Mr Blunt likes to portray himself as an aw-shucks small-town boy, but he too grew up in the world of politics.

ECONOMIST: And who will cut the victory?

Hours earlier, police detained a 17-year-old boy from town.

BBC: Jason McGovern

"Throughout his career, he represented everything that was good about North Carolina: a small town boy and UNC graduate who took a light-hearted approach to some of the attributes he grew up with and turned them into a spectacularly successful career, " she said.

CNN: Actor Andy Griffith dead at 86

The 15-year old boy, who is from the town, was injured in the incident in August last year.

BBC: Essex

After pressure from the Bush administration, Israel also reacted with some degree of moderation to an attack last weekend, in which Hizbullah, a Shia militant group based in southern Lebanon, shelled the northern Israeli town of Shlomi, killing a 16-year-old Israeli boy.

ECONOMIST: Call this a ceasefire?

Stop-motion comedy ParaNorman, about a boy who helps save his town from a zombie invasion, was at three.

BBC: Expendables 2 continues chart hold

Billy Elliot, which is set in a poverty-stricken British town in the 1980s and tells the story of a young boy discovering his love of dance, has been one of the most popular musicals since it debuted on Broadway in 2008.

BBC: Broadway's pop culture revival