Angelina Jolie makes surprise visit to Baghdad

UN goodwill ambassador and Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has travelled to Iraq on a humanitarian mission and met with officials to demand help for people displaced by the war.
Although a scheduled press conference at the US embassy was cancelled, the Oscar-winning actress spoke to CNN telling the station that she wanted more to be done for the Iraqi families driven from their homes.
The 32-year-old said: "There are over two million displaced people and there never seems to be a real coherent plan to help them. There's lots of good will and lots of discussion but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces that need to be put together."
The US embassy in Baghdad confirmed that Jolie had lunch with US troops serving in Iraq and had held a meeting with their top commander General David Petraeus, senior diplomats and Iraq's minister for displaced people.
A US embassy official told AFP: "She is here in her official capacity as a UN goodwill ambassador to meet with US, Iraqi and NGO officials to discuss internally displaced persons."
She also held talks in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone with the UN head of mission Staffan di Mistura and there were also plans for her to meet Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a US official said.
Jolie told CNN: "Of the two million internally displaced, it's estimated 58% are under 12-years-old. It's a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerable situation and a lot of young kids".
"So far, the different US officials I met with and different local people I've met with all have shared concerns, very, very strongly. They have spoken out about the humanitarian crisis, but there seems to be a block in," said the star.
Jolie continued: "What happens in Iraq and how Iraq settles in the years to come is going to affect the entire Middle East. And a big part of what it's going to affect, how it settles, is how these people are returned and settled into their homes and their community and brought back together and whether they can live together and what their communities look like."
She added: "It's in our best interest to address a humanitarian crisis on this scale because displacement can lead to a lot of instability and aggression."
Jolie is no stranger to the country. In August 2007, she met some of the 1,200 Iraqis stranded on the border between Iraq and Syria and appealed for more international support for those affected by the Iraq conflict.
During that tour, Jolie left UNHCR officials to visit privately with US and other multinational forces based in the area.
The following month, she launched a $150m appeal by UNICEF, the UN's fund for children, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to help educate 1m children affected by the war.

LiveDailiy Weekend, April 11: Stone Temple Pilots, Prince, U2 and more

LiveDailiy Weekend, April 11: Stone Temple Pilots, Prince, U2 and more

This week's

Fiasco's Ill Health Is The Result Of Hard Work

Fiasco's Ill Health Is The Result Of Hard Work

Rapper LUPE Fiasco has blamed the stresses of the euphony manufacture for damaging his health.
The Genius hitmaker, real name Wasalu Elijah Muhammad Jaco, reveals he has been hospitalised several times for an undisclosed malady over the close few months, because he has been workings so hard to cut up out a successful life history in the hip-hop manufacture.
His wellness problems still prevented him from attention the Grammy Awards earlier this year (Feb08), where he was nominated for foursome prizes.
He tells MTV.com, "When I got to the pivotal moment where you get the accolades for it (music), I establish myself in the hospital and the dr. telling me I can't even go.
"I had a long conversation with the doctor, and he doesn't cognise me from Adam. He just came in and said, 'This is your sprightliness. This is how hard you're sledding. What happens when there's zilch there, and you drop down once again?'"
And the lyrist insists there is little to keep him from fulfilling his previous promise to quit music after his next album.
He adds, "I don't desire to allege I'm 100 per cent certainly (of quitting), like, 'Yeah, this is it.' Merely 85 per cent.
"That 15 percent is the X gene. That could be bills. Like, 'Lupe, you got to pay the bills.' 'Oh, man, I got to put out another album'."














Dorival Caymmi

Longoria's husband sues celeb site

Longoria's husband sues celeb site

The married man of 'Desperate Housewives' adept Eva Longoria, Tony Parker, is suing a celebrity causerie website for at least $40m over allegations that he had an thing with a French model.
The Associated Press reports that basketball game star Charles Christopher Parker alleges the internet site X17online posted "treasonably and defamatory" messages around him.
The lawsuit said: "This is false. It ne'er happened. And X17 had to recognize that the story was faithlessly, or, at the very least, it had to get entertained serious doubts around the credibility of its supposed author."
The suit also said that the web site never contacted the couple or their representatives in front publication the allegations, and refused to retract them subsequently being told the allegations were false.