Vauthier does costumes for Paris' Crazy Horse

PARIS – Emerging French couturier Alexandre Vauthier says he will follow in the illustrious footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, Emanuel Ungaro and Roberto Cavalli and design costumes for the celebrated Crazy Horse cabaret's latest revue.

The getups are made from a special latex and include embroidery by the famed house of Lesage. Vauthier said in a statement Thursday that celebrity shoemaker Christian Louboutin is providing the pumps.

The costumes are for the "Take My Love" number, which debuts next month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Founded in 1951 on the Paris' glitzy Georges V Avenue, the Crazy Horse features topless dancers in matching bobbed wigs performing cabaret numbers with a retro feel. It's a Paris institution and top tourist attraction.

Does Carter still have it when it comes to NKorea?

By FOSTER KLUG, Associated Press Foster Klug, Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea – Jimmy Carter has a remarkable track record on North Korea, credited with a 1994 nuclear deal that may have averted a war. But does the former American president, currently on a three-day mission to Pyongyang, have any peacemaking magic left?

Officials in Seoul and Washington have so far put little stock in his ability to engineer a breakthrough in long-stalled, acrimonious nuclear negotiations.

Han Sung-joo, South Korea's foreign minister during Carter's 1994 trip, said in an interview Wednesday that "both South Korea and the U.S. government are a little bit wary of Mr. Carter trying to represent North Korea in a better light than it actually is."

Despite widespread skepticism, however, interest is still high about whether the Nobel Peace laureate might thaw frigid ties between North Korea and the outside world. Carter generates real respect and fondness in the North.

Carter and the former leaders of Finland, Norway and Ireland are in Pyongyang this week, hoping for talks with leader Kim Jong Il and his son and heir apparent Kim Jong Un. They've met with the foreign minister and the president of the North's parliament, though it was unclear whether they would talk with the Kims.

In a blog entry posted Wednesday, Carter acknowledged that relations between North and South Korea "are currently at rock bottom," but he said he had consistently heard during his trip that the North wants to improve ties with Washington.

He said he hoped to leave North Korea "with a positive and constructive message" and to "help North Korea become less mysterious to outsiders."

Carter's group is wading into a difficult situation: It has been more than two years since nuclear negotiators from the United States and neighboring nations last met with the North in an effort to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its atomic weapons programs.

Since then, the North has conducted missile and nuclear tests and proudly unveiled a new nuclear facility that could give it another way to make atomic bombs. Late last year, the North Korean military rained artillery shells on a front-line island, killing two South Korean civilians as well as two marines. Seoul also accuses Pyongyang of sinking a warship in March 2010, killing 46 South Korean sailors.

The United States says it won't push forward on nuclear talks until South Korea is satisfied that the North has taken responsibility for last year's bloodshed. Pyongyang has shown no willingness to apologize and denies involvement in the ship sinking.

Enter Carter, 86, whose credentials as a North Korea specialist largely stem from his drama-filled trip to Pyongyang in 1994. At the time, the North had expelled international nuclear inspectors and was threatening to destroy Seoul. Many feared war would erupt.

Carter, traveling with then President Bill Clinton's approval, met directly with Kim Il Sung, the country's revered founder and father of the current leader, just weeks before the president's death.

Those talks set up U.S.-North Korean negotiations that resulted in a deal that called for freezing the North's nuclear facilities in exchange for proliferation-resistant power reactors. The accord fell apart in 2002, after the George W. Bush administration claimed North Korea had embarked on a secret uranium enrichment program.

Carter is traveling this week as a private citizen. The State Department says he is carrying no special messages.

South Korea has played down the visit, saying it didn't have high hopes that Carter's trip would change North Korea's attitudes. A spokeswoman for South Korea's president said Wednesday there were no plans for a meeting between Carter and President Lee Myung-bak, despite interest by Carter's group.

Conservatives, never fans of the liberal Carter, have been blistering about his trip to Pyongyang.

The Wall Street Journal in an opinion piece Wednesday offered a stinging assessment, saying the message the North Koreans give Carter "to carry back is likely to be a demand that the U.S. send someone with greater stature to Pyongyang or they will continue to escalate tensions."

But Carter's visit could also be valuable at a time when, with few official contacts, determining Pyongyang's motivations and goals is often guesswork and left to unofficial envoys.

Government talks are preferable, Joel Wit, a former State Department official responsible for implementing the 1994 deal, wrote recently. "But at a time when they aren't talking, unofficial channels of communication run by seasoned practitioners can be indispensable."

Gunfire, explosions heard in besieged Syrian city

AP – A Syrian protester beats a poster of Syrian President Bashar Assad with a shoe, as he attends protest …

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Bassem Mroue, Associated Press

BEIRUT – Gunfire and sporadic explosions were heard in a tense southern city Wednesday after the Syrian army sent in more tanks and reinforcements as part of a widening crackdown on the uprising against President Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime.

In addition to the unrest in Daraa — the city where the uprising began more than five weeks ago — security forces were conducting sweeping arrests and raids elsewhere in the country, witnesses said.

The crackdown came as opposition figures said their "massive grassroots revolution" will break the regime unless Assad leads a transition to democracy.

The statement from an umbrella group of opposition activists in Syria and abroad called the National Initiative for Change said a democratic transition will "safeguard the nation from falling into a period of violence, chaos and civil war."

"If the Syrian president does not wish to be recorded in history as a leader of this transition period, there is no alternative left for Syrians except to move forward along the same path as did the Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans before them," the statement said.

But the relentless government throttling of the protest movement showed no signed of letting up.

A vigorous crackdown since mid-March has killed more than 400 people across Syria, with 120 dead just over the weekend. Yet the repression has only emboldened protesters who started their revolt with calls for modest reforms but are now increasingly demanding Assad's downfall.

Mustafa Osso, who cited eyewitnesses on the ground in the city Daraa, said new troops arrived early Wednesday from military bases in the area. Another rights activist, Ammar Qurabi, said security and armed forces have detained more than 400 people in Daraa since a major operation began in the city two days ago.

The opposition is getting more organized as the uprising gains momentum, but it is still largely a grassroots operation. There are no credible opposition leaders who have risen to the level of being considered as a possible successor to Assad.

The army sent tanks into Daraa, 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Damascus, on Monday and there have been reports of shooting and raids there and in areas across the country ever since. Daraa is where the uprising began last month.

On Wednesday, witnesses and human rights activists said the army also deployed tanks around the Damascus suburb of Douma and the coastal city of Banias, where there have been large demonstrations in recent weeks.

One Douma resident said security agents were going house-to-house, carrying lists of wanted people and conducting raids. If the agents did not find the person they were looking for, they took his relatives into custody, the resident said.

Two funerals were planned Wednesday, he said.

In Banias, a witness said the army redeployed tanks and armored personnel carriers near the main highway leading into the city.

In the coastal city of Latakia, an activist said security forces fired live bullets and stun grenade at demonstrators in poor areas near the city's Palestinian refugee camp of al-Ramel. He said four people were wounded and several others were detained.

Residents contacted by the AP spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.

Syria has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted access to trouble spots since the uprising began, making it almost impossible to verify the dramatic events shaking one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Arab world.

Amnesty International said the UN Security Council must refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

"The Syrian government is clearly trying to shatter the will of those peacefully expressing dissent by shelling them, firing on them and locking them up," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's Secretary General.

Magic extend series with 101-76 win over Hawks

By KYLE HIGHTOWER, Associated Press Kyle Hightower, Associated

ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando Magic aren't ready for their season to end just yet.

Facing their first opening round postseason exit since 2007, the Magic blew out the Atlanta Hawks 101-76 on Tuesday night.

Jason Richardson scored 17 points and J.J. Redick added 14 off the bench to lead the Magic.

The win trims Atlanta's series' lead to 3-2 and keeps alive the Magic's hopes of becoming the ninth team in NBA history to win a playoff series after trailing 3-1. If they can win Game 6 Thursday in Atlanta, they would host a decisive Game 7 on Saturday.

Magic center Dwight Howard battled foul trouble throughout the night and had just one field goal, finishing with eight points and eight rebounds. Orlando didn't need his offense, though, as it broke out of a series-long shooting funk with 11 3-pointers.

"We're a good shooting team," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "This is more of us than what we showed in the first four games...This isn't an aberration. We've been doing this for four years. The first four games were the aberration."

Josh Smith scored 22 points to lead Atlanta, which shot below 40 percent for just the second time this series.

The Magic cruised in the second half, allowing Howard to log his first extended rest of the series in the fourth quarter as their lead crept above 30 points.

In a short turnaround following his team's loss in Game 4, Van Gundy preached patience over panic to his team. It paid off in a big way as Orlando was unselfish in its half court sets and passed the ball to free up its shooters.

That allowed the Magic to push the pace and keep the game up tempo. The Hawks have won every game with the Magic this season in which it kept them under 90 points.

For the second straight game the Magic's bench got some production led by Redick. It also got 11 points from Ryan Anderson and nine from Gilbert Arenas, who had erupted for 20 in Game 4.

The Hawks couldn't miss in the first four games, but were cold throughout Tuesday. They shot a series-low 36 percent overall and 25 percent from beyond the arc.

The Magic finished at just 41 percent, but hit 42 percent of their attempts from 3.

"The law of averages is eventually going to even out," Redick said. "We didn't shoot amazing tonight, but we shot very well."

But more importantly they held Atlanta sixth-man Jamal Crawford, who came in averaging a team-best 24 points, to just eight on 2 of 8 shooting.

"They had a good run," Crawford said. "They were making shots. They came out with a nothing to lose-type attitude. You could sense it and you have to tip your hat to them."

The Magic were able to coast based on what they did much earlier in the game.

Orlando put together easily its best half of the series in building a 58-35 halftime lead.

Everyone was involved as the Magic, who led by as many as 24 points in the half, moved the ball in the half court to open up great looks from the perimeter. Following another cold start, Orlando picked things up in the second quarter and finished the half shooting 45 percent and 46 percent from beyond the arc (6 for 13).

Richardson had 12 by the break.

Smith paced Atlanta with 11 first-half points, but the Hawks struggled on offense, going 13 for 38 (34 percent) — making just two 3s. They also had eight turnovers that led to nine of Orlando's points.

The Magic were leading 10-8 when Howard picked up his second personal foul of the night with 5:40 left in the first, but Orlando closed with a 16-5 run without him. Redick had the hot hand, going 5 for 5 in the period and scoring the Magic's last 11 points.

Atlanta was just 3 for 19 in the first quarter.

Hawks coach Larry Drew said though they would have liked to close out the series Tuesday, he doesn't think his team has was rattled by the lopsided night.

"We're in a situation where we still feel good about ourselves," Drew said. "We'll go back home. We still have an opportunity. Our fans are gonna be behind us, just as they're fans were behind them. So we're gonna put this game behind us as fast as we can."

Likewise, Van Gundy said everyone in the Magic's locker room knew Tuesday night was just the first step in a long road back.

"I think our guys have the right mindset right now," he said. "I don't think there'll be any celebrating. I don't think we'll even celebrate five or 10 minutes...We know what we're capable of and we're going to have to bring that same thing."

Notes: The Magic set a playoff franchise record for fewest turnovers in a game with six. ... Tuesday marked just the second time in the series that the Hawks didn't hold a double-digit lead at some point during the first half.

William and Kate say 'give to charity, not to us'

AFP/File – Place mats with pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton are shown at a souvenir shop in central …

Guy Jackson Guy Jackson

LONDON (AFP) – What do you give the couple who have everything? The answer, in the case of Prince William and Kate Middleton, is a donation to charity.

Not for them the entire roomful of antique furniture including a four-poster bed in maple which Canada gave to William's mother Diana and Prince Charles for their wedding in 1981.

Or the 20 silver platters inscribed with the date of the marriage which was Australia's gift 30 years ago.

In a different age, the second-in-line to the throne and his fiancee have asked anyone wanting to give them a present to pay into a fund to support 26 charities, many of which are not particularly well known.

They clearly want to spread the charitable giving around the Commonwealth because one is the appeal for aid following the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month which killed more than 200 people.

The Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary and Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service are also on the list of beneficiaries.

Yet most of the charities are in Britain and some reflect the prince's military background. A handful of them help service personnel and their families, such as the Army Widows' Association.

Donations to www.royalweddingcharityfund.org can be made in six currencies.

The money will be held and distributed by a charitable foundation set up by William and his brother, Prince Harry.

William proposed to Kate while on holiday in Kenya, and the prince's affinity for causes in Africa is reflected by his choice of conservation projects run by the Zoological Society of London to save the black rhino and African elephant from extinction.

The couple have also decided to support Beatbullying, a children's charity which says it is "working with young people to create a world where bullying, violence and harassment are unacceptable".

But there will still be a few presents for Kate and William to unwrap.

The people of Wales will give them a specially-designed piece of Welsh crystal. The couple have lived for the past two years in Anglesey in north Wales where the prince is an RAF helicopter pilot.

Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones said: "The happy couple have strong links with the country and this is where they have chosen to make their home.

"I wish the royal couple all the very best for their big day, and every happiness for the rest of their lives together."

More unusually, a South African discount airline has made a tongue-in-cheek offer to give Kate Middleton's family a herd of cows, an African tradition known as "lobola".

Lobola, a southern African wedding custom, requires the groom to make a symbolic payment to the family of the bride, traditionally in cattle.

The airline, kulula.com, said it would source a herd of cows locally in Britain and deliver them to the couple -- providing Middleton's family, who have made millions from a party goods business, accepts.

The Canadian government, which has a history of giving generous wedding gifts to British royals, will not announce its gift until the wedding day.

But as its present to the couple, the Canadian province of Alberta has already made a donation of 25,000 Canadian dollars ($26,200 US, 18,000 euros) to seven shelters for young homeless people.

Strike on Gadhafi compound badly damages buildings

AP – Medics work on an injured man at Hikma hospital in Misrata, Libya, Sunday, April 24, 2011. Libyan tribal …

By KARIN LAUB and DIAA HADID, Associated Press Karin Laub And Diaa Hadid, Associated Press – Sun Apr 24, 11:14 pm ET

TRIPOLI, Libya – NATO airstrikes targeted the center of Moammar Gadhafi's seat of power early Monday, destroying a multi-story library and office and badly damaging a reception hall for visiting dignitaries.

Gadhafi's whereabouts at the time of the attack on his sprawling Bab al-Azizya compound were unclear. A security official at the scene said four people were lightly hurt.

Monday's strike came after Gadhafi's forces unleashed a barrage of shells and rockets at the besieged rebel city of Misrata, in an especially bloody weekend that left at least 32 dead and dozens wounded.

The battle for Misrata, which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past two months, has become the focal point of Libya's armed rebellion against Gadhafi since fighting elsewhere is deadlocked.

Video of Misrata civilians being killed and wounded by Gadhafi's heavy weapons, including Grad rockets and tank shells, have spurred calls for more forceful international intervention to stop the bloodshed in the rebel-held city.

In Washington on Sunday, three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said that more should be done to drive Gadhafi out of power, including targeting his inner circle with air strikes. Gadhafi "needs to wake up every day wondering, `Will this be my last?'" Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican on the committee, told CNN's "State of the Union."

Early in the campaign of airstrikes against Gadhafi, a cruise missile blasted an administration building in Bab al-Azizya last month, knocking down half the three-story building. The compound was also targeted in a U.S. bombing in April 1986, after Washington held Libya responsible for a blast at a Berlin disco that killed two U.S. servicemen.

At least two missiles struck Bab al-Azizya early Monday, and the booms could be heard miles (kilometers) away.

A multi-story building that guards said served as Gadhafi's library and office was turned into a pile of twisted metal and broken concrete slabs. Dozens of Gadhafi supporters climbed atop the ruins, raising Libya's green flag and chanting in support of their leader.

A second building, where Gadhafi received visiting dignitaries, suffered blast damage. The main door was blown open, glass shards were scattered across the ground and picture frames were knocked down.

Just two weeks ago, Gadhafi had received an African Union delegation led by South African President Jacob Zuma in the ceremonial building, which was furnished with sofas and chandeliers. The delegation had called for an immediate cease-fire and dialogue between the rebels and the government.

NATO's mandate from the U.N. is to try to protect civilians in Libya, split into a rebel-run east and a western area that remains largely under Gadhafi's control. While the coalition's airstrikes have delivered heavy blows to Gadhafi's army, they have not halted attacks on Misrata, a city of 300,000 people besieged by Gadhafi loyalists for two months.

Still, in recent days, the rebels' drive to push Gadhafi's men out of the city center gained momentum.

Late last week, they forced government snipers out of high-rise buildings. On Sunday, rebels took control of the main hospital, the last position of Libyan troops in the center of Misrata, said a city resident, who only gave his first name, Abdel Salam, for fear of reprisals. Throughout the day, government forces fired more than 70 rockets at the city, he said.

"Now Gadhafi's troops are on the outskirts of Misrata, using rocket launchers," Abdel Salam said.

A Misrata rebel, 37-year-old Lutfi, said there had been 300-400 Gadhafi fighters in the main hospital and in the surrounding area that were trying to melt into the local population.

"They are trying to run way," Lutfi said of the soldiers, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "They are pretending to be civilians. They are putting on sportswear."

Ali Misbah, a captured Libyan soldier who had been wounded in the leg, was held under guard in a tent in the parking lot of the Al Hikmeh Hospital, one of the city's smaller medical centers.

Misbah, 25, said morale was low among Gadhafi's troops. "Recently, our spirit has collapsed and the forces that were in front of us escaped and left us alone," he said.

Misbah said he and his fellow soldiers were told that they were fighting against al-Qaida militants, not ordinary Libyans who took up arms against Gadhafi.

"They misled us," Misbah said of the government.

A senior Libyan government official has said the military is withdrawing from the fighting in Misrata, ostensibly to give a chance to tribal chiefs in the area to negotiate with the rebels. The official, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim, said the tribal chiefs were ready to send armed supporters to fight the rebels unless they lay down their weapons.

Kaim also claimed that the army has been holding its fire since Friday.

Asked about the continued shelling on Misrata, Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said the army was responding to attacks by rebels. He insisted that most of Misrata was still under government control.

Rebels on Sunday dismissed government claims that tribes in the area were siding with Gadhafi and that troops were redeploying voluntarily.

"It's not a withdrawal. It's a defeat that they want to turn into propaganda," said Dr. Abdel-Basit Abu Mzirig, head of the Misrata medical committee. "They were besieging the city and then they had to leave."

In addition to the casualties, thousands of people, many of them foreign workers, have been stranded in Misrata. Hundreds of migrants, along with wounded Libyans, have been evacuated in aid vessels through the port in recent days.

One of those wounded, Misrata resident Osama al-Shahmi, said Gadhafi's forces have been attacking the city with rockets. "They have no mercy. They are pounding the city hard," said al-Shahmi after being rescued from Misrata.

"Everyone in Misrata is convinced that the dictator must go," said al-Shahmi, 36, a construction company administrator who was wounded by shrapnel. His right leg wrapped in bandages, al-Shahmi flashed a victory sign as he was put into a waiting ambulance upon arrival in Benghazi.

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI offered an Easter prayer for Libya. He told a crowd of more than 100,000 Easter pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that he hopes "diplomacy and dialogue replace arms" in Libya and that humanitarian aid will get through to those in need.

Hadid reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Ben Hubbard in Benghazi, Libya, Sebastian Abbot in Ajdabiya, Libya, and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this story.