His orchestra manager, Will Curtis, said Shaw had been ill for some time, although the precise cause of death was not known.

"No. Kidding," read the post of the Pasadena father. "Three undeserving boys have crossed the line. Tonight we sat down and showed them what they WILL NOT get for Christmas this year. I'll be taking the tree down tomorrow. If you don't buy them, we'll return them to the store."

With some Sunni leaders calling for an election boycott, their lack of representation in any new legislature could further accentuate their minority status, not least because Shia clerics have been calling for a mass turnout. With most violence focused in Sunni areas, security fears will also minimise turnout among Sunnis and discourage some candidates from standing.

But when an industry thinks it is about to become the latest target of the film maker Michael Moore, precautions have to be taken.

A congressional analysis of more than a dozen federally funded "abstinence-only programmes" unveiled a litany of "false, misleading and distorted information" in teaching materials after reviewing curriculums designed to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

Frances Newton, 39, was to have been killed by lethal injection last night for the murder of her husband and two children in 1987. But Texas governor Rick Perry agreed a four-month stay after the Texas board of pardons and paroles recommended a delay so that the defence could make its case that Ms Newton was wrongly convicted.

Caroline Kennedy's decision to hold this high-class jumble sale in February next year is prompted not by desperation but excessive wealth.

The reluctance to confront these particular questions didn't stifle debate, but it raises broader issue of how and when to withdraw from problematic dialogues.