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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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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)
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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)
This news article is brought to you by INTERNET NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
'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)
This news article is brought to you by INTERNET NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
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)
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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)
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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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