Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf ordered arrested

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Tahirul Qadri, the fiery Islamic cleric leading a large antigovernment protest in the heart of the capital, was in the middle of a speech denouncing President Asif Ali Zardari's administration when an aide interrupted him with news.

The Supreme Court, Qadri was told, had just ordered the arrest of Zardari's prime minister on corruption charges. As he relayed the news to the crowd Tuesday, legions of Pakistanis filling a plaza about 500 yards from the parliament exploded in a yelp of joy. Many danced in the streets. Others embraced, tears streaming down their cheeks.

"My happiness is beyond words," said Ghulam Nabi, a 28-year-old laborer from Lahore. "We thank God for giving us this victory."

For demonstrators, the ruling served as validation of Qadri's message that Pakistan's current government is corrupt and incompetent, and cannot be trusted to oversee national elections this spring. But for Zardari's ruling party and many observers, the ruling heightened suspicion that Qadri's protest is being engineered behind the scenes by a powerful entity, perhaps the military, with the possible involvement of the judiciary.

"It looks like the Supreme Court is part of this intrigue," said Asma Jehangir, a human rights activist and former Supreme Court Bar Assn. president. "This isn't coincidence. Look at the timing. I believe the Supreme Court's moral authority has vanished."

Speaking to a Pakistani television channel, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said, "This decision by the Supreme Court doesn't look like a coincidence."

The order to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in connection with a scandal from his days as water and power minister broadsides Zardari's government at the worst possible time, as he struggles to withstand pressure on his administration created by Qadri's populist movement.

An estimated 40,000 Pakistanis unhappy with Zardari continued to take part in Qadri's sit-in protest Tuesday, and many who were interviewed said they would stay put until the parliament was dissolved and Zardari stepped down, demands Qadri made Monday after leading a long caravan of demonstrators from the eastern city of Lahore to Islamabad.

Zardari's inability to remedy a host of ills, from crippling power outages to militant attacks, is cited by demonstrators as a prime reason why they joined the sit-in. Voters have the choice of electing a new government in May, but Qadri contends the electoral system is weighted unfairly toward the two most powerful parties.

The system requires the appointment of a caretaker government during the run-up to the election, and leaves the choice of appointees to Zardari's ruling Pakistan People's Party and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's party, the PML-N.

Qadri has said Pakistan's powerful military should be involved in the appointment, a remark that has led many observers to speculate that the country's security establishment is behind Qadri's movement. Both Qadri and the military deny that.

Until Tuesday, Zardari's team had tried to appear confident that Qadri's movement wasn't large enough to effect change and would eventually wither. Qadri fell far short of his goal of rallying 1 million Pakistanis for the protest march.

The Supreme Court ruling, however, put Zardari's party on the defensive. Party leaders in the coalition running the parliament said they would meet Tuesday night to discuss strategy.

"We were right that [Qadri's movement] is an effort to derail democracy," said Sharjeel Memon, a PPP stalwart and information minister for Sindh province. "What's happening now is not good for democracy."

For more than a year, the high court has been investigating Ashraf's role in the issuance of licenses to so-called rental power plants, a short-term project that was supposed to help solve the country's power shortage. The government signed three-to-five-year contracts with relatively small private power stations, essentially renting them while it worked on building larger plants.

The effort did little to alleviate the country's power troubles, however, and wasted millions of dollars in government money.

The corruption allegations against Ashraf involve purported kickbacks related to bidding for the rental plants, which took place while Ashraf was water and power minister from March 2008 to February 2011.

Ashraf was appointed prime minister in June to replace Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was forced from office that month by the Supreme Court after he was convicted of contempt for ignoring the court's order to revive an old corruption case against Zardari.

Many analysts at the time warned that Ashraf's appointment was risky, given the power plant scandal hanging over him. The episode earned Ashraf the nickname "Raja Rental" in the Pakistani media.

The Supreme Court order also seeks the arrest of several other officials suspected of being linked to the scandal.

It remains unclear how Zardari's government will respond. Gilani remained in office after he was convicted of contempt in April 2012, and stepped down only when the high court ordered his dismissal weeks later.

Deep animosity has for years tainted the relationship between Zardari's government and the judiciary, led by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The feud dates to the early days of Zardari's presidency, when he balked at reinstating Chaudhry as chief justice. Chaudhry had been ousted by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's leader in 2007.

Zardari reportedly feared that Chaudhry would allow old corruption charges against him to proceed. After intense political and public pressure, Zardari relented and reinstated the judge.

alex.rodriguez@latimes.com

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Why the Atlantic removed the Scientology advertorial

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – The Atlantic apologized on Tuesday for posting a sponsored advertorial from the Church of Scientology, celebrating its leader David Miscavige.

The sponsored post, which went live Monday at 9:25 a.m. PT, touted 2012 as “milestone year” for the secretive church, which has been steeped in controversy throughout the years.

It was taken down about 8:30 p.m. and replaced by a message saying the magazine had “temporarily suspended this advertising campaign pending a review of our policies that govern sponsor content and subsequent comment threads.”

“We screwed up,” Natalie Raabe, an Atlantic spokeswoman told TheWrap after the firestorm of criticism and mockery the advertisement generated on the web. “It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes.”

The Atlantic issued the following statement:

We screwed up. It shouldn’t have taken a wave of constructive criticism – but it has – to alert us that we’ve made a mistake, possibly several mistakes. We now realize that as we explored new forms of digital advertising, we failed to update the policies that must govern the decisions we make along the way. It’s safe to say that we are thinking a lot more about these policies after running this ad than we did beforehand. In the meantime, we have decided to withdraw the ad until we figure all of this out. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about innovation in digital advertising, but acknowledge – sheepishly – that we got ahead of ourselves. We are sorry, and we’re working very hard to put things right.

The timing of the ad was no surprise. New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright’s book-length exposé on Scientology – based on his 2011 profile of former Scientologist Paul Haggis – is due out Thursday.

Sponsored content, otherwise known as native ads or advertorials, have become a popular source of revenue for online publications, including Forbes and Business Insider.

But, normally, advertisers do not want comment threads under their paid-for content, and while this has never been a problem for previous Atlantic clients, the heated feelings surrounding Scientology erupted in the comment section below the article.

The Atlantic’s marketing team was moderating the comments – about 20 in all before the post was pulled – as they were posted, Raabe said.

“In this case, where a mistake was made, where we are taking a hard look at these things, is there were comments allowed on this post,” an Atlantic official with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. “For a subject like this where people very strong feelings, we realized there’s not a clear policy in place for things like commenting.”

The Church of Scientology told TheWrap no one was available to speak on the controversy, and its media relations team did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

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Oxygen halts controversial 'Babies' Mamas' project

NEW YORK (AP) — Oxygen Media has pulled the plug on "All My Babies' Mamas," a reality special the network was developing about a musician who has fathered 11 children with 10 different mothers.

The network offered no reason for curtailing the project. In a statement issued Tuesday, Oxygen said that, "as part of our development process, we have reviewed casting and decided not to move forward with the special."

The one-hour program would have featured Atlanta rap artist Shawty Lo, his children and their mothers. It was expected to air later this year on Oxygen, an NBCUniversal cable network owned by Comcast.

"All My Babies' Mamas" got a hostile public reception after Oxygen announced it last month. At least one petition calling for Oxygen to shut it down has collected more than 37,000 signatures.

The Parents Television Council called the program's concept "grotesquely irresponsible and exploitive" and pledged to contact advertisers of the show if it reached the air.

Previously, Oxygen denied charges that the show was meant to be "a stereotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society," but rather would reveal "the complicated lives of one man, his children's mamas and their army of children."

On Tuesday, Oxygen said it will "continue to develop compelling content that resonates with our young female viewers and drives the cultural conversation."

___

Online:

www.oxygen.com

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Well: How to Go Vegan

When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.

At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.

Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.

NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.

NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.

THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”

Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.

BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.

EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.

Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.

“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”

Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.

“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.”

---

What are your tips for vegan cooking and eating? Share your suggestions on ingredients, recipes and strategies by posting a comment below or tweeting with the hashtag #vegantips.

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Stocks edge lower; Apple extends decline

Stocks edged lower on Wall Street Tuesday as tensions flared in Washington over increasing the country's borrowing limit.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders in a letter late Monday that the U.S. government will reach its borrowing limit as soon as mid-February, earlier than expected. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also commented on the issue Monday, saying it was one of the “critical fiscal watersheds” for the government in coming weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11 points to 13,495 as of 1:52 p.m. EST, having been down as much as 61 points in early trading. The Standard and Poor's 500 dropped two points to 1,468, the Nasdaq composite index fell 13 points to 3,105.

President Barack Obama has criticized congressional Republicans for linking talks over raising the debt ceiling to ongoing budget negotiations. Obama said the consequences of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt would be disastrous and shouldn't be used as a bargaining chip to extract concessions on spending cuts.

“We are very concerned how the market is going to respond to all the news events that will be coming out of Washington over the next few months,” said Eric Wiegand, a senior portfolio manager at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “It really comes down to the uncertainty and the risk of a further downgrade of our debt.”

Markets were roiled in the summer of 2011 as lawmakers haggled over an increase to the debt limit. The dispute cost the U.S. its AAA ranking from the credit-rating firm Standard and Poor's.

The U.S. fiscal crisis is still the biggest single individual risk facing investors, with 37 percent of investors naming it as the biggest worry, according to a survey of fund managers published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch Tuesday. The European debt crisis was cited as the biggest concern by 23 percent of those polled and a “hard landing” for the Chinese economy was third on the list with 12 percent.

Apple fell $14 to $487.50, its third daily drop. The stock hasn't closed below $500 in almost a year. Apple slumped 3.6 percent Monday on concern that demand for its iPhone 5 is slowing. Nomura analysts today lowered their target price for the stock to $530 from $660 and cut their estimates for iPhone sales this year.

Stocks dropped Tuesday despite a report that retail sales increased in December. Consumers bought more autos, furniture and clothing, despite worries about potential tax increases. Sales rose 0.5 percent in December from November, slightly better than November's 0.4 percent increase and the best showing since September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Investors may be more concerned about January's retail figures now that the increase in the Social Security payroll tax has come into effect, said Doug Cote, chief market strategist at ING Investment Management.

The tax jumped back to 6.2 percent earlier this month after President Barack Obama failed to win renewal of the temporary 2 percentage point payroll tax cut that's been in place for two years, as part of a deal that stopped the U.S. going over the “fiscal cliff.”

“The market is kind of looking past it because of the change in the tax regime,” said ING's Cote. “Are consumers going to be able to spend like they did in December and in earlier years? … I think not.”

The outlook for manufacturing in New York state worsened in January, according to survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The bank's Empire State Manufacturing Survey produced a reading of minus 7.8 for the month, indicating contraction.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow are up on the year, having surged in the first week of January after lawmakers reached a last-minute budget deal to stop the economy going over the “cliff.” The agreement prevented a series of tax increases and spending cuts that would probably have pushed the U.S. economy back into recession, according to economists.

Optimism about the outlook for global growth has also boosted stocks.

The S&P 500 is up 2.9 percent this year and closed at a five -year high of 1,472 last week. The 30-member Dow is up 3 percent since the start of 2013.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury price, which moves inversely to its price, fell 1 basis point to 1.83 percent.

Among other stocks making big moves;

— United Continental Holdings, the airline operator, fell 10 cents to $25.89 after JPMorgan cut its rating on the company to “neutral” from “overweight” to reflect the fact that the stock has already risen 40 percent in the past 12 months.

— Lululemon Athletica, a maker of yoga apparel, dropped $3.15 to $69.17 after its revenue forecast fell short of analysts' estimates.

— Given Imaging Ltd. fell $2.16 to $16 after the medical equipment company said it was no longer considering a sale. Also one of its largest shareholders plans to sell its stake.

— Facebook fell 51 cents to $30.42, paring its gains for the year to 14 percent, after the company unveiled a new search feature on Tuesday that lets users search their social connections for information about people, interests, photos and places.

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Syria refugees say rape is a key reason they fled, report says

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.

Rape is one of the primary reasons that Syrian refugees say they fled their country, “a significant and disturbing feature” of the war raging between rebels and Syrian government forces, the International Rescue Committee said Monday.

In a new report based on hundreds of interviews in Jordan and Lebanon, the assistance group said refugees recounted Syrian women and girls being gang-raped in front of their families or assaulted by armed men in public. Others were kidnapped, violated, tortured and killed, the refugee aid group was told.

The aid group did not assign blame to either side in the conflict for the reported rapes. “We deliberately do not ask about perpetrators,” said Alina Potts, Women’s Protection and Empowerment Emergency Coordinator for the group. “We’re looking at what the needs are.”

Syrian rape survivors face shame and stigma that compounds the trauma, and often inhibits them from reporting sexual violence. Many families have married off their daughters early, believing a husband could protect girls from rape. The rush to early marriages has also been reported by other groups.

"They rape girls who are as young as her in Syria now," the father of a pregnant 14-year-old child bride told IRIN news service last year. “I will not feel OK if I do not see her married to a decent man who can protect her.”

Other girls are wed after an assault, in the belief that a marriage could “safeguard their honor,” the IRC reported. Some fear being killed by their own families if they reveal they were attacked. In one extreme case, a father shot his daughter as armed men drew near, trying to prevent the “disgrace” of her rape, the aid group was told.

Despite the continued reports of rape, help for sexual assault survivors is scant in the countries that Syrian refugees have fled to, the group reported.

“Syrian women say they feel unsafe in crowded shelters where they have minimal privacy, yet they are scared to report violence, because of shame or fear of reprisal from family members,” the report said. “Others just don’t know where to turn for help.”

The IRC said it was expanding targeted care and counseling for refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and launching similar programs in Iraq, but warned that funding from abroad hasn’t kept pace with the needs of women and girls across the region.The outpouring of refugees has also given rise to new threats of exploitation outside Syria.

"There must be safeguards to protect women from further violence.... There have been reports of people being targeted by unscrupulous landlords, saying, ‘I know you can’t afford the rent, but if you give me your daughter, your family will have a place to stay,’” Potts said.

Sexual violence is one of a long list of reported atrocities in Syria, including killings, torture and abductions. More than 600,000 refugees have poured out of Syria and millions more are believed to be in need inside the country, according to the U.N.

Aid agencies partnering with the U.N. have appealed for more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians for six months, the biggest appeal ever made for such a crisis.

The IRC urged donors to meet the pleas for help, focusing added attention on the needs of women and girls. It also pressed for more aid for refugees living outside of the camps, who make up the bulk of the displaced yet garner less attention from media and donors. Borders should be kept open to allow more Syrians to flee, it said.

For the record, 2:40 p.m. Jan. 14: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that rape was the most common reason for leaving Syria cited by the refugees. The report called it "a primary reason," but did not say it was the most common one.

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Smartphone data consumption tops tablets for the first time ever

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Gay community hails Foster's halting Globes speech

NEW YORK (AP) — Was it a proud revelation, or an impassioned case for privacy? A coming-out speech, or a why-SHOULD-I-come-out speech? Too little and too late, or just enough?

Jodie Foster's rambling, fascinating and intensely personal remarks at the Golden Globes were not merely the watercooler moment of the ceremony. They were a big moment for the gay community, and many advocates — though not all — were cheering her on Monday for finally referring publicly to her sexual orientation, albeit in her own particular way.

While some were criticizing the actress for not uttering the words "gay" or "lesbian," and for waiting decades to come out at all, others were saying she deserved to come out in any way she chose, and with any words she happened to favor.

"No doubt, she was partly speaking in code, and she may never have wrapped her words around the fact that she is a lesbian," said Fred Sainz of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group. "But everyone watching clearly understood that she was communicating to people that she is gay. She is to be congratulated, no matter how awkward or inarticulate it may have seemed to some. It took an awful lot of courage."

The moment that Foster, a 50-year-old Oscar winner for "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Accused," took the stage to accept the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, it was clear she wasn't going to give a run-of-the-mill speech. The huge roomful of TV and movie stars fell rapt with attention.

"I guess I have a sudden urge to say something that I've never really been able to air in public," said the actress and director, long known for being fiercely private. She suggested she had something to say that would make her publicist nervous.

"But, you know, I'm just going to put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I'm going to need your support on this," she said. Then, after a pause: "I am single."

After some laughter, she added: "Seriously, I hope that you're not disappointed that there won't be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming-out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age." (A few of her words early in the speech were dropped by the censor; NBC said it was because Foster had uttered the word "Jesus.")

After joking that celebrities are now expected to reveal they're gay "with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show," the actress quipped: "I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. No. I'm sorry. That's just not me." And then, more defiantly: "If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you'd had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you, too, might value privacy above all else."

Sainz, who is vice president of communications at the HRC, said he understood the claim to privacy. "She wants to be judged on her merits as a director and actress and not necessarily by her private life," he said. "This shouldn't be the headline of her illustrious career — it's a footnote."

The privacy argument has come up in other recent instances of celebrities coming out. Last summer, CNN journalist Anderson Cooper confirmed he is gay after years of reluctance to go public. He said that, as a reporter, he had wanted to keep his orientation private for professional reasons, but finally realized that "visibility is important."

Soon after, R&B star Frank Ocean announced on his Tumblr page that his first love was a man. "I don't have any secrets I need to keep anymore," Ocean wrote. And that same month, when pioneering astronaut Sally Ride died, her orientation was disclosed posthumously in an obituary she wrote with her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy. Some were supportive that Ride had chosen privacy in her lifetime; others were not.

On The Huffington Post's "Gay Voices" page on Monday, entertainment writer Deb Baer called Foster a "coward" and said she "could have helped millions of people by coming out years ago."

"Why am I so angry?" Baer wrote. "Because I'm roughly the same age as Jodie, and yet I had the courage to come out exactly 20 years ago." She added: "The 'privacy' excuse is just that: An excuse."

The editor of "Gay Voices," Noah Michelson, said Baer's view was in the minority — most of his site's followers were very happy with Foster's action, he noted — but that he himself had problems with her speech.

"She did it with a sort of bitterness, a hesitation," he said. "It was almost like she was being pulled out of the closet, like she HAD to do it." It didn't really matter, he said, that Foster was an intensely private person.

"I do think queer people who are famous should be out," he said. "I have the same expectations of all people who are famous. People forget that gay kids today are still killing themselves. So we are not at a place where it doesn't matter whether people come out or not."

One of Foster's online critics was actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who wrote on his Facebook page: "Trying desperately to be fair to JODI FOSTER, but what she did last night by standing in front of millions of people and being too ashamed to say the word lesbian or gay sent the message that being gay is something of which to be ashamed."

But Wilson Cruz, a former TV actor who came out publicly at 19 — he's now 39 — and is a spokesman at GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said he viewed the situation as more complicated. At first, he had posted a comment critical of Foster on Facebook. He spoke to The Associated Press after further reflection.

"The way people come out today is very different than 10, 15 years ago," he said. "Then it was an act of political activism. Now, it's less of a political statement." He added that Foster "has a level of stardom that I cannot imagine, so I can't imagine the pressure. She also has children that she had to think about. She came out when she was ready. She did it her way."

But Cruz, who played a gay teen on the show "My So-Called Life" in the '90s, said that now, Foster has an opportunity she should not squander.

"She can talk to young people," he said. "She has the opportunity — not to overstate it, but she has the opportunity to save lives."

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Well: How to Go Vegan

When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.

At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.

Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.

NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.

NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.

THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”

Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.

BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.

EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.

Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.

“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”

Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.

“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.”

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St. Jude Medical gets FDA warning about problems at Sylmar plant

Medical device maker St. Jude Medical said Monday it received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration about manufacturing and quality-control problems at its plant in Sylmar where it makes implantable heart defibrillators.

The company said in a regulatory filing that it is working to correct the problems at its plant and does not expect the citation to affect its financial results.

The warning was expected after St. Jude announced in October that FDA inspectors had visited the plant. The staffers found inconsistencies in how the company manufactured and documented defibrillators, devices implanted in the chest to correct dangerous heart rhythms.

St. Jude said it is working to fix the problems cited by the government. Under the terms of the warning letter, the FDA will not approve any new product lines to be manufactured at the plant until the problems are corrected.

However, the company said the FDA is not asking the company to recall any of its products. St. Jude also said it can continue manufacturing and shipping products from the facility.

St. Jude, based in St. Paul, Minn., has struggled in recent years to address quality issues with wires used to attach the defibrillator to the heart.

St. Jude stopped selling its Riata wires in late 2010 because of concerns about their insulation, and it recalled the devices in late 2011. Last year the company recalled two other wires, QuickSite and QuickFlex. Around 79,000 Riata leads are implanted in U.S. patients, and the FDA ordered St. Jude to conduct a three-year study to learn more about the risk of insulation failure.

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