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
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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