Anna Arrowsmith (aka Anna Span) has been a porn director for 12 years. This made her recent campaign as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham rather controversial.

Anna Arrowsmith (aka Anna Span) has been a porn director for 12 years. This made her recent campaign as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Gravesham rather controversial. "Not my cup of tea", said Nick Clegg about her occupation. But what she has been doing is not mainstream pornography, but independent porn made for women.

"I have fought long and hard for women's right to sexual expression and consumption, as well as for freedom of speech," she wrote in the Observer. But Gail Dines, author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality, challenged her in the Guardian: "What are you doing that is different from what every other pornographer is doing?"

The best way to answer that question is probably by watching Arrowsmith's films. And not just hers. Because a number of women, tired of mainstream porn and tired of criticising it without offering an alternative, are making the porn films they want to watch.

These films don't include horny schoolgirls, naughty nurses, nymphomaniac nannies or desperate housewives. Nor do they include Mafiosi, multimillionaires drinking cognac, pimps, drug dealers or super-sized sex machines. Because these women, as filmmakers and consumers, place themselves far away from mainstream porn.

"It is a prejudice to say that women don't like porn," says Erika Lust, another fem porn director. "Sex images make you hot, but pornography has been made by and for men. In mainstream porn everything is about male pleasure and women are objects. Oral sex for men can last forever, but when women's turn comes it lasts 10 seconds. Female orgasms are not an issue in most of the films. And women are shown mostly as prostitutes, which is sad."

Lust has directed three porn films and written three sex books. Her website explains: "We produce adult movies. We publish erotic books and magazines. Our works speak about sex, lust and passion. We enjoy exciting you and exciting your mind. We make love, not porn. And we do all this with a feminine, aesthetic and innovative approach."

After working for 10 years as a TV producer and director, Petra Joy has moved on to directing "art-core" films. She says: "Women have a lot of catching up to do. We had the sex toy revolution first - no more giant cucumbers but a gold-plated mini vibrator perfect for clit stimulation - and now the second wave is the porn revolution: porn that is made by and for women, that focuses on female pleasure and features male sex objects."

These directors are just three among many. Their films have different styles: Lust's are urban and modern, Joy's are visual and sensory and Arrowsmith's are a bit more hardcore. But there are similarities that show how this new branch of the porn industry works.

First of all, they are educated. Lust read political sciences at Lund University, Joy has a master's degree in film history at the University of Köln and Arrowsmith studied fine art at Central Saint Martins. They do this because they chose it, and not because they don't have other options. They are all independent producers and distribute their films mostly over the internet. They pay particular attention to aesthetics, music, locations, actors and stories. And most importantly, they think about what women need to enjoy porn.

Joy says: "Women enjoy seeing a curve of arousal and like to understand why these people are having sex and how they got turned on. Women want to see credible female performers, women of all sizes and looks who genuinely enjoy themselves rather than porn clones with fake nails, hairs and boobs faking it for the camera."

Lust adds: "To get excited women want to see something that looks like us. We want to see independent women exploring their sexuality, who are not afraid, but are not sex heroines either. We want to see attractive men who share our lifestyles, our ideas."

These directors make sure they only work with people who want to perform in erotic films, and that what you see is real pleasure. Lust says: "I want people with an open sexuality who want to work here. I don't want anybody doing this because they don't have another choice. During the shooting I want them to have good sex and it's my job to find the images. For me it is a tense moment, because things happen only once and it's a moment of hard work. Is not a party behind the camera."

In 2006, Alison Lee created the Feminist Porn Awards, which this year takes place on 13-15 April in Toronto. She says: "We wanted to celebrate people who were making porn in a feminist way and help to expose them to a greater audience. For our sixth anniversary we are expecting lots of stars and a super-fun event. We are also hoping to have a stronger focus on websites and online porn than we have in the past."

Lust, Joy and Span have previously won awards in different categories. This year Lust is nominated for her last film, Life, Love, Lust, and Span for Sex Experiments: Bisexual Scenes and Sex Interviews.

These director's films are also featured on Dusk!, the Dutch porn channel that since 2007 has broadcast fem porn 24/7 and is available to 1.2m viewers. Martijn Broersma says he started the channel with the aim of providing a service that nobody else was offering.

"Nowadays women talk more about their own [sexual] likes and dislikes," he said. "With this revolution in mind, it was logical that women needed their own erotic TV channel."

And while independent fem porn keeps growing, mainstream porn is in crisis. Patrick Kwasniewski specialised in gender and queer studies at the University of Klagenfurt and is currently researching his thesis on feminist porn. He says: "The development of this branch of the industry is profiting from the internet: the more direct ways to reach consumers, easier ways of self-distribution, having a more focused target and producing highly profiled films. Whilst the mainstream industry faces loss of profits through not changing their traditional ways of production or distribution and producing very repetitive films that have more and more troubles on the market, especially when there's so much for free on the internet."

Joy adds: "The industry is slowly waking up to the fact that it is not just VOD [Video on Demand] that caused the drop in porn DVD sales, but that even males are bored of films that always show the same performers in the same studios going through the same sexual positions in the same running order and looking bored whilst faking it. People are hungry for more authenticity, variety and joy."

controversial mini-series about the Kennedy family that its US broadcaster refused to show is to be screened later this year on BBC Two.

A controversial mini-series about the Kennedy family that its US broadcaster refused to show is to be screened later this year on BBC Two.

The Kennedys was to air on the History Channel in the US before its parent company, A&E Television Networks, pulled the plug following complaints over its historical accuracy.

Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes play John and Jackie Kennedy in the series.

BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow said it was "a perfect fit" for the channel.

"It has a very particular flavour and we are delighted to have this new addition to our schedules," she continued.

Her words contrast with those of A&E, who had decided "this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand".

The Kennedys will air in the US next month on ReelzChannel, a digital cable TV channel. It will then be screened on the UK History channel from 7 April.

A BBC Two spokeswoman said it would screen the eight-part series in May or June.

Long-running BBC One sitcom My Family, starring Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker, has been axed.

Long-running BBC One sitcom My Family, starring Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker, has been axed.

The 11th series of the show - which depicts the comic trials of a modern family - will be aired on BBC One later this year and will be its last.

"Now that all the Harper children have fled the nest we feel it's time to make room for new comedies," said BBC One controller Danny Cohen.

Its two stars would remain "part of our BBC One comedy family", he added.

"In Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker we are proud to have had two of Britain's finest comic actors," said Cheryl Taylor, the BBC's comedy commissioning controller.

She said "almost a generation of British children has grown up with the Harper brood", who have been played by actors including Kris Marshall and former EastEnder Daniela Denby-Ashe.

The 10th series of the programme, shown last summer, attracted an average audience of 4.6 million viewers.


In a recent interview Lindsay said he was "amazed by the public's love for the series".

"When Kris Marshall left in 2005 I was convinced that was it. But somehow Zoe and I have kept the essence of it together," he told the Daily Telegraph.

The sitcom, which first went out on BBC One on September 2000, was created by Fred Barron.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor has reportedly left the bulk of her $600 million (£375 million) fortune to Aids charities.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor has reportedly left the bulk of her $600 million (£375 million) fortune to Aids charities.
The Hollywood veteran passed away on Wednesday (23Mar11) after losing her long battle with congestive heart disease, sending the showbusiness world into mourning.
Frequently praised for her role as an Aids/Hiv activist, the star has continued her good work by leaving a large portion of her wealth to her beloved charities, reports The New York Post.
According to Fox News, Taylor's famous jewellery collection will be auctioned off to benefit The Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation and amfAR, the Aids charity she founded in 1985.
As of 2002, the collection had an estimated value of $150 million (£93.7 million).

Hugh Laurie is putting his lucrative role as Dr. Gregory House on the hit FOX show House aside for a short time as he attempts to launch his career as a blues musician.

He is the highest paid actor on U.S. television for possibly the world's number one show - earning over $400,000 an episode.

But Hugh Laurie is putting his lucrative role as Dr. Gregory House on the hit FOX show House aside for a short time as he attempts to launch his career as a blues musician.

The 51-year-old Golden Globe winning star made his first live performance tonight at an intimate venue in New Orleans kicking off the promotion for his upcoming album. 
Hugh Laurie is taking time out from his number one show House to release a blues album

Performing in front of a small hand selected audience which included his long-time friend and writing partner Stephen Fry.

Playing alongside local musicians such as Allen Toussaint, Hugh played a selection of songs from the new record which is mostly covers of his favourite blues tracks.

Hugh recorded the album back in September 2010 at Ocean studios in Los Angeles and claims the ambition was a lifelong dream.

Chris Brown won’t be charged for TV tantrum

Chris Brown is teaching today’s youth an important lesson about consequences, namely, if you act as though you shouldn’t have to face them, then you probably won’t.

Despite reportedly trashing his dressing room and breaking a mirror with a chair Tuesday at Good Morning America, the actor/singer won’t be charged, law-enforcement sources told TMZ.

ABC has decided not to press charges against Brown for vandalizing his dressing room. As insiders told RadarOnline, that also means the 21-year-old isn’t in danger of going to jail for violating his probation.

"The police weren't called, and unless ABC decides to call the NYPD, no action will be taken against Brown," a source said.

After his tantrum, Brown exhibited his trademark humility and remorse — and by that, we mean he was playing basketball and partying. RadarOnline obtained photographs of Brown (now wearing a shirt) shooting hoops with friends, only a few hours after the GMA freak-out took place. Later that night, he was performing in front of hundreds of guests at the release party for his new album, F.A.M.E.

Don’t expect the incident to have a negative effect on Brown’s career, either: Reuters reports that his album shot to the top of the iTunes chart Tuesday. And while there had been rumblings that Dancing with the Stars would cancel his appearance on next week’s episode, a show spokesperson told Entertainment Weekly that Brown is still set to perform on the March 29.

 

Michael Jackson’s longtime dermatologist and friend, is reportedly responsible for his addictions to Demerol, giving him as many as 51 injections in the months before he died.

Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson’s longtime dermatologist and friend, is reportedly responsible for his addictions to Demerol, giving him as many as 51 injections in the months before he died.

According to TMZ, lawyers for Dr. Conrad Murray just filed legal documents claming Klein was fueling Jackson’s drug dependency with scores of Demerol and another powerful narcotic.
According to the documents, in the 3 months before Jackson died, Dr. Klein had given Jackson no less than 51 Demerol injections.
“Due to Mr. Klein's actions, Mr. Jackson became physiologically and psychologically dependent on Demerol,” the documents claim.
Klein had previously denied prescribing any of the dangerous painkillerss which led to Jackson’s death, including Demerol and OxyContin. He went so far as saying that the doctors who did prescribe the drugs are “criminals.”
"I say that anyone who makes someone an addict or gives a person potentially dangerous substances directly to them to use, like propofol is a criminal," Klein told Good Morning America back in 2009. "It becomes nothing more than a manslaughter, or something worse than that."
Now the legal team for Dr. Conrad Murray wants Klein to produce all of his medical records. "Dr. Klein is a relevant and highly material witness to the defense,” the document states.

Elizabeth Taylor

Foreshadowing the tabloid scrutiny of later stars, even her best screen performances were dwarfed by tales of her personal life. Magazines obsessed for decades with stories of her glamorous lifestyle, her health, her weight problems and most of all, her succession of high-profile marriages.

She played it for all it was worth, and it could only have helped her box office, but it diverted from more important facts. For starters, the woman could really act, as any viewing of her better films - Suddenly Last Summer (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), and The Taming of Shrew (1967) - would reveal. She received two Oscars, and was a dame of the British Empire.

But Taylor had several incarnations of movie stardom. The sweet child actor, appearing in wholesome films such as Lassie Come Home and National Velvet; the young beauty, playing the ingenue in Father of the Bride and Ivanhoe, followed by more substantial roles in Giant and A Place in the Sun; the respected actor, a major box office star of the 1950s and 60s; and later, the grand dame, winning new fans through her dedication to charitable causes well after her movie career was essentially over. After all this, it is sad that her most famous role might also be her most notorious: the flamboyant title role of Cleopatra (1963), the movie that seemed to symbolise her excessive, glamorous reputation.



For all her plaudits, it could be no surprise that her Hollywood break was due to looks, not acting prowess. Born in London, her parents were American art dealers. When she was seven, the family relocated to the US to escape World War II. Two years later, she won a screen test with Universal Pictures, who signed her for a small role in There's One Born Every Minute (1942). She was then contracted to MGM, Hollywood's largest film studio at the time, which gave her a more substantial role in Lassie Come Home (1943), thanks partly to her Englishness. It was her fifth film, the highly successful (and also frightfully British) National Velvet (1944), which finally brought stardom. In the role of Velvet Brown, the adorable but determined girl who dreams of winning the Grand National (and in true Hollywood style, does exactly that), she won hearts, showing her worth as an appealing (if somewhat saccharine) child star.

Like most child stars, growing up was a potential hazard. In the 1950 comedy Father of the Bride, she played a young woman whose impending marriage was obstructed by her protective father (Spencer Tracy). The movie's release coincided with her marriage (at age 18) to hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr, and indeed the publicity of her real-live nuptials helped the movie's box office. Unlike her on-screen marriage (back for a sequel the next year), the Taylor-Hilton marriage was over within months (thanks to Hilton's philandering and abuse). Still, it began Taylor's well-promoted pastime of playing the bride. During the decade, she would marry four times. Apart from her marriage to producer Michael Todd, who died in a 1958 plane crash, all would end in divorce. Even as her private life made her a tabloid favourite, she was making the leap into the serious adult roles that had eluded many child stars.

It was not strictly hype or celebrity status that allowed this. Her beauty and undoubted sex appeal, with her famous bright violet eyes, gave her a definite star quality. As a bonus, she was maturing as a dramatic actor, improving with each film. For playing a southern belle in the Civil War drama Raintree Country (1957), which suggested that she might have made a good Scarlett O'Hara, she was nominated for an Oscar. No small feat, as the film itself was maligned by critics. To prove her staying power, she would go on to achieve the rare feat of four Oscar nominations in consecutive years.

Butterfield 8 (1960) finally won her an Oscar, with a role (as a society callgirl) that happily destroyed any remnants of the National Velvet image. Her portrayal was serviceable if not outstanding, but her win was more for sympathy than excellence. Two years before, she had been widowed at age 26, and she was still recovering from a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, arriving at the show from a London hospital. (Her victory was so certain that only one of her fellow nominees, Greer Garson, had bothered to attend.) Accepting her award, she thanked everyone gracefully, glided offstage and fainted.

Whatever the reason for the Oscar, it gave her extra legitimacy as an actor. After three years of recovery, her return to the screen was a special event on its own. The vehicle was Cleopatra (1963), which became infamous for its extravagance. Taylor was the first Hollywood actress to ask - and receive - a cool million dollars for one film, along with other luxuries. All of this helped to push the movie over the brink. Adjusted for inflation, it is still Hollywood's most expensive film, renowned as one of the great Hollywood flops. This is a cutting reputation - and inaccurate, as it turned a profit, and was actually America's biggest box office film of 1963. Taylor's salary, while seemingly exorbitant, was based on her acknowledged box office power.

Taylor won a reputation for avarice, which was not helped when she became something of a jewellery connoisseur. On the set of Cleopatra, she also met her future husband Richard Burton (cast as Mark Antony), a notorious ladies' man. Depending on whom you ask, they were either one of Hollywood's great love stories, or one of the most absurd. The British-born pair, who married in 1964 and became Hollywood's primary royal couple of their time, weathered 10 years of Burton's alcoholism and womanising, becoming Taylor's longest-lasting marriage. They even remarried (briefly) less than 18 months after their divorce.

Creatively, their joint output was variable. Most of their movies were showpieces of their relationship, as fans saw their private life (real or imagined) exposed in their characters. They struck gold with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Burton and Taylor's squabbles were publicly known, but they were nothing compared to the destructive marriage they portrayed in this film. Taylor played Martha, was a loud, vulgar alcoholic ("There isn't an abomination award you haven't won," snipes her husband), and audiences were startled to see that the glamour girl had been replaced by an ageing, acerbic woman. Taylor even gained 11kg for the role, which she considered "rather delightful".

This was an anti-Cleopatra film: a small drama with a cast of only four. (The cast was not increased from Edward Albee's original stage play.) Taylor won her second Oscar, and this time it was probably awarded on merit. After all, she was no longer seen as the tragic young star of Butterfield 8, but the grasping, egotistical star who had wasted so much money on Cleopatra. But however much the on-screen drama might have reflected their off-screen marriage, it left no doubt that Taylor was not just a movie idol. Decades before such transformation became normal for A-list stars, it took courage for a Hollywood superstar to take on such a role.

It was the apex of her career. After that film, she would never make a movie as famous as her private life. She would not lose all the weight that she had gained to play Martha, and as she followed her marriages to Burton with other short-lived marriages, she became known in the 1970s as a sad, bloated figure ("I was the great white whale," she said in hindsight), occasionally playing forgettable roles in forgettable movies, suffering from various drug addictions.

Happily, after she turned 50, some of the glamour returned - if not in movies (though she was marvellous as a catty film star in the 1980 film The Mirror Crack'd), then at least in her second coming as a philanthropist. She lost weight, and her public appearances showed considerable grace and charm. After her friend Rock Hudson, her co-star in Giant, died of AIDS in 1985, she used her celebrity to change attitudes to the disease, co-founding two charities that raised hundreds of millions for AIDS research. She even auctioned her diamond-and-emerald engagement ring from Burton, saying that her riches should be used "to make the world better".

She now only made the occasional movie. Perhaps most notably, and most unusually, she lent her voice to animated series like The Simpsons (even providing the voice of the Simpsons' baby daughter, Maggie, in one episode).

Like her acting career, her health and addiction problems would also resurface. On one of several stints at the Betty Ford Clinic, recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, she met another patient, labourer Larry Fortensky, 20 years her junior, whom she would marry in 1991. Taylor stayed married to Fortensky, her first husband who was not already some kind of celebrity, for five years. It was her final marriage.

Taylor is survived by three of her ex-husbands (singer Eddie Fisher, senator John Warner and Fortensky), along with three children and nine grandchildren.

To those not old enough to remember her films, she might be the classic celebrity, "famous for being famous". Still, the publicity was fuelled by more than just an exciting life. To explain the indefinable qualities that captivated generations of people you would need to watch her films.

She was the first modern Hollywood celebrity and the only one whose fascinating life made headlines for so long. Critics still argue over whether she was a great actor, but based on her iconic status, she might have been the greatest film star of them all.

George Michael has hinted he could tour once more.

George Michael has hinted he could tour once more.

The singer vowed to never tour again back in 2008 but now seems to have had a change of heart.

Dismissing critics of new single 'True Faith' he wrote online: "The album will sell great and the tour will sell out," reports the Sun .

In 2008, the singer said of gigs in London: "I want to stop doing this at its peak."

Julian Fellowes is to create a TV epic about the demise of the Titanic to mark the centenary of the ship’s sinking.

OSCAR-winning Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is to create a TV epic about the demise of the Titanic to mark the centenary of the ship’s sinking.

Mr Fellowes, who lives at West Stafford, near Dorchester, has been lined up for the ITV project which will begin filming in spring and will be screened around the world next year.

Fellowes – who won an Academy Award for his work on Gosford Park – will delve into the ‘unique perspectives’ of the passengers on the ‘unsinkable’ ship which was holed by an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912.

James Cameron’s 1997 film about the ill-fated voyage imagined the lives of the ship’s occupants and was one of the most successful movies of all time. It landed 11 Oscars including best director and best film.

ITV Studios has confirmed that it has given the go-head for the film, which will be screened as either two 90-minute films or four one-hour episodes in different countries.

The series – being made in Hungary – will be screened by ABC in the USA and Channel Seven in Australia.

So there's a cosmonaut up in space, circling the globe, convinced he will never make it back to Earth; he's on the phone with Alexei Kosygin — then a high official of the Soviet Union — who is crying because he, too, thinks the cosmonaut will die.

So there's a cosmonaut up in space, circling the globe, convinced he will never make it back to Earth; he's on the phone with Alexei Kosygin — then a high official of the Soviet Union — who is crying because he, too, thinks the cosmonaut will die.
The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes — though no one knows this — won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact. As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."

This extraordinarily intimate account of the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut appears in a new book, Starman, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, to be published next month. The authors base their narrative principally on revelations from a KGB officer, Venymin Ivanovich Russayev, and previous reporting by Yaroslav Golovanov in Pravda. This version — if it's true — is beyond shocking.


Starman tells the story of a friendship between two cosmonauts, Vladimir Kamarov and Soviet hero Yuri Gagarin, the first human to reach outer space. The two men were close; they socialized, hunted and drank together.



In 1967, both men were assigned to the same Earth-orbiting mission, and both knew the space capsule was not safe to fly. Komarov told friends he knew he would probably die. But he wouldn't back out because he didn't want Gagarin to die. Gagarin would have been his replacement.

The story begins around 1967, when Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union, decided to stage a spectacular midspace rendezvous between two Soviet spaceships.

The plan was to launch a capsule, the Soyuz 1, with Komarov inside. The next day, a second vehicle would take off, with two additional cosmonauts; the two vehicles would meet, dock, Komarov would crawl from one vehicle to the other, exchanging places with a colleague, and come home in the second ship. It would be, Brezhnev hoped, a Soviet triumph on the 50th anniversary of the Communist revolution. Brezhnev made it very clear he wanted this to happen.

The problem was Gagarin. Already a Soviet hero, the first man ever in space, he and some senior technicians had inspected the Soyuz 1 and had found 203 structural problems — serious problems that would make this machine dangerous to navigate in space. The mission, Gagarin suggested, should be postponed.

The question was: Who would tell Brezhnev? Gagarin wrote a 10-page memo and gave it to his best friend in the KGB, Venyamin Russayev, but nobody dared send it up the chain of command. Everyone who saw that memo, including Russayev, was demoted, fired or sent to diplomatic Siberia. With less than a month to go before the launch, Komarov realized postponement was not an option. He met with Russayev, the now-demoted KGB agent, and said, "I'm not going to make it back from this flight."

He'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him.
- Komarov talking about Gagarin
Russayev asked, Why not refuse? According to the authors, Komarov answered: "If I don't make this flight, they'll send the backup pilot instead." That was Yuri Gagarin. Vladimir Komarov couldn't do that to his friend. "That's Yura," the book quotes him saying, "and he'll die instead of me. We've got to take care of him." Komarov then burst into tears.

On launch day, April 23, 1967, a Russian journalist, Yaroslav Golovanov, reported that Gagarin showed up at the launch site and demanded to be put into a spacesuit, though no one was expecting him to fly. Golovanov called this behavior "a sudden caprice," though afterward some observers thought Gagarin was trying to muscle onto the flight to save his friend. The Soyuz left Earth with Komarov on board.

Once the Soyuz began to orbit the Earth, the failures began. Antennas didn't open properly. Power was compromised. Navigation proved difficult. The next day's launch had to be canceled. And worse, Komarov's chances for a safe return to Earth were dwindling fast.

All the while, U.S. intelligence was listening in. The National Security Agency had a facility at an Air Force base near Istanbul. Previous reports said that U.S. listeners knew something was wrong but couldn't make out the words. In this account, an NSA analyst, identified in the book as Perry Fellwock, described overhearing Komarov tell ground control officials he knew he was about to die. Fellwock described how Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin called on a video phone to tell him he was a hero. Komarov's wife was also on the call to talk about what to say to their children. Kosygin was crying.

When the capsule began its descent and the parachutes failed to open, the book describes how American intelligence "picked up [Komarov's] cries of rage as he plunged to his death."

Mohammed Nabbous, founder of the internet TV channel Libya AlHurra TV, was killed today in Benghazi

Mohammed Nabbous, founder of the internet TV channel Libya AlHurra TV, was killed today in Benghazi while reporting on attacks by Colonel Gaddafi's forces.

Nabbous, known as Mo, was talking on the phone to colleagues about the asasult on the city when the connection was suddenly interrupted.

He had spent the past weeks courageously providing exclusive video coverage of dangerous developments and situations.

He was regarded as one of the few credible, independent sources of news and analysis of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the city.

Andy Carvin of NPR described him as "the face of Libyan citizen journalism."

His wife, who is pregnant, announced his death in a video on Libya Al-Hurra TV. She said through tears: "I want to let all of you know that Mohammed died for this cause and let's hope that Libya will become free...

"Let's not stop doing what we are doing until this is over. What he has started has got to go on, no matter what happens...

"Please keep the channel going and move every authority you have. They are still bombing, they are still shooting and more people are going to die. Don't let what Mo started go for nothing, people, make it worth it."

Sharon Lynch, a TV station representative, said: "He touched the hearts of many with his bravery and indomitable spirit. He will be dearly missed."

NPR's Carvin said on Twitter: "Mohammad Nabbous was my primary contact in Libya, and the face of Libyan citizen journalism. And now he's dead, killed in a firefight."

Nate Dogg provided hooks for rappers from coast to coast, the Long Beach, Calif., native is best known for his contributions to the West Coast soundtrack provided by the likes of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, the Dogg Pound and more. Nate Dogg was even part of a "supergroup" featuring Snoop Dogg and Warren G, called 213.

Singer Nate Dogg, whose near monotone crooning anchored some of rap's most seminal songs and helped define the sound of West coast hip-hop, has died at age 41.

Attorney Mark Geragos said Nate Dogg, whose real name was Nathaniel D. Hale, died Tuesday of complications from multiple strokes.

Nate Dogg wasn't a rapper, but he was an integral figure in the genre: His deep voice wasn't particularly melodic, but it's tone — at times menacing, at times playful, yet always charming — provided just the just the right touch on hits including Warren G's "Regulate," 50 Cent's "21 Questions," Dr. Dre's "The Next Episode" and countless others.

While Nate Dogg provided hooks for rappers from coast to coast, the Long Beach, Calif., native is best known for his contributions to the West Coast soundtrack provided by the likes of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, the Dogg Pound and more. Nate Dogg was even part of a "supergroup" featuring Snoop Dogg and Warren G, called 213.

Nate Dogg also put out his own solo projects but was best known for his collaborations with others.

He had suffered strokes in recent years.

The State Department issued an updated travel warning on Sunday that urges American citizens to avoid going to Japan because of the powerful earthquake two days ago.

The State Department issued an updated travel warning on Sunday that urges American citizens to avoid going to Japan because of the powerful earthquake two days ago.

The department said it requested all non-essential U.S. government personnel to defer travel and urged American citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Japan.

It said that strong aftershocks were likely for weeks after a powerful earthquake such as the one that struck northern Japan.

Flights have resumed at all airports closed by the earthquake, except for the airport in the coastal city of Sendai, which remains flooded, the department said.

In Tokyo, most public transportation including trains and subways was operating, the department said.

But many roads have been damaged in the Tokyo area and in northern Japan. In the far-northern Iwate prefecture, toll road highways are restricted to emergency vehicles only, it said.

scavenging among the celebrity hotspots of the world.

After a week during which Charlie Sheen was fired from the massively successful Warner Bros show Two and a Half Men and found himself with 2 million Twitter followers, all eager to witness every second of his compelling meltdown, it is clear that if anyone is fuelling Charlie Sheen's breakdown, it is Charlie Sheen. Don't blame the media. The media does what the media does, be it reporting from a war zone or scavenging among the celebrity hotspots of the world.

Sheen seems to have let drugs and hubris get the better of him. He is operating without PR counsel (his publicist baled out three weeks ago) and over the heads of wiser men. The media do not operate as a marketing or brand consultancy – Sheen is creating news and it would be severely remiss of news organisations to ignore it, especially given readers' appetites for this sort of story. Look at the reaction to Britney Spears shaving her head or Michael Jackson waving his baby over the balcony.

Charlie Sheen has seen an opportunity to be taken – he is pleased that he has 2 million Twitter followers and is prepared to play up to that and try to monetise it. He is fully prepared to exploit his own exploitation. The media, naturally enough, given the news cycle's continuous sprint for new news, want a piece of the action and Sheen is happy to accommodate them. Like the fox in the fable, Sheen has allowed the scorpion on to his back to carry it across the river. It may well sting him halfway across. He may well ask why it has done so. The scorpion – and the media – will always reply, "because it's in my nature".

What Sheen's manic decline proves beyond measure is the importance to stars of a powerful publicist, a person more vital to them, in these days of instant news, than a therapist. Sheen needs someone controlling his ego, shaping the tone of the narrative in such a way that the star is protected.

Health risks from Japan's quake-hit nuclear power reactors seem fairly low and winds are likely to carry any contamination out to the Pacific without threatening other nations

Health risks from Japan's quake-hit nuclear power reactors seem fairly low and winds are likely to carry any contamination out to the Pacific without threatening other nations, experts say.

Tokyo battled to avert a meltdown at three stricken reactors at the Fukushima plant in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, triggered by Friday's tsunami. Radiation levels were also up at the Onagawa atomic plant.

"This is not a serious public health issue at the moment," Malcolm Crick, Secretary of the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, told Reuters.

"It won't be anything like Chernobyl. There the reactor was operating at full power when it exploded and it had no containment," he said. As a precaution, around 140,000 people have been evacuated from the area around Fukushima.

Crick said a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant in the United States in 1979 -- rated more serious than Japan's accident on an international scale -- released low amounts of radiation.

"Many people thought they'd been exposed after Three Mile Island," he said. "The radiation levels were detectible but in terms of human health it was nothing." Radiation can cause cancers.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also said the public health risk from Japan's atomic plants remained "quite low." The quake and devastating tsunami may have killed 10,000 people.