LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Fans of novelist George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series are melting. The "Game of Thrones" author just released a previously unpublished sample chapter from the upcoming sixth installment, "The Winds of Winter," on his Website.

At 6,100 words in length, the excerpt is substantial.

"The chronology, as usual, is tricky," Martin said on his LiveJournal page. "This chapter will be found eventually at the beginning of 'Winds,' but as you will be able to tell from context, it actually takes place before some of the chapters at the end of"

Martin also said another "Winds of Winter" sample chapter will be included in the paperback edition of "A Dance with Dragons," which is due in July. "A Dance With Dragons" was released in July 2011, 15 years after the first volume -- "A Game of Thrones" -- came out.

In an interview published in October, Martin said he had written 100 pages of "Winds," which will be published by Bantam Books. A release date has not been set for that book or its successor, "A Dream of Spring," which Martin plans to be the final installment in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

In the meantime, Martin fans will bide their time with the second season of HBO's series adaptation "A Game of Thrones," which starts in April.

KINGSTON, Jamaica – On Jamaica's rutted streets, the complaints have been chronic — home ownership is out of reach for most wage earners, the cost of electricity has skyrocketed, water service regularly fizzles out and decent jobs are scarce.
Fed up with chronic hard times, voters in this debt-wracked Caribbean nation on Thursday threw out the ruling party and delivered a landslide triumph to the opposition People's National Party, or PNP, whose campaign energetically tapped voter disillusionment especially among the numerous struggling poor.
The win marks a remarkable political comeback for former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who was Jamaica's first female leader during her year-and-a-half-long first stint in office that ended in 2007. The 66-year-old known affectionately as "Sista P" reached out to Jamaicans as a champion of the poor with a popular touch.
"She cares about the ghetto people," said Trishette Bond, a twenty-something resident of gritty Trench Town who wore an orange shirt and a bright orange wig, the color of Simpson Miller's slightly center-left party, which led the island for 18 years before narrowly losing 2007 elections.
As word of her election win emerged Thursday night, PNP supporters shimmied and shouted in the capital, Kingston, and motorists honked horns in celebration as they tore down the streets.
"I am humbled as I stand before you and I wish to thank the Jamaican people for their love, for their support and for giving the People's National Party and the leader of the party her own mandate," she said, after receiving hugs from numerous candidates, some crying.
Simpson Miller defeated Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who at 39 is Jamaica's youngest leader and leads the center-right Jamaica Labor Party.
Holness said the defeat will prompt a time of introspection and reflection for party leaders to examine what went wrong.
"I wish the new government well. We hope for the benefit of the country that they will do a good job," said Holness, who warned during the campaign that an opposition win would scare away foreign investment and dash hopes of economic progress.
While official results have not been released, elections director Orrette Fisher told The Associated Press that preliminary results showed Simpson Miller heading to victory.
"Based on the margins, it appears safe to say" that Simpson Miller's party won, Fisher said shortly after Jamaican newspapers and broadcasters called the election for the PNP. He expected his office to release the official count and breakdown of parliamentary seats on Saturday.
News station TVJ said Simpson Miller's People's National Party won 41 seats in parliament and Holness's Jamaica Labor Party 22.
Simpson Miller is beloved by her supporters for her folksy, plainspoken style. She became Jamaica's first female prime minister in March 2006 after she was picked by party delegates when P.J. Patterson retired as leader. But she was tossed out of office a year later in a narrow election defeat.
This time around, she has pledged to lift debt-wracked Jamaica out of poverty, secure foreign investment, and create jobs. Specifics are few, however.
Her party will face deep economic problems in this island of 2.8 million people, with a punishing debt of roughly $18.6 billion, or 130 per cent of gross domestic product. That's a rate about 10 percentage points higher than debt-troubled Italy's.
Veteran opposition lawmaker Omar Davies said one of the first things the People's National Party will do is get "a true assessment of the state of the economy," a dig at Holness' party which was accused of rarely providing citizens with a clear picture of the island's dire fiscal straits.
Holness, who became prime minister two months ago after Bruce Golding, Jamaica's leader since 2007, abruptly stepped down in October amid anemic public backing, won his parliamentary seat with 54 percent of the vote.
Simpson Miller has been a stalwart of the People's National Party since the 1970s. She was first elected to Parliament in 1976 and became a Cabinet member in 1989. Partisans have long admired Simpson Miller as a Jamaican who was born in rural poverty and grew up in a Kingston ghetto, not far from the crumbling concrete jungle made famous by Bob Marley.

During her brief tenure as prime minister, her support waned amid complaints she responded poorly to Hurricane Dean and was evasive about a scandal regarding a Dutch oil trading firm's $460,000 payment to her political party leading up to 2007 elections.

The two top candidates' different styles were clear while they cast their votes.

Holness is largely seen as unexciting, but bright and pragmatic. He whisked into the voting center in the middle class area of Mona, barely interacting with voters. After being heckled by an opposition partisan, he said he was "very confident" of a Labor victory and departed after taking three questions from reporters.

By contrast, Simpson Miller hugged and chatted with supporters at a school in Whitfield Town and told election workers to help struggling elderly voters.

Her party, which experimented with democratic socialism in the 1970s, is still perceived as more focused on social programs than the slightly more conservative Labor. There are no longer stark ideological differences between the two clan-like factions that have dominated Jamaican politics since the onetime British colony began self-rule in 1944. Jamaica became independent within the British Commonwealth in 1962.

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Associated Press Writer Howard Campbell in Kingston contributed to this report.

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David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd

NEW YORK – Muslim leaders intent on showing Mayor Michael Bloomberg that they have no appetite for his support of the police department's efforts to gather intelligence on their neighborhoods are poised to make an impression by their absence at his annual interfaith breakfast Friday.
A letter they composed made a controversy out of a normally sedate end-of-the-year meeting. In all, 15 Muslim clerics and community figures say they won't show up to protest the surveillance program first revealed in a series of Associated Press articles.
But one man who signed the letter, Rabbi Michael Weisser, said he will attend the breakfast after friends in the Muslim community urged him to attend and engage the mayor in conversation about the dispute.
The breakfast is traditionally held at the historic New York Public Library building on 42nd Street and has long served to showcase the city's diversity during overlapping winter holidays.
Weisser, who is one of seven people who will give invocations at the gathering, said he will not address it in his remarks to the group because he had already submitted his text to the mayor's office before taking sides in the dispute. Still, he said he saw parallels to what Jews have faced.
"From a Jewish perspective, it reminded me of things that were going on in the 1930s in Germany. We don't need that in America," he said. "The Muslim community is targeted. It's stereotyped. When people think of terrorism, they immediately think Muslim."
He said he had no problem with the police department following leads, but objected to the sense that the department is targeting Muslim organizations because they are Muslim.
"We can't be painting a whole group of people with the same broad brush," he said.
Bloomberg's office has said it expects about two dozen Muslim leaders to attend the breakfast.
"You're going to see a big turnout tomorrow, and it's nice that all faiths can get together," the mayor said Thursday. Boycott participants "are going to miss a chance to have a great breakfast."
Among those disagreeing with the boycott is Imam Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York. "I believe that engagement is more important. I think everyone disagrees with the way the NYPD is penetrating the community, but I think generalizing everything else as bad is not appropriate," he said. "The mayor's not perfect, but there are many things about him we need to appreciate. And I think working with him is a way of appreciation."
Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have insisted their counterterrorism programs are legal.
"Contrary to assertions, the NYPD lawfully follows leads in terrorist-related investigations and does not engage in the kind of wholesale spying on communities that was falsely alleged," police spokesman Paul Browne said in an email Thursday.
Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, president of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York, a group of 35 clerics and their congregations, said those who won't attend don't feel comfortable "going to have coffee and doughnuts with the mayor knowing that this civil liberties crisis that's affecting all New Yorkers is not going to be addressed."
He and other Muslim activists and clerics sent a letter to Bloomberg this week turning down their invitations. About three dozen other people signed the letter as supporters, including rabbis, a Roman Catholic nun, Protestant pastors and a Quaker, though it was unclear how many had been invited to the breakfast.
"I couldn't be there while knowing that the mayor supports, if not established, this warrantless spying apparatus," said Hesham El-Meligy, founder of the Building Bridges Coalition of Staten Island.
Activists accused Bloomberg of squandering the goodwill built up last year when he fiercely defended a proposed Islamic prayer and cultural center not far from where the World Trade Center stood. The mosque is still in the planning stages.
Bloomberg had also won praise from Muslim leaders for criticizing anti-Islamic rhetoric and offering wos of compassion after fires in the Bronx killed a large Muslim family and destroyed a mosque.

"However, despite these welcome and positive actions, very disturbing revelations have come to light regarding the city's treatment of Muslim New Yorkers," the letter said.

Records examined by the AP show the police department collected information on people who were neither accused nor suspected of wrongdoing.

The AP series detailed police department efforts to infiltrate Muslim neighborhoods and mosques with aggressive programs designed by a CIA officer. Documents reviewed by the AP revealed that undercover police officers known as "rakers" visited businesses such as Islamic bookstores and cafes, chatting up store owners to determine their ethnicities and gauge their views. They also played cricket and eavesdropped in ethnic clubs.

The surveillance efforts have been credited with enabling police to thwart a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station.

Critics said the efforts amount to ethnic profiling and violate court guidelines that limit how and why police can collect intelligence before there is evidence of a crime. They have asked a judge to issue a restraining order against the police.

Participants in the boycott said they feel betrayed by the city.

"Civic engagement is a two-way street. We've done our part as a community; we're waiting for the city to do their part," said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab-American Association of New York.

The surveillance has revealed deep divisions in the city a decade after 9/11. Many New Yorkers say they empathize with Muslims living under the pall of suspicion, but also support aggressive police efforts against would-be terrorists.

The New York Daily News and New York Post defended the police in editorials this week, with the Daily News calling the AP's reporting "overheated, overhyped."

The AP's senior managing editor, Michael Oreskes, sent a letter to the newspaper Thursday in defense of the news organization.

"These were stories about where our city was drawing the line in protecting New Yorkers from another 9/11 attack," Oreskes wrote. "The stories were based on extensive reporting and documents. It is a journalist's job to report the activities of government. It is up to citizens to decide about those activities."

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Online:

Read AP's previous stories and documents about the NYPD at: http://www.ap.org/nypd

Letter to Bloomberg: http://interfaithletter.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/hello-world/

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Associated Press writers Samantha Gross and Tom Hays in New York and Adam Goldman in Washington contributed to this story.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne has apologized for comments he made on his Twitter account about public breastfeeding.
According to multiple media reports, Kahne posted messages on his account that he saw a mother breastfeeding a child in a supermarket, calling it "nasty" and saying he didn't "feel like shopping any more or eating."
Reports say Kahne then sent a crude reply message to a Twitter user who took issue with his comments.
After apparently deleting the offending posts from his Twitter feed, Kahne posted an apology on his Facebook page Wednesday, saying it wasn't his intention "to offend any mother who chooses to breastfeed her child, or, for that matter, anyone who supports breast feeding children. I want to make that clear."
Kahne said he understands his comments were "offensive to some people" and apologized.
"In all honestly, I was surprised by what I saw in a grocery store," Kahne said. "I shared that reaction with my fans on Twitter. It obviously wasn't the correct approach, and, after reading your feedback, I now have a better understanding of why my posts upset some of you.
"My comments were not directed at the mother's right to breastfeed. They were just a reaction to the location of that choice, and the fashion in which it was executed on that occasion."
Kahne said he respects the mother's right to feed her child "whenever and wherever she pleases."
Kahne also posted a personal reply to the user he'd insulted.
"I wanted to apologize for saying what I said to you yesterday," Kahne wrote. "It was out of line."
Kahne's team said its "concerns have been conveyed" to Kahne.
"We appreciate that he chose to follow up with his fans and others who were upset by the comments," Hendrick Motorsports said in a statement.
NASCAR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Tom Brady participated in practice Thursday on a limited basis because of a left shoulder injury.
The New England Patriots quarterback had missed Wednesday's session, but the team said his absence was not injury-related.
Comcast SportsNet reported that same day that Brady had X-rays to check for a separated left shoulder and was told he was "all set." Patriots spokesman Stacey James said Thursday: "If there was an injury then it would be on the injury report."
Brady was listed on Thursday's report as having participated on a limited basis with the shoulder injury. He was one of 17 Patriots listed as participating on a limited basis, meaning a player took part in fewer than 100 percent of his normal repetitions.
He loosened up and ran with his teammates at the start of the practice while reporters were allowed to watch.
Brady landed hard on his left shoulder with 1:40 left in the fourth quarter Saturday when he was tackled by Kevin Burnett on a scramble in a 27-24 win over the Miami Dolphins in which he also scored on two 1-yard sneaks.
The Patriots have one more practice on Friday before a walkthrough on Saturday for Sunday's regular-season finale against the Buffalo Bills (6-9).
The Patriots (12-3) have clinched a first-round bye and can lock up home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with a win or tie. If they lose, they could still get home-field advantage with a loss or tie by both the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Brady has a chance for the fourth 5,000-yard passing season, needing just 103. Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints set the NFL record of 5,087 Monday night, 3 more than the mark set by Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins in 1984.
The Saints, tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the second-best record in the NFC at 12-3 and with a chance to earn a bye, face the Carolina Panthers.