Prosecutors on Tuesday began wrapping up their case against Michael Jackson, opening the way for what promises to be a celebrity rollcall of witnesses in the singer's defense. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon said he intended to rest his case next week after more than two months of testimony into accusations that Jackson, 46, molested a teenage boy and conspired to imprison his family at Neverland Valley Ranch.
The stars came out in New York on Tuesday as the Tribeca Film Festival opened its fourth season by rolling out the red carpet for headliners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn at the US premiere of Sydney Pollack's thriller, The Interpreter. The movie, the first ever allowed to shoot inside UN headquarters, launched a 13-day cinematic celebration that boasts 59 world premiere features.
British singer Sting went back to the classroom this week, assuming the role of a musical mentor for a group of college students. The one-time school teacher surprised students in a music composition class at the University of Illinois at Chicago, barging in with MTV cameras in tow to speak and jam with them on Monday.
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The Cannes film festival leaves politics to the politicians this year, focusing on feature movies and leaving no room for documentaries like Michael Moore's Bush-bashing polemic that won last year's top prize. As well as featuring some of the world's great directors, there will also be an out-of-competition premiere for the eagerly awaited final installment of George Lucas' Star Wars series, organizers said Tuesday.
British group Coldplay, whose much delayed album is finally hitting the airwaves, could be the band that makes or breaks music giant EMI. "This is the high-stakes album of the year for EMI," said Numis Securities analyst Paul Richards of the world's third largest music group.
People who secretly videotape movies when they are shown in theaters could go to prison for up to three years under a bill that cleared the US Congress on Tuesday. The bill also toughens penalties for hackers and industry insiders who distribute music, movies or other copyrighted works before their official release date.
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US television and radio broadcasters on Tuesday said they plan this summer to issue guidance on how to avoid violating decency standards with an eye to heading off further regulation by Congress. A National Association of Broadcasters task force is gathering best practices for member stations and plans a consumer awareness effort to try to calm Congress and parent groups growing more concerned about racy programs.
A new play tracing the journey of Rachel Corrie from comfortable American home to death in a Gaza refugee camp paints the young peace activist as neither a traitor nor a saint. The 23-year-old campaigner was killed in 2003 trying to stop an Israeli army bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian home in the Rafah camp in the Gaza strip. A personal testimony, the show makes no pretence of impartiality.
NBC could create Internet blogs for its top news anchors and celebrity interviewers as it seeks to maintain the appeal of US network news, its top executive said on Tuesday. NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker said entering the generally opinionated world of blogs might be one way television networks could keep their grip on viewers who increasingly use the Internet for news.
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The Los Angeles Times said on Tuesday it had fired a staff reporter after a review of two articles he had written about college fraternity hazing found numerous factual errors and quotes that could not be verified. The dismissal of Eric Slater was reported by the Times at the end of a lengthy editor's note that listed several inaccuracies in the articles and said that "methods used in reporting the story were substandard."
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist