BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) ― Serbia’s folk diva Svetlana Raznatovic denied this week charges of violent behavior she and another person are facing for allegedly insulting and beating up the manager of a soccer club.Raznatovic claimed at a court hearing that it was her who was insulted.“He (manager) even wanted to attack me,’’ she told the court. “I have never caused any incidents.’’The hearing was briefly interrupted when the singer complained she was feeling ill and asked for a glass of water.Raznat

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Grammy-winning blues and soul legend Etta James, famous for her hit “At Last,” was taken to a California hospital on Friday for complications related to leukemia, her publicist told AFP.“Etta James was taken to the hospital night before last (December 21). She was having trouble breathing so they intubated her. Her condition remains the same,” said her publicist Lupe De Leon.Last week, De Leon said that James, 73, was in the end stage of her cancer and would not undergo furth

Musical box sets, encapsulating a portion or all of an artist’s catalog, are hardly a new trend. They’ve been around for decades.But as labels begin to search for more sources of income, they’re increasingly using yesterday’s hits to help today’s bottom line, from multi-disc deluxe editions of your favorite old album to over-the-top collections of obscurities complete with cool little tchotchkes.And they’re also reaching new heights in pricing. Love U2 beyond measure? There’s the new “Achtung Ba

PARIS (AFP) ― Progressive deafness profoundly influenced Beethoven’s compositions, prompting him to choose lower-frequency notes as his condition worsened, scientists said on Tuesday.Beethoven first mentioned his hearing loss in 1801 at the age of 30, complaining that he was having problems hearing the high notes of instruments and voices.By 1812, people had to shout to make themselves understood and in 1818, he started to communicate through notebooks. In his last few years before his death in

VIENNA (AFP) ― British pop star George Michael is doing well in hospital in Vienna but whether he will be able to spend Christmas back in Britain was still uncertain, one of his Austrian doctors said Tuesday.“We know that he is doing well. And we are generally optimistic,” Christoph Zielinski of Vienna’s General Hospital (AKH) told ORF radio.On whether Michael would be able to return home for the holidays or have to spend Christmas in hospital, Zielinski only said that the matter still had to be

MINDELO, Cape Verde (AFP) ― Thousands of mourning fans, from ordinary people to national leaders, gathered Tuesday for the funeral of Cape Verde’s legendary singer Cesaria Evora.The beloved “barefoot diva” died Saturday at age 70 on her native island of Sao Vicente and her body was taken from the hospital Tuesday to her family’s home in Mindelo.Her fans, many in tears and singing her songs, lined the streets to see her casket pass, accompanied by 30 honour guards from the army of Cape Verde, an

PARIS, Dec 21, 2011 (AFP) - Fame boosts the risk of early death for rock stars but the claim that the peril is greatest at the age of 27 is false, according to a study published on Tuesday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).The theory of the "27 Club" spread earlier this year when Amy Winehouse jo

NEW YORK (AP) -- Paul McCartney is releasing an album of standards -- plus two new songs of his own.The former Beatle announced Monday that his new disc will be out Feb. 7. It doesn’t have a title yet. He‘s already streaming one song, ``My Valentine,’‘ on his website.McCartney says he and John Lennon were inspired in their own writing by some of the standards. Some of them he first heard when his father performed them at home on piano.Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder make appearances on the disc,

NEW YORK (AFP) ― At the stroke of midnight this New Year’s, millions of people around the globe will hold hands and belt out the famous song “Auld Lang Syne” ― but how many will have a clue what it means?The Scottish poem and heartstring-tugging tune are reckoned to vie for the title of most widely recognized song on the planet after “Happy Birthday.”From the drunken masses in London’s Trafalgar Square to small towns in New Zealand, “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple of New Year’s, while the tune, set