The Vatican’s daily newspaper marked the 40th anniversary of the White Album on Friday by dismissing as a “quip” John Lennon’s notorious claim that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.
The legendary double album — which came out on Nov. 22, 1968 at the height of the Fab Four’s influence and popularity — was “a magical musical anthology” from a band “full of talent,” L’Osservatore Romano said.
Rather inevitably, its lengthy article kicked off with Lennon’s remark to a London newspaper in March 1966 that “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
“It is a phrase that provoked deep indignation at the time, but which sounds today like a quip from a young man from the English working class overtaken by unexpected success,” the newspaper wrote.
The real talent of the Beatles, it said, “rested in their unequalled capacity to write popular songs with a sort of euphoric lightness.”
Pop superstar Madonna and her British husband Guy Ritchie were granted a “quickie” divorce on the grounds of his unreasonable behavior Friday, a month after announcing their eight-year marriage was over.
District Judge Caroline Reid pronounced the decree nisi at the High Court’s Family Division in London during a hearing which lasted barely a minute and was not attended by the couple or their lawyers.
The case — Ciccone ML vs Ritchie GS — was dealt with as a British newspaper reported film director Ritchie would receive no money under an agreed settlement.
Ritchie has expressed relief at the speed of the divorce and stressed that access to the couple’s children and not money was the biggest issue for him, the Daily Mirror said Friday.
“Thank God,” the paper quoted him as saying. “It was never about money — never about her bloody art collection. I just wanted to settle it and move on ... I didn’t raise any objections at any stage until she insisted the children lived permanently in New York.”
He is worth an estimated US$45 million dollars compared to Madonna’s US$446 million fortune.
The couple’s two sons, eight-year-old Rocco and David Banda, three — whom they adopted in Malawi — will split their time between Britain and the US, the Mirror and other papers said.
Madonna’s 12-year-old daughter Lourdes, from a previous relationship with fitness trainer Carlos Leon, is set to stay with her mother in the US.
The court released a document in which Madonna stated that Ritchie’s unreasonable behavior was continuing and that they had not lived together at the same address for six months.
The US government has asked the Supreme Court to reimpose a US$500,000 fine slapped on CBS television for a 2004 broadcast of live images of pop star Janet Jackson’s breast, court documents show.
It is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether it will consider the request.
Prosecutors are asking the high court justices to weigh in on a case that raised eyebrows and stirred passions in the US, where nudity on non-pay television is a no-no in advertising, while rare and limited to late-night hours in television series.
Jackson was performing live at the Superbowl when the attention-getting move took place, in a routine featuring her and fellow performer Justin Timberlake.
The popular press has dubbed the incident “Nipplegate.”
The Federal Communications Commission imposed a US$550,000 fine on CBS for breaking indecency rules.
But after a three-year court fight, a federal court in Philadelphia in July ruled that the network could not be held responsible for Jackson’s actions.
Japan’s once-iconic pop music producer Tetsuya Komuro was released on bail Friday after he was indicted on charges of swindling an investor over copyrights for music that had already been sold.
“I have caused trouble and disturbed you all,” the 49-year-old said, bowing deeply before a horde of photographers and reporters as he stepped out of the Osaka Dentention Center where he had been kept since his arrest on Nov. 4.
He paid the bail of US$315,000 following the indictment by the Osaka district public prosecutor.
“I wish to do my best, if
possible, in music again,” he said.
Komuro allegedly told the investor in mid-2006 that he would sell for US$10 million the copyrights of 806 tunes he had composed and written words for Jiji Press and other media said.
But the rights had been already sold to music publishers, the reports said.
The 48-year-old investor paid Komuro US$5 million as part of the fake contract.
Komuro needed the money to repay huge debt he owed after a number of failed ventures, the reports said. —AGENCIES
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
For anyone on board the train looking out the window, it must have been a strange sight. The same foreigner stood outside waving at them four different times within ten minutes, three times on the left and once on the right, his face getting redder and sweatier each time. At this unique location, it’s actually possible to beat the train up the mountain on foot, though only with extreme effort. For the average hiker, the Dulishan Trail is still a great place to get some exercise and see the train — at least once — as it makes its way
RSS