Madonna concert sells out in Moscow despite protests
Moscow – Madonna’s upcoming concert in Moscow has drawn considerable uproar. In advance of today’s concert at Luzhniki Stadium, the pop star has haggled with the city over a venue choice and altered her original plan to perform on Sept. 11 after critics said it would be disrespectful to the victims of the terrorist attacks of 2001.
The show’s finale, a segment in which Madonna sings while suspended from a cross, is at the heart of religious’ groups objections to the show. The practice was protested at earlier stops of the “Confessions” tour in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands – where last week a priest was arrested for phoning in a fake bomb threat.
“This lady has been glorifying human passions with the help of religious symbols for years – crosses, statues and beads. Now she thinks it is time for her to crucify herself in public. It means the singer is in need of spiritual help,” Father Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, was quoted as saying by the Pravda news website.
Several small protests against the upcoming concert have taken place, mostly by devout Russian Orthodox believers.
But for tens of thousands of Muscovites, her show is one of the most exciting events of the year’s cultural calendar, a sold-out blowout to end the summer.
MIAMI
Woman on cruise reported missing
Authorities were investigating the disappearance of an Ohio woman who was reported missing Monday from a Carnival Cruise Lines ship.
The 37-year-old, whose identity was not released, had been on a four-day cruise to Key West and Mexico.
The Miami-based cruise line said relatives last saw the woman Saturday night but did not report her missing until Monday, when the ship returned to Miami.
FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said, however, that she was not aware of any delay in reporting the disappearance.
HOUSTON
Immigrant smuggler
gets 23 years in prison
A man convicted of participating in the nation’s deadliest human-smuggling attempt was sentenced Monday to more than 23 years in prison.
Victor Sanchez Rodriguez was convicted in February on 18 counts of smuggling. The case stems from the 2003 deaths of 19 illegal immigrants crammed into an airtight tractor-trailer found abandoned in the town of Victoria. During the trial, survivors testified that they screamed and clawed at the sweltering trailer’s walls. Fourteen people have been indicted.
PHOENIX
Judge won’t block Arizona voter-ID law
A federal judge Monday refused to block a law requiring Arizona voters to present identification before casting a ballot.
U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver’s order came a day before today’s primary, the first statewide election for which voters will be required to show ID.
Critics said the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and be burdensome.
Arizona officials see the law as a protection against voter fraud.
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia
Rice would consider new Iran nuke pitch
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left the door open Monday for consideration of what may be a new overture from Iran on its disputed nuclear program. Still, she predicted U.N. sanctions would follow “if this does not work out.”
Iran has told European diplomats it may be willing to shelve its uranium-enrichment program temporarily, perhaps for two months, during negotiations with the U.S. and other world powers over the future of a nuclear program that Iran insists is peaceful.
Rice said Iran has not put a formal offer on the table, but she did not reject the idea of beginning talks framed by a deadline.
