Model Sahar Daftary killed in fall
MANCHESTER, England, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Model and former "Face of Asia" winner Sahar Daftary fell to her death from the 12th floor of an apartment building in England, police say.
"Witnesses have said there was no shouting or ranting -- just a single scream. It is being looked at as either suicide or a horrible accident," a police source told The Daily Mail.
The 24-year-old model died during the weekend after falling 150 feet at the building where she had gone to pick up her belongings from an apartment she shared with her ex-boyfriend, a property developer who hasn't been named to the media, the newspaper reported.
The model's former beau reportedly was arrested and interviewed by police, then released on bail.
"We are all shocked and devastated. Sahar was very beautiful -- she loved life and she was always the center of the party," Daftary's friend, Afrah Sami, told The Daily Mail. "She met (the boyfriend) in Manchester and they were very happy. Then she won the 'Face of Asia' competition and got several big contracts. She seemed to have the world at her feet. But she discovered that he was married and became very unhappy. The stress changed her and she had stopped eating properly. When she came up on Saturday she was very distracted and preoccupied with collecting her things from the apartment, but he didn't want to see her."
Biographer: Jackson needs lung transplant
LONDON, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The author of an upcoming biography about Michael Jackson says the fading U.S. pop star needs a lung transplant.
Britain's The Sun newspaper quoted Canadian scribe Ian Halperin as saying the eccentric, 50-year-old "Thriller" singer suffers from the rare genetic disorder Alpha-1 anti-trypsin deficiency, which means he lacks a certain protein that protects his lungs.
"He needs a lung transplant, but may be too weak to go through with it. He also has emphysema and chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, which his doctors have had a lot of trouble stopping," Halperin told The Sun.
"It's the bleeding that's the most problematic part. It could kill him. ... He can barely speak. The vision in his left eye is 95 percent gone. For years, Michael has been working with his doctors to make sure it doesn't progress. He has been on many medications that have stabilized him."
Jermaine Jackson confirmed his brother Michael is ill to the newspaper.
"He's not doing so well right now. This isn't a good time," Jermaine Jackson said.
Halperin is a former winner of the Rolling Stone magazine award for investigative journalism, the author or co-author of five books, a regular correspondent for Court TV and an occasional contributor to "60 Minutes 2," his biography on the Simon & Schuster Canada Web site said.
Madonna's latest tour grossed $280M
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. pop star Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet Tour" has become the largest grossing tour of a solo artist in history, producers at Live Nation said Monday.
The announcement was made following Madonna's final performance of the tour in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday night.
Her 58 shows in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America played for 2,350,282 fans and sold more than $280 million in tickets.
"Madonna has yet again demonstrated her true global appeal as a live performer whether in stadiums or arenas. Not only will this tour be the top-selling tour of all time for a solo artist and a female artist (eclipsing her own record), but it will position her as one of the top-selling touring artists of all time," Arthur Fogel, Live Nation's chairman of global music and chief executive officer of global touring, said in a statement.
Cruise describes 'Valkyrie' as a thriller
NEW YORK, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Tom Cruise says his latest movie "Valkyrie" is a World War II thriller about an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler, not a Holocaust drama as some may think.
The picture follows the real-life German military officers who tried to assassinate Hitler and reorganize the government in 1943 and 1944.
Asked recently if he thinks "Valkyrie" is an important movie because it tells a true story of German heroism many people outside of Germany don't know, Cruise told reporters in New York: "It's an important story because I didn't know it. But I also felt that I want to entertain audiences."
Cruise said he and director Bryan Singer agree a key point of the story is that not all Germans adhered to Hitler's fascism.
"So, that, to me, was surprising. I grew up wanting to kill Nazis, wanting to kill Hitler. You know, as a child, you're looking at it and think, 'Why didn't someone just shoot him?'"
Cruise said it was a "massive comprehensive story" that could have been made into a "10-hour movie, a miniseries," but that Singer didn't want to pursue that course.
"This is a suspense thriller about killing Hitler," Cruise said.
Singer also pointed out it is a conspiracy thriller about assassinating Hitler, not a Holocaust movie.
"As Tom was just saying, the bonus is that it happens to be true, it happens to be gripping," Singer said. "And even things that you might think are film conventions, Hollywood conventions that happen in the movie, some of the twists and turns actually really did happen."
