Death of Travoltas son raises medical questions

By Lilli Strauss (AP)

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and his orchestra of Arab and Israeli musicians say they are canceling performances in the Middle East this weekend because of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Instead, they will play in the German capital.

Barenboim says they are canceling the shows in Qatar and Egypt amid concerns for the musicians\' safety.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra will perform works by Beethoven and Brahms at the Staatsoper in Berlin on Monday, the opera house said in a statement Tuesday.

Argentinean-born Barenboim has advocated peace in the...

By JOE GIBLIN (AP)

The late Sen. Claiborne Pell was remembered during his funeral service Monday as a patrician statesman of enormous personal wealth who devoted his career to serving the less fortunate and enabled millions of American students to attend college.

The Rhode Island Democrat died Thursday at the age of 90. He had suffered for years from Parkinson\'s disease.

During his 36 years in the Senate, the multimillionaire descendant of early New York landowners championed the arts, the environment and affordable education. He left office in January 1997, after his sixth...

By Alan Diaz (AP)

John Travolta said Saturday he and his wife Kelly Preston are \"heartbroken\" over the death of their chronically ill 16-year-old son, who collapsed at the family\'s vacation home on Grand Bahama.

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning and he was later pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday, according to Rahming\'s police statement.

\"We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for...

By JOE GIBLIN (AP)

Former President Bill Clinton praised the late Sen. Claiborne Pell during his funeral service Monday as a quirky multimillionaire who served the less-fortunate and enabled millions of Americans to afford college.

The Rhode Island Democrat died Thursday at the age of 90. He had suffered for years from Parkinson\'s disease.

Clinton, speaking during the funeral Mass at Trinity Episcopal Church, noted that when he was a freshman at Georgetown University, his dorm room overlooked the backyard of Pell\'s home. That enabled Clinton to watch the family, whom he described as...

By ROBERT VOS (AP)

A Moroccan immigrant was installed Monday as mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands\' second largest city, in a move hailed as a significant step for the integration of minorities in the European Union nation.

Ahmed Aboutaleb, who has dual Dutch-Moroccan citizenship, is the first Moroccan-born immigrant to be appointed a Dutch mayor. Some have compared his achievement to that of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

\"Obama on the Maas ... is maybe going a bit far,\" said Jan Franssen, the Dutch queen\'s representative for South Holland province, referring to the river that runs...

By Charles Sykes (AP)

Actor Tom Cruise said Scientology teachings helped him overcome childhood dyslexia, a Spanish magazine reported.

Cruise was quoted by Spanish magazine XL Semanal as saying he was diagnosed with the learning disability when he was 7 years old.

Cruise said he was often anxious, frustrated and bored as a youth and couldn\'t concentrate in class, the magazine reported on its Web site Sunday.

The magazine quoted Cruise as saying he was functionally illiterate when he graduated from school in 1980, but learned to read perfectly as an adult through Scientology...

By BUNTZEN OLE (AP)

Inger Christensen\'s publisher says the Danish writer who built experimental poems, essays and novels around systematized and mathematical structures has died at age 73.

Publisher Gyldendal says the reclusive writer died Saturday but has given no further details.

Christensen was one of Denmark\'s most famous poets, and is best known her poetry collections \"det\" (1969) and \"alfabet\" (1981).

Her works were translated into several languages and she won a number of international awards, including the Swedish Academy\'s Nordic Prize in 1994 and the German Siegfried...

By Alan Diaz (AP)

John Travolta said Saturday he and his wife Kelly Preston are \"heartbroken\" over the death of their chronically ill 16-year-old son, who collapsed at the family\'s vacation home on Grand Bahama.

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning and he was later pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday, according to Rahming\'s police statement.

\"We are heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for...

By Alan Diaz (AP)

John Travolta\'s 16-year-old son was \"spectacularly supervised\" before he was found collapsed at the family\'s vacation home on Grand Bahama, an attorney for the actor said Sunday.

Travolta himself, in his first public statement since Jett\'s death, thanked people for their support and said he and his wife were \"heartbroken that our time with him was so brief.\"

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning before he was pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the...

By Alan Diaz (AP)

John Travolta\'s 16-year-old son was \"spectacularly supervised\" before he was found collapsed at the family\'s vacation home on Grand Bahama, an attorney for the actor said Sunday.

Travolta himself, in his first public statement since Jett\'s death, thanked people for their support and said he and his wife were \"heartbroken that our time with him was so brief.\"

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning before he was pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the...

By Alan Diaz (AP)

John Travolta\'s 16-year-old son was \"spectacularly supervised\" before he was found collapsed at the family\'s vacation home on Grand Bahama, an attorney for the actor said Sunday.

Police Superintendent Basil Rahming has said a caretaker found Jett Travolta unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning before he was pronounced dead at a Freeport hospital. The youth was last seen entering the bathroom on Thursday, according to Rahming\'s police statement.

But attorney Michael McDermott said he doesn\'t believe that Jett was in the bathroom for a substantial amount of...

By Mark J. Terrill (AP)

Spectators who claimed their spots for the Rose Parade hours before it began were rewarded Thursday with spangled dancers paying tribute to Broadway, a lush garden wedding flanked by sari-clad models representing India\'s Bollywood film industry and a giant robot with a surprise under his hat.

A 49-foot-tall mechanical man named Asimo tipped his top hat on a float sponsored by Honda Motor Co. The crowd was wowed when fireworks and streamers shot out of his headgear _ a nod to this year\'s theme, \"Hats Off to Entertainment.\"

\"That was something,\" said Peggy Tesh, 82, who...

By GAETAN BALLY (AP)

Austrian-born author Johannes Mario Simmel, whose books are said to have sold more than 70 million copies worldwide, died in the Swiss town where he lived, a local official said Friday. He was 84.

Simmel died in a care home in Zug, near Zurich, on Thursday, town clerk Irene Schwendimann said, without giving the cause of death or any further details.

Simmel\'s books regularly topped German-language best-seller lists before Nobel laureates such as Heinrich Boell and Guenter Grass.

His books include the World War II spy novel \"It can\'t always be caviar\" and the Cold War...

By (AP)

Thieves stole works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and others from a Berlin gallery over the New Year\'s holiday, police said Friday.

More than 30 works _ worth an estimated euro180,000 ($250,000) _ were stolen, apparently between Wednesday afternoon and lunchtime Thursday, police spokeswoman Claudia Schweiger said. The artwork was taking from the Fasanengalerie, a private gallery near western Berlin\'s central shopping district.

The etchings, prints and sculptures included \"Profil au fond noir,\" a 1947 work by Picasso; \"Nude in a rocking chair,\" a Matisse print from...

By CHARLES KRUPA (AP)

Claiborne Pell, the quirky blueblood who represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and was the force behind a grant program that has helped tens of millions of Americans attend college, died Thursday after a long battle with Parkinson\'s disease. He was 90.

Pell, a Democrat, died at his Newport home just after midnight, according to his former assistant, Jan Demers.

Pell was first elected to the Senate in 1960. The skinny son of a New York congressman, Pell spoke with an aristocratic tone but was an unabashed liberal who spent his political career...

By KAMRAN JEBREILI (AP)

Dubai hotels scrambled to rework New Year\'s Eve plans Wednesday following a last-minute order to mute holiday festivities as Arab states sought to tone down celebrating amid the violence in Gaza.

Beachfront fireworks and live music acts at the recently opened Atlantis hotel were canceled as the tourist spot followed Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum\'s ban on \"all forms of celebrations.\"

Concerts were also canceled elsewhere in the region, including in Israel\'s neighbors Egypt and Jordan. A much-publicized concert by Shakira, the Colombian singer of Lebanese descent...

By KAMRAN JEBREILI (AP)

Dubai hotels scrambled to rework New Year\'s plans Wednesday after the tourist spot joined parts of the Arab world in muting holiday festivities because of the violence in Gaza.

Beachfront fireworks at the recently opened Atlantis hotel were called off and live music acts were canceled following a last-minute order from the emirate\'s ruler officially banning \"all forms of celebrations.\"

Concerts were also nixed elsewhere in the region, including in Israel\'s neighbors Egypt and Jordan. A much-publicized concert by Shakira, the Colombian singer of Lebanese descent who\'s...

By MIGUEL TONA (AP)

A car bomb exploded Wednesday outside a regional television station in northern Spain following a warning call from the armed separatist group ETA, police said.

The blast caused significant damage and one person suffered an ear injury, television broadcaster EITB, which managed to stay on air despite the explosion at its headquarters in central Bilbao city, said in its early afternoon news report.

\"They have tried to silence one of this country\'s media outlets,\" EITB director Bingen Zupiria told reporters outside the building later.

Police said the bomb exploded...

By MIGUEL TONA (AP)

A car bomb exploded Wednesday outside a regional television station in northern Spain following a warning call from the armed separatist group ETA, police said.

The blast caused significant damage but no injuries.

Police said the bomb exploded shortly after 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) outside the offices of the EITB station in the center of the northern Basque city of Bilbao. The building had been evacuated and the area cordoned off to traffic following a warning call to a fire department about an hour before the explosion.

\"I still don\'t know how to react. What a way to end...

By Carl de Souza (AP)

The marquees of Broadway theaters will be dimmed in honor of playwright Harold Pinter.

The Broadway League says the lights will be dimmed for about one minute at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The British Nobel laureate died last Wednesday at the age of 78 after a long battle with cancer. He won the Tony Award for best play in 1967 for \"The Homecoming\" and the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005.

Pinter wrote 32 plays, one novel and 22 screenplays. His masterpieces include \"The Birthday Party\" and \"Betrayal.\"

His writing featured dialogue with pregnant pauses that reflected...

By (AP)

One of Arnold Schwarzenegger\'s most famous one-liners will be back for generations to come, now that 1984\'s \"The Terminator\" has been selected for preservation in the nation\'s film archive.

The low-budget film directed by James Cameron set a new standard for science-fiction and made Schwarzenegger, now California\'s governor, a star. The Library of Congress announced Tuesday morning that it\'s one of 25 films being added to the National Film Registry. The formal unveiling was scheduled for 8 a.m.

The move will guard Schwarzenegger\'s deadpan, \"I\'ll be back,\" against...

By (AP)

An industry trade association says overall Broadway grosses and attendance in 2008 were a bit higher than the box-office take and attendance of the previous year.

The 2008 gross was more than $940 million, according to figures released Monday by the Broadway League. Attendance topped 12.32 million.

In 2007, the box-office take was $938 million and attendance 12.29 million, both figures affected by a 19-day stagehands strike during the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday period.

The two-week Christmas-New Year\'s holiday grosses were also up, jumping from more than $49...

By (AP)

British historian Christopher Hibbert, whose popular books covered subjects from the medieval Battle of Agincourt to the American Revolutionary War, has died. He was 84.

Hibbert died Dec. 21 in Henley-on-Thames, west of London, after a short illness, his agent, Bruce Hunter, said Tuesday.

Hibbert wrote more than 50 books, including accounts of the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, studies of Venice, Florence and Rome, and biographies of Queen Elizabeth I, King Charles I, lexicographer Samuel Johnson and British politician Benjamin Disraeli.

\"He was...