Save the Children, a humanitarian organization in Westport, released its ninth annual Mothers' Index that ranks the best -- and worst -- places to be a mother and a child. The Mother's Index compares the well-being of mothers and children in 146 countries.

The Nordic countries sweep the top rankings of the best places to be a mother, while countries in sub-Saharan Africa dominated the bottom tier. Sweden tops the list, while Niger ranks last among the 146 countries surveyed. The United States placed 27th this year, one slot down from last year's ranking.

Click here to view the full 2008 report card on mothers.

Not everything that happens at the legislature is serious. Rep. Chris Caruso, D-Bridgeport, showed off this gift from Rep. Diana Urban, D-North Stonington. The Buddha in front of the sign is a piggy bank.

The sign he is holding reads as follows:

You are a Republican and Chris Caruso gets you mad...25 cents

You are a Democrat and Chris Caruso gets you mad...50 cents

The House is set to privately caucus the Paid Sick Days bill and casino smoking ban Tuesday one day before the legislative session adjourns. Both bills have already passed the Senate and may be brought up in the House on the final day of the legislative session Wednesday.

Also of note is the real estate conveyance tax, which is scheduled to sunset on July 1, if no action is taken. The Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee voted to continue the conveyance tax levied on people when they sell their homes long before Democratic leaders and Gov. M. Jodi Rell agreed to stick with last year's budget. Traditionally the conveyance tax would be something negotiated with the budget, however, since there are no budget negotiations extending the tax becomes more difficult.

The real estate conveyance tax raises about $40 million for cities and towns statewide. If Democrats in the House try to bring the bill out on the floor, it's more than possible that Republicans would try to attach their alternative budget proposal to it making for a lengthy debate with little time left on the clock.

Karen Connyer (pictured) kept an eye on the street Wednesday morning as East Rock reeled from a brutal home invasion.

Connyer is a security guard at the Foote School on Loomis Place, a quiet street of elegant homes on East Rock's Prospect Hill. She was shocked when a neighbor told her what had happened a few doors down the night before.

Click here to continue reading Melissa's report.

The worldwide debate over human rights and the coming Olympics arrived in New Haven, as a pro-China rally and a parade of protesters met in a shouting, flag-saturated, musical confrontation in the middle of the Green.

Click here to continue reading Thomas MacMillan's report.

U.S. President George W. Bush tied his initiative to combat malaria to the war on terrorism in his speech at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club Friday morning.

Fighting malaria is a "strategy that advances our security interests," Bush said. "From experience we understand that the terrorists and extremists can only find fertile recruiting grounds where they find hopelessness."

"Their ideology is so backwards, so distorted, so hateful nobody really wants to follow it unless you're so hopeless that it becomes appealing," he said. "So the best way to defeat this ideology of hate is with acts of compassion and love. The best way to defeat an ideology of darkness is to spread the light of hope."

State legislators reached an agreement with the University of Connecticut football program Wednesday that allows the Huskies to play a six game series against Notre Dame, even though none of those games will be played at home in Connecticut.

The games will be played at larger football stadiums in New York, New Jersey, or Massachusetts, instead of the publicly financed 40,000-seat Rentschler Field in East Hartford.

State Rep. Michael Christ, D-East Hartford, had planned to introduce an amendment that would force UConn to play all of its home games at Rentschler Field, which cost the state taxpayers more than $90 million to build. But Christ and other legislators brokered a deal with UConn Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway, which allows the team to play three games in South Bend and three games at stadiums in the tri-state area.

President George W. Bush will make a short stop in Hartford's northend Friday morning before zipping off in Marine One to Henry Kissinger's home in Kent to raise money for Republican Sen. David Cappiello's campaign against U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5.

Bush is expected to speak at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club on Nahum Drive around 9 a.m. Friday morning. The topic du jour for the president will be malaria, which fortunately is not one of the many problems that plague Hartford.

Unfortunately, none of the boys or girls will be there to greet him since the club doesn't open until the afternoon. We know this because we used to run a program at the club. At the moment it's unclear who his audience for the malaria speech will be.

Click here to read Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz's press release about dead voters voting.

They set out to launch a new sci-fi TV station. Now some New Haven investors have landed on larger terrain: a planned 78-acre digital media planet.

The investors have won a federal auction to purchase the waterfront land where the Stratford Army Engine Plant was closed 12 years ago.

The group -- a limited liability corporation called "Hollywood East/Area 51" -- is paying $9.612 million to buy the property next to Sikorsky Memorial Airport. After an environmental clean-up, "the largest independent digital motion picture studio complex in North America" will rise there, declared Allen Christopher (pictured), the moving force behind the project.

Click here to continue reading Paul's report.