Slank Warms Up London With Concert

The cold morning drizzle in London did little to dampen the warm atmosphere at The Borderline club, when popular Indonesian band Slank belted out the hit “Piss”.

The Monday concert was attended by dozens of slankers; the band’s die-hard fans coming from different parts of the city.

“I’m a slanker too,” confessed Yuri Octavian Thamrin, Indonesian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Ireland and the International Maritime Organization in his speech before the concert.

Fans were entertained with the band’s hits, including the controversial “Gosip Jalanan” (Street Gossip), which put the band in media headlines following lawmakers’ plans to sue them over its controversial corruption-themed lyrics. The plan was later canceled.

“We’re happy that we could perform here,” said the band’s vocalist Akhadi Wira Satriaji, who is popularly knows as Kaka.

Kaka also performed the band’s latest songs released in the U.S. – “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “Do Something”.

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Madonna’s Argentina Gig Delayed

Pop superstar Madonna’s opening concert Wednesday night in Buenos Aires has been postponed to Monday because her equipment and wardrobe did not arrive in time, an event organizer told AFP.

“Madonna’s producers told (River Plate Club) management that Wednesday’s show has been suspended, and asked it be moved to next Monday, because some of her equipment and wardrobe have not arrived,” a club official said.

He said a Boeing 747 with more than 100,000 kilograms of equipment was stranded in Panama and was scheduled to land in Buenos Aires Wednesday night, the organizers said in a statement.

Madonna is scheduled to hold four concert of her “Sticky & Sweet Tour” at the River Plate soccer stadium.

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Nadine Feels Connection With Sea

With her celebrity status, Miss Indonesia 2005 Nadine Chandrawinata could become a messenger or ambassador for any cause she wants.

But the 24-year-old actress and model said she wanted to be an ambassador for coral reefs because she is a acean lover. “I have some kind of connection with the sea. If I fall in love or if I’m feeling blue, I will go to the sea. The sea also gives me inspiration and ideas. So I think I have to do something for the sea,” Nadine told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a national meeting on coral reefs in Jakarta.

Her concerns for sea conservation has seen the international environmental organization, the World Wildlife Fund, choose her as its ambassador for marine conservation. Wakatobi regency in Southeast Sulawesi province has also chosen Nadine, who is a certified diver, as its ecotourism ambassador.

“The greatest users are human beings but the greatest destroyers are also human beings, so we need to educate people to preserve the abundance of colorful marine life,” she said. “We can start form small things such as not littering.”

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Hirata Happy with “Laskar Pelangi”

Writer Andrea Hirata said he had chosen the right dua to produce and direct the wide-screen adaptation of his debut and best selling novel, Laskar pelangi (Rainbow Warriors).

“Thanks God I chose the right people to produce and direct the movie. I already cried just from seeing the trailer,” Andreas told to Jakarta Post.

Three weeks after his book was launched, he said, numerous directors and producers had come knocking on his door, offering him billions of rupiah for the right to turn the book into a film.

Andrea had turned them down because they did not really understand the book, he says. Instead he chose the country’s best filmmakers, Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana, to be director and producer respectively.

“I feel a connection with these two because they understand the book as a literary work, not just a historical biography (as many readers have misunderstood it). Because they understand it, they have seen the book with an imaginative perspective from the very beginning.”

Andrea said Riri and Mira had “caught the book’s substance”. “This is not a children’s book, but a book about children. It’s a irony abaut a lack of access to education for children in one of the world’s wealthiest island.”

The movie is expected to hit the screens September 28 and will be shown not only at cinemas but also in outdoor theaters.

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Hilton Loses Jewerly in Burglary

Los Angeles police are investigating a burglary at Paris Hilton’s home that they say left her bedroom ransacked and about US$ 2 million in jewelry missing.

Los Angeles police officer Julianne Sohn said the breakin occurred around 5 a.m. Friday at Hilton’s home in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles. Sohn says detectives reported that a man wearing a hooded sweat shirt and gloves broke in through the home’s front door and ransacked Hilton’s bedroom.

Hilton was not at home at the time. She had been photographed the previous night at several LA nighspots.

Hilton’s publicist, Elliot Mintz, said he had no information to release Friday afternoon.

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Domingo sings poems by Pope John Paul

Tenor Placido Domingo unveiled a new album of songs based on the poems of Pope John Paul II on Friday and said be was certain the late pontiff was a saintly man.

In Infinete Love, a CD he presented at the Vatican, the Spanish-born Domingo sings duets with Hosh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Vanessa Williams and Katherine Jenkins as well as with his son, Placido Domingo Jr.

The songs in English, Spanish and Italian are based om poems the Polish pope wrote before his election in 1978. They were translated from the original Polish and put to music by various composers. The CD includes music by the London Symphony Orchestra.

“I am sure he will be a saint soon,” Domingo, who met the late pope several times, told a news conference at the Vatican.

In May, 2005, Pope Benedict put John Paul on the fast track by dispensing with Church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate’s death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.