The Independent

Ruslana Korshunova had conquered the catwalks before turning 21. So why did she end her life by throwing herself from the ninth floor of a New York apartment block?

Sky News

One of the stars the Austin Powers films has launched £10m lawsuit against a celebrity website that posted a sex tape of the actor on the internet.

REUTERS, LOS ANGELES- The new spy spoof "Get Smart" took an early lead at the weekend box office in North America, while Mike Myers bombed with his latest comedy "The Love Guru," according to first-day sales data issued on Saturday.

REUTERS, LOS ANGELES - Comedian Ellen DeGeneres and cooking-lifestyle guru Rachael Ray shared the Daytime Emmy spotlight on Friday as they split U.S. television's top two awards for entertainment talks shows.

AP, LOS ANGELES - Cyd Charisse, the long-legged beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Charisse was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Monday after suffering an apparent heart attack, said her publicist, Gene Schwam.

AP, NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A California man has filed a petition asking a Nashville court to order DNA testing he believes will prove the late singer Eddy Arnold was his father.

REUTERS, LOS ANGELES  - Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey has accepted a year-long position as a theater professor at Oxford University, the institution said in a posting on its Web site on Friday.

REUTERS, LOS ANGELES  - Michael Jackson may relaunch his career as a Las Vegas act, thanks to the private equity group that recently bought the loan on his Neverland Ranch in California to help the pop star avert foreclosure.

REUTERS, PARIS - France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy sings of 30 lovers and hard drugs on a new album that she insists was not inspired by her whirlwind romance and marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

m is acute due to Bruni's romance with Sarkozy, Dicale lauded it as a "perfect success" in terms of music.

Los Angeles (E! Online) - There are some people Janet Jackson just doesn't want to rock with. Like Europeans. And her record label.

REUTERS, ROME - An Italian couple who were caught having sex in a church confessional box while morning Mass was being said have repented and made peace with the local bishop.

REUTERS, NEW DELHI - "Sarkar Raj", a new Bollywood film on a shrewd businesswoman's plan to build a power plant caught up in development politics, is drawing comparisons with the controversy behind the failed Indian project of U.S. utilities giant Enron.

AFP, WASHINGTON  - Actor and filmmaker Mel Ferrer, who was once married to Audrey Hepburn, has died in California at age 90, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

REUTERS, STOCKHOLM - Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, under threat after angering Muslim groups with her work, is living in Sweden with the support of a local municipality, a member of parliament said on Monday.

Cecilia Wikstrom, a deputy chairman of a parliamentary committee on cultural affairs, said the local council of the university town of Uppsala had offered to cover Nasreen's basic living expenses for up to two years so she can write.

AFP, LONDON - The stage adaptation of the classic novel "Gone with the Wind" has closed three months early, becoming one of the biggest flops in the history of London's West End theatre district, reports said on Sunday.

The musical had been due to run until at least September 27, but producers have decided to cut their losses after poor ticket sales, several newspapers reported.

AFP, LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning US actress Holly Hunter got star treatment, as her name was embedded and her film career honored on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame".

The 50-year-old actress, her two-year-old twin sons, director Steven Spielberg and actor Ed Harris were all on hand for the unveiling of the 2,363rd star to be laid on Hollywood Boulevard.

AFP, LOS ANGELES - Sydney Pollack, the prolific US director, producer and actor who helmed the Oscar-winning romance "Out of Africa" and the cross-dressing comedy "Tootsie," has died of cancer. He was 73.

Pollack died Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by his family, his agent Leslee Dart told AFP. He had been diagnosed with cancer nine months ago.

The Sunday Times

A teenage actor who is to appear in the new Harry Potter film was stabbed to death in the early hours of yesterday during a fight at a bar.

AFP, BELGRADE - Sweden and Ukraine, among the main contenders in the 53rd Eurovision song contest, have claimed a place in the glitzy finale of the competition to be staged in the Serbian capital this weekend.

Charlotte Perrelli, the Swedish diva who won the contest in 1999, wowed the audience on Thursday evening with her upbeat song "Hero," which is expected to get strong backing from the Scandinavian bloc in the final.

Reuters, Los Angeles - Rocker David Cook won the coveted title of "American Idol" on Wednesday, dealing an unexpected but decisive defeat to a silken-voiced teenager, also named David, on the most popular US television show.

Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, stood back to applaud rival David Archuleta, 17, and then bent over crying after host Ryan Seacrest said he had won by 12 million votes.