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Supermodel Campbell out on bail over assault
NEW YORK, Saturday (AFP) - Supermodel Naomi Campbell was free on bail yesterday after being charged with hitting one of her staff with a mobile phone.

New York media took delight in revealing details of an alleged argument over some missing jeans involving what one tabloid called the “cantankerous catwalker” after she was freed on bail Thursday night.

The 35-year-old British model was charged in a Manhattan court with second degree assault ordered to return to court on June 27. Campbell was arrested at her Park Avenue apartment in New York on Thursday after police were called to Lenox Hill Hospital, where 41-year-old Ana Scolavino was being treated for a gash to her head.

“She had lacerations to the back of her head,” a police spokesman said, adding that the woman claimed Campbell had hit her with her telephone.
The New York Post said the two argued about a missing pair of 200-dollar Chip and Pepper jeans.

The tabloid quoted Scolavino as alleging that Campbell attacked her after shouting: “You're going to have to pay for those”. “Do I look like I'd fit in her jeans?” added the woman, who the newspaper described as “plump” and “short”. Campbell released a statement giving her version of events, media reported.

The supermodel said she had questioned the housekeeper about missing items and fired her “for that, and her erratic behavior”. Campbell called the allegation that she attacked the maid “completely untrue”.
“She is sadly mistaken if she thinks she can extract money from me by concocting lies by recycling old stories,” Campbell said. “I have asked my lawyer to look into filing both theft and extortion charges against her.”

Entertainment
Fans will get taste of ‘The Simpsons’ movie

LOS ANGELES, Saturday (Reuters) - To learn some long-awaited news about “The Simpsons,” television's most popular cartoon family, fans had to go to the movies on Friday.

Film studio 20th Century Fox released a 25-second promotional trailer at showings of its new computer-animated movie “Ice Age: The Meltdown” to announce the first big-screen version of “The Simpsons” would be coming to theaters on July 27, 2007.

First Shiite splits open over Iraqi PM
BAGHDAD, Saturday (AFP) - Members of Iraq's dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance for the first time asked incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to withdraw his candidacy to head the next government.

The move by the Shiite MPs, the first time splits have opened within the alliance over the nomination, was aimed at resolving political deadlock that has stalled formation of a new government over three months after elections.
As the Shiite calls emerged in Baghdad, US ex-hostage Jill Carroll reached Germany on her way home to the United States after her release Thursday following three months of captivity in Iraq.

Individual members of the Shiite alliance confirmed to AFP that a number of their colleagues have asked for Jaafari's withdrawal. "I called on Jaafari to take this bold and responsible step in order to preserve the unity of Iraqi people by withdrawing his candidacy," Qassim Daoud, an independent Shiite politician from within the alliance told AFP.

He said the request was made to Jaafari following deadlock in talks to form a new government, caused in part by a strong opposition to his candidacy from the Kurdish, Sunnis and other secular blocs.

Saad Jawad Qandil, member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), one of the key parties in the Shiite alliance, also confirmed that a number of alliance members were asking for Jaafari's withdrawal.

"There have been numerous calls from the members of the Iraqi Alliance, on an individual basis without being the view of the entire bloc, to change the current candidate of the alliance, Jaafari, to resolve the ongoing political crisis," Qandil told AFP.

Jaafari's own Dawa Party, however rejected the call and maintained the need for the alliance's unity around their candidate. "It is a mistake for anyone to ask Jaafari to step done publicly," said Khodeir Khuzaie, a party official. "It would be better to discuss this internally and direct this opposition to the alliance."

Masses, music, vigils in Poland to mark year since John Paul II died
KRAKOW, Poland, Saturday (AFP) - People around Poland began lighting candles and offering prayers to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of pope John Paul II.

In the southern city of Krakow, where he spent most of his life before being elected pope in 1978, John Paul II's close friend and former secretary during his 26-year pontificate, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, will celebrate mass Saturday evening at Krakow's imposing Wawel Cathedral. Several high-ranking Polish officials are due to attend.

The mass will officially mark the end of work of the special tribunal set up in Poland to hear testimony to decide whether the late pope should be beatified -- the first step towards sainthood.

"Hair" the musical returns with hints of Iraq war
TORONTO, Saturday (Reuters) - The musical "Hair" has opened in Toronto for the first time in more than 30 years with its producers hoping its anti-war "Age of Aquarius" message will be as relevant now as it was during the Vietnam war.

Citing the current political climate as the impetus for reviving the 1968 "tribal love-rock musical," James Rado, "Hair's" co-author, told Reuters he believed its message was today was stronger than ever.

"Iraq is so unpopular today, there is so much confusion. I think it's almost exactly the same situation as in 1968," he said at a first-night party on Thursday night in which daisies were given out as party favors.

Even some of the men, sporting graying pony tails, wore flowers in their hair.
But despite attempts to draw parallels between Vietnam and Iraq and the use of poster slogans like, "Now more than ever," the passion that sparked the "flower-power" movement is, according to reviews, conspicuously absent in this incarnation of the production.

The Toronto Star's critic, Richard Ouzounian, blasted the show as "monumentally unimpressive" and added, "The cast all proudly display their naked bodies, but they keep their souls concealed."

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