LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger, talking about his affair with a family housekeeper for the first time in a television interview, said it was 'the stupidest thing' he did in his marriage to Maria Shriver and said it 'inflicted tremendous pain' on his family.
In a '60 Minutes' interview with reporter Leslie Stahl due to air on September 30, Schwarzenegger admitted that he lied to Shriver about the affair. CBS released a clip of the interview on Friday.
'I think it was the stupidest thing I've done in the whole relationship. It was terrible. I inflicted tremendous pain on Maria and unbelievable pain on the kids,' Schwarzenegger said.
Schwarzenegger, 65, had been quiet in public about his affair with their housekeeper Mildred Baena. He and Baena had a son, Joseph, who grew up not knowing Schwarzenegger was his father until the scandal made headlines last year.
After the revelations, Shriver and Schwarzenegger began proceedings to end their 25-year marriage. They have four children together.
The interview coincides with the October 1 release of Austrian-born Schwarzenegger's autobiography, 'Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life.' He told Stahl that he was determined to write a book that included his 'failures' as well as his successes in bodybuilding, film and politics.
Since his term as Republican governor ended, Schwarzenegger has returned to movies with 'The Expendables 2' last August, and he has five more films in the pipeline. He also inaugurated a global policy think tank in his name at the University of Southern California's Los Angeles campus.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy)
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Friday, September 28, 2012
Paolo Gabriele, the papal butler who fell from grace
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - By day, Paolo Gabriele was a member of the Vatican's innermost circle, the 'papal family', possessing a key held by fewer than 10 people to an elevator leading from a small Vatican courtyard directly into Pope Benedict's apartments.
By night, he was a different man, obsessed with helping root out what he saw as corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.
The pious butler who helped Pope Benedict dress and served him his meals now finds himself on trial for aggravated theft, accused of stealing documents in what could prove to be the most sensational Vatican trial in decades.
Gabriele, 46, a reserved family man and devout Catholic, told investigators he acted for the good of the Church.
While tending to the man Catholics believe is Christ's vicar on earth, the clean-cut, black-haired butler said he saw 'evil and corruption everywhere in the Church', and began leaking the papers that would cause one of the biggest crisis of Pope Benedict's papacy.
The documents, which Gabriele admits he photocopied and passed to an Italian journalist, contained allegations of corruption in the Vatican's business dealings.
His trial, which could bring a sentence of up to four years in jail, starts in the Vatican's small tribunal on Saturday.
Gabriele told a pre-trial inquiry that he never received payment for the papers, which included personal letters to the pope, but felt he was acting for the good of the Church and as an 'agent' of the Holy Spirit.
'I was sure that a shock, perhaps by using the media, could be a healthy thing to bring the Church back on the right track,' he said in pre-trial testimony, explaining how he felt the pope was not sufficiently informed of problems the letters outlined.
The butler, who told investigators he was in a state of confusion and disorder in the months leading to his arrest, seems to have been thrown into a crisis of conscience by insights into the inner workings of the Vatican that he encountered.
Acquaintances interviewed by investigators described a devout Catholic and a good father who lived in a comfortable apartment in the Vatican with his wife and three children.
To fathom the apparent gulf between Gabriele's acts and his appearance as a reserved and obedient servant of the pope, the Vatican summoned psychologists to determine if he could be held responsible for his actions.
The results were conflicting. One report cited in the indictment concluded that Gabriele showed no signs of major psychological disorder or of being dangerous.
But another concluded the opposite: that while he could be held accountable for his actions, he was socially dangerous, easily influenced and could 'commit acts that could endanger himself or others'.
The latter described Gabriele as subject to ideas of 'grandiosity', as attention-seeking, and as a simple man with a 'fragile personality with paranoid tendencies covering profound personal insecurity'.
He turned to more than one person to share his anguish. He confided in a man he called his 'Spiritual Father', referred to only as 'B' in the indictment, and passed copies of incriminating papers to him as well as to the journalist.
'B' told investigators he destroyed the documents because he knew they had been obtained illegally.
The trial may shed more light on the strange case of Paolo Gabriele, the man who started out as a humble cleaner in the Vatican, slowly rose to become an aide to one of the most revered spiritual leaders, and then quickly fell from grace.
(Reporting By Naomi O'Leary; editing by Philip Pullella, Will Waterman and Mark Heinrich)
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By night, he was a different man, obsessed with helping root out what he saw as corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.
The pious butler who helped Pope Benedict dress and served him his meals now finds himself on trial for aggravated theft, accused of stealing documents in what could prove to be the most sensational Vatican trial in decades.
Gabriele, 46, a reserved family man and devout Catholic, told investigators he acted for the good of the Church.
While tending to the man Catholics believe is Christ's vicar on earth, the clean-cut, black-haired butler said he saw 'evil and corruption everywhere in the Church', and began leaking the papers that would cause one of the biggest crisis of Pope Benedict's papacy.
The documents, which Gabriele admits he photocopied and passed to an Italian journalist, contained allegations of corruption in the Vatican's business dealings.
His trial, which could bring a sentence of up to four years in jail, starts in the Vatican's small tribunal on Saturday.
Gabriele told a pre-trial inquiry that he never received payment for the papers, which included personal letters to the pope, but felt he was acting for the good of the Church and as an 'agent' of the Holy Spirit.
'I was sure that a shock, perhaps by using the media, could be a healthy thing to bring the Church back on the right track,' he said in pre-trial testimony, explaining how he felt the pope was not sufficiently informed of problems the letters outlined.
The butler, who told investigators he was in a state of confusion and disorder in the months leading to his arrest, seems to have been thrown into a crisis of conscience by insights into the inner workings of the Vatican that he encountered.
Acquaintances interviewed by investigators described a devout Catholic and a good father who lived in a comfortable apartment in the Vatican with his wife and three children.
To fathom the apparent gulf between Gabriele's acts and his appearance as a reserved and obedient servant of the pope, the Vatican summoned psychologists to determine if he could be held responsible for his actions.
The results were conflicting. One report cited in the indictment concluded that Gabriele showed no signs of major psychological disorder or of being dangerous.
But another concluded the opposite: that while he could be held accountable for his actions, he was socially dangerous, easily influenced and could 'commit acts that could endanger himself or others'.
The latter described Gabriele as subject to ideas of 'grandiosity', as attention-seeking, and as a simple man with a 'fragile personality with paranoid tendencies covering profound personal insecurity'.
He turned to more than one person to share his anguish. He confided in a man he called his 'Spiritual Father', referred to only as 'B' in the indictment, and passed copies of incriminating papers to him as well as to the journalist.
'B' told investigators he destroyed the documents because he knew they had been obtained illegally.
The trial may shed more light on the strange case of Paolo Gabriele, the man who started out as a humble cleaner in the Vatican, slowly rose to become an aide to one of the most revered spiritual leaders, and then quickly fell from grace.
(Reporting By Naomi O'Leary; editing by Philip Pullella, Will Waterman and Mark Heinrich)
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Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi tells Harvard students: I'm no icon
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Myanmar pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi got celebrity treatment from students at Harvard University on Thursday, but insisted she was not an 'icon.'
'I don't like to be referred to as an icon, because from my point of view, icons just sit there,' Suu Kyi said during a lecture before an enthusiastic, overflow crowd at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
'I would like you to think of me as a worker. I put a lot of faith in hard work. Even under house arrest, I had to work very hard to live a disciplined life. It was hard work. ... Please look upon me as a hard worker.'
Suu Kyi is on a 17-day tour of the United States that included a meeting with President Barack Obama, the receipt of a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal to recognize her efforts to promote freedom and democracy, and visits with Myanmar expatriates.
She has spoken on several college campuses, where her celebrity, forged by years as one of the world's most prominent political prisoners, has attracted excited crowds.
Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize came in 1991, while she was under house arrest in Myanmar, enforced by a military dictatorship. The country is also known as Burma.
Elected in April 2012 to the lower house of the Myanmar parliament, Suu Kyi said she was surprised at suggestions she only now had to learn the art of politics.
'I have always seen myself as a politician. What do they think I have been doing for the past 24 years?' she said.
In her lecture, the leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy Party said the Southeast Asian nation had a long way to go to become a free society.
'The best way to be a truly responsible citizen in a free society is to act as though you were already a free citizen in a free society,' Suu Kyi said.
(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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'I don't like to be referred to as an icon, because from my point of view, icons just sit there,' Suu Kyi said during a lecture before an enthusiastic, overflow crowd at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
'I would like you to think of me as a worker. I put a lot of faith in hard work. Even under house arrest, I had to work very hard to live a disciplined life. It was hard work. ... Please look upon me as a hard worker.'
Suu Kyi is on a 17-day tour of the United States that included a meeting with President Barack Obama, the receipt of a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal to recognize her efforts to promote freedom and democracy, and visits with Myanmar expatriates.
She has spoken on several college campuses, where her celebrity, forged by years as one of the world's most prominent political prisoners, has attracted excited crowds.
Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize came in 1991, while she was under house arrest in Myanmar, enforced by a military dictatorship. The country is also known as Burma.
Elected in April 2012 to the lower house of the Myanmar parliament, Suu Kyi said she was surprised at suggestions she only now had to learn the art of politics.
'I have always seen myself as a politician. What do they think I have been doing for the past 24 years?' she said.
In her lecture, the leader of Myanmar's National League for Democracy Party said the Southeast Asian nation had a long way to go to become a free society.
'The best way to be a truly responsible citizen in a free society is to act as though you were already a free citizen in a free society,' Suu Kyi said.
(Reporting By Ros Krasny; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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Thursday, September 27, 2012
Rowling "obsessed" with death, reads reviews later
LONDON (Reuters) - What does the author of the most eagerly awaited book of the year do on publication day?
If you are J.K. Rowling, whose adult fiction debut 'The Casual Vacancy' hit the shelves on Thursday, you watch a movie in your hotel, avoid reading newspaper reviews and later in the evening address 900 people at a question-and-answer session.
The 47-year-old read from her new novel and took questions on death, digital publishing and the Olympics opening ceremony at her first public appearance to promote The Casual Vacancy held at London's Southbank Centre (southbankcentre.co.uk).
She engaged openly with fans, at one point accepting a gift from a breathless visitor from Spain whom she embraced and kissed on stage, and later personally signed hundreds of copies of her new book.
Asked by moderator Mark Lawson how she had spent her day, she replied: 'I've spent most of the day trying to avoid newspapers. I will read reviews, but I don't like to do it on a day where I've got to go out and talk about the book.
'We sat in our hotel and watched 'Men in Black 3'. I'd never seen it. It was very good'.
Rowling, who received mixed reviews for her gritty tale about a small English town, added that she probably would read what critics had to say eventually, just as she did with the seventh and final Harry Potter instalment published in 2007.
'With ('Harry Potter and the) Deathly Hallows' I didn't read any of the reviews at all for ages.
'I kind of felt about Hallows the way I feel about this book. In both cases I felt well, I've done the best I can do, the book is what I want it to be, so, I don't mean it in an arrogant way, that's it. I'm done. So it doesn't really matter.
'I did later. It was months later. It takes the heat out of it if you're not reading them on publication day.'
'SOCIALIST MANIFESTO'
The release of The Casual Vacancy is one of the highlights of the publishing calendar this year, with hefty sales expected for a writer whose Potter series sold 450 million copies and who went on to become the world's first billionaire author.
Rowling could not resist mentioning one review, however, which she had clearly either read or been told about.
Jan Moir wrote a scathing assessment in the Daily Mail, a newspaper considered the preserve of the middle class which Moir felt Rowling had unfairly lampooned in her book.
Moir described The Casual Vacancy as 'more than 500 pages of relentless socialist manifesto masquerading as literature', a description Rowling, who was an unemployed single mother living on state benefits when she started writing the Potter books, took as a compliment.
'A 500 page socialist manifesto. I high-fived my husband!' she joked. 'I thought that's all right. It made me laugh so much. Apart from Men in Black 3 that was the highlight of my day.'
Rowling was asked why death was such a prominent theme throughout her work.
'Death obsesses me. What can I tell you?' she said. 'I can't really understand why it doesn't obsess everyone. I think it does really, I'm just maybe a little more out about it.
'It's made me much less afraid of it,' she added later. 'I think things lose their mystique when you think about them a lot and you consider them a lot.
'I'm frightened of leaving my children. It's the thing I dislike most about the idea that I will die, but death itself doesn't frighten me really.'
POTTER MISTAKES
She said she understood why her publishers, Little, Brown Book Group, had imposed strict conditions on allowing journalists to read the book before publication.
'The internet really has changed everything. It's the net that's done it,' she explained, quoting examples of other leading writers who had seen their manuscripts end up online or proofs being auctioned on eBay.
'As a writer that is a horrible, horrible experience.'
On Potter, Rowling admitted she had made mistakes, in particular a mirror belonging to the character Sirius Black in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', the fifth book.
The 'Marauder's Map' used by Potter was also problematic.
'Half way through the series I cursed myself for giving Harry the Marauder's Map, because it was far too useful an object so I had to take it away from him and then give it back to him.
'That's the trouble. You invent these amazing objects, and then they cause you as much trouble as they solve. So quite a bit of that went on.'
In a separate BBC Radio interview broadcast on Thursday, Rowling said that the world of witches and wizards 'does sometimes tug at me a little bit,' although she had no plans to write anything else Potter-related.
'I've always said never say never purely because I liked it and I might want to do it again, but Harry's stories I am as sure as you can be it is done.'
Rowling added that two books for children 'are pretty well developed' and she knew what her next one for adults would be, although it was 'not very well advanced.'
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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If you are J.K. Rowling, whose adult fiction debut 'The Casual Vacancy' hit the shelves on Thursday, you watch a movie in your hotel, avoid reading newspaper reviews and later in the evening address 900 people at a question-and-answer session.
The 47-year-old read from her new novel and took questions on death, digital publishing and the Olympics opening ceremony at her first public appearance to promote The Casual Vacancy held at London's Southbank Centre (southbankcentre.co.uk).
She engaged openly with fans, at one point accepting a gift from a breathless visitor from Spain whom she embraced and kissed on stage, and later personally signed hundreds of copies of her new book.
Asked by moderator Mark Lawson how she had spent her day, she replied: 'I've spent most of the day trying to avoid newspapers. I will read reviews, but I don't like to do it on a day where I've got to go out and talk about the book.
'We sat in our hotel and watched 'Men in Black 3'. I'd never seen it. It was very good'.
Rowling, who received mixed reviews for her gritty tale about a small English town, added that she probably would read what critics had to say eventually, just as she did with the seventh and final Harry Potter instalment published in 2007.
'With ('Harry Potter and the) Deathly Hallows' I didn't read any of the reviews at all for ages.
'I kind of felt about Hallows the way I feel about this book. In both cases I felt well, I've done the best I can do, the book is what I want it to be, so, I don't mean it in an arrogant way, that's it. I'm done. So it doesn't really matter.
'I did later. It was months later. It takes the heat out of it if you're not reading them on publication day.'
'SOCIALIST MANIFESTO'
The release of The Casual Vacancy is one of the highlights of the publishing calendar this year, with hefty sales expected for a writer whose Potter series sold 450 million copies and who went on to become the world's first billionaire author.
Rowling could not resist mentioning one review, however, which she had clearly either read or been told about.
Jan Moir wrote a scathing assessment in the Daily Mail, a newspaper considered the preserve of the middle class which Moir felt Rowling had unfairly lampooned in her book.
Moir described The Casual Vacancy as 'more than 500 pages of relentless socialist manifesto masquerading as literature', a description Rowling, who was an unemployed single mother living on state benefits when she started writing the Potter books, took as a compliment.
'A 500 page socialist manifesto. I high-fived my husband!' she joked. 'I thought that's all right. It made me laugh so much. Apart from Men in Black 3 that was the highlight of my day.'
Rowling was asked why death was such a prominent theme throughout her work.
'Death obsesses me. What can I tell you?' she said. 'I can't really understand why it doesn't obsess everyone. I think it does really, I'm just maybe a little more out about it.
'It's made me much less afraid of it,' she added later. 'I think things lose their mystique when you think about them a lot and you consider them a lot.
'I'm frightened of leaving my children. It's the thing I dislike most about the idea that I will die, but death itself doesn't frighten me really.'
POTTER MISTAKES
She said she understood why her publishers, Little, Brown Book Group, had imposed strict conditions on allowing journalists to read the book before publication.
'The internet really has changed everything. It's the net that's done it,' she explained, quoting examples of other leading writers who had seen their manuscripts end up online or proofs being auctioned on eBay.
'As a writer that is a horrible, horrible experience.'
On Potter, Rowling admitted she had made mistakes, in particular a mirror belonging to the character Sirius Black in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', the fifth book.
The 'Marauder's Map' used by Potter was also problematic.
'Half way through the series I cursed myself for giving Harry the Marauder's Map, because it was far too useful an object so I had to take it away from him and then give it back to him.
'That's the trouble. You invent these amazing objects, and then they cause you as much trouble as they solve. So quite a bit of that went on.'
In a separate BBC Radio interview broadcast on Thursday, Rowling said that the world of witches and wizards 'does sometimes tug at me a little bit,' although she had no plans to write anything else Potter-related.
'I've always said never say never purely because I liked it and I might want to do it again, but Harry's stories I am as sure as you can be it is done.'
Rowling added that two books for children 'are pretty well developed' and she knew what her next one for adults would be, although it was 'not very well advanced.'
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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Whitney Houston's legacy to be celebrated in Grammy salute
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Whitney Houston will be remembered in a star-studded Grammy televised concert as well the release of a greatest hits album and a television reality series following the singer's family as they cope with her sudden death.
Celine Dion, Usher and Jennifer Hudson were the first performers to be announced by The Recording Academy on Thursday for 'We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute To Whitney Houston' on CBS on November 16.
The one-hour event will be taped in Los Angeles on October 11 and will also feature interviews and footage with the late singer, as well as artists sharing their memories of her.
Houston's death at age 48 from accidental drowning in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel on the eve of the Grammy awards in February shocked the music world. Authorities deemed her death was also a result of heart disease and cocaine use.
The televised special will coincide with the November 13 release of a compilation album, 'I Will Always Love You - The Best of Whitney Houston,' featuring 16 of Houston's best-known hits and two previously unreleased songs, including a new duet of 'I Look To You' with R. Kelly, her RCA record label said.
Lifetime television network will also be airing a new series starting on October 17, 'The Houstons: On Our Own.' It documents Houston's 19-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, sister-in-law and former manager Pat Houston and mother Cissy, as they deal with life after the singer's death.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy. Editing by Jill Serjeant and Andre Grenon)
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Celine Dion, Usher and Jennifer Hudson were the first performers to be announced by The Recording Academy on Thursday for 'We Will Always Love You: A Grammy Salute To Whitney Houston' on CBS on November 16.
The one-hour event will be taped in Los Angeles on October 11 and will also feature interviews and footage with the late singer, as well as artists sharing their memories of her.
Houston's death at age 48 from accidental drowning in a bathtub at a Beverly Hills hotel on the eve of the Grammy awards in February shocked the music world. Authorities deemed her death was also a result of heart disease and cocaine use.
The televised special will coincide with the November 13 release of a compilation album, 'I Will Always Love You - The Best of Whitney Houston,' featuring 16 of Houston's best-known hits and two previously unreleased songs, including a new duet of 'I Look To You' with R. Kelly, her RCA record label said.
Lifetime television network will also be airing a new series starting on October 17, 'The Houstons: On Our Own.' It documents Houston's 19-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, sister-in-law and former manager Pat Houston and mother Cissy, as they deal with life after the singer's death.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy. Editing by Jill Serjeant and Andre Grenon)
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Assange mocks Obama via video at U.N. event
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking via a choppy video feed from his virtual house arrest in London, lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday for supporting freedom of speech in the Middle East while simultaneously 'persecuting' his organization for leaking diplomatic cables.
Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy since June to avoid extradition, made the comments at a packed event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Assange mocked Obama for defending free speech in the Arab world in an address to the United Nations on Tuesday, pointing to his own experience as evidence that Obama has 'done more to criminalize free speech than any other U.S. president.'
'It must have come as a surprise to the Egyptian teenagers who washed American teargas out of their eyes (during the Arab Spring) to hear that the U.S. supported change in the Middle East,' Assange said.
'It's time for President Obama to keep his word ... and for the U.S. to cease its persecution of WikiLeaks,' he said.
Assange's combative comments, plus statements made by Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino and his other allies at the event, suggested no solution is in sight to the diplomatic standoff surrounding the 41-year-old Australian.
British authorities have surrounded the Ecuadorean Embassy and said if Assange sets foot outside, they will arrest him and extradite him to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations.
Assange's lawyers and Ecuador's government fear that could lead in turn to extradition to the United States, where they say he would face 'inhumane' prison conditions and even the death penalty.
Assange, who looked to be in good health as he sat at a desk in front of a bookshelf and addressed the 150 or so people at the event, said Britain and Sweden have so far refused to provide guarantees he would not be extradited to the United States.
U.S. and European government sources have countered that the United States has issued no criminal charges or launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
IN BRITAIN'S COURT
Patino is scheduled to meet with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in New York on Thursday to discuss Assange, and he said there are 'multiple paths' that could lead out of the standoff. Yet, in an interview with Reuters following the U.N. event, Patino made clear that Ecuador is not willing to cede much ground.
'The ball's in their court right now,' Patino said.
Patino held in his hands a mimeographed copy of an 1880 agreement signed between Britain and Ecuador, which he said prohibits extradition in cases such as Assange's. He said he would show the document to Hague on Thursday.
Patino rigorously defended Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to Assange, expressing disbelief that Britain is 'determined' to arrest the former computer hacker even though he said there are no criminal charges against him. 'This means you have reason to suspect he's being persecuted,' Patino said.
He said Assange is in relatively good spirits but expressed concern his physical and psychological condition could deteriorate.
'I think of myself, how I'd react in that situation, not being able to go outside, being isolated,' Patino said. 'It's practically like being jailed.'
(Editing by Eric Beech)
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Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy since June to avoid extradition, made the comments at a packed event on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Assange mocked Obama for defending free speech in the Arab world in an address to the United Nations on Tuesday, pointing to his own experience as evidence that Obama has 'done more to criminalize free speech than any other U.S. president.'
'It must have come as a surprise to the Egyptian teenagers who washed American teargas out of their eyes (during the Arab Spring) to hear that the U.S. supported change in the Middle East,' Assange said.
'It's time for President Obama to keep his word ... and for the U.S. to cease its persecution of WikiLeaks,' he said.
Assange's combative comments, plus statements made by Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino and his other allies at the event, suggested no solution is in sight to the diplomatic standoff surrounding the 41-year-old Australian.
British authorities have surrounded the Ecuadorean Embassy and said if Assange sets foot outside, they will arrest him and extradite him to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault allegations.
Assange's lawyers and Ecuador's government fear that could lead in turn to extradition to the United States, where they say he would face 'inhumane' prison conditions and even the death penalty.
Assange, who looked to be in good health as he sat at a desk in front of a bookshelf and addressed the 150 or so people at the event, said Britain and Sweden have so far refused to provide guarantees he would not be extradited to the United States.
U.S. and European government sources have countered that the United States has issued no criminal charges or launched any attempts to extradite Assange.
IN BRITAIN'S COURT
Patino is scheduled to meet with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in New York on Thursday to discuss Assange, and he said there are 'multiple paths' that could lead out of the standoff. Yet, in an interview with Reuters following the U.N. event, Patino made clear that Ecuador is not willing to cede much ground.
'The ball's in their court right now,' Patino said.
Patino held in his hands a mimeographed copy of an 1880 agreement signed between Britain and Ecuador, which he said prohibits extradition in cases such as Assange's. He said he would show the document to Hague on Thursday.
Patino rigorously defended Ecuador's decision to grant political asylum to Assange, expressing disbelief that Britain is 'determined' to arrest the former computer hacker even though he said there are no criminal charges against him. 'This means you have reason to suspect he's being persecuted,' Patino said.
He said Assange is in relatively good spirits but expressed concern his physical and psychological condition could deteriorate.
'I think of myself, how I'd react in that situation, not being able to go outside, being isolated,' Patino said. 'It's practically like being jailed.'
(Editing by Eric Beech)
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"Cowboy Rides Away" as George Strait announces final tour
NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - 'King of Country' George Strait announced his final tour on Wednesday, but said he wasn't retiring and would go on making records for as long as he could.
'I've decided I'm not going to tour anymore after these next two years,' Strait, 60, told a news conference at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.
'Don't think I'm retiring because I'm not. I'm still going to make records as long as the label will let me. I'm going to write,' the 'Easy Come, Easy Go' singer said.
He added that he might do one-off performances and special events in the future, but said that 'as far as a structured tour goes, after the last date in 2014 that will be it for the touring.'
The 'Cowboy Rides Away' tour will kick off on January 18 in Lubbock, in the singer's home state of Texas. It ends its first leg in Strait's hometown of San Antonio, Texas on June 1. Country singer Martina McBride will join Strait on the 2013 leg of his tour. Dates for 2014 have not yet been announced.
Strait has notched up 59 number one country singles, including 'Unwound,' 'I Saw God Today,' and 'How 'Bout Them Cowgirls,' and sales of more than 65 million albums in his 30-year career.
But he said he always had in the back of his mind that when he turned 60 - as he did in May - it might be time to start thinking about coming off the road.
'I didn't want to book a tour and nobody came. It was important to me to pick that time (to quit touring) rather than go that long when something like that started happening,' he said on Wednesday.
Strait also said he could change his mind down the line. 'I believe I made the right decision but only time will tell. In 2016 I might say 'what a dummy!' And if that's the case maybe I'll reconsider.'
Strait said he picked the cities on the 'Cowboy Rides Away' tour because they are some of the favorite places he has played over the years and he wanted 'just to go and be able to say thanks'.
The country singer said he will be back in Nashville in October to begin recording his next album, noting that this is the longest period of time that he has gone without recording a new project. His last release was 'Here for a Good Time' in 2011.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Andrew Hay)
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'I've decided I'm not going to tour anymore after these next two years,' Strait, 60, told a news conference at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame.
'Don't think I'm retiring because I'm not. I'm still going to make records as long as the label will let me. I'm going to write,' the 'Easy Come, Easy Go' singer said.
He added that he might do one-off performances and special events in the future, but said that 'as far as a structured tour goes, after the last date in 2014 that will be it for the touring.'
The 'Cowboy Rides Away' tour will kick off on January 18 in Lubbock, in the singer's home state of Texas. It ends its first leg in Strait's hometown of San Antonio, Texas on June 1. Country singer Martina McBride will join Strait on the 2013 leg of his tour. Dates for 2014 have not yet been announced.
Strait has notched up 59 number one country singles, including 'Unwound,' 'I Saw God Today,' and 'How 'Bout Them Cowgirls,' and sales of more than 65 million albums in his 30-year career.
But he said he always had in the back of his mind that when he turned 60 - as he did in May - it might be time to start thinking about coming off the road.
'I didn't want to book a tour and nobody came. It was important to me to pick that time (to quit touring) rather than go that long when something like that started happening,' he said on Wednesday.
Strait also said he could change his mind down the line. 'I believe I made the right decision but only time will tell. In 2016 I might say 'what a dummy!' And if that's the case maybe I'll reconsider.'
Strait said he picked the cities on the 'Cowboy Rides Away' tour because they are some of the favorite places he has played over the years and he wanted 'just to go and be able to say thanks'.
The country singer said he will be back in Nashville in October to begin recording his next album, noting that this is the longest period of time that he has gone without recording a new project. His last release was 'Here for a Good Time' in 2011.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Andrew Hay)
This news article is brought to you by WOMEN'S BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Rowling leaves door ajar to return to Potter "world"
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Harry's still finished, but don't rule out any return to the Potter world.
Although J.K. Rowling's first novel tailored for adults is being released this week, she says her next book will likely be a children's book, and in the future she may pen a story related to the Harry Potter universe.
'I think it very likely that the next thing I publish will be for kids. I have a children's book that I really like, it's for slightly younger children than the Potter books,' Rowling told the BBC in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.
In one of a handful of appearances to promote 'The Casual Vacancy,' which hits bookstores worldwide on Thursday, Rowling told the BBC: 'Truly, where Harry's story is concerned, I'm done.
Yet the 47-year-old best-selling British author did not rule out a Potter spin-off, while she was adamant it would never be for commercial reasons. The seven 'Harry Potter' books have sold more than 450 million books worldwide.
'I have always left the door ajar because I'm not that cruel. If I had a fabulous idea that came out of that world, because I loved writing it, I would do it,' she told the BBC.
'But I've got to have a great idea, I don't want to go mechanically into that world and pick up odds and ends and glue them together and say 'Here we go, we can sell this'. It would make a mockery of what those books were to me.'
Were that great idea to come, she said: 'I probably would do it. I'm very averse to the prequel/sequel idea. I've never seen it work well in either literature or film. That's a personal preference.'
Rowling, who started her writing career as a financially struggling, single mother, said while there was clearly 'an appetite for eight, nine, ten,' Potter novels, she knew she only had enough plot for seven books about Harry's magical adventures.
'To go further would have been money for old rope. Couldn't do it. And that's largely why I slapped on that epilogue (in the final 'Harry Potter' novel). (It) says he's leading a quiet life, and he's earned it. He's done,' she said of the boy wizard.
POTTER DIRECTOR'S CUT, TEEN OCD
Rowling said she would have liked more time to work on some of the books.
'I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough. And I read them, and I think 'Oh God, maybe I'll go back and do a director's cut'. I don't know,' she said in BBC interview.
'But you know what?' she added. 'I'm proud I was writing under the conditions under which I was writing. No one will ever know how tough it was at times.'
In a separate interview with ABC's 'Nightline', Rowling revealed that she had signs of obsessive-compulsive behavior when she was a teenager, and that one of the characters in 'The Casual Vacancy' was drawn from her own experiences.
'These are things I know from the inside,' she said in the interview, some of which was aired on 'Good Morning America' on Wednesday. 'When I was in my teens, I had issues with OCD ... checking things, it's very common, double checking, triple checking, it's an anxiety disorder.'
Rowling has spoken openly in the past about dealing with depression, which she estimated she had not had to deal with for more than a decade.
She credited Harry Potter with helping. 'Forget the money,' she said; it gave her self-respect. 'Harry gave me a job that I loved to do more than anything else,' she told ABC.
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White in London, editing by Jill Serjeant and Gunna Dickson)
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Although J.K. Rowling's first novel tailored for adults is being released this week, she says her next book will likely be a children's book, and in the future she may pen a story related to the Harry Potter universe.
'I think it very likely that the next thing I publish will be for kids. I have a children's book that I really like, it's for slightly younger children than the Potter books,' Rowling told the BBC in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.
In one of a handful of appearances to promote 'The Casual Vacancy,' which hits bookstores worldwide on Thursday, Rowling told the BBC: 'Truly, where Harry's story is concerned, I'm done.
Yet the 47-year-old best-selling British author did not rule out a Potter spin-off, while she was adamant it would never be for commercial reasons. The seven 'Harry Potter' books have sold more than 450 million books worldwide.
'I have always left the door ajar because I'm not that cruel. If I had a fabulous idea that came out of that world, because I loved writing it, I would do it,' she told the BBC.
'But I've got to have a great idea, I don't want to go mechanically into that world and pick up odds and ends and glue them together and say 'Here we go, we can sell this'. It would make a mockery of what those books were to me.'
Were that great idea to come, she said: 'I probably would do it. I'm very averse to the prequel/sequel idea. I've never seen it work well in either literature or film. That's a personal preference.'
Rowling, who started her writing career as a financially struggling, single mother, said while there was clearly 'an appetite for eight, nine, ten,' Potter novels, she knew she only had enough plot for seven books about Harry's magical adventures.
'To go further would have been money for old rope. Couldn't do it. And that's largely why I slapped on that epilogue (in the final 'Harry Potter' novel). (It) says he's leading a quiet life, and he's earned it. He's done,' she said of the boy wizard.
POTTER DIRECTOR'S CUT, TEEN OCD
Rowling said she would have liked more time to work on some of the books.
'I had to write on the run and there were times when it was really tough. And I read them, and I think 'Oh God, maybe I'll go back and do a director's cut'. I don't know,' she said in BBC interview.
'But you know what?' she added. 'I'm proud I was writing under the conditions under which I was writing. No one will ever know how tough it was at times.'
In a separate interview with ABC's 'Nightline', Rowling revealed that she had signs of obsessive-compulsive behavior when she was a teenager, and that one of the characters in 'The Casual Vacancy' was drawn from her own experiences.
'These are things I know from the inside,' she said in the interview, some of which was aired on 'Good Morning America' on Wednesday. 'When I was in my teens, I had issues with OCD ... checking things, it's very common, double checking, triple checking, it's an anxiety disorder.'
Rowling has spoken openly in the past about dealing with depression, which she estimated she had not had to deal with for more than a decade.
She credited Harry Potter with helping. 'Forget the money,' she said; it gave her self-respect. 'Harry gave me a job that I loved to do more than anything else,' she told ABC.
(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White in London, editing by Jill Serjeant and Gunna Dickson)
This article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE.
Singer Andy Williams dies at age 84
(Reuters) - Andy Williams, who charmed audiences with his mellow delivery of songs like 'Moon River' and 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' in the 1950s and 60s, has died at his home in Branson, Missouri, his family said Wednesday. He was 84.
The blue-eyed Williams, who continued touring and drawing crowds to his Moon River Theater in the music hub of Branson into his 80s, died on Tuesday evening after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his family said in a statement.
Williams had 18 gold record and three platinum hits and in his peak years was a regular on television with his own variety series.
President Ronald Reagan called his voice 'a national treasure.'
Williams was born on December 3, 1927, in tiny Wall Lake, Iowa, and was singing professionally with three older brothers at age 8. The Williams Brothers had steady work on radio and even sang back-up on Bing Crosby's 1944 hit 'Swinging on a Star.'
Williams went solo after the group broke up in 1951, drew attention with his appearances on 'The Tonight Show' and began recording. His first No. 1 hit, 'Butterfly,' came in 1957.
Later hits included 'Born Free,' 'Days of Wine and Roses,' 'The Shadow of Your Smile,' 'Can't Get Used to Losing You,' 'Solitaire,' 'Music to Watch Girls By,' 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' and the theme from the 1970 movie hit 'Love Story.'
He came upon his signature song when asked to sing "'Moon River' at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony. Audrey Hepburn had performed the song in the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.'
'I still love it, as many times as I've done it,' Williams told a British newspaper in 2007. 'It has a great melody and wonderful lyrics. It's not a bad song to have. It could have been 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.' We forgot to do it one night and 27 people wanted their money back.'
Williams' first wife was Claudine Longet, a Folies Bergere dancer he married in 1961, and they had three children before divorcing. After their split, Williams supported Longet when she was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, skier Spider Sabich, in 1976 in Colorado. She was convicted of negligent homicide after claiming the gun went off accidentally.
FIXTURE ON CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
In 1992, Williams built his own 2,000-seat dinner theater in Branson, a city of 10,000 people that had become a regional entertainment center featuring more than 30 theaters, most of which cater to country music acts. He performed there about 20 weeks a year while also putting on a Christmas tour in the United States and occasional tour of Britain.
Williams was a Christmas fixture on U.S. television, dressed casually in a trademark sweater, and he recorded several Christmas albums. In 2006 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ranked his 'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow' as the sixth most frequently performed Christmas song and 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year' as No. 11.
Williams had a strong following in Britain, where his career was revived in the late 1990s when "'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' and 'Music to Watch Girls By' were used in television commercials.
In 1991, Williams married Debbie Haas and they lived in Branson and La Quinta, California.
Williams was a close friend of the powerful Kennedy political family and sang 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral after the U.S. senator from New York was assassinated during the 1968 presidential campaign.
Williams' love of golf was so intense that for several years he hosted a professional tournament that bore his name.
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst and Bill Trott; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Vicki Allen)
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
The blue-eyed Williams, who continued touring and drawing crowds to his Moon River Theater in the music hub of Branson into his 80s, died on Tuesday evening after a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his family said in a statement.
Williams had 18 gold record and three platinum hits and in his peak years was a regular on television with his own variety series.
President Ronald Reagan called his voice 'a national treasure.'
Williams was born on December 3, 1927, in tiny Wall Lake, Iowa, and was singing professionally with three older brothers at age 8. The Williams Brothers had steady work on radio and even sang back-up on Bing Crosby's 1944 hit 'Swinging on a Star.'
Williams went solo after the group broke up in 1951, drew attention with his appearances on 'The Tonight Show' and began recording. His first No. 1 hit, 'Butterfly,' came in 1957.
Later hits included 'Born Free,' 'Days of Wine and Roses,' 'The Shadow of Your Smile,' 'Can't Get Used to Losing You,' 'Solitaire,' 'Music to Watch Girls By,' 'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' and the theme from the 1970 movie hit 'Love Story.'
He came upon his signature song when asked to sing "'Moon River' at the 1962 Academy Awards ceremony. Audrey Hepburn had performed the song in the movie 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.'
'I still love it, as many times as I've done it,' Williams told a British newspaper in 2007. 'It has a great melody and wonderful lyrics. It's not a bad song to have. It could have been 'Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.' We forgot to do it one night and 27 people wanted their money back.'
Williams' first wife was Claudine Longet, a Folies Bergere dancer he married in 1961, and they had three children before divorcing. After their split, Williams supported Longet when she was charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, skier Spider Sabich, in 1976 in Colorado. She was convicted of negligent homicide after claiming the gun went off accidentally.
FIXTURE ON CHRISTMAS SPECIALS
In 1992, Williams built his own 2,000-seat dinner theater in Branson, a city of 10,000 people that had become a regional entertainment center featuring more than 30 theaters, most of which cater to country music acts. He performed there about 20 weeks a year while also putting on a Christmas tour in the United States and occasional tour of Britain.
Williams was a Christmas fixture on U.S. television, dressed casually in a trademark sweater, and he recorded several Christmas albums. In 2006 the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ranked his 'Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow' as the sixth most frequently performed Christmas song and 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year' as No. 11.
Williams had a strong following in Britain, where his career was revived in the late 1990s when "'Can't Take My Eyes Off of You' and 'Music to Watch Girls By' were used in television commercials.
In 1991, Williams married Debbie Haas and they lived in Branson and La Quinta, California.
Williams was a close friend of the powerful Kennedy political family and sang 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' at Robert F. Kennedy's funeral after the U.S. senator from New York was assassinated during the 1968 presidential campaign.
Williams' love of golf was so intense that for several years he hosted a professional tournament that bore his name.
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst and Bill Trott; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Vicki Allen)
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
Potter author steps into unknown with adult debut
LONDON (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling takes a step into the unknown on Thursday with the publication of her debut adult novel, five years after the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series became the fastest-selling book in history.
'The Casual Vacancy' is virtually guaranteed to top the bestseller lists in Britain, the United States and beyond, with Rowling's name enough to attract millions of buyers and give publishers and bookstores a much-needed boost.
Yet even that may feel something of an anti-climax for an author who has rewritten the rules of publishing and generated the kind of media hype and public hysteria normally reserved for Hollywood royalty.
As each Harry Potter installment hit the shelves, hundreds of thousands of fans dressed up as wizards and witches and queued outside bookstores from Toronto to Tokyo, and the sales figures were staggering - 450 million copies and counting.
The 47-year-old Briton said she was looking forward to a more subdued book launch this time around.
'As much as is possible I wanted this to be a normal book publication,' she told USA Today in one of a handful of newspaper interviews she gave to promote the novel.
'Some of the furor that surrounded a Harry Potter publication was fun. I always loved meeting readers. I always loved doing events where I got to speak to readers, but some of it, candidly, wasn't fun at all.
'The thing took on a life of its own. Some of it was just sheer insanity, and I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't rein it in. Incredible as it is to look back on it, I'm never going to be chasing that again.'
That 'insanity' may explain why the run-up to the publication of her story about a small town in southwest England where class prejudices are laid bare has been so low-key.
The Casual Vacancy, published by Hachette Livre division Little, Brown, has attracted press coverage that most authors could only dream of, but Rowling plans only a few appearances, including one in London on publication day.
POVERTY, SNOBBISM
The Casual Vacancy has been described by the New Yorker magazine as a 'rural comedy of manners that, having taken on state-of-the-nation social themes, builds into black melodrama.'
Its starting point is the unexpected death of Barry Fairbrother, but it segues into a story about tensions between the well-off inhabitants and their poorer neighbors living on a nearby housing estate.
For Rowling, who was a single mother living on state benefits when she first started writing the Potter stories, the theme of poverty and class prejudice was particularly important.
'The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge,' she told the Guardian newspaper. 'The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.'
Since those hard times she has become what Forbes magazine called the world's 'first billionaire author,' both from book sales and her cut of the record-breaking, eight-part Harry Potter movie franchise.
As befits a literary A-lister, The Casual Vacancy has been kept under close wraps, and the Guardian stated 'Even the publishers have been forbidden to read it.'
That was swiftly denied by Hachette, although a spokeswoman added that only those 'closely involved' with the book had read it and it had not been 'widely circulated in-house.'
Rowling said she was proud of her first foray into adult fiction and had enjoyed the 'sheer freedom' of the last five years since she closed the Potter saga.
If readers and critics turn out not to like it, she said 'I can live with that.'
Rowling has confirmed that her next book is most likely to be a novel for children which is almost complete. She is also contemplating a 'director's cut' of two Potter novels because she had been in such a rush to finish them.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
'The Casual Vacancy' is virtually guaranteed to top the bestseller lists in Britain, the United States and beyond, with Rowling's name enough to attract millions of buyers and give publishers and bookstores a much-needed boost.
Yet even that may feel something of an anti-climax for an author who has rewritten the rules of publishing and generated the kind of media hype and public hysteria normally reserved for Hollywood royalty.
As each Harry Potter installment hit the shelves, hundreds of thousands of fans dressed up as wizards and witches and queued outside bookstores from Toronto to Tokyo, and the sales figures were staggering - 450 million copies and counting.
The 47-year-old Briton said she was looking forward to a more subdued book launch this time around.
'As much as is possible I wanted this to be a normal book publication,' she told USA Today in one of a handful of newspaper interviews she gave to promote the novel.
'Some of the furor that surrounded a Harry Potter publication was fun. I always loved meeting readers. I always loved doing events where I got to speak to readers, but some of it, candidly, wasn't fun at all.
'The thing took on a life of its own. Some of it was just sheer insanity, and I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't rein it in. Incredible as it is to look back on it, I'm never going to be chasing that again.'
That 'insanity' may explain why the run-up to the publication of her story about a small town in southwest England where class prejudices are laid bare has been so low-key.
The Casual Vacancy, published by Hachette Livre division Little, Brown, has attracted press coverage that most authors could only dream of, but Rowling plans only a few appearances, including one in London on publication day.
POVERTY, SNOBBISM
The Casual Vacancy has been described by the New Yorker magazine as a 'rural comedy of manners that, having taken on state-of-the-nation social themes, builds into black melodrama.'
Its starting point is the unexpected death of Barry Fairbrother, but it segues into a story about tensions between the well-off inhabitants and their poorer neighbors living on a nearby housing estate.
For Rowling, who was a single mother living on state benefits when she first started writing the Potter stories, the theme of poverty and class prejudice was particularly important.
'The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge,' she told the Guardian newspaper. 'The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.'
Since those hard times she has become what Forbes magazine called the world's 'first billionaire author,' both from book sales and her cut of the record-breaking, eight-part Harry Potter movie franchise.
As befits a literary A-lister, The Casual Vacancy has been kept under close wraps, and the Guardian stated 'Even the publishers have been forbidden to read it.'
That was swiftly denied by Hachette, although a spokeswoman added that only those 'closely involved' with the book had read it and it had not been 'widely circulated in-house.'
Rowling said she was proud of her first foray into adult fiction and had enjoyed the 'sheer freedom' of the last five years since she closed the Potter saga.
If readers and critics turn out not to like it, she said 'I can live with that.'
Rowling has confirmed that her next book is most likely to be a novel for children which is almost complete. She is also contemplating a 'director's cut' of two Potter novels because she had been in such a rush to finish them.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Former President Clinton gets $2 billion in pledges to tackle world's woes
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Healthcare for athletes with mental disabilities, organic know-how for Indian farmers and solar technology for isolated communities were among the pledges made at former U.S. President Bill Clinton's philanthropic summit, which ended on Tuesday.
With its theme of 'Designing for Impact' and an emphasis on improving the lives of women and girls in the developing world, heads of states, business leaders and humanitarians at the eighth annual Clinton Global Initiative made 150 new pledges valued at about $2 billion to tackle some of the world's woes.
The three-day summit, scheduled when world leaders are in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, also featured appearances from U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, as well as Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi.
'I am convinced that cooperation, not conflict, will define this century,' Clinton said.
The meeting is largely a networking opportunity for some of the world's power brokers to exchange ideas and forge partnerships. It also offers a chance for successful companies to highlight projects that demonstrate social responsibility.
On the opening day, Clinton asked Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke if the company would consider opening a store in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Duke noted the company has opened stores in some of the world's more troubled cities, but politely declined the suggestion.
The summit was also a family affair. Clinton introduced his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made remarks. And their daughter Chelsea, a board member, moderated a session called 'The Case for Optimism in the 21st Century.'
The idea for the summit came from Clinton's frustration with attending conferences while he was president that prompted no action. When the initiative began, corporations tended to show up and write checks to fund humanitarian programs. Now many see philanthropy in terms of investment opportunities.
The pledges will impact 22 million people, the Clinton initiative said. Some of the commitments took the form of donations.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Suntech Power Holdings and the GlobalECHO Foundation teamed up to install $250,000 worth of solar panels worth $250,000 at a hospital that treats victims of sexual violence.
'When you hear the stories of what they're dealing with, you can't not help them,' said Andrew Beebe, Suntech's chief commercial officer.
(Reporting By Edith Honan; editing by Christopher Wilson)
This news article is brought to you by GLAMOROUS FASHION NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
With its theme of 'Designing for Impact' and an emphasis on improving the lives of women and girls in the developing world, heads of states, business leaders and humanitarians at the eighth annual Clinton Global Initiative made 150 new pledges valued at about $2 billion to tackle some of the world's woes.
The three-day summit, scheduled when world leaders are in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, also featured appearances from U.S. President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, as well as Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi.
'I am convinced that cooperation, not conflict, will define this century,' Clinton said.
The meeting is largely a networking opportunity for some of the world's power brokers to exchange ideas and forge partnerships. It also offers a chance for successful companies to highlight projects that demonstrate social responsibility.
On the opening day, Clinton asked Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke if the company would consider opening a store in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. Duke noted the company has opened stores in some of the world's more troubled cities, but politely declined the suggestion.
The summit was also a family affair. Clinton introduced his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who made remarks. And their daughter Chelsea, a board member, moderated a session called 'The Case for Optimism in the 21st Century.'
The idea for the summit came from Clinton's frustration with attending conferences while he was president that prompted no action. When the initiative began, corporations tended to show up and write checks to fund humanitarian programs. Now many see philanthropy in terms of investment opportunities.
The pledges will impact 22 million people, the Clinton initiative said. Some of the commitments took the form of donations.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Suntech Power Holdings and the GlobalECHO Foundation teamed up to install $250,000 worth of solar panels worth $250,000 at a hospital that treats victims of sexual violence.
'When you hear the stories of what they're dealing with, you can't not help them,' said Andrew Beebe, Suntech's chief commercial officer.
(Reporting By Edith Honan; editing by Christopher Wilson)
This news article is brought to you by GLAMOROUS FASHION NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
At D.C. concert, Madonna puzzles by calling Obama Muslim
(Reuters) - Pop star Madonna urged Americans to support President Barack Obama during her concert in Washington D.C. on Monday night but incorrectly referred to him as a Muslim in her comments.
In a video posted on YouTube by audience members at the concert, the singer delivers a rousing, profanity-laced political speech on freedom during her show.
'Now, it's so amazing and incredible to think that we have an African-American in the White House ... we have a black Muslim in the White House ... it means there is hope in this country, and Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man,' Madonna said.
Obama, who stands for re-election on November 6, is Christian. Madonna's spokeswoman did not return calls for comment on Tuesday. Since Obama's first presidential run in 2007, fringe groups and a scattering of opponents have promoted rumors that he is Muslim, similar to talk that he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.
Madonna has been outspoken in her support of the president. According to media reports, at Monday's show and at a New York City concert earlier this month she ripped off her shirt to reveal the word OBAMA inked across her lower back.
The singer, 54, currently on the North American leg of her tour for her latest studio album 'MDNA,' has been grabbing headlines recently for her onstage antics.
She landed in hot water with France's far right National Front party after screening footage of their party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face during one of her Paris concerts in July. The National Front said it would sue the star.
In August, Madonna spoke out at concerts in Russia for gay rights and in support of jailed members of punk rock band Pussy Riot.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
In a video posted on YouTube by audience members at the concert, the singer delivers a rousing, profanity-laced political speech on freedom during her show.
'Now, it's so amazing and incredible to think that we have an African-American in the White House ... we have a black Muslim in the White House ... it means there is hope in this country, and Obama is fighting for gay rights, so support the man,' Madonna said.
Obama, who stands for re-election on November 6, is Christian. Madonna's spokeswoman did not return calls for comment on Tuesday. Since Obama's first presidential run in 2007, fringe groups and a scattering of opponents have promoted rumors that he is Muslim, similar to talk that he is not a natural-born U.S. citizen.
Madonna has been outspoken in her support of the president. According to media reports, at Monday's show and at a New York City concert earlier this month she ripped off her shirt to reveal the word OBAMA inked across her lower back.
The singer, 54, currently on the North American leg of her tour for her latest studio album 'MDNA,' has been grabbing headlines recently for her onstage antics.
She landed in hot water with France's far right National Front party after screening footage of their party leader Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed on her face during one of her Paris concerts in July. The National Front said it would sue the star.
In August, Madonna spoke out at concerts in Russia for gay rights and in support of jailed members of punk rock band Pussy Riot.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Jessica Chastain takes another risk in her meteoric rise from obscurity
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - From 'Take Shelter' to 'The Debt,' Jessica Chastain is an actress who feeds off risks.
But in a still relatively young career that has seen her push the boundaries while working with demanding auteurs like Terrence Malick and Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-nominee is about to embark on her biggest challenge yet - taking on the iconic role of Catherine Sloper in a revival of 'The Heiress.'
The lonely spinster at the heart of the tragedy has been a favorite of actresses over the years, with the likes of Olivia de Havilland, Cherry Jones and Jane Alexander putting their indelible mark on the character. Chastain insists that despite making her Broadway debut in a play associated with such formidable women, she is not intimidated.
'I don't feel trepidation because what it shows is what an exquisite role Catherine is,' Chastain told TheWrap. 'There's no way my Catherine will be the same as Olivia de Havilland's Catherine or Cherry Jones' or Jane Alexander's. We're such different women with different sensibilities. I don't feel the nervousness of it, because I could never be the wonder that is them and I just have to find who Catherine is to me.'
Still, Catherine, a plain-looking woman, who is dominated by her emotionally frigid father and manipulated by her caddish suitor, seems a physical stretch for the luminous Chastain.
Unlike say Jones, a powerful stage presence who is nonetheless severe looking, Chastain, with her fiery red mane of hair, alabaster skin and dazzling, fulsome smile is no one's idea of dowdy.
Moisés Kaufman, the two-time Tony-nominated director and playwright who will be staging the revival, insists he was most concerned with finding an actress with the emotional intelligence to play Catherine.
'To me it was more important for the actress to be able to understand the sense of the character,' Kaufman said. 'We're in the theater. In the theater we transform ourselves. As long as you're true to the character than plain is in the eye of the beholder.'
Previews begin on October 6 with the show set to open on November 1 for a limited run.
When TheWrap caught up with Chastain, she only had a week of rehearsals under her belt and admitted she was still finding her way to the character. Her co-stars - an august group that includes such theater and film veterans as two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey and Oscar-nominee David Strathairn along with 'Downton Abbey' heartthrob Dan Stevens - insist that Chastain is already making the role her own.
'I think she's interested in finding this paper thin frailty that is wrapped around a steely core,' Stevens, who is also making his Broadway debut in the play, told TheWrap.
For Ivey, who previously appeared in 'Washington Square,' Agnieszka Holland's 1997 film adaptation of the story, Chastain has begun to unveil a unique spin on the role.
'She is finding the gentility of this young woman and the ignorance of her in a way I've never seen it interpreted before,' Ivey said.
The rewards for getting Catherine Sloper right are substantial. De Havilland won an Oscar for her portrayal of the heartbroken heroine, while Jones scored a Tony award. It's a role that charts Catherine's emergence from a timid creature, smitten with a man who only wants her for her money, to a colder and more calculating woman, who knows how to operate in an oppressive society.
Although 'Washington Square,' the Henry James novella that inspired the play, was written in 1880 and adapted for the stage in 1947, the revival's cast says that Catherine's nascent feminism will allow the play to stay fresh for a newer generation of theatergoers.
'I find her so modern,' Chastain said. 'It's shocking to me that this adaptation was written in the 1940s. For her at the end of the play to stand alone and believe it's OK not to be married - for 1940 to have a woman be independent in that way and make decisions without the influence of a man - I find that shocking. Thirty years from now, this story and this play will still be relevant.'
When it comes to attracting a crowd, Chastain already has one thing in her favor - the curiosity factor. Of all the movie stars treading the boards on Broadway this fall, a group that includes Al Pacino and Katie Holmes, perhaps none is more hotly anticipated than Chastain. That's somewhat surprising given that she is relatively jejune to the New York theater scene. But, as Kaufman points out, Chastain spent four years at Julliard studying Chekhov and Shakespeare.
She has also appeared the 2006 Los Angeles Wadsworth Theatre production of 'Salome' opposite Al Pacino and in the 2004 off-Broadway production of 'Rodney's Wife' with Strathairn.
If she pulls off 'The Heiress' it will be another triumph on Chastain's meteoric rise out of obscurity, a journey that began less than two years ago. Thanks to a remarkable string of performances in the likes of 'Tree of Life' and 'Coriolanus' capped off by an Oscar nomination for her work in 'The Help,' Chastain established herself as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, starring in eight high-profile films and doing voice work for the latest 'Madagascar' sequel. She next appears in Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty,' a true-life thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
With that run of success, it would be tempting for Chastain to double down on her film work, but the actress says she views her Broadway stint as more than just a one-off.
'I''m always going to do both theater and film, always,' Chastain said.
'I love theater and I love the ensemble feeling of it. I love the community. I love being in New York. I love the idea of finishing a show and then seeing people from other shows and then all leaving for a late night dinner, but you know this is my first time so we'll see how it goes.'
But in a still relatively young career that has seen her push the boundaries while working with demanding auteurs like Terrence Malick and Kathryn Bigelow, the Oscar-nominee is about to embark on her biggest challenge yet - taking on the iconic role of Catherine Sloper in a revival of 'The Heiress.'
The lonely spinster at the heart of the tragedy has been a favorite of actresses over the years, with the likes of Olivia de Havilland, Cherry Jones and Jane Alexander putting their indelible mark on the character. Chastain insists that despite making her Broadway debut in a play associated with such formidable women, she is not intimidated.
'I don't feel trepidation because what it shows is what an exquisite role Catherine is,' Chastain told TheWrap. 'There's no way my Catherine will be the same as Olivia de Havilland's Catherine or Cherry Jones' or Jane Alexander's. We're such different women with different sensibilities. I don't feel the nervousness of it, because I could never be the wonder that is them and I just have to find who Catherine is to me.'
Still, Catherine, a plain-looking woman, who is dominated by her emotionally frigid father and manipulated by her caddish suitor, seems a physical stretch for the luminous Chastain.
Unlike say Jones, a powerful stage presence who is nonetheless severe looking, Chastain, with her fiery red mane of hair, alabaster skin and dazzling, fulsome smile is no one's idea of dowdy.
Moisés Kaufman, the two-time Tony-nominated director and playwright who will be staging the revival, insists he was most concerned with finding an actress with the emotional intelligence to play Catherine.
'To me it was more important for the actress to be able to understand the sense of the character,' Kaufman said. 'We're in the theater. In the theater we transform ourselves. As long as you're true to the character than plain is in the eye of the beholder.'
Previews begin on October 6 with the show set to open on November 1 for a limited run.
When TheWrap caught up with Chastain, she only had a week of rehearsals under her belt and admitted she was still finding her way to the character. Her co-stars - an august group that includes such theater and film veterans as two-time Tony winner Judith Ivey and Oscar-nominee David Strathairn along with 'Downton Abbey' heartthrob Dan Stevens - insist that Chastain is already making the role her own.
'I think she's interested in finding this paper thin frailty that is wrapped around a steely core,' Stevens, who is also making his Broadway debut in the play, told TheWrap.
For Ivey, who previously appeared in 'Washington Square,' Agnieszka Holland's 1997 film adaptation of the story, Chastain has begun to unveil a unique spin on the role.
'She is finding the gentility of this young woman and the ignorance of her in a way I've never seen it interpreted before,' Ivey said.
The rewards for getting Catherine Sloper right are substantial. De Havilland won an Oscar for her portrayal of the heartbroken heroine, while Jones scored a Tony award. It's a role that charts Catherine's emergence from a timid creature, smitten with a man who only wants her for her money, to a colder and more calculating woman, who knows how to operate in an oppressive society.
Although 'Washington Square,' the Henry James novella that inspired the play, was written in 1880 and adapted for the stage in 1947, the revival's cast says that Catherine's nascent feminism will allow the play to stay fresh for a newer generation of theatergoers.
'I find her so modern,' Chastain said. 'It's shocking to me that this adaptation was written in the 1940s. For her at the end of the play to stand alone and believe it's OK not to be married - for 1940 to have a woman be independent in that way and make decisions without the influence of a man - I find that shocking. Thirty years from now, this story and this play will still be relevant.'
When it comes to attracting a crowd, Chastain already has one thing in her favor - the curiosity factor. Of all the movie stars treading the boards on Broadway this fall, a group that includes Al Pacino and Katie Holmes, perhaps none is more hotly anticipated than Chastain. That's somewhat surprising given that she is relatively jejune to the New York theater scene. But, as Kaufman points out, Chastain spent four years at Julliard studying Chekhov and Shakespeare.
She has also appeared the 2006 Los Angeles Wadsworth Theatre production of 'Salome' opposite Al Pacino and in the 2004 off-Broadway production of 'Rodney's Wife' with Strathairn.
If she pulls off 'The Heiress' it will be another triumph on Chastain's meteoric rise out of obscurity, a journey that began less than two years ago. Thanks to a remarkable string of performances in the likes of 'Tree of Life' and 'Coriolanus' capped off by an Oscar nomination for her work in 'The Help,' Chastain established herself as one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, starring in eight high-profile films and doing voice work for the latest 'Madagascar' sequel. She next appears in Bigelow's 'Zero Dark Thirty,' a true-life thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
With that run of success, it would be tempting for Chastain to double down on her film work, but the actress says she views her Broadway stint as more than just a one-off.
'I''m always going to do both theater and film, always,' Chastain said.
'I love theater and I love the ensemble feeling of it. I love the community. I love being in New York. I love the idea of finishing a show and then seeing people from other shows and then all leaving for a late night dinner, but you know this is my first time so we'll see how it goes.'
Actress Helen Mirren to receive European film award
LONDON (Reuters) - British actress Helen Mirren will receive a lifetime achievement award from the European Film Academy when it hands out its annual movie prizes in December, the organization said on Tuesday.
The 67-year-old, best known for her Oscar-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in 'The Queen', will attend the awards ceremony held on December 1 in Malta.
'It was discovering the immense diversity of European film making that gave me an enduring love and respect for the art form,' Mirren said in response to the announcement of the European Achievement in World Cinema honor.
'This award is therefore a very meaningful honor,' she added in a statement. 'I would be proud to be counted as an actor in the European tradition.'
Mirren began her film career in the late 1960s, with titles including Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', and established her reputation in 1980 with gangster movie 'The Long Good Friday' also starring Bob Hoskins.
She became a well-known figure in Britain for her work on the police television series 'Prime Suspect' which also won her a slew of prizes.
In 'The Madness of King George' (1994) she played Queen Charlotte, but it was 14 years later, in the part of another queen, Elizabeth II, that she established herself at the very top of her profession.
Her portrayal of the current British monarch won her a best actress Academy Award, and she was nominated for the same award again for 'The Last Station'.
Mirren will portray the queen on stage in a play written by the script writer of 'The Queen', Peter Morgan. 'The Audience' opens in London in 2013.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This article is brought to you by MATCH.
The 67-year-old, best known for her Oscar-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in 'The Queen', will attend the awards ceremony held on December 1 in Malta.
'It was discovering the immense diversity of European film making that gave me an enduring love and respect for the art form,' Mirren said in response to the announcement of the European Achievement in World Cinema honor.
'This award is therefore a very meaningful honor,' she added in a statement. 'I would be proud to be counted as an actor in the European tradition.'
Mirren began her film career in the late 1960s, with titles including Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', and established her reputation in 1980 with gangster movie 'The Long Good Friday' also starring Bob Hoskins.
She became a well-known figure in Britain for her work on the police television series 'Prime Suspect' which also won her a slew of prizes.
In 'The Madness of King George' (1994) she played Queen Charlotte, but it was 14 years later, in the part of another queen, Elizabeth II, that she established herself at the very top of her profession.
Her portrayal of the current British monarch won her a best actress Academy Award, and she was nominated for the same award again for 'The Last Station'.
Mirren will portray the queen on stage in a play written by the script writer of 'The Queen', Peter Morgan. 'The Audience' opens in London in 2013.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This article is brought to you by MATCH.
Chris Brown tests positive for marijuana while on probation
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - R&B singer Chris Brown has tested positive for marijuana, leading a Los Angeles judge on Monday to set a November hearing to decide whether he violated his probation stemming from a 2009 assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna.
According to a probation report presented in court, Brown tested positive in June in Virginia, where he is fulfilling his community service, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg said. Brown, who is midway through a five-year probation sentence, produced a medical marijuana card after the positive test, Schnegg said.
Schnegg said mandatory drug testing was not a condition of Brown's probation. But she scheduled a November 1 hearing to decide whether he had violated his probation on that and other matters, including travel restrictions and fulfillment of his community service.
Schnegg gave Brown, 23, a warning in court, reminding him that he was a role model.
'You are not an ordinary person who can sit in your living room and do whatever you want to do,' Schnegg told the 'Turn Up the Music' singer. 'More importantly, a lot of people look up to you, a lot of kids. What you do and what you say impacts a lot of people.'
Brown's lawyer, Mark Geragos, said his client had 'completed all of his community service.'
Brown, who won a Grammy award earlier this year, was sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community service after pleading guilty to criminal assault for beating Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy awards in 2009.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Beech)
This news article is brought to you by ECONOMY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
According to a probation report presented in court, Brown tested positive in June in Virginia, where he is fulfilling his community service, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg said. Brown, who is midway through a five-year probation sentence, produced a medical marijuana card after the positive test, Schnegg said.
Schnegg said mandatory drug testing was not a condition of Brown's probation. But she scheduled a November 1 hearing to decide whether he had violated his probation on that and other matters, including travel restrictions and fulfillment of his community service.
Schnegg gave Brown, 23, a warning in court, reminding him that he was a role model.
'You are not an ordinary person who can sit in your living room and do whatever you want to do,' Schnegg told the 'Turn Up the Music' singer. 'More importantly, a lot of people look up to you, a lot of kids. What you do and what you say impacts a lot of people.'
Brown's lawyer, Mark Geragos, said his client had 'completed all of his community service.'
Brown, who won a Grammy award earlier this year, was sentenced to five years of probation and six months of community service after pleading guilty to criminal assault for beating Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy awards in 2009.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Beech)
This news article is brought to you by ECONOMY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Actress Bonnie Franklin diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Bonnie Franklin, who starred as the harried single mother of two teenage girls on the 1970s and '80s television comedy 'One Day at a Time,' is being treated for pancreatic cancer, her family said in a statement on Monday.
Franklin, 68, a petite redhead, is best known for her role as divorcee Ann Romano on the show, which debuted in December 1975 and ran for nine seasons on CBS. It co-starred Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her two head-strong daughters.
The show followed their day-to-day lives as she and the girls made a new start in an Indianapolis apartment, befriended by the building superintendent, Schneider, who becomes virtually part of their family.
Franklin previously earned a Theatre World Award and a Tony nomination for her work in the 1970 Broadway musical 'Applause.' She was nominated for an Emmy in 1982 for her performance on 'One Day at a Time.'
The brief statement from her family, circulated by CBS, said was being treated for pancreatic cancer and was 'continuing her normal schedule during this time.'
'She and her family remain extremely positive and thank everyone for their support and concern,' the statement said, concluding with a request that her privacy be respected.
Franklin earlier this year appeared on the daytime drama 'The Young and the Restless' and last year made a guest appearance on the on TV Land cable channel's sitcom 'Hot in Cleveland,' co-starring Bertinelli.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY MUSIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Franklin, 68, a petite redhead, is best known for her role as divorcee Ann Romano on the show, which debuted in December 1975 and ran for nine seasons on CBS. It co-starred Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her two head-strong daughters.
The show followed their day-to-day lives as she and the girls made a new start in an Indianapolis apartment, befriended by the building superintendent, Schneider, who becomes virtually part of their family.
Franklin previously earned a Theatre World Award and a Tony nomination for her work in the 1970 Broadway musical 'Applause.' She was nominated for an Emmy in 1982 for her performance on 'One Day at a Time.'
The brief statement from her family, circulated by CBS, said was being treated for pancreatic cancer and was 'continuing her normal schedule during this time.'
'She and her family remain extremely positive and thank everyone for their support and concern,' the statement said, concluding with a request that her privacy be respected.
Franklin earlier this year appeared on the daytime drama 'The Young and the Restless' and last year made a guest appearance on the on TV Land cable channel's sitcom 'Hot in Cleveland,' co-starring Bertinelli.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY MUSIC NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Schwarzenegger memoir includes "failures" over love child
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger says his estranged wife has not read his upcoming memoir in which he discusses the secret child he fathered with a family housekeeper.
But in a TV interview with CBS program '60 Minutes,' the action star turned politician said he was determined to write a book that included what he called his 'failures' as well as his successful and multi-faceted career.
Schwarzenegger's book 'Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,' is to be published on October 1.
Publisher Simon & Schuster has said the former California governor began writing it before the May 2011 scandal over the son he fathered years earlier with his housekeeper while married to Maria Shriver.
The revelations led the couple to start divorce proceedings ending their 25-year marriage, and brought media ridicule for the 'Terminator' star.
In an interview with '60 Minutes,' to be broadcast in full on September 30, journalist Lesley Stahl asked Schwarzenegger, 65, if Shriver knew he was writing about the affair in his book.
'I think that Maria is, you know, wishing me well with everything that I do,' he replied, in an excerpt shown on Monday on breakfast show 'CBS This Morning.'
While admitting that Shriver had not read the memoir, Schwarzenegger continued, 'She knows that it's about my whole life and that I would not write a book and kind of leave out that part and make people feel like, 'Well, wait a minute. Are we just getting a book about his success stories and not talk about his failures?' And that's not the book I wanted to write. I wanted to write about the book about me. Here's my life.'
According to an advance copy obtained by the New York Daily News, Schwarzenegger writes that he and housekeeper Mildred Baena had sex in 1996 in a guest house at the mansion he shared with Shriver while she and their children were away on vacation.
He was finally forced to admit he was the father of Baena's son in a couples counseling session with Shriver the day after he ended his term as California's governor in January 2011.
The Austrian-born former body-builder, who became one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, is promoting the book on his official website with a video and the tagline, 'This story you know. Are you ready for the story you don't?'
Since ending his term as Republican governor, Schwarzenegger has returned to movies with 'The Expendables 2' in August and has five more films in the pipeline. He has also inaugurated a global policy think tank in his name at the University of Southern California at its Los Angeles campus.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
This news article is brought to you by GIRLS TEACH DATING - where latest news are our top priority.
But in a TV interview with CBS program '60 Minutes,' the action star turned politician said he was determined to write a book that included what he called his 'failures' as well as his successful and multi-faceted career.
Schwarzenegger's book 'Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,' is to be published on October 1.
Publisher Simon & Schuster has said the former California governor began writing it before the May 2011 scandal over the son he fathered years earlier with his housekeeper while married to Maria Shriver.
The revelations led the couple to start divorce proceedings ending their 25-year marriage, and brought media ridicule for the 'Terminator' star.
In an interview with '60 Minutes,' to be broadcast in full on September 30, journalist Lesley Stahl asked Schwarzenegger, 65, if Shriver knew he was writing about the affair in his book.
'I think that Maria is, you know, wishing me well with everything that I do,' he replied, in an excerpt shown on Monday on breakfast show 'CBS This Morning.'
While admitting that Shriver had not read the memoir, Schwarzenegger continued, 'She knows that it's about my whole life and that I would not write a book and kind of leave out that part and make people feel like, 'Well, wait a minute. Are we just getting a book about his success stories and not talk about his failures?' And that's not the book I wanted to write. I wanted to write about the book about me. Here's my life.'
According to an advance copy obtained by the New York Daily News, Schwarzenegger writes that he and housekeeper Mildred Baena had sex in 1996 in a guest house at the mansion he shared with Shriver while she and their children were away on vacation.
He was finally forced to admit he was the father of Baena's son in a couples counseling session with Shriver the day after he ended his term as California's governor in January 2011.
The Austrian-born former body-builder, who became one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars, is promoting the book on his official website with a video and the tagline, 'This story you know. Are you ready for the story you don't?'
Since ending his term as Republican governor, Schwarzenegger has returned to movies with 'The Expendables 2' in August and has five more films in the pipeline. He has also inaugurated a global policy think tank in his name at the University of Southern California at its Los Angeles campus.
(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
This news article is brought to you by GIRLS TEACH DATING - where latest news are our top priority.
UK leader Cameron to appear on David Letterman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - David Cameron will sit down with long-running U.S. television host David Letterman, CBS said Monday, marking the first time a sitting British prime minister will visit Letterman's 'Late Show.'
The September 29 broadcast will take place as Cameron visits New York for the UN General Assembly, CBS said in a statement. It did not say what Cameron would discuss. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared on the show twice, in 2009 and 2010, after he had left office.
Cameron is the latest top politician to appear on a TV chat shows offering lighter programming. Last week it was announced President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would make their first joint appearance on U.S. daytime talk show 'The View' on September 25.
And Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney, will chat with a Letterman rival, late night host Jay Leno, also on September 25.
(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Steve Orlofsky)
This article is brought to you by DATING.
The September 29 broadcast will take place as Cameron visits New York for the UN General Assembly, CBS said in a statement. It did not say what Cameron would discuss. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared on the show twice, in 2009 and 2010, after he had left office.
Cameron is the latest top politician to appear on a TV chat shows offering lighter programming. Last week it was announced President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would make their first joint appearance on U.S. daytime talk show 'The View' on September 25.
And Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney, will chat with a Letterman rival, late night host Jay Leno, also on September 25.
(Reporting By Christine Kearney, editing by Steve Orlofsky)
This article is brought to you by DATING.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Amanda Bynes charged with driving on suspended license
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former child star Amanda Bynes was charged with two misdemeanor counts of driving on a suspended license on Friday, after the actress was stopped and cited by police last week in Burbank city, police officials said.
According to documents obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com, Bynes was cited twice by the same airport authority police official on September 16 - the second incident an hour and a half after the first - for driving on a suspended license near Burbank's Bob Hope Airport.
Bynes' black BMW was impounded and she is scheduled to appear at Burbank Superior Court by October 16 to address the charges, according to senior assistant city attorney Denny Wei at Burbank City Attorney's office.
Bynes, 26, who had her own TV comedy sketch show on Nickelodeon at the age of 13, is also set to appear in court next week to address two misdemeanor hit-and-run charges, stemming from two separate incidents in April and August.
She was also charged earlier this year with driving under the influence when she hit a police car in April and will attend a pretrial hearing on October 29.
The actress has been involved in a string of minor car accidents and violations in and around Los Angeles in the last six months, and incidents of bizarre behavior.
Paparazzi who have been trailing her every move for weeks reported that she locked herself in the dressing room of a Hollywood clothing store for two hours last week, according to TMZ.com.
Bynes, whose last film was 'Easy A' in 2010, has strenuously denied drinking and driving. 'I am doing amazing,' Bynes told People magazine earlier this week, adding 'I don't drink and drive. It is all false.'
She also told People that she had retired from acting and was moving to New York to launch a fashion line.
Bynes' representatives did not return calls for comment on Friday.
The actress joins a list of young celebrities whose careers and personal lives have derailed after early promise.
'Freaky Friday' actress Lindsay Lohan, 26, is currently trying to make a career comeback after five years of trips to court, rehab and prison stemming from drug and alcohol issues.
Pop singer Britney Spears suffered a highly publicized meltdown in 2007 that resulted in her father being appointed to manage her affairs. Spears, now 30, made a successful comeback in 2009 and made her debut as a judge on TV singing contest 'The X Factor' last week.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Walsh)
This article is sponsored by build website.
According to documents obtained by celebrity website TMZ.com, Bynes was cited twice by the same airport authority police official on September 16 - the second incident an hour and a half after the first - for driving on a suspended license near Burbank's Bob Hope Airport.
Bynes' black BMW was impounded and she is scheduled to appear at Burbank Superior Court by October 16 to address the charges, according to senior assistant city attorney Denny Wei at Burbank City Attorney's office.
Bynes, 26, who had her own TV comedy sketch show on Nickelodeon at the age of 13, is also set to appear in court next week to address two misdemeanor hit-and-run charges, stemming from two separate incidents in April and August.
She was also charged earlier this year with driving under the influence when she hit a police car in April and will attend a pretrial hearing on October 29.
The actress has been involved in a string of minor car accidents and violations in and around Los Angeles in the last six months, and incidents of bizarre behavior.
Paparazzi who have been trailing her every move for weeks reported that she locked herself in the dressing room of a Hollywood clothing store for two hours last week, according to TMZ.com.
Bynes, whose last film was 'Easy A' in 2010, has strenuously denied drinking and driving. 'I am doing amazing,' Bynes told People magazine earlier this week, adding 'I don't drink and drive. It is all false.'
She also told People that she had retired from acting and was moving to New York to launch a fashion line.
Bynes' representatives did not return calls for comment on Friday.
The actress joins a list of young celebrities whose careers and personal lives have derailed after early promise.
'Freaky Friday' actress Lindsay Lohan, 26, is currently trying to make a career comeback after five years of trips to court, rehab and prison stemming from drug and alcohol issues.
Pop singer Britney Spears suffered a highly publicized meltdown in 2007 that resulted in her father being appointed to manage her affairs. Spears, now 30, made a successful comeback in 2009 and made her debut as a judge on TV singing contest 'The X Factor' last week.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Eric Walsh)
This article is sponsored by build website.
Rushdie says something wrong at heart of Islam
PARIS (Reuters) - British author Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for nine years under a death sentence from Iran's supreme leader, said in an interview published on Thursday that something had gone wrong at the heart of Islam.
Rushdie told Le Monde newspaper that his years fleeing the 1989 fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had forced him to pay close attention to a radicalization of the Muslim world.
'Something has gone wrong at the heart of Islam. It is quite recent. I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture,' he said in an interview published in French.
'For me, it is a tragedy that this culture has regressed to this point, like a self-inflicted wound. The Islam in which I grew up was open, influenced by Sufism and Hinduism, and not like the one which is spreading rapidly at the moment.'
The fatwa, in response to his 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses', made Rushdie synonymous with the tussle between freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities. A memoir of his nine years in hiding following the fatwa was published this week.
The interview was conducted on September 12, just as a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad sparked violent protests across the Islamic world. These included a deadly attack in Libya which killed the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff.
The California-made film, and a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by a French satirical weekly on Wednesday, have revived international debate over free speech, religion and the right to offend. Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.
'There is a limit beyond which you cannot blame the West any more,' Rushdie told Le Monde. 'Having said that, if there was the slightest sign that Muslim society was able to create an open democracy, I would change my opinion.'
This week an Iranian religious foundation increased its reward for the killing of Rushdie, in response to the film mocking Mohammad.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Robert Woodward)
This news article is brought to you by GAMING NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Rushdie told Le Monde newspaper that his years fleeing the 1989 fatwa from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had forced him to pay close attention to a radicalization of the Muslim world.
'Something has gone wrong at the heart of Islam. It is quite recent. I remember when I was young, many cities in the Muslim world were cosmopolitan cities with a lot of culture,' he said in an interview published in French.
'For me, it is a tragedy that this culture has regressed to this point, like a self-inflicted wound. The Islam in which I grew up was open, influenced by Sufism and Hinduism, and not like the one which is spreading rapidly at the moment.'
The fatwa, in response to his 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses', made Rushdie synonymous with the tussle between freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities. A memoir of his nine years in hiding following the fatwa was published this week.
The interview was conducted on September 12, just as a film mocking the Prophet Mohammad sparked violent protests across the Islamic world. These included a deadly attack in Libya which killed the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff.
The California-made film, and a series of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published by a French satirical weekly on Wednesday, have revived international debate over free speech, religion and the right to offend. Many Muslims consider any representation of Allah or the Prophet Mohammad blasphemous.
'There is a limit beyond which you cannot blame the West any more,' Rushdie told Le Monde. 'Having said that, if there was the slightest sign that Muslim society was able to create an open democracy, I would change my opinion.'
This week an Iranian religious foundation increased its reward for the killing of Rushdie, in response to the film mocking Mohammad.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Robert Woodward)
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Swedish, Danish magazines publish Kate topless photos
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish celebrity gossip magazine published topless photographs of the wife of Britain's Prince William, the former Kate Middleton, on Wednesday and a Danish sister journal is to follow suit on Thursday.
The pictures were published despite a decision by a French court on Tuesday to ban gossip magazine Closer from further publishing the photographs and ordering it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple.
The injunction granted to the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge, as the couple are formally known, also prevents Closer from selling the pictures to other media.
But Carina Lofkvist said her magazine, 'Se och Hor' (See and Hear), had bought the pictures on Friday. The magazine published 11 pictures of the royal couple on holiday, of which four show the duchess topless.
'They are very cute pictures of a loving relationship,' Lofkvist told Reuters.
She said the magazine decided to publish the pictures because they were not in any way obscene and it had in the past published similar pictures of celebrities.
The pictures were taken while the couple were on holiday in a chateau in southern France and show the duchess slipping off her bikini top, relaxing on a sun lounger and at one point pulling down the back of her bikini bottoms.
Buckingham Palace has called the photo spread a 'grotesque' invasion of the couple's privacy.
Lofkvist said the couple had to be aware they could be photographed if they showed themselves in a place open to public view, adding the fact these pictures were of a royal couple was also neither here nor there.
The Danish equivalent of her magazine, 'Se og Hor', owned by the same Danish media company, are to publish pictures of the duchess on Thursday.
'It is in the DNA of 'Se og Hor' that we shall entertain and satisfy our readers' curiosity,' editor-in-chief Kim Henningsen said in a statement on the weekly's website.
Neither the Swedish nor Danish magazine are to publish the pictures electronically.
On Monday, the publisher of tabloid The Irish Daily Star suspended its editor after the newspaper broke ranks with Irish and British peers, publishing pages from Closer with the photographs in its Saturday edition.
Italian gossip magazine Chi, also published by Closer's owner Mondadori, printed a 26-page special edition dedicated to the pictures on Monday.
(Reporting by Patrick Lannin; Editing by Sophie Hares)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The pictures were published despite a decision by a French court on Tuesday to ban gossip magazine Closer from further publishing the photographs and ordering it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple.
The injunction granted to the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge, as the couple are formally known, also prevents Closer from selling the pictures to other media.
But Carina Lofkvist said her magazine, 'Se och Hor' (See and Hear), had bought the pictures on Friday. The magazine published 11 pictures of the royal couple on holiday, of which four show the duchess topless.
'They are very cute pictures of a loving relationship,' Lofkvist told Reuters.
She said the magazine decided to publish the pictures because they were not in any way obscene and it had in the past published similar pictures of celebrities.
The pictures were taken while the couple were on holiday in a chateau in southern France and show the duchess slipping off her bikini top, relaxing on a sun lounger and at one point pulling down the back of her bikini bottoms.
Buckingham Palace has called the photo spread a 'grotesque' invasion of the couple's privacy.
Lofkvist said the couple had to be aware they could be photographed if they showed themselves in a place open to public view, adding the fact these pictures were of a royal couple was also neither here nor there.
The Danish equivalent of her magazine, 'Se og Hor', owned by the same Danish media company, are to publish pictures of the duchess on Thursday.
'It is in the DNA of 'Se og Hor' that we shall entertain and satisfy our readers' curiosity,' editor-in-chief Kim Henningsen said in a statement on the weekly's website.
Neither the Swedish nor Danish magazine are to publish the pictures electronically.
On Monday, the publisher of tabloid The Irish Daily Star suspended its editor after the newspaper broke ranks with Irish and British peers, publishing pages from Closer with the photographs in its Saturday edition.
Italian gossip magazine Chi, also published by Closer's owner Mondadori, printed a 26-page special edition dedicated to the pictures on Monday.
(Reporting by Patrick Lannin; Editing by Sophie Hares)
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Lindsay Lohan arrested in NY for hitting pedestrian
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lindsay Lohan was arrested on Wednesday after a pedestrian told police that her car struck him as the 'Mean Girls' actress was driving into a hotel in New York, New York City police said.
Lohan's vehicle clipped a 34-year-old man in an alley, around 2:30 a.m., police told Reuters, and the man later went to a nearby hospital saying he had an injured knee.
The 26-year-old actress, who has been in and out of court, rehab and prison since a 2007 drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles, was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident. Police arrested her as she left the Dream hotel in lower Manhattan.
She was charged with a misdemeanor and released, the New York police department's Office of Public Information said.
Lohan's spokesman in Los Angeles said he believed the claims would not be proved.
'While some of the facts are still being gathered, it appears that this is much ado about nothing. We are confident this matter will be cleared up in the coming weeks and the claims being made against Lindsay will be proven untrue,' spokesman Steve Honig said in a statement.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, quoting sources at the hotel, said surveillance video of the incident made it hard to tell whether Lohan's car made contact with the pedestrian or, if it did, how hard.
The New York Daily News identified the man as Jose Rodriguez, a cook who was leaving his workplace, the adjacent Maritime hotel, when the incident occurred.
A Los Angeles judge released Lohan from formal probation in March, but she was instructed to obey all laws until 2014. A conviction in the New York case could trigger a violation of those conditions.
Lohan, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s, has been trying to make a comeback after her once promising movie career was derailed. She stars as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime TV movie, 'Liz & Dick,' due to air in November.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Gary Hill)
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Lohan's vehicle clipped a 34-year-old man in an alley, around 2:30 a.m., police told Reuters, and the man later went to a nearby hospital saying he had an injured knee.
The 26-year-old actress, who has been in and out of court, rehab and prison since a 2007 drunk driving arrest in Los Angeles, was arrested for leaving the scene of an accident. Police arrested her as she left the Dream hotel in lower Manhattan.
She was charged with a misdemeanor and released, the New York police department's Office of Public Information said.
Lohan's spokesman in Los Angeles said he believed the claims would not be proved.
'While some of the facts are still being gathered, it appears that this is much ado about nothing. We are confident this matter will be cleared up in the coming weeks and the claims being made against Lindsay will be proven untrue,' spokesman Steve Honig said in a statement.
Celebrity website TMZ.com, quoting sources at the hotel, said surveillance video of the incident made it hard to tell whether Lohan's car made contact with the pedestrian or, if it did, how hard.
The New York Daily News identified the man as Jose Rodriguez, a cook who was leaving his workplace, the adjacent Maritime hotel, when the incident occurred.
A Los Angeles judge released Lohan from formal probation in March, but she was instructed to obey all laws until 2014. A conviction in the New York case could trigger a violation of those conditions.
Lohan, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1990s, has been trying to make a comeback after her once promising movie career was derailed. She stars as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime TV movie, 'Liz & Dick,' due to air in November.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Gary Hill)
This news article is brought to you by MUSIC UNITED 1 - where latest news are our top priority.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Basquiat poised to set record at New York art auction
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An early work by Jean-Michel Basquiat could set an artist's record in November when it is expected to sell for some $20 million, auction house Christie's said on Tuesday.
The untitled 1981 work, which has been in a private collection for two decades and has been featured in virtually every major Basquiat retrospective, depicts a fisherman displaying his catch hanging at the end of a line.
Christie's estimates the painting will sell for about $20 million, which along with its commission would bring the price to well above Basquiat's auction record of $20.1 million, set in June in London.
'Great works by Basquiat have become close to impossible to find in recent years,' said Loic Gouzer, international specialist of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's, said in a statement. 'The market has been waiting a long time for a work of this caliber and freshness.
'Basquiat is increasingly being recognized as a grand master of post-war art alongside de Kooning, Warhol and Pollock,' Gouzer said.
'We expect it to set a new record.'
The auction house did not identify the seller but catalogs from recent exhibitions of the work identified him as French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier.
Basquiat burst onto New York's burgeoning art scene more than 30 years ago and quickly drew attention and respect for his powerful, jarring and sometimes controversial canvases that drew heavily on his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage. Basquiat, whose career was the subject of a feature film and a documentary, died in 1988 at the age of 27.
Gouzer said that unlike most artists who win acclaim, 'Basquiat created his best paintings at the beginning of his career. 'Untitled 1981' unites all the elements of energy, freedom and boldness that one looks for in Basquiat,' he said.
The painting will be sold November 14 following public exhibitions scheduled for London, Paris and New York.
(Reporting By Chris Michaud; Editing by Nichola Groom; Editing by Bill Trott)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The untitled 1981 work, which has been in a private collection for two decades and has been featured in virtually every major Basquiat retrospective, depicts a fisherman displaying his catch hanging at the end of a line.
Christie's estimates the painting will sell for about $20 million, which along with its commission would bring the price to well above Basquiat's auction record of $20.1 million, set in June in London.
'Great works by Basquiat have become close to impossible to find in recent years,' said Loic Gouzer, international specialist of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's, said in a statement. 'The market has been waiting a long time for a work of this caliber and freshness.
'Basquiat is increasingly being recognized as a grand master of post-war art alongside de Kooning, Warhol and Pollock,' Gouzer said.
'We expect it to set a new record.'
The auction house did not identify the seller but catalogs from recent exhibitions of the work identified him as French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier.
Basquiat burst onto New York's burgeoning art scene more than 30 years ago and quickly drew attention and respect for his powerful, jarring and sometimes controversial canvases that drew heavily on his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage. Basquiat, whose career was the subject of a feature film and a documentary, died in 1988 at the age of 27.
Gouzer said that unlike most artists who win acclaim, 'Basquiat created his best paintings at the beginning of his career. 'Untitled 1981' unites all the elements of energy, freedom and boldness that one looks for in Basquiat,' he said.
The painting will be sold November 14 following public exhibitions scheduled for London, Paris and New York.
(Reporting By Chris Michaud; Editing by Nichola Groom; Editing by Bill Trott)
This news article is brought to you by MOVIE GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Rushdie memoir tells of life under Iranian fatwa
LONDON (Reuters) - British author Salman Rushdie's memoir of more than nine years in hiding after Iran's supreme leader issued a death sentence against him hits the shelves on Tuesday, ending the wait for his account of a furore that has echoes across the world today.
'Joseph Anton: A Memoir' opens with the moment when Rushdie, already a member of London's literary elite, received a call from a journalist asking for his reaction to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, calling for his head.
'It doesn't feel good' was his understated reply, but at the time he recalled thinking to himself: 'I'm a dead man.'
What followed was nearly a decade of life on the run, fearing for his own safety and that of his family.
The fatwa, in response to the 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses', turned Rushdie into a household name that will forever be linked with the tussle between the right to freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities.
The topic is back in the headlines after violent protests spread across the Muslim world in response to a U.S.-made video mocking the Prophet Mohammad.
'I always said that what happened to me was a prologue and there will be many, many more episodes like it,' Rushdie told the Daily Telegraph at the launch of his memoir.
'Clearly, (the film is) a piece of crap, is very poorly done and is malevolent. To react to it with this kind of violence is just ludicrously inappropriate. People are being attacked who had nothing to do with it and that is not right.'
On the weekend, a state-linked Iranian religious foundation increased the bounty on his head to $3.3 million. Its leader argued that had Rushdie been killed, later cases of Islam being insulted would have been avoided.
English PEN, a branch of the international group promoting free expression in literature, defended Rushdie.
'The film that has caused this round of unrest is an insult to everyone's intelligence, but the means of combatting that is more intelligence, not threats of reinstated fatwas and killings,' said author and campaigner Lisa Appignanesi.
'IMPOSSIBLE DREAM'
The 633-page Joseph Anton, written in the third person singular, recalls Rushdie's days as a student at Cambridge and his early literary career, including the day he won the coveted Booker Prize for 'Midnight's Children' in 1981.
Seven years later The Satanic Verses appeared, and for a few weeks it was, he fondly remembered, 'only a novel'.
Then it was banned in India and South Africa, copies were burned in the streets of northern England, fellow authors turned against him, his first wife Clarissa received threatening calls and book stores were firebombed.
Rushdie found himself at the eye of a storm which grew fiercer still on Valentine's Day, 1989, the day the fatwa was issued, forcing on him nearly a decade of fear, frustration and guilt living under armed guard and moving from house to house.
He was asked to change his name for security reasons and Rushdie chose a combination of the first names of two of his favorite authors, Conrad and Chekhov, and, for 11 years, was known as Joseph Anton.
Outside the 'prisons' he inhabited with his protection officers, violent protests raged, the novel's Japanese translator was stabbed to death and a Muslim leader in Belgium who criticized the fatwa was slain.
Early reviews posted online on Tuesday were mixed.
'Joseph Anton demonstrates Mr. Rushdie's ability as a stylist and storyteller,' wrote Michael C. Moynihan in The Wall Street Journal. 'It also serves as an important moral balance sheet.'
But in the Guardian, Pankaj Mishra was less impressed with what he called 'failures of analysis.'
'A peevish righteousness comes to pervade the memoir as Rushdie routinely and often repetitively censures those who criticized or disagreed with him,' he said.
Much of the content of the memoir, published by Jonathan Cape of the Random House Group, is deeply personal.
In one passage, Rushdie feared the worst when his son Zafar, whom he was able to see only occasionally, failed to answer the telephone at the appointed time. He also recounted the breakdown of his second marriage to American novelist Marianne Wiggins and the death of Clarissa in 1999.
Rushdie survived by engaging in the literary world - writing novels, newspaper articles and reviews and receiving awards. He traveled where he could and lobbied for his freedom, and ironically became an international celebrity.
But in the dark early days, his frustration was clear and friends who saw him then said he looked 'a beaten man'.
'I am gagged and imprisoned,' he wrote in his journal. 'I can't even speak. I want to kick a football in a park with my son. Ordinary, banal life: my impossible dream.'
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
'Joseph Anton: A Memoir' opens with the moment when Rushdie, already a member of London's literary elite, received a call from a journalist asking for his reaction to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, calling for his head.
'It doesn't feel good' was his understated reply, but at the time he recalled thinking to himself: 'I'm a dead man.'
What followed was nearly a decade of life on the run, fearing for his own safety and that of his family.
The fatwa, in response to the 1988 novel 'The Satanic Verses', turned Rushdie into a household name that will forever be linked with the tussle between the right to freedom of expression and the need to respect religious sensitivities.
The topic is back in the headlines after violent protests spread across the Muslim world in response to a U.S.-made video mocking the Prophet Mohammad.
'I always said that what happened to me was a prologue and there will be many, many more episodes like it,' Rushdie told the Daily Telegraph at the launch of his memoir.
'Clearly, (the film is) a piece of crap, is very poorly done and is malevolent. To react to it with this kind of violence is just ludicrously inappropriate. People are being attacked who had nothing to do with it and that is not right.'
On the weekend, a state-linked Iranian religious foundation increased the bounty on his head to $3.3 million. Its leader argued that had Rushdie been killed, later cases of Islam being insulted would have been avoided.
English PEN, a branch of the international group promoting free expression in literature, defended Rushdie.
'The film that has caused this round of unrest is an insult to everyone's intelligence, but the means of combatting that is more intelligence, not threats of reinstated fatwas and killings,' said author and campaigner Lisa Appignanesi.
'IMPOSSIBLE DREAM'
The 633-page Joseph Anton, written in the third person singular, recalls Rushdie's days as a student at Cambridge and his early literary career, including the day he won the coveted Booker Prize for 'Midnight's Children' in 1981.
Seven years later The Satanic Verses appeared, and for a few weeks it was, he fondly remembered, 'only a novel'.
Then it was banned in India and South Africa, copies were burned in the streets of northern England, fellow authors turned against him, his first wife Clarissa received threatening calls and book stores were firebombed.
Rushdie found himself at the eye of a storm which grew fiercer still on Valentine's Day, 1989, the day the fatwa was issued, forcing on him nearly a decade of fear, frustration and guilt living under armed guard and moving from house to house.
He was asked to change his name for security reasons and Rushdie chose a combination of the first names of two of his favorite authors, Conrad and Chekhov, and, for 11 years, was known as Joseph Anton.
Outside the 'prisons' he inhabited with his protection officers, violent protests raged, the novel's Japanese translator was stabbed to death and a Muslim leader in Belgium who criticized the fatwa was slain.
Early reviews posted online on Tuesday were mixed.
'Joseph Anton demonstrates Mr. Rushdie's ability as a stylist and storyteller,' wrote Michael C. Moynihan in The Wall Street Journal. 'It also serves as an important moral balance sheet.'
But in the Guardian, Pankaj Mishra was less impressed with what he called 'failures of analysis.'
'A peevish righteousness comes to pervade the memoir as Rushdie routinely and often repetitively censures those who criticized or disagreed with him,' he said.
Much of the content of the memoir, published by Jonathan Cape of the Random House Group, is deeply personal.
In one passage, Rushdie feared the worst when his son Zafar, whom he was able to see only occasionally, failed to answer the telephone at the appointed time. He also recounted the breakdown of his second marriage to American novelist Marianne Wiggins and the death of Clarissa in 1999.
Rushdie survived by engaging in the literary world - writing novels, newspaper articles and reviews and receiving awards. He traveled where he could and lobbied for his freedom, and ironically became an international celebrity.
But in the dark early days, his frustration was clear and friends who saw him then said he looked 'a beaten man'.
'I am gagged and imprisoned,' he wrote in his journal. 'I can't even speak. I want to kick a football in a park with my son. Ordinary, banal life: my impossible dream.'
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by DATING ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, September 17, 2012
French court decision on topless photos due Tuesday
PARIS (Reuters) - A French court will announce on Tuesday whether it will enforce an injunction that Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate have sought against magazine Closer to prevent further publication of topless photos of her.
In an affair that has rocked Britain and reawakened a debate on privacy laws, lawyers for the royal couple, titled the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are seeking damages from Closer and have filed a separate complaint against a photographer that could lead to a criminal case.
The couple want to stop Closer from selling its photographs to any other media, including on the Internet, though an Irish newspaper has already broken an informal agreement in the British press not to publish them.
An official at the Nanterre court, near Paris, said the decision would be handed down on Tuesday.
Copies of Closer's Friday edition flew off the shelves in France, snapped up by collectors, British tourists and curious French readers, as controversy over the photos raged.
"The stock has run out," said newspaper vendor Jeremy Alluard, adding that his 30 copies of the magazine had sold out in an hour and a half. "There's no way of getting any more at the depot, there are no more to be had," he said.
A second vendor, Omar Abdel, said he had sold many copies to British tourists who explained they were unable to get hold of the weekly in Britain.
Buckingham Palace is also seeking damages from Closer's publisher, Italian company Mondadori, owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is also no stranger to media intrusion.
Closer defended its publication of a dozen long-lens shots of the duchess on the balcony of a secluded villa which show her slipping off her bikini top, relaxing topless on a sun lounger and pulling down her bikini bottoms as her husband applies lotion.
William's office branded the photos a "grotesque and totally unjustified" invasion of their privacy.
Britain's tabloid papers, fighting for their reputations after a series of recent scandals, have refrained from publishing the pictures, even though they are available on the Internet and in the pages of a tabloid in neighboring Ireland.
Italian gossip magazine Chi printed a 26-page special edition dedicated to the photos on Monday. Editor Alfonso Signorini told Reuters the images were harmless and that the balcony where the Duchess was sunbathing was visible from the street.
(Reporting by Gerard Bon and Morade Azzouz, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
In an affair that has rocked Britain and reawakened a debate on privacy laws, lawyers for the royal couple, titled the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are seeking damages from Closer and have filed a separate complaint against a photographer that could lead to a criminal case.
The couple want to stop Closer from selling its photographs to any other media, including on the Internet, though an Irish newspaper has already broken an informal agreement in the British press not to publish them.
An official at the Nanterre court, near Paris, said the decision would be handed down on Tuesday.
Copies of Closer's Friday edition flew off the shelves in France, snapped up by collectors, British tourists and curious French readers, as controversy over the photos raged.
"The stock has run out," said newspaper vendor Jeremy Alluard, adding that his 30 copies of the magazine had sold out in an hour and a half. "There's no way of getting any more at the depot, there are no more to be had," he said.
A second vendor, Omar Abdel, said he had sold many copies to British tourists who explained they were unable to get hold of the weekly in Britain.
Buckingham Palace is also seeking damages from Closer's publisher, Italian company Mondadori, owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is also no stranger to media intrusion.
Closer defended its publication of a dozen long-lens shots of the duchess on the balcony of a secluded villa which show her slipping off her bikini top, relaxing topless on a sun lounger and pulling down her bikini bottoms as her husband applies lotion.
William's office branded the photos a "grotesque and totally unjustified" invasion of their privacy.
Britain's tabloid papers, fighting for their reputations after a series of recent scandals, have refrained from publishing the pictures, even though they are available on the Internet and in the pages of a tabloid in neighboring Ireland.
Italian gossip magazine Chi printed a 26-page special edition dedicated to the photos on Monday. Editor Alfonso Signorini told Reuters the images were harmless and that the balcony where the Duchess was sunbathing was visible from the street.
(Reporting by Gerard Bon and Morade Azzouz, editing by Paul Casciato)
This news article is brought to you by SEXUAL HEALTH NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Pope urges Arab leaders to work for peace in raging Middle East
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Pope Benedict urged Arab leaders on Sunday at a huge open-air Mass in Lebanon to work for reconciliation in a Middle East riven by Syria's civil war and blazing with fury over a film mocking the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.
'May God grant to your country, to Syria and to the Middle East, the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons and the cessation of all violence,' the pope said in a prayer after Mass that organizers said was attended by 350,000 people.
Activists say more than 27,000 people have been killed in Syria's 18-month-old, mainly Sunni Muslim uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect that grew out of Shi'ite Islam.
Few Christians, who form about 10 percent of Syria's population, have joined the uprising, fearing that it could bring hostile Islamists to power in a fight raging just 50 km (30 miles) east of Benedict's Mass in Beirut.
Addressing worshippers on the Mediterranean seafront, close to the front-line of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, Benedict said Lebanese people 'know all too well the tragedy of conflict and...the cry of the widow and the orphan'.
'I appeal to the Arab countries that, as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person,' the 85-year-old pontiff said.
Peace between warring factions and among the many religious groups in the Middle East has been a central theme of his visit to Lebanon, along with his call to Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.
'In a world where violence constantly leaves behind its grim trail of death and destruction, to serve justice and peace is urgently necessary,' Benedict said.
The pope has made no reference during his three-day visit to a U.S-made film depicting the Prophet Mohammad which has caused unrest across the Muslim world, including a protest in north Lebanon on Friday in which one person was killed.
SWELTERING
Politicians from all sectors of multi-faith Lebanon attended the Mass, including from the militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah. Leaders of the country's main religions all assured the Vatican of their support for the visit in advance.
The Mass took place on reclaimed land next to the port without any shade for the crowd, despite temperatures of more than 30 degrees centigrade (86 Fahrenheit).
The altar was shielded from the sun under a canopy, but the pope was seen mopping sweat from his forehead at one point.
Red Cross workers carried away at least two worshippers who fainted from the heat half way through the celebration.
Many in the crowd wore white caps bearing the motto of the visit, 'salami o-tikum!' (Arabic for 'my peace I give to you'), a phrase the pope, known as 'Baba' in Arabic, has repeated in several speeches.
Cedars of Lebanon, the country's symbol, featured in a white backdrop to the altar where the pope presided over the Mass, and on the white capes worn by prelates of the Maronite Church, the largest of six Christian churches here linked to the Vatican.
Prelates from other Eastern Catholic churches stood out in their distinctive gold or black vestments, in contrast to the green chasuble worn by the pope. Hymns in Arabic added a local touch to the Gregorian and classic Catholic works being sung.
Streets near Beirut's port were closed to traffic in the morning and soldiers manned main intersections. Three military helicopters buzzed overhead and a navy ship patrolled offshore.
PERFECT TIMING
Worshippers at the Mass were grateful the pope came to Lebanon, where Christians make up about a third of the population. Their community is split into a dozen churches and the Muslims into Sunnis, Shi'ites and Alawites, as well as the Druze whose traditions mix Shi'ism and other influences.
Eli Baalina, 17, a Lebanese Maronite, said the visit 'came at a perfect time, when things were heating up a bit'.
'He gave us a chance to stop and think about the bigger things in life,' he said. 'It's a good chance to reflect on the things like sectarianism and extremism, things that we all need to work to change about ourselves in this region.'
A Filipino maid named Julianne, 31, said: 'Everyone thinks the Middle East is only about Muslims, but there is a big Christian community and we should celebrate too.'
Several in the crowd were heartened by the pope's repeated calls for Christians to stay in the Middle East, where war, emigration and discrimination have cut their ranks to 5 percent of the population now compared to 20 percent a century ago.
'His message is to give us pride and encouragement that it is worth the effort to work for coexistence and understanding and to ensure Christians remain here,' said Maronite Silva Mansour, attending the Mass with her husband and month-old baby.
The German-born pontiff conducted the Mass in French and Latin and lay people also offered prayers in Arabic, Armenian, Greek and English.
(Writing by Tom Heneghan; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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'May God grant to your country, to Syria and to the Middle East, the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons and the cessation of all violence,' the pope said in a prayer after Mass that organizers said was attended by 350,000 people.
Activists say more than 27,000 people have been killed in Syria's 18-month-old, mainly Sunni Muslim uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite sect that grew out of Shi'ite Islam.
Few Christians, who form about 10 percent of Syria's population, have joined the uprising, fearing that it could bring hostile Islamists to power in a fight raging just 50 km (30 miles) east of Benedict's Mass in Beirut.
Addressing worshippers on the Mediterranean seafront, close to the front-line of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, Benedict said Lebanese people 'know all too well the tragedy of conflict and...the cry of the widow and the orphan'.
'I appeal to the Arab countries that, as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person,' the 85-year-old pontiff said.
Peace between warring factions and among the many religious groups in the Middle East has been a central theme of his visit to Lebanon, along with his call to Christians not to leave the region despite war and growing pressure from radical Islamists.
'In a world where violence constantly leaves behind its grim trail of death and destruction, to serve justice and peace is urgently necessary,' Benedict said.
The pope has made no reference during his three-day visit to a U.S-made film depicting the Prophet Mohammad which has caused unrest across the Muslim world, including a protest in north Lebanon on Friday in which one person was killed.
SWELTERING
Politicians from all sectors of multi-faith Lebanon attended the Mass, including from the militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah. Leaders of the country's main religions all assured the Vatican of their support for the visit in advance.
The Mass took place on reclaimed land next to the port without any shade for the crowd, despite temperatures of more than 30 degrees centigrade (86 Fahrenheit).
The altar was shielded from the sun under a canopy, but the pope was seen mopping sweat from his forehead at one point.
Red Cross workers carried away at least two worshippers who fainted from the heat half way through the celebration.
Many in the crowd wore white caps bearing the motto of the visit, 'salami o-tikum!' (Arabic for 'my peace I give to you'), a phrase the pope, known as 'Baba' in Arabic, has repeated in several speeches.
Cedars of Lebanon, the country's symbol, featured in a white backdrop to the altar where the pope presided over the Mass, and on the white capes worn by prelates of the Maronite Church, the largest of six Christian churches here linked to the Vatican.
Prelates from other Eastern Catholic churches stood out in their distinctive gold or black vestments, in contrast to the green chasuble worn by the pope. Hymns in Arabic added a local touch to the Gregorian and classic Catholic works being sung.
Streets near Beirut's port were closed to traffic in the morning and soldiers manned main intersections. Three military helicopters buzzed overhead and a navy ship patrolled offshore.
PERFECT TIMING
Worshippers at the Mass were grateful the pope came to Lebanon, where Christians make up about a third of the population. Their community is split into a dozen churches and the Muslims into Sunnis, Shi'ites and Alawites, as well as the Druze whose traditions mix Shi'ism and other influences.
Eli Baalina, 17, a Lebanese Maronite, said the visit 'came at a perfect time, when things were heating up a bit'.
'He gave us a chance to stop and think about the bigger things in life,' he said. 'It's a good chance to reflect on the things like sectarianism and extremism, things that we all need to work to change about ourselves in this region.'
A Filipino maid named Julianne, 31, said: 'Everyone thinks the Middle East is only about Muslims, but there is a big Christian community and we should celebrate too.'
Several in the crowd were heartened by the pope's repeated calls for Christians to stay in the Middle East, where war, emigration and discrimination have cut their ranks to 5 percent of the population now compared to 20 percent a century ago.
'His message is to give us pride and encouragement that it is worth the effort to work for coexistence and understanding and to ensure Christians remain here,' said Maronite Silva Mansour, attending the Mass with her husband and month-old baby.
The German-born pontiff conducted the Mass in French and Latin and lay people also offered prayers in Arabic, Armenian, Greek and English.
(Writing by Tom Heneghan; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Saturday, September 15, 2012
Italian magazine plans 26-page special on topless Kate photos
MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian gossip magazine plans to publish on Monday a special edition dedicated to topless pictures of the wife of Britain's Prince William, its editor said, defying risks of legal action.
The royal couple has already begun action against the French magazine Closer after it published a dozen shots of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge - the former Kate Middleton - as she slipped off her bikini top while sunbathing at a French chateaux.
Both Chi and Closer are controlled by Italian publisher Mondadori, part of the media empire of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and chaired by his daughter Marina.
Chi Editor in Chief Alfonso Signorini said the special edition would include a 26-page reportage with topless pictures of the duchess, including some unpublished shots of her vacation with Prince William, second in line to the British throne.
'This reportage is worth a special edition. It shows in a very natural way the daily life of a young and famous couple very much in love,' Signorini said in an emailed statement.
'The fact that we are dealing with the future British monarchs makes it certainly more interesting and in line with a modern conception of the monarchy,' Signorini said.
Chi's front page, already widely published by Italian media, shows a large shot of Kate sitting topless, above the headline 'Scandal at court: the Queen is Naked.'
Prince William's office said there was no justification for further publication of the photos.
'We will not be commenting on potential legal action concerning the alleged intended publication of the photos in Italy save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review,' his office said in a statement.
'Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative's home.'
Closer's pictures, already wildly circulating on the Internet, were also picked up by several foreign publications.
Greek newspaper Eleftheros Typos had two photographs of the duchess, one showing her topless, on its front page.
The pictures have reignited the debate over the privacy and freedom of the press, especially in Britain where the media face possible new regulations after a series of publishing scandals.
No British paper has published the photographs, including the Sun tabloid, the only British title to run pictures of William's brother Harry naked in a Las Vegas hotel.
'Her picture will be probably available online until the end of the earth. But it's not the end of the world,' commentator Maria Laura Rodota wrote in Italy's biggest daily Corriere della Sera.
(Reporting By Lisa Jucca; Additional reporting by Harry Papachristou in Athens and Tim Castle in London; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
This article is brought to you by ONLINE DATING.
The royal couple has already begun action against the French magazine Closer after it published a dozen shots of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge - the former Kate Middleton - as she slipped off her bikini top while sunbathing at a French chateaux.
Both Chi and Closer are controlled by Italian publisher Mondadori, part of the media empire of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and chaired by his daughter Marina.
Chi Editor in Chief Alfonso Signorini said the special edition would include a 26-page reportage with topless pictures of the duchess, including some unpublished shots of her vacation with Prince William, second in line to the British throne.
'This reportage is worth a special edition. It shows in a very natural way the daily life of a young and famous couple very much in love,' Signorini said in an emailed statement.
'The fact that we are dealing with the future British monarchs makes it certainly more interesting and in line with a modern conception of the monarchy,' Signorini said.
Chi's front page, already widely published by Italian media, shows a large shot of Kate sitting topless, above the headline 'Scandal at court: the Queen is Naked.'
Prince William's office said there was no justification for further publication of the photos.
'We will not be commenting on potential legal action concerning the alleged intended publication of the photos in Italy save to say that all proportionate responses will be kept under review,' his office said in a statement.
'Any such publication would serve no purpose other than to cause further, entirely unjustifiable upset to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were enjoying time alone together in the privacy of a relative's home.'
Closer's pictures, already wildly circulating on the Internet, were also picked up by several foreign publications.
Greek newspaper Eleftheros Typos had two photographs of the duchess, one showing her topless, on its front page.
The pictures have reignited the debate over the privacy and freedom of the press, especially in Britain where the media face possible new regulations after a series of publishing scandals.
No British paper has published the photographs, including the Sun tabloid, the only British title to run pictures of William's brother Harry naked in a Las Vegas hotel.
'Her picture will be probably available online until the end of the earth. But it's not the end of the world,' commentator Maria Laura Rodota wrote in Italy's biggest daily Corriere della Sera.
(Reporting By Lisa Jucca; Additional reporting by Harry Papachristou in Athens and Tim Castle in London; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
This article is brought to you by ONLINE DATING.
Unification Church head Sun Myung Moon buried in Korea
GAPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) - Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church that once boasted millions of members, was buried at a church-owned mansion modelled on the White House on Saturday after a two-week mourning period.
Tens of thousands of followers gathered at Gapyeong, an hour outside the capital Seoul, to say a final goodbye to Moon, a man who dubbed himself the 'True Parent' of those he married in mass ceremonies and who once proposed himself as 'supreme chairman' of a reunited Korea.
Moon, a staunch anti-communist who ran a business empire as well as a church and spent 30 years living in the United States, was born in what is now North Korea in 1920 and escaped to the South in 1950 after being sentenced to hard labor.
He died aged 92 on September 3 of complications due to pneumonia. The church he founded is now run by his youngest son, while the business entities are run by another son.
His wife remains the symbolic head of the mission that oversees the entire Tongil, Korean for 'Unification', group.
The church claimed that about 35,000 followers and mourners with some 15,000 from abroad attended the funeral service, which was officially titled 'Sun Myung Moon, the True Parent of Heaven and Earth, Memorial and Ascension Ceremony'.
Men dressed in black suits with white ties and women in white or ivory dresses for the ceremony. Many sobbed quietly as the cortege carried Moon's red-and-gold casket to the altar inside a vast hall in the church complex.
Many others watched on live broadcasts around the campus.
Critics for years have vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as 'Moonies'.
Moon is survived by his wife and 10 of their 13 children. But his eldest son Hyun Jin, the chairman of UCI, which owns the UPI news agency, did not attend the funeral. Church officials did not give details about why he was not there.
(Additional reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by David Chance)
This news article is brought to you by TECHNOLOGY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Tens of thousands of followers gathered at Gapyeong, an hour outside the capital Seoul, to say a final goodbye to Moon, a man who dubbed himself the 'True Parent' of those he married in mass ceremonies and who once proposed himself as 'supreme chairman' of a reunited Korea.
Moon, a staunch anti-communist who ran a business empire as well as a church and spent 30 years living in the United States, was born in what is now North Korea in 1920 and escaped to the South in 1950 after being sentenced to hard labor.
He died aged 92 on September 3 of complications due to pneumonia. The church he founded is now run by his youngest son, while the business entities are run by another son.
His wife remains the symbolic head of the mission that oversees the entire Tongil, Korean for 'Unification', group.
The church claimed that about 35,000 followers and mourners with some 15,000 from abroad attended the funeral service, which was officially titled 'Sun Myung Moon, the True Parent of Heaven and Earth, Memorial and Ascension Ceremony'.
Men dressed in black suits with white ties and women in white or ivory dresses for the ceremony. Many sobbed quietly as the cortege carried Moon's red-and-gold casket to the altar inside a vast hall in the church complex.
Many others watched on live broadcasts around the campus.
Critics for years have vilified the church as a heretical and dangerous cult and questioned its murky finances and how it indoctrinates followers, described in derogatory terms as 'Moonies'.
Moon is survived by his wife and 10 of their 13 children. But his eldest son Hyun Jin, the chairman of UCI, which owns the UPI news agency, did not attend the funeral. Church officials did not give details about why he was not there.
(Additional reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by David Chance)
This news article is brought to you by TECHNOLOGY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
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