Can it really be 20 years since Kristi Yamaguchi won an Olympic gold medal in women’s figure skating?

“I know!” the ever-youthful looking Yamaguchi, now 40, tells PEOPLE with a laugh.

“It’s hard to believe, but 1992 in Albertville was a big deal because not only was it the Olympics, but that’s where my husband (Bret Hedican, who played for the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team) and I met.”

The couple married in July 2000 and have two daughters: Keara Kiyomi, 8, and Emma Yoshiko, 6.

Since becoming the first Asian-American to win gold in the ladies single category on Feb. 21, 1992, Yamaguchi has gone on to become a fitness advocate, a Dancing with the Stars champion and children’s author.

Her debut, 2011′s Dream Big, Little Pig, made the New York Times best seller list. Next month the sequel, It’s a Big World, Little Pig, will be released.

The new book “is a continuation of Poppy the Pig’s story,” Yamaguchi explains. “She experiences her first international travel and is anxious about traveling outside of her country, and also worried about meeting friends that are different from her. It’s all about embracing each other’s differences and finding something that they have in common.”

The inspiration for the story came from Yamaguchi’s own experiences as a young skater. When she was 14, Yamaguchi and her then-pairs skating partner Rudy Galindo, competed at the Junior World Championships in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

“I vividly remember my first international competition and the excitement of meeting skaters who didn’t speak English and who were fascinated with Levis because they were so Western,” she notes. “It was such an eye-opening experience. It taught me at such a young age to appreciate people from different countries and cultures.”

Now Yamaguchi and Galindo are teaming up again — sort of. Last November Yamaguchi’s younger daughter, Emma, expressed an interest in following in Mom’s footsteps and longtime pal Galindo agreed to teach her.

“I’m not holding my breath or building my hopes up,” laughs Yamaguchi. “I told her, ‘That means you have to practice and take lessons.’”

Yamaguchi says she and Hedican, 41, have the same philosophy about their daughter taking to the ice.

“We’re not going to push her to be competitive. We will take it step by step and let her dictate how involved she wants to get,” explains Yamaguchi. “It’s a great sport and you can learn a lot from it, even if you’re not going to be an elite skater.”

The most important thing, she says, is that her daughter has fun.

“I remember the joy I got out of it as a young child,” Yamaguchi recalls. “If she wants to compete, I’ll support her and encourage her, and if she decides not to, I’m fine with that, too.”

– Monica Rizzo

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Could Drew Barrymore be planning more than just her wedding this year?

After the recently engaged actress was spotted leaving a doctor’s office with a sonogram in-hand over the weekend, seen in a photo posted on TMZ.com, some are wondering whether Barrymore, 36, is expecting her first baby with fiancé Will Kopelman.

The couple would like to become parents, a source close to them told PEOPLE last month. “Drew is so motherly,” the source said at the time. “Will would like to be a dad. Family is so important to him.”

When asked by PEOPLE if Barrymore was expecting, her rep had no comment.

Although there could be another explanation for the sonogram, starting a family has long been on Barrymore’s mind. “I definitely feel the beginnings of a tick-tock,” she told PEOPLE in 2006. “Whether I have children or adopt, whatever form a family comes in, I would absolutely love to have it.”

In recent weeks, the actress has stepped out for public appearances in notably loose-fitting clothing, though her characteristic style has always been on the bohemian side. At a Feb. 18 party celebrating Marni’s new line for H&M, the actress was asked if she had selected a wedding dress yet. Laughing, she told reporters, “Oh, gosh, I don’t know! I’ve been trying to figure it out! All I know is that I want something tasteful, something timeless.”

Barrymore first stepped out with Kopelman, an art consultant, last February.

Reporting by Reagan Alexander

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Now the three young children have been at the centre of a legal battle over the assets of their dead grandfather two years after the killings.

Ben Heuston, widower of Chloe Heuston and father of their three children, has sued the partner of Nick Waterlow, Juliet Darling, for a share in property and superannuation assets. Mr Heuston brought the New South Wales Supreme Court case on behalf of his children aged 6, 5 and 2.

He asked the court to give the children a Woollahra apartment in a company title building, where Mr Waterlow, 68, had lived with Ms Darling.

In November 2009 Antony Waterlow, son of Nick and brother of Chloe, killed the two in her Randwick home.

Mr Waterlow Jr, 44, was found not guilty of murder by reason of mental illness in the Supreme Court last year and remains in a high-security forensic hospital in Malabar. Ms Darling told the Daily Telegraph she owned the apartment and had lived there for 14 years. “Nick moved in with me,” she said.

Property records showed Ms Darling owned a large number of shares in the company title building, and that Mr Waterlow Sr was a former owner of a small number of shares.

The legal action also targeted Mr Waterlow Sr’s superannuation from his time as a director of the Ivan Dougherty Gallery at the University of NSW College of Fine Arts (COFA) and as a director of the Biennale of Sydney.

In November last year the case was settled, with Ms Darling agreeing to pay $55,000 to the Waterlow-Heuston Kids Trust, set up to pay for the children’s education and living expenses.

Ms Darling agreed to give the children a $6000 “abstract watercolour and ink on paper” by English artist John Piper.

“Nick would not have wanted the legal action at all,” Ms Darling said yesterday.

“I’m not able to talk to you about what went on, I signed a confidentiality agreement.”

She said she no longer sees the children or Mr Heuston.

Mr Heuston works in digital marketing and was in London trying to find a job when the killings occurred.

The children may also have been beneficiaries of their grandfather’s will.

Funds to assist them were raised at their grandfather’s funeral and at a fundraiser held at Macquarie Bank.

The funds are held in the Waterlow-Heuston Kids Trust, which is directed by the millionaire widow of hotelier Ron White, Robin White, and lawyer Russell Grigg.

If you are depressed or contemplating suicide, please call for help.
Lifeline – 13 11 14 (24-hour help line) www.lifeline.org.au
SANE Australia on 1800 18 SANE (7263) www.SANE.org
Beyondblue Info Line 1300 22 4636 http://www.beyondblue.org.au/

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By NBC News, msnbc.com and news services

Updated at 5 a.m. ET: BRUSSELS — After months of tough negotiating, Europe and the International Monetary Fund sealed a deal early Tuesday to hand Greece €130 billion ($170 billion) in additional bailout loans to save it from a default that threatened the viability of the euro, undermining global economic confidence.

The early-hours agreement to avert default comes after negotiators persuaded private bondholders to take greater losses and Athens to commit to very severe austerity measures.

Ministers finalized measures to cut Greece’s debt to 120.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020, a fraction above the target, to secure its second rescue in less than two years and meet a bond repayment next month.

The eurozone and the IMF, which will be providing the money for the new bailout, hope the new program will eventually put Greece back into a position where it can survive without external support and secure its place in the euro currency union. Finance ministers from Greece and the other 16 euro countries meeting in Brussels wrangled until the early morning hours over how that could be achieved.

What does the Greece bond swap bailout deal mean?

On top of the new rescue loans, Athens will also ask banks and other investment funds to forgive it some €107 billion in debt, while the European Central Bank and other national central banks in the eurozone will forgo profits on their holdings.

The accord, which had been months in the making, seeks to reduce Greece’s massive debts on all fronts, with both private and official creditors going beyond what they had said was possible in the past.

But the costs for Greece, in potential loss of autonomy and further strict austerity measures, were implicit from a statement from Eurogroup, which Europe’s finance ministers belong to.

“The Eurogroup is fully aware of the significant efforts already made by the Greek citizens but also underlines that further major efforts by the Greek society are needed to return the economy to a sustainable growth path,” the statement read. “We reiterate our commitment to provide adequate support to Greece during the life of the programme and beyond until it has regained market access, provided that Greece fully complies with the requirements and objectives of the adjustment programme.”

So it was clear that Greece, which kicked off Europe’s debt crisis two years ago, was at the very best starting a long and painful road to recovery. At the worst, the new program would push the country even deeper into recession and see it default on its debts further down the line.

“It’s not an easy (program), it’s an ambitious one,” said Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, adding that there were significant risks that Greece’s economy could not grow as much as its international creditors were hoping.

The austerity measures wrought from Greece are also widely unpopular among the population and may hold difficulties for a country which is due to hold an election in April. Further protests could test politicians’ commitment to cuts to wages, pensions and jobs.

So social upheaval was a real risk, Paschos Mandravelis, a political analyst at Greece’s Kathimerini newspaper, told NBC News’ Andy Eckardt.

“If people in the broad middle class landscape get desperate and feel choked, there is the possibility of some kind of uprising,” he said.

A Greek’s only hot seller: Tear gas masks

And some economists say there are still questions over whether Greece can pay off even a reduced debt burden.

A return to economic growth could take as much as a decade, a prospect that brought thousands of Greeks onto the streets to protest against austerity measures Sunday. The cuts will deepen its five-year recession, hurting government revenues.

Europe’s economy edges closer to recession

A report prepared by experts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund said Greece would need extra relief to cut its debts near to the official debt target given the worsening state of its economy.

If Athens did not follow through on economic reforms and savings to make its economy more competitive, its debt could hit 160 percent by 2020, said the report, obtained by Reuters.

“Given the risks, the Greek program may thus remain accident-prone, with questions about sustainability hanging over it,” the nine-page confidential report said.

NBC News, msnbc.com, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report 

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The average price of a gallon of gas is $3.56 a gallon, up 40 cents over last year and a record for this time of the year. And experts say it’s only beginning. NBC’s Miguel Almaguer reports.

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