to come. He will draw upon his decades of experience to train new pastors and to introduce Christianity to minority groups in our country.

• The son of Norwegian immigrants, Hodne was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. At 9 years old, he developed “a personal relationship with God.” He left Boston to attend The King’s College in New York where he earned a degree in psychology. During his second year there, he worked at a Christian camp where he witnessed campers being saved, or welcoming God into their lives, and he knew immediately that he had found his calling in life.

• “Watching others receive Christ was a great experience for me,” he explains. “I knew that I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something that lasted forever, that changed people’s lives forever.”

• After college, Hodne married his childhood friend, Holly, and the couple moved to Chicago where the aspiring pastor studied at the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for four years. After graduating from the seminary in the early 1970s, he worked as a youth pastor in the Chicago area. In his two years there, he saw his youth group of high school students grow from 15 members to more than 80.

• He then moved on to pastor a church on Long Island, NY for four years. Although he never wavered in his devotion, he didn’t feelhe was where he needed to be. The church had already been well established and the young pastor felt his talents would be better served elsewhere. Seeing himself as an innovator or pioneer, he wanted a chance to develop his own ideas and start a program from scratch.

• He got that chance in 1977 when the Eastern District Association of Evangelical Free Churches came looking for someone to develop a year-round program at Camp Orchard Hill in Orange. The association had purchased the camp, which included a dining room and several cabins, and was looking to develop a summer camp and retreat program on the site.
• So Hodne packed up his wife and two young children (his youngest son was not yet born) and left a solid job to come to the Back Mountain for a job that required him to raise his own salary by developing the camp and getting funding from the churches served by the camp. It was a big risk and times were tough for the young family but Hodne was energized by his faith.

• “It was a risk,” he said, “but I trusted in the Lord. I believed that God was going to take care of us.”

• The Hodnes worked together to build the camp program. Within five years, the camp grew into a year-round facility that administered to over 3,000 youth and adults. The program included family weekends, weekend retreats, youth groups, adult classes and men’s and women’s retreats. Hodne and his staff used the natural surroundings at the camp to teach about God.

• During the fourth year of Hodne’s tenure, four families wanted to start a Bible study at the camp and asked the camp director to lead the group. In1981, the Fellowship Evangelical Free Church was formed with Hodne as pastor. The congregation grew quickly to 25 people who had met at the camp lodge. Once the summer retreat season went into full swing, the church was forced to move. The small congregation shared facilities with the Trucksville Free Methodist Church until the camp group grew too large and moved again to College Misericordia. The congregation continued to grow and built its own church on Hildebrandt Road in Dallas in 1988. By 1991, Hodne’s flock numbered more than 450 people.

• Hodne continued as pastor of the church until 1995 when he left to pastor a church near Princeton, New Jersey, feeling it was time to move on and give someone else a chance.

• “You have certain gifts, but you don’t have all the gifts,” he says, attempting to explain why he felt the need to move on. “You reach a point where you’ve done all you can do, a time for someone else with different gifts to step in.”

• After 11 years in New Jersey, Hodne returned to Dallas and the Fellowship Evangelical Free Church he had founded. The church was struggling and the congregation had dwindled to just 180 parishioners.

• Throughout his two stints as pastor in the Back Mountain, Hodne has touched the lives of countless people. According to Atty. Lee Piatt, a long-time parishioner and friend of Hodne, the dedicated pastor has impacted many people.

• “Dwight is very welcoming and he is strong on building fellowship within the church,” Piatt explained. “He demonstrated what he preached by his humble, obedient living and he set the tone for this church, to make it a loving community where people can feel welcome. The church members have become an extended family.”

• Like his many followers at the church, Hodne’s own family was not immune to his teachings and each of his children forging their own ministry. Oldest son, Greg, serves as a part-time pastor of a Hispanic church in New Jersey. Daughter Heather Yatsko is a worship leader at her Philadelphia-area church and Derek, the youngest, is now the program director at Camp Orchard Hill.

• After a couple of weeks off to enjoy some water sports on Lake Wallenpaupak and some time on his motorcycle, the tireless 65-year-old will resume his ministry. His eagerness to introduce Christianity into developing communities keeps him energized. He is currently the credentialing chairman of the Eastern District Association, a group that licenses pastors, and plans to spend his “retirement” training minority pastors to teach Christianity to people of different ethnic backgrounds – all in a quest to help people change their lives and make it to heaven.

• His overall goal is to teach people to trust in God so that they can be content and peaceful and have hope for an eternal life.

• “I want to go to heaven and I want to take as many people with me as possible,” he said. “That will be my greatest reward – to look around heaven and see all of the people who wouldn’t have been there. It’s my passion; it’s what I live for and it’s not about me, it’s about Him.”

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• Police and security agents patrolling Egypt’s university campuses have for decades been as common as scruffy jeans and backpacks. But on Saturday the nation’s High Administrative Court dealt a setback to the Interior Ministry by ruling that police should be prohibited from the halls and courtyards of higher education.

• “The presence of permanent Interior Ministry police forces inside university campuses represents an impairment of the independence guaranteed to the university by the constitution and the law,” the court’s statement read. The judge announced that police officers should be replaced by civilian guards employed by universities.

• In recent years, police forces assigned by the Ministry of Interior to secure universities have become the subject of protests by professors and student leaders who have complained of intimidation and intrusion into academic life.

• A group of Cairo University professors filed a lawsuit against the government and won a verdict barring police officers from universities in 2008. The ruling was appealed by both the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Interior before the appeal was rejected Saturday.

• The new ruling was hailed by many university professors, some of whom doubted whether the Interior Ministry would abide by the court’s decision.

• “The verdict is very good, and it is a big blow to the government’s efforts to control universities, but I don’t think that it will be enforced,” Mohamed Abou Ghar, a professor gynecology at Cairo University, told the Los Angeles Times.

• According to Abu Ghar, a founding member of the group that helped bring the case to court, the main problem is the direct interference of state security in all university matters, including academic policies.

• “No dean at any Egyptian university is able to decide or sign any agreements before informing and receiving the approval of state security,” he said. “This includes academic specifications like scientific conferences, exchange and research programs.”

• The Ministry of Interior has not yet commented on the verdict, but Minister of Higher Education Hani Helal said his ministry would follow the verdict. The court ruling comes two weeks after a video showing a police officer beating a female student at a college in the city of Zagazig spread across Facebook, spurring anger and protests in universities across the country.

• The incident reportedly occurred after the student, Somaya Ashraf, rejected the officer’s request to search her bag prior to entering her college, causing a verbal spat that ended with the officer kicking and slapping her.

• Deploying police officers to universities coincided with the imposition of emergency law, which has been in effect since the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.

• Satinder Singh, 23, was working at Relax Inn on Mariposa Street when he saw a large-built black male standing in front of the motel’s front door.

• After Singh pushed the button to let the him in, the man rushed into the building while pointing a silver handgun at him, police said.

• The man pulled out a white plastic grocery bag and demanded Singh to put the motel’s cash in it, police said.

• Singh then saw a thin-built black male standing outside as a lookout. Both suspects ran on foot as soon as the first suspect had grabbed the cash-filled bag, police said.

• The first suspect was described as an 18-year-old black male, 5 feet 9 inches, large build, and wearing a black hoodie and black jeans.

• The second suspect was described as an 18-year-old black male, 6 feet 1 inch, thin build, and wearing a black sweater and blue jeans.

• No further information was available.

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• It calls itself : The Destination for Trendy plus-size Fashion.

• Before Torrid launched in 2001, there weren’t many shopping options for the fashionable plus-sized girl. Sure, she could look pretty fierce in men’s jeans and t-shirts, but, from lingerie to dresses, there weren’t many options for feminine plus-size clothes for young women and teens.

• Torrid recognized this and created a women’s plus-size fashion line inspired by fashion icons, runway shows, music and pop culture.

• We also fit our line on a plus-size model so our customers could get fabulous fashion in sizes 12-28. Now, with styles from hot labels like Betsey Johnson and Jezebel added to the mix, Torrid is the destination for trendy plus-size fashion. And with plus-size jeans from Ed Hardy and more, Torrid girls can ditch those men’s jeans for good!

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• Refreshingly different, Torrid (site: torrid.com) also has a pair of cheeky Justin Bieber plus size t-shirts.

• This Justin Bieber plus size t-shirt is a black tee that features a screen of Justin Bieber in a hoodie, framed by his name in neon colors accented with stars, flowers, and a heart.

• This is priced at $19.98, having been reduced from $28.

• It is available in US sizes 2, 3 and 4.

• 100% cotton, it’s a great casual choice to throw on with a pair of jeans or leggings.

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