Month: April 2018

Hundreds of disbelieving fans flocked to the home of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan on Thursday in protest against the five-year jail term given on the action hero for poaching endangered antelopes.

Khan’s army of devotees took selfies outside the Galaxy apartment complex in the Indian film capital Mumbai as their hero was taken off to spend the night in jail in Rajasthan.

Police set up barricades outside the building overlooking the Arabian Sea where actors and tycoons are the main residents.

The Bollywood elite also rallied behind the 52-year-old star of blockbusters such as Sultan and one of the world’s most highly paid actors.

Many fans were angry and stunned at the jail term imposed by a court in the Rajasthan city of Jodhpur over the killing of two rare black bucks 20 years ago.

Mohammad Arif Khan, 26, traveled from his home in Uttar Pradesh vowing to spend three days in Mumbai in the hope that his hero will be released.

“Khan’s absence will have a big impact and mistakes do happen. But he has paid for his crimes and shouldn’t be made to go to jail. The decision is extremely appalling and not a good one,” he said.

“Salman Khan is a good man and a humanitarian who runs his own charity helping people.”

‘A great star’

He added: “The court and the government should take note of all his good deeds as his absence will affect not just Bollywood but also those in need of help and who get assistance from his charity.”

Many fans wore “Being Human” T-shirts named after his charity.

Seventeen-year-old student Abdul Rashid said Khan’s “loyal fans” will stand by him.

“I am not sure where our justice system is headed as the … punishment doesn’t feel justified for killing an animal. I was at the airport last night and met Salman. He waved at us. He is such a great star and impacts all our lives by helping needy people. He should not be punished.”

Sagar Raza Khan, a 50-year-old writer, said the verdict had come out of the blue as the case has been going on so long.

“He’s already suffered enough and should not have to go through it again. His family will again face a lot of suffering if he is incarcerated. Plus, his impact on Bollywood is too huge to be ignored.”

Sheikh Alimuddin, 43, traveled from rural Maharashtra to get to Khan’s home.

“Khan is an epitome of kindness and has helped cancer patients and children requiring medical assistance. There are numerous ongoing cases where the guilty have not been punished.”

Alimuddin called the guilty verdict and punishment “sensationalized.”

Financial losses

Jaya Bachchan, a veteran Bollywood actor and lawmaker, said so much money was invested in Khan’s films that “there will be losses.”

“After 20 years, they have realized he is guilty. But law takes its own course, what can one say. He does a lot of charity. I am worried for the producers,” Bachchan told reporters.

Leading Bollywood director Subhash Gai said he was “extremely shocked” at the jail term.

Gai called Khan “a most loved person” in the film industry, but also said he had “full trust” in India’s appeal procedure.

Actor Arjun Rampal said on Twitter he felt “helpless” over the action taken against Khan.

“The last thing @BeingSalmanKhan is, is a criminal. I feel this is too harsh. I do hope he gets the relief he deserves.”
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The woman who police say shot three people at YouTube’s headquarters was prolific at producing videos and posting them online, many of them bizarre, such as a clip in which she removes a revealing purple dress to expose fake breasts with the message, “Don’t Trust Your Eyes.”

In others, Nasim Aghdam exercises, promotes animal rights and explains the vegan diet, often in elaborate costumes or carrying a rabbit.

The videos have become central to the motive authorities have settled on for the shooting: Aghdam’s anger with the policies of YouTube – the world’s biggest online video website.

Nasim Aghdam, who was in her late 30s, posted the videos under the online name Nasime Sabz, and a website in that name decried YouTube’s policies, saying the company was trying to “suppress” content creators.

“Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!” one of the messages said. “There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!”

People who post on YouTube can receive money from advertisements that accompany their videos, but the company “de-monetizes” some channels for reasons including inappropriate material or having fewer than 1,000 subscribers.

YouTube had no comment about any actions related to Aghdam’s videos.

Nasim Aghdam also ran a Farsi-language public channel on the messaging app Telegram, which had 6,000 followers. Telegram reportedly has some 40 million users in Iran. In one post she says, “Internet crackdown and filtering is increasing in the West.”

Police who found Nasim Aghdam sleeping in her car early Tuesday in the city of Mountain View about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from YouTube headquarters said she was calm and said nothing about being angry with YouTube or having any plans to harm others or herself.

“It was a very normal conversation. There was nothing in her behavior that suggested anything unusual,” said Mountain View Police Chief Max Bosel.

Later that day, Aghdam went to a gun range before walking through a parking garage into a courtyard at YouTube’s campus south of San Francisco, where she opened fire with a handgun and wounded three people, police said. She then killed herself.

Two women wounded in the shooting were released Wednesday from a San Francisco hospital. The third victim, a 36-year-old man, was upgraded from critical to serious condition.

The suspect’s father, Ismail Aghdam, told the Bay Area News Group he warned police the day before the attack that his daughter was upset with how YouTube handled her videos and might be planning to go to its offices.

Police in Mountain View said they spoke to Ismail Aghdam twice after contacting the family to report finding his daughter and that he never told them she could become violent or pose a threat to YouTube employees. During her 20-minute interview with officers, Nasim Aghdam said she was having family problems and had left her home, police said.

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Wednesday searched two homes where Nasim Aghdam had lived – one in Menifee, which is southeast of Los Angeles, and another in 4S Ranch, north of San Diego.

Nasim Aghdam referenced a since-deactivated website, PeaceThunder, in a 2014 interview promoting veganism. The state attorney general’s website shows a charity group named PeaceThunder affiliated with Nasim Aghdan was dissolved at her request in 2011. She gave no reason but said she was its only member and the group had no assets.

John Rundell, who lives next door to the family in Menifee, said the parents, son and daughter moved from San Diego about five years ago, but he hadn’t seen Nasim Aghdam in months.

The entire family was “very, very friendly,” according to Rundell, who spoke most often with the father, an electrical contractor. Topics of conversations included Persian cooking.

“They were just perfect neighbors,” Rundell said. “If I had to pick neighbors, I’d have them all around.”

Nasim Aghdam painted the house after the family moved in and Rundell said he gave her his own paint to finish the job. She once told Rundell that her pet rabbit was unhappy and asked where he got his.

The family turned away reporters outside the family home in Menifee Wednesday. A woman named Leila who identified herself as an aunt said Nasim Aghdam was a “really good person” and had no history of mental illness. She did not give her last name.

The family later distributed a statement saying they were “in absolute shock and can’t make sense of what has happened.”

“Although no words can describe our deep pain for this tragedy, our family would like to express their utmost regret, sorrow for what has happened to innocent victims,” the statement read.

Nasim Aghdam walked onto the YouTube property through a parking garage and it’s not clear whether she encountered any security.

The company said Wednesday it will increase security at its headquarters and offices around the world.
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Kim Kardashian West has shared the first photo of her family.

The reality star posed with husband Kanye West, daughters North and Chicago, and son Saint in the photo, which was taken on Easter.

Kardashian wrote on Facebook : “I don’t think you really understand how hard it is to take a good family pic.” She said it was all they got before “all three kids started crying.”

The 37-year-old said she thought she also cried.

She also tweeted that while she was holding her baby, Chicago, in one hand, her other hand had ahold of Saint, who kept running away.
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Tehran residents have expressed pity and shock that an Iranian-American woman, relatively known in Iran’s social media circles, was the shooter at YouTube headquarters in California who wounded three people before killing herself.

Many said on Thursday they don’t understand what could have prompted Nasim Aghdam – who posted videos under the online name of Nasime Sabz – to resort to shooting.

Hossein Naderi, a 23-year-old art student, questioned why Aghdam chose to “live in the U.S. though she didn’t like it there.” He says: “I wish I was there to use YouTube freely.”

Aghdam also ran a Farsi-language public channel on the messaging app Telegram, which had 6,000 followers. Telegram reportedly has some 40 million users in Iran.

Hamideh Heidari, a 35-year-old veiled teacher, says Aghdam needed “psychiatric help.”
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Bollywood star Salman Khan was convicted Thursday of poaching rare deer in a wildlife preserve two decades ago and sentenced to five years in prison.

The busy actor contends he did not shoot the two blackbuck deer in the western India preserve in 1998 and was acquitted in related cases.

He was in court for the ruling in the western city of Jodhpur on Thursday. He is expected to be taken to a local prison while his attorneys appeal the conviction and seek bail, which could take days.

Four other stars also accused in the case, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu and Neelam, were acquitted by Chief Judicial Magistrate Dev Kumar Khatri. They were in the jeep that Salman Khan was believed to be driving during the hunt. Tabu and Neelam both use just one name.

Khan had been sentenced to prison terms of between one and five years in related cases before being acquitted by appeals courts for lack of evidence.

The blackbuck is an endangered species protected under the Indian Wildlife Act.

Khan has had other brushes with the law.

In 2014, the Mumbai High Court acquitted him in a drunken-driving, hit-and-run case.

The judges found that prosecutors had failed to prove charges of culpable homicide, in which they accused Khan of driving while intoxicated in 2002 and running over five men sleeping on a sidewalk, killing one of them.

The government of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital, has challenged his acquittal in the Supreme Court.
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Saudi Arabia’s first movie theater in more than 35 years will open on April 18 in the capital Riyadh.

AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said Wednesday it has been granted the license to open up to 40 theaters in 15 Saudi cities over the next five years. 

The deeply conservative Muslim kingdom had some cinemas in the 1970s but its powerful clerics managed to force them to close. 

The theaters won’t initially be segregated by gender like most Saudi public spaces, AMC’s chief executive officer Adam Aron said. But there might be some show times set aside exclusively for single gender audiences. 

The move to reopen cinemas is part of a modernization drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon, who is seeking to boost domestic spending in an era of low oil prices.

Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture. Despite the cinema ban, Hollywood films and recent television series are widely watched at home and discussed.

To serve a population of more than 32 million, the majority of whom are under the age of 30, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 movie theaters with more than 2,500 screens by 2030, which it hopes will attract nearly $1 billion in annual box office sales.

 
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A new television documentary about Elvis Presley takes advantage of the vast collection of footage, pictures, documents and music from his estate to give a behind-the-scenes look at the king of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Elvis Presley: The Searcher,” a two-part, three-hour documentary, will premiere April 14 on HBO. Director Thom Zimny, who worked on several Bruce Springsteen documentaries, had full access to Graceland’s vault and made ample use of it to unearth little-seen footage.

“That was one of the exciting parts because every day I was discovering new gems of Elvis Presley’s archives,” Zimny said.

“He came up with pieces of footage that Priscilla and I had never seen before, and we grew up with Elvis,” said Jerry Schilling, one of Elvis’ longtime friends and an executive producer on the documentary along with Priscilla Presley, his ex-wife.

Along with his family and friends, Zimny interviewed studio musicians, producers, engineers and directors, as well as artists like Springsteen, Tom Petty and Emmylou Harris. Zimny uses only voiceovers for the narration instead of seeing the interviewees’ faces to keep the focus on the music and footage of Elvis over his career.

“Most documentaries, you see people talking, and I think that takes you out of the film,” Priscilla Presley said. “So you do get distracted, where here, you take on the flow, you can see what’s going on visually and you’re not taken out of that moment, and I think that’s brilliant.”

Zimny makes heavy use of footage from Elvis’ 1968 television special, considered his comeback to music after a long period of movie acting.

“He had been out of performing for years, almost 10 years,” Presley said. “This to him was the make or break of his career.”

Zimny said he had no limitations on addressing any aspect of Elvis’ career, and the film does touch on the controlling influence of his manager Colonel Tom Parker as well as Elvis’ prescription drug abuse.

Priscilla said Presley began using prescription drugs when he was given them during his Army stint. Even after years of using medications, she said Elvis never realized his addiction.

“He didn’t think he was addicted,” Presley said. “It was a part of his life, really. There was no Betty Ford. There were no rehab centers. But he didn’t think he had to go to a rehab center. There were prescribed to him. The doctors knew what they were giving to him. So that was pretty much a part of his life.”

Presley said there’s still a lot for music fans to learn about the star, who died in 1977.

“He was in uncharted territories,” Presley said. “There was no other that reached the heights that he did as far as changing style, changing music.”
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Record producer, Ian Brennan, and his wife Marilena Delli, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, are on a quest for the unknown and unfamiliar. Their passion for discovering uniqueness in human stories and music has taken them to far-flung places around the world, from Malawi to record songs by prisoners, to rural Rwanda and Cambodia to give voice to genocide survivors.

Music to his Ears

For a music lover like Ian Brennan, hearing a good song is a rewarding adventure, even if it’s in a language he doesn’t understand. He believes it’s better for us, neurologically and sociologically, to listen to diverse music, which is not what is offered by the commercial music business.

“What we get with the recorded music is by nature repetition, hearing not only the same song, not only the same singer, but the same performance of the same song over and over and over again. But there is a lot more to the world than that.”

Photo Gallery: Unfamiliar Music

The greatest music, Brennan adds, comes from everyday life, from people’s traditions or just their own emotions.

“I think there is so much untapped potential, untapped creativity in the world that to hear from just a small sliver of people is kind of a disservice for everyone.”

Rwandan Experiences

Brennan began exploring that untapped potential about 10 years ago, when he accompanied his wife, who is half Italian, half Rwandan, and her mother, a genocide survivor, to Rwanda.

“My Mom lost all her family,” says Delli. “When we decided to go there, I was shooting a documentary called The Rwanda Mama, about my Mom’s return to Rwanda 30 years apart. She actually discovered that her best friend, who she thought died in the genocide in 1994, was alive and that was the reason why she decided to go back.”

During this trip, the couple had a chance to listen to a local artist, Adrien Kazigira, the lead singer of the Rwandan band, The Good Ones. Brennan went to his farm to record Kazigira’s songs.  

“He’s one of the most gifted roots writers, folk writers, I think in any language in the world. But unfortunately, because he sings in Kinyarwanda and not in English, he’s not heard by many people as he probably should be,” Brennan says.

Together, they produced two albums and are working on the third.  “Sara,” from the group’s first album, is one of Brennan’s most favorite songs. It’s a love song, he explains, that communicates a variety of complicated emotions. “It’s specifically about a woman who had contracted AIDS and was sent away by her lover and her family and spent the little money that she had to a witch doctor to try to cure herself. And it’s someone who truly loves and cares about her, trying to convince her not to leave, not to be banished.”

Prison Music

In Malawi, Brennan and Delli teamed up again, as they worked on different projects where he recorded the music and she photographed the artists.

“We did Malawi’s Mouse Boys, who have released three albums,” he says. “We also did the Zomba Prison Projects which were with the individuals from the maximum security prison in Malawi, whose first album was surprisingly nominated for a Grammy award, which was something that was deserved, but not expected.”

The couple prefers projects where they work with people who are not identified as musicians, or people who may not have ever sung in public or written songs before.

“That was true of the Zomba Prison Project,” Brennan says. “We worked with over a hundred individuals and produced two albums.  Also in Tanzania, when we worked on the Tanzania Albinism Collective (Project). It’s incredible the music that can come forward from someone when they’re given the opportunity to be listened to, and to be heard.”

Different Languages, Similar Experiences

Though in different languages and with different melodies, Brennan says most of these songs convey similar feelings and experiences.  Genocide survivors in Cambodia who survived the Khmer Rouge, for example, share some similar experiences with the individuals in Rwanda who survived the three genocides there.

He points to “Defeat the Giant,” by Cambodian artist Soun San, as an example. The song gives voice to genocide victims anywhere.

“Soun San was the master musician from Cambodia,” Brennan says. “He was injured during the Khmer Rouge, but survived. His voice is, I think, an important one and one that I think more people would want to hear. We had set up for him to come to the UK last summer to perform, but unfortunately, between the time he was invited and he got his passport and booked the flight, he fell ill and passed away a month or so before the event.”

For their next project, Brennan and Delli are heading to Pakistan.

“We also have a release coming from Ustad Saami from Karachi, who is a 75-year-old vocal master,” Brennan says. “He sings a lot of pre-Islamic music in Sanskrit, pre-Sanskrit and in Farsi. He’s a very, very gifted and very rare individual because the music that he sings no one else does or really even can.”

Delli is excited about these projects, not only because she loves traveling, but because she believes these projects can make the world a better place. “I just think music is a wonderful way to connect people all over the world and a wonderful instrument to touch people’s heart and overcome hatred and prejudice.”

Having such a calling while discovering the sounds of different cultures and meeting unique artists encourages the couple to keep searching the world for hidden music.
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A rapper and reality star says he was robbed at gunpoint in New Jersey in what was “one of the worst, scariest nights of my life.”

Safaree Samuels says the robbery happened Monday in Fort Lee around 2 a.m. The 36-year-old told WWPR-FM two men ran up and had him face down on the ground with a gun to his head.

Police say the suspects stole $183,000 in cash and jewelry.

Police Capt. Matthew Hintze says officers tried to stop a SUV near the scene, but the driver fled into New York City.

Hintze says the driver lost control and crashed into a concrete divider, and three people ran from the scene.

Police have arrested two suspects and charged them with robbery. A search for the third person is ongoing.
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Bill Cosby’s lawyers challenged the prosecution’s exclusion of a black woman from serving on the jury at his sexual assault retrial, alleging Wednesday that the decision was made on the basis of her race.

Prosecutors pushed back, noting two blacks already have been seated on the panel that will sit in judgment of the 80-year-old comedian. The judge said he didn’t believe the prosecution had any “discriminatory intent” but halted the third day of jury selection to consider the defense argument.

Cosby’s lawyers had appeared ready to strike at the first instance of prosecutors blocking a black juror, producing a legal brief that argued the move violated a 32-year-old Supreme Court ruling that prohibits prosecutors from excluding prospective jurors because of their race. The defense had made the same argument Tuesday regarding the prosecution’s exclusion of several white men, but Judge Steven O’Neill rejected it.

The legal maneuvering came as lawyers picked an eighth juror, a white woman who was at first hesitant to guarantee she could block out what she’s read and seen about the Cosby case and the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.

“I could try. I mean, it’s still in my head,” she explained, before eventually agreeing.

The jury so far consists of six whites and two blacks. Four jurors are men and four are women.

A dozen people were invited back for individual questioning Wednesday as the prosecution and defense looked to fill the remaining spots. A third batch of 120 potential jurors was also called to the courthouse in suburban Philadelphia.

Cosby chatted with lawyer Kathleen Bliss in court, saying, “How are you this morning?” She replied, “bright eyed and bushy tailed.” He then feigned a glance behind her, as if looking for a tail.

Cosby has pleaded not guilty to charges he drugged and molested Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He says the encounter with the former Temple University women’s basketball administrator was consensual.

Defense witness

No major rulings were expected Wednesday after the trial judge opened Tuesday’s session by issuing decisions favorable to a defense team that is trying to cast Cosby as the victim of a shakedown scheme involving false accusations of sexual assault.

O’Neill granted the Cosby team’s request to call a woman who says Constand talked about framing a celebrity before she lodged allegations against him in 2005. The judge also ruled that jurors can hear how much Cosby paid Constand in a 2006 civil settlement.

O’Neill’s ruling allowing Marguerite Jackson to testify was at odds with his decision to block her from the first trial, which ended in a hung jury. O’Neill did not explain his change of heart but issued one caveat, saying he could revisit her testimony after Constand takes the stand.

During the first trial, O’Neill ruled that Jackson’s testimony would be hearsay after Constand testified she did not know the woman. Since then, prosecutors have told Cosby’s lawyers that Constand had modified her statement to acknowledge she “recalls a Margo.”

Jackson, a longtime Temple University official, has said that she and Constand worked closely together, had been friends and had shared hotel rooms several times. Jackson says Constand once commented to her about setting up a “high-profile person” and filing a lawsuit.

Constand’s lawyer has said Jackson is not telling the truth.

Jackson’s availability as a witness for Cosby could be crucial to a defense plan to attack Constand’s credibility.

Additional accusers

O’Neill previously gave a boost to the prosecution, ruling they can call five additional accusers in a bid to portray Cosby — the former TV star once revered as “America’s Dad” for his family sitcom The Cosby Show — as a serial predator.

The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.

As Wednesday’s session got under way, a judge gave The Associated Press and other media organizations more access to jury selection.

Media lawyers had challenged an arrangement that forced reporters to watch the group questioning part of the process on a closed-circuit feed from another courtroom. The camera showed the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers, but not potential jurors who were being questioned as a group.

Montgomery County President Judge Thomas DelRicci agreed to move the camera to the back of the courtroom so the media could see the potential jurors. The judge refused to make room in the crowded courtroom for a pool reporter, but said if the jury pool did not fill the room to capacity, he’d allow reporters to attend live.
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