Madonna tours holy sites

US singer Madonna (centre), arrives to visit the Western Wall tunnels, Judaism's holiest site, as the Western Wall is seen in the background, in Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, August 30, 2009. -- PHOTO: AP

JERUSALEM - THE Material Girl has opened a visit to the Holy Land with a spiritual touch.

Madonna headed to Jerusalem's Old City late on Sunday where she toured an ancient tunnel near the Western Wall - the holiest site where Jews can pray.

The 50-year-old pop star arrived in a black Mercedes van and was escorted into the tunnel by police.

She made no comment to reporters and was whisked away about a half hour later.

Madonna isn't Jewish, but she's a follower of Jewish mysticism and has even taken the Hebrew name Esther.

She arrived early on Sunday for a pair of concerts this week. It will be her first performance in Israel since 1993, though she came on private pilgrimages in 2004 and 2007.

Madonna is also set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. -- AP

Leon Lai also married

Married in Las Vegas last March: Leon Lai, 42, and Gaile, 29. -- PHOTO: APPLE DAILY

HONG KONG - ANDY Lau has got hitched. So has Miriam Yeung. And so has Leon Lai.

The secret Las Vegas marriages of two Heavenly Kings and a pop princess have come to light in one weekend, after the death of the father of Lau's companion, Carol Choo, sparked queries about the star's marital status.

Lau has confirmed his marriage on his website and said he tied the knot with Choo in June last year so that the couple, who are childless, would qualify for fertility treatment in Hong Kong.

Hours after the report about his marriage to Choo, 43, he posted an apology to his fans on his Andy World Club site. The star, who had always said his fans would hear from him first if ever he married, told them he was 'ashamed' that he had not kept his word.

Lai, 42, registered his marriage with model Gaile Lai, 29, in the casino resort city on March 9 last year, said reports yesterday. According to a record on a public information website in Clark County, Nevada, they used the names Leon Lai Ming and Lai Gia.

This was right before rumours started spreading about their hush-hush wedding in the Maldives on March 15 last year, said Apple Daily. It would mean they had travelled to the Indian Ocean for their honeymoon, after saying 'I do' in Las Vegas, although they denied the rumours at the time, added the report.

Lai's romance with Gaile has been his most public one, even before the couple married. He met her in 2000, when he was still linked to actress Shu Qi, and dated her openly from 2005.

They bonded over red wine, said The Sun. After their marriage, he spent HK$60 million (S$11 million) on a luxury home, said Apple Daily. He also bought her a Maserati sports car with a personalised number plate, 'GIA'.

The revelation of Lai's marriage came after his boss, impresario Peter Lam of East Asia production company, practically handed the story to reporters. Apple Daily was the first to report last Saturday that Lau and Yeung - who are also managed by Lam - had tied the knot with their partners in Las Vegas.

Yeung, 35, and her boyfriend, Gary Ting, 30, were found to have married this month. He is in public relations.

100 'dirtiest web sites'

SAN FRANCISCO - SYMANTEC on Thursday unveiled a list of 100 'worst of the worst' websites, nearly half of which used porn to lure people to pages booby trapped with viruses.

The US computer security titan's list of 'Dirtiest Web Sites' discovered in recent months included names such as firstsexyteen, schoolbad, and cheatsarchive.

Videogame players sometimes search online for 'cheats,' software secrets that let them change game play.

While 48 per cent of the websites on the list featured adult content, the remaining tainted online locales ran a gamut of topics including deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services, and retail electronics.

People visiting the websites face risks of having their computers infected with malicious software that could mine personal data or give cybercriminals control of machines, according to Symantec.

'There has been exponential growth in the number of online threats that are constantly evolving as cybercriminals look for new ways to target your money, identity or assets,' said Symantec consumer business unit senior vice president Rowan Trollope.

'Armed with this information, consumers are empowered to make informed decisions about which sites to visit.'

Websites that made Symantec's 'dirtiest' list were crammed with 'staggering' numbers of virus threats, according to Mr Trollope. -- AFP

The Breast - Ladies Only Please!!!

The Beauty from page three

Jennifer Hudson gives birth

LOS ANGELES - GRAMMY- and Oscar-winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson has given birth to her first child, David Daniel Otunga, Jr, her publicist said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 27-year-old American star and her fiance, David Otunga, are now parents of a 'beautiful and perfect' son, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces (3.2 kilograms) when he was born on Monday, said Hudson's publicist, Lisa Kasteler.

'His parents are ecstatic,' she added in a statement to AFP, without giving details about where the child was born.

Hudson, a charismatic vocalist who shot to fame in 2004 as a contestant on the popular reality show 'American Idol' even after she was eliminated early on, was later cast in the musical 'Dreamgirls,' in a performance that saw her win an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2007.

Although she never studied acting or singing, Hudson set out to become a star and ultimately succeeded.

But in October 2008, the fairy tale story of the aspiring young woman from a poor neighbourhood of Chicago, Illinois took a tragic turn when her mother, brother and nephew were brutally murdered by the estranged husband of Hudson's sister.

The murders shocked the country, and prompted an outpouring of public support and sympathy for the popular young star.

Hudson made a triumphant return to the stage in February to sing the US national anthem at the Super Bowl football game in Tampa, Florida, a nationally televised event.

She also sang a tribute during a Michael Jackson memorial at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles last month. -- AFP

'Paris is my daughter'

Former child acting star Mark Lester said he donated sperm to Michael Jackson and believes he could be the biological father of the late singer's daughter Paris (left). --PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON - FORMER child acting star Mark Lester said in a British newspaper on Sunday that he donated sperm to Michael Jackson and believes he could be the biological father of the late singer's daughter Paris.

Lester, who played Oliver Twist in the 1968 film musical 'Oliver!', told the News of the World: 'I gave Michael my sperm so that he could have kids - and I believe Paris is my daughter.'

He said he was willing to take a paternity test to establish whether or not he is 11-year-old Paris' father. The 51-year-old Briton became friends with Jackson and is godfather to Paris, and Jackson's two other children, Prince Michael, 12, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket.

'It's a been a secret for so long,' Lester told the newspaper. 'In 1996 Michael asked me if I would give him my sperm and I said yes. It was a gift to him, no money was paid, it was something I was honoured to do. He wanted children so badly.'

Lester added: 'I do feel a definite bonding with Paris and I think there's a definite possibility that she's part of me. I want to have contact with her, Prince and Blanket regardless of whether any or all of them are mine. I think it's cruel that I've now been excluded from them.'

He said that since Jackson's mother Katherine had been granted custody of the children following the singer's death, all his phone calls and emails had gone unanswered. Lester, who has four children himself, said there was a strong resemblance between his 15-year-old daughter Harriet and Paris.

'Paris is very pale, with blue eyes. All my daughters, apart from my eldest, are fair with blue eyes. So many people have commented on how alike Harriet and Paris look.'

He told the News of the World that Jackson first confided in him in 1996 that he was desperate to be a father. Both were then aged 37 and Lester already had three children.

'He realised having kids was a natural thing but that he just couldn't do it,' Lester said.
'I mentioned the fact there are alternative ways of going about it. I think he'd already tried using his own sperm but it hadn't worked for him, so I made an off-the-cuff comment saying, 'Try mine.''

Jackson agreed and the donation was arranged through a clinic in Harley Street, London, in February 1996. Eight months later Jackson announced he had married nurse Debbie Rowe and three months later the couple revealed the birth of their first child, Prince. Paris was born just over a year later, in April 1998.

Lester said he felt compelled to speak out because he feared being excluded from the lives of Jackson's children. 'This isn't what Michael would have wanted,' he said. I feel I have to come forward, as my only way of saying, 'Please don't shut me out!'.' -- AFP

Madonna insists she's okay

LONDON - POP LEGEND Madonna, who was photographed with shockingly sinewy arms last week, insists that she is okay, said media reports on Thursday.

According to entertainment websites, the performer says that the images were digitally altered.

Her toned and buff body is apparently achieved by lifting weights in a room heated to 27C.

However, Madonna, 50, may be trying to 'tone' down her super-fit image.

'There aren't many women her age who have a body like that but even Madonna may have to admit this time she might have to tone it down,' a source was reported as saying.

'She asked her trainer Tracy Anderson what she could do to stop her arms looking so sinewy."

But Madonna's friends have said that Madonna secretly likes her arms and believes it 'shows she's in control'.