If he could travel back in time, Alejandro Sanz says he would stop and enjoy the moment when his career started taking off two decades ago.

 

“Maybe I would ask life for a little more consciousness during those years so I could have realized all the things that I was living without thinking about what was going to happen the next day, to live more in the moment,” Sanz said in a recent phone interview with The Associated Press.

 

“There is no way to stop time, but there’s a way for time to travel by your side and not always ahead of you.”

 

Sanz has a chance this week to savor a special moment: He’s being honored as Person of the Year at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas. A concert was scheduled Wednesday night where David Bisbal, Camila Cabello, Luis Fonsi, Juan Luis Guerra, Jesse & Joy, Juanes, Mon Laferte and other Latin stars were to sing versions of his biggest hits.

On Thursday night at the 18th Latin Grammys, he was expected to go onstage to accept the honor. The show was to air on Univision (8 p.m.-11 p.m. Eastern).

 

Sanz, who is celebrating two decades since the “Mas” album launched him to international stardom, was named the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year 2017 for his achievements in music and his philanthropic contributions to organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Greenpeace.

 

“To me it is very nice to have this little milestone, because it recognizes the career but also the relevance and your commitment with society,” he said with evident excitement.

 

Sanz made his debut in 1991 with “Viviendo Deprisa.” He has sold more than 25 million records and has collaborated with stars such as Alicia Keys, Shakira, Destiny’s Child, Juanes, Marc Anthony and Tony Bennett. All 15 of his CDs have gone multiplatinum in Spain, Latin America or the United States. In December he’s releasing “+Es+,” a CD/DVD of the concert he gave last summer at the Vicente Calderon Stadium in Madrid for the 20th anniversary of “Mas.”

 

Sanz says he’s been receiving “a lot of love” since it was announced that he was selected Person of the Year.

 

Everybody insists that this is the most important Grammy … because it doesn’t go to one album or one song but to one artist, who is selected unanimously. So this is very beautiful, really,” he said.
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Pakistan unveiled the remains of a 1,700-year-old sleeping Buddha image on Wednesday, part of an initiative to encourage tourism and project religious harmony in a region roiled by Islamist militancy.

A reflection of the diverse history and culture of the South Asian country, the ancient Buddhist site in Bhamala province was first discovered in 1929. Eighty-eight years on, excavations resumed and the 14-metre-(48-foot)-high Kanjur stone Buddha image was unearthed, and opposition leader Imran Kahn presided over Wednesday’s presentation.

“This is from the 3rd century AD, making it the world’s oldest sleeping Buddha remains,” Abdul Samad, director of Bhamla’s archaeology and museums department, told Reuters.

“We have discovered over 500 Buddha objects and this 48-foot-long sleeping Buddha remains,” he added.

Khan said: “It’s a question of preserving these heritage sites which are an asset for our country.”

The region was once the center of Buddhist civilization that took root under the Mauryan king Ashoka 2,300 years ago.

The presentation of the Buddha image coincided with a lockdown of major highways around the nation’s capital to contain a rightist protest against a perceived slight to Islam by members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Minority communities in Pakistan are often targeted by right-wing groups and successive governments have in the past been reluctant to embrace the country’s non-Muslim heritage.

But recent attempts to improve Pakistan’s image have included overtures to minority communities by the PML-N.

In January, then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the restoration of Hindu temples at Katas Raj in Punjab province.

Considered a conservative figure, Khan has stressed dialogue with Islamist hardliners including the Taliban but on Wednesday said the preservation of sites like Bhamala could promote religious tourism.

“It’s a world heritage site (and) because of it people can come for religious tourism and see these places,” he said.

Khan dismissed the protesters in Islamabad, seeking to project a more tolerant image of Pakistan. “It’s a very small part of what is happening in Pakistan. The majority of the population wants to see such (Buddhist) sites restored.”

Khan’s opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is hoping to make big gains at the 2018 elections as the PML-N has been increasingly embroiled in corruption investigations.

Sharif resigned as prime minister in July after the Supreme Court disqualified him for not declaring a source of income and faces trial before an anti-corruption court.
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Egypt opened an exhibition on Wednesday to display previously unseen treasures from King Tutankhamun’s famed tomb.

At least 55 pieces of fabric decorated with gold that were found in the tomb of the pharaoh, better known as King Tut, will be exhibited in public for the first time since its discovery in 1922, said German conservator Christian Eckmann.

He said the pieces had been kept in storage at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for some 95 years, without being restored or scientifically examined.

He said the artifacts attest to the network of social and cultural connections which have characterized the eastern Mediterranean going back to antiquity.

“Those pieces are connected to the chariots of Tutankhamun,” he said. “They were unfortunately in a very bad state of condition.”

Some depict traditional Egyptian motifs, while others feature designs that were widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium B.C., he said.

Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anani inaugurated the exhibition to mark the 115th anniversary of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s near-intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The king’s mummified body was in a golden coffin surrounded by precious goods.

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. The discovery of the tomb made him Egypt’s most famous pharaoh, and inspired a wave of interest in the country’s ancient civilization.
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A painting thought by scholars to be one of only a few by Leonardo da Vinci to have survived the half-millennium since the artist’s death is set to be auctioned Wednesday in New York, where it is guaranteed to sell for at least $100 million.

 

Art lovers have lined up by the thousands at special presale exhibitions in Hong Kong, San Francisco, London and New York to see the only work by the Renaissance master in private hands.

 

The 500-year-old oil painting depicting Christ holding a crystal orb, called “Salvator Mundi” or “Savior of the World,” is one of fewer than 20 paintings by Leonardo da Vinci known to exist, according to Christie’s, the auction house conducting the sale.

 

“I can hardly convey how exciting it is for those of us directly involved in its sale,” said Christie’s specialist Alan Wintermute. “The word ‘masterpiece’ barely begins to convey the rarity, importance and sublime beauty of Leonardo’s painting.”

 

Wintermute called it “the Holy Grail of old master paintings.” A backer of the auction has guaranteed a bid of at least $100 million (85 million euros). Experts have said it might be worth more, except for its generally poor state of preservation and lingering questions about its authenticity.

 

The 26-inch (66-centimeter) painting dates from around 1500 and shows Christ dressed in Renaissance-style robes, his right hand raised in blessing as his left hand holds a crystal sphere.

 

The painting’s history is as mysterious as Jesus’ enigmatic gaze, which invites comparison to a better-known Leonardo work, the “Mona Lisa.”

 

“Salvator Mundi” was owned by King Charles I of England in the mid-1600s and was auctioned by the son of the Duke of Buckingham in 1763.

 

It then disappeared from view until 1900, when it resurfaced and was acquired by a British collector. At the time, it was thought to be a work of a Leonardo disciple, rather than the master himself.

 

The painting was sold again in 1958 and then acquired in 2005, badly damaged and partly painted-over, by a consortium of art dealers who paid less than $10,000.

 

They restored the painting extensively and documented its authenticity as a work by Leonardo. The work’s current owner is Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought it in 2013 for $127.5 million in a private sale that became the subject of a continuing lawsuit.

 

Christie’s says a majority of scholars believe it is a work by Leonardo, though some have questioned that determination while others have said it was so extensively restored that it is probably more akin to a copy than an original.

 

In New York, where no museum owns a Leonardo, art lovers lined up outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters on Tuesday to view “Salvator Mundi.”

 

Inside, Christ’s face seemed to light up the darkened gallery.

 

Svetla Nikolova, who is from Bulgaria but lives in New York now, called the painting “spectacular.”

 

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she said. “It should be seen. It’s wonderful it’s in New York. I’m so lucky to be in New York at this time.”

 

Una Dora Copley, an artist herself, said “Salvator Mundi” was worth the hour-plus wait. “I won’t be thinking of the line,” Copley said. “I’ll just be thinking of the beautiful painting.”

 

The auction begins at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
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The Puerto Rican rapper, who leads nominations with nine nods for his first solo album post-Calle 13 — including album, record and song of the year — admits that he felt pressured to do “something huge and great” after spending a decade with the most decorated act in the history of the Latin Grammys.

 

“I was very precise with every sound, with every word, with the videos, with the page. I learned a lot with this (project) and now I just wanna do some music and be relaxed, and that’s what I’m making now,” Residente said in a recent interview in New York, where he lives.

 

“It means a lot,” he said of the nominations. “For any artist it’s difficult to go by himself after working with (a group like) Calle 13, … so in that sense it was great for me.”

 

“Residente,” which came out March 31, includes 13 songs that he wrote and recorded over two years traveling around to where his ancestors hailed according to a DNA test. He started in the Russian province of Siberia, and also visited China, the Caucasus and West Africa, among other regions. He also directed a self-titled documentary on the making of the album, as well as the music videos for “Somos Anormales,” “Guerra” and “Desencuentro,” the latter of which is also nominated.

 

“This project was something really personal,” said the artist, born Rene Perez. “I wanted to make something huge and great for me to feel good, you know. And now that I did it, I feel that I can do really whatever I feel. … I feel more free.”

 

As with the music he used to make with his brother Eduardo Cabra — Calle 13’s Visitante — the album “Residente” is so eclectic that it landed him nominations in genres that include urban, alternative and tropical music.

Asked if any of the nominated pieces had a special meaning to him, he mentioned “Hijos del Cañaveral,” a best tropical song contender he wrote for Puerto Rico. But he also confided that the most special song for him on the album is one that he wrote for his son Milo, a piece he decided not to submit.

 

“I didn’t want to nominate this song because is for my son; I don’t know, I didn’t wanna use it for that. But I think ‘Milo’ is one of the most special songs I have in the album,” he said. “Is a great song and the music is super nice. … I made it in Africa and you can feel that I’m feeling it also while I’m singing. I like that song.”

 

Residente is going to perform at the Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, but he didn’t want to reveal what he was doing.

 

“I just wanna do my best and I wanna enjoy it too. For me that’s the most important thing, to perform there and to bring something different to the table.”

 

The Latin Grammys air Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on Univision.
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A former Argentine lawyer for a government-run soccer television program ran in front of a Buenos Aires train and committed suicide late Tuesday, hours after being accused in a New York court of receiving bribes, police said.

Jorge Delhon, attorney for the Futbol Para Todos (Soccer for All) program, received bribes from the end of 2011 to 2014, according to testimony by the former head of sports marketing company Torneos y Competencias, Alejandro Burzaco, as recorded in a court transcript seen by Reuters.

The driver of the train told police a man later identified as Delhon, 50, ran along the tracks in Lanus, Buenos Aires, the local police department said in a statement that called the death a suicide. The driver honked and tried to brake but the man was run over, the statement said.

Reuters was unable to reach Delhon’s family for comment or to independently confirm the death was a suicide.

Javier Saldias, a fellow former lawyer for Futbol Para Todos who told Reuters he was a friend of Delhon, said Delhon was “a model father. He loved his family.”

Paid for TV rights

Burzaco testified during a U.S. corruption trial of three former soccer officials that major media companies had paid bribes to secure television rights for soccer matches. The testimony came during the first trial to emerge from the U.S. investigation of bribery surrounding FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.

In his testimony in a Brooklyn federal court, Burzaco described bribes paid to several international soccer officials, including Julio Humberto Grondona, a former Argentine Football Association president and FIFA executive, who died in 2014.

Soccer for All, a free-to-view program created by Argentina’s former President Cristina Fernandez, brought top-flight matches into the households of a soccer-obsessed country and was emblematic of her populist policymaking.

Center-right President Mauricio Macri, a former chairman of top club Boca Juniors who took office in December 2015, made a deal with the local soccer association to rescind the contract as he moved to cut government subsidies.

In March, divisions of U.S. media companies Twenty-First Century Fox and Time Warner won a joint contract to broadcast Argentine soccer matches for five years beginning next season.
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Blake Shelton was named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, a first for any country singer, prompting “The Voice” judge to shake off his shyness about his looks.

“I’ve been ugly my whole life,” Shelton, 41, said in a statement on Tuesday. “If I can be sexy for a year, I’m taking it!”

Oklahoma native Shelton spent a decade in country music before his popularity surged in 2011 as the wise-cracking judge and mentor to aspiring singers on NBC’s reality talent competition “The Voice.” His most recent album, “Texoma Shore,” was released earlier this month.

Shelton told People he could not wait to tease his fellow “Voice” judge and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine with his Sexiest Man title, which Levine won in 2013.

“I’m not going to treat this like Hugh Jackman or one of those guys who’s humble about it. People are going to hate me over this,” Shelton joked.

The singer told People that while he tries to stay in shape and eat healthy, he does have a weakness for snacks such as jalapeno poppers and pickles, especially when he is home in Oklahoma.

Shelton was formerly married to country singer Miranda Lambert and has been dating pop singer Gwen Stefani for the past two years. He told People that Stefani had encouraged him to accept the title of Sexiest Man Alive.

Previous title holders include Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford, Ryan Reynolds and David Beckham.
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Ezra Miller brings an electric energy to the superhero team-up film “Justice League,” pinballing off the more imposing presences of Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck.

 

They are mighty. He is fast.

 

Miller was first cast as Barry Allen, a.k.a. The Flash, several years ago, but “Justice League” is his most front-and-center performance yet as the fastest man alive. He’s also the best thing in the film, adding a hyper, insecure liveliness that has often been lacking from many recent, more grandiose DC Comics films.

 

As played by the 25-year-old, Barry is a motor-mouthed loner who, when asked by Bruce Wayne to join the League, is mostly happy to just have some friends.

 

Miller, who has been credited as the first out LGBT person to play a lead role in a major superhero film, has distinguished himself by playing hyper-verbal outcasts in movies big (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and small (“We Need to Talk About Kevin,” “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”). Speaking by phone from London, Miller spoke with verbal gymnastics that even the Flash might struggle to keep up with.

 

AP: From “City Island” to “Fantastic Beasts” you seem to be drawn to playing outsiders.

 

Miller: I’m definitely interested in what I would call Barbara McClintock’s discovery of the rebellious gene. Things advance by mutating away from their point of origin. I do think that happens on not just a cellular or genetic level but within civil society. A lot of the people who have shaped ideas and science on planet Earth have been outsiders. I feel often like an outside. It’s a fascinating type of person to portray. And I think ultimately everyone has an element of that in their experience even if their life doesn’t fully present that on first look. I think everyone can feel alienated and can both benefit by that and know the harm of that.

 

AP: You seem a quick-witted person. Do you identify with the Flash?

 

Miller: A cool idea about the Flash is that he, as he starts to move quicker and quicker with his body, he must also speed up mentally. When we shoot something in slow-motion, like we might on a Flash-inclusive movie, the way that’s done is by rolling the camera faster. You shoot more frames per second when you want to slow down the image. In the same way, the Flash, as he moves faster, has to speed up to his brain in order to slow down his perception. That’s all well and good when he’s in superhero-mode, but one of the questions of our film asks is how does that play out in social circumstances? I think there are qualities that have been detrimental to his social capacity.

 

AP: Were you at all concerned that a big production like this would leave less room for the kind of acting you practice?

 

Miller: I feel personally that if I’m struggling for integrity, I’m already lacking in it. I come from a place where instead of trying to manufacture my standards of integrity I’m trying to work in such a way that I trust in that inherently when I step to any project, whatever the scale. I want to maintain the integrity of my process. Outside of that, forget about it. It’s anyone’s game.

 

AP: But was there some appeal in bouncing off the more archetypal performances by Cavill, Gadot and Affleck?

 

Miller: Yeah, that’s one of the great joys. In a situation like this to have the immense gravity of everything — which I think is really maintained in this film — but then be in a situation where I can improvise. I can play. I can react in the way that I feel Barry might, in a way that can feel deeply human. That was exciting to me, the idea that in the age of superhero films in their absolute crescendo, you have this character who’s sort of a fan who appreciates what he’s witnessing. And to have someone who’s having really human reactions to what’s going on — to see a villain and have a panic attack — I connect with that. I think people connect with that. I think that’s where we are. In terms of realizing our true potential as superheroes, the species on the planet, we’re in amateur, novice stages. We are tripping over our own feet like Barry in this movie.
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For his latest role, as an attorney who defends young people of color imprisoned without trial, Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington weighed how family dynamics played into the lives of young criminals.

“I grew up with guys who did decades (in prison) and it had as much to do with their fathers not being in their lives as it did to do with any system,” Washington said in a recent interview with Reuters about his new film, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

The movie, written and directed by Dan Gilroy, opens on Friday.

The actor plays the title role of a lawyer with encyclopedic knowledge.

Washington, recalling some of the people he grew up with, added: “By the time we got to 13, 14, different things happened.”

“Now I was doing just as much as they were, but they went further … I just didn’t get caught, but they kept going down that road and then they were in the hands of the system. But it’s about the formative years. You’re not born a criminal.”

The cases explored in “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” reflect a “massively important issue in our country,” director Gilroy said.

“Our prison system needs reform at a fundamental level. We have the highest incarceration rate of any place in the Western world … It’s not racially equal, it’s not socio-economically equal,” he said.
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Taylor Swift’s new album “Reputation” has sold more than one million copies in its first five days, Nielsen Music said on Tuesday, but the U.S. pop star failed to beat the record set by Britain’s Adele two years ago.

Swift’s 1.05 million U.S. sales of “Reputation” came despite the singer keeping the album from streaming services and gave her the best-selling album of 2017.

But the figure was less than half the monster sales for the debut of Adele’s “25” album, which surpassed 2.43 million copies in the first four days of release in November 2015 and smashed a 15-year-old U.S. record set by boy band NSync in 2000. Adele also initially kept “25” from streaming services.

Swift, 27, recording on Nashville-based independent label Big Machine Records, now has four albums that have sold more than one million copies in their first week — “1989,” “Red,” and “Speak Now.”

“Reputation,” her first studio album in three years, marked another transformation for Swift with songs marked by vengeance that take aim at the media and some of her haters.

Full first week sales will be available next week, when “Reputation” will top the Billboard 200 album chart.

Swift this week announced the first U.S. dates of what is expected to be a world tour to promote the album.
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There were movie stars and supermodels, TV hosts and pop stars.

 

But perhaps the most rapturous ovation at Glamour magazine’s annual Women of the Year awards went to 79-year-old Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who delighted the crowd — including hundreds of cheering young girls — with a rousing speech that ended on a very political note.

“Impeach him,” she exhorted the audience. “Impeach 45! Impeach 45!”

 

Alongside Waters, honorees at Monday evening’s ceremony, held at a theater in Brooklyn, included actress Nicole Kidman, singer Solange Knowles, late-night host Samantha Bee, model Gigi Hadid, film director Patty Jenkins, and fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri of Christian Dior.

Also honored were record-setting astronaut Peggy Whitson, Syrian refugee and UNICEF ambassador Muzoon Almellehan and the many organizers of the January women’s marches.

 

Though this was the 27th year of the Glamour awards, there was a different sensation this time around, noted Cindi Leive, Glamour’s outgoing editor-in-chief.

“There’s a feeling in the air,” she told the crowd at the beginning. She didn’t have to explain that she was referring to the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal and the subsequent cascade of allegations in Hollywood and elsewhere, with both women and men coming forward to accuse powerful men of sexual harassment, assault or misconduct.

 

“This is a singular moment for women,” Leive said. “I am so glad that we get to seize it.”

 

One of the most powerful moments in the ceremony came when the two New York Times reporters who broke the Weinstein story — Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey — took the stage to introduce a quartet of women who had experienced sexual harassment or assault.

The first to speak: Anita Hill, who has been a symbol of the fight against sexual harassment ever since she testified in 1991 against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. She hadn’t gotten the result she wanted back then, she explained — Thomas was confirmed anyway — but in just a few years, official complaints of sexual harassment skyrocketed.

“I saw that we had a chance to shift the narrative,” Hill said.

 

Also appearing was Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, who came forward last week to allege she was sexually abused by a U.S. team doctor, Larry Nassar, who has been accused by more than 100 women and girls of sexual assault.

“We need answers,” Raisman said.

 

Kidman, accepting her award, noted it had been “an extraordinary year — we’re in uncharted territory right now.” But she said she preferred to celebrate “all of us, and what makes us, us.” She thanked her parents, and then noted that she had “an extraordinary husband,” singer Keith Urban.

“As much as I’m a strong woman, I need help and I need support,” she said.

 

Along with the honorees, there were plenty of high-wattage presenters: Serena Williams, for example, came to introduce her friend, Hadid, noting that the supermodel was one of only a very few people that could get her to leave her new baby, even for one night. Drew Barrymore introduced Bee, and original Wonder Woman Lynda Carter introduced “Wonder Woman” director Jenkins.

Singer-actress Zendaya, 21, introduced Waters, who clearly had fans among the young women from various girls’ organizations seated up in the balcony.

 

Waters told them that she didn’t just want them to vote — she wanted them to become politically active. “I want you to do everything you can to get ready to run for office,” she said.

 

Also exhorting the young women to action was astronaut Whitson, 57, who returned to Earth in September after 288 days in space. In all, she has spent 665 days in space — a record for a U.S. astronaut.

 

“I started as a farm girl in Iowa,” an emotional Whitson said. “I dreamed of being an astronaut and an explorer, and I made it.” She told the young women that it had taken 10 years of trying before she finally was accepted in the space program.

 

Leive, who announced in September that she was leaving Glamour after 16 years, said at a dinner following the ceremony that she had never seen women as energized as they are now, with the current, expanding conversation on sexual misconduct by powerful men.

“Something has shifted in the very molecules in the air,” she said.
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