NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg joked that he's planning a sit-down with newly signed New York Yankees pitcher Randy Johnson, who clashed with a TV cameraman on a Manhattan street a day earlier.
"It's great to be in the Bronx, the borough of Colin Powell and Regis Philbin and Lauren Bacall and Jerry Orbach and Jennifer Lopez and in about one hour, Randy Johnson," the mayor said Tuesday at his midday speech at Hostos Community College.
"Randy actually has to sit down with me for some tips on how to deal with the New York City press corps."
The 6-foot-10 Johnson, who was traded to the Yankees last week, got into a confrontation on a sidewalk with a TV cameraman Monday on the way to his physical, then apologized in a statement released later in the day. He apologized again Tuesday.
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ATLANTA - Rapper Nas and R&B songstress Kelis were married Saturday during an intimate ceremony.
The musical couple had been dating for two years. They were married in an Atlanta church and their reception was held in the city's upscale Buckhead neighborhood, publicist Tony Ferguson said Tuesday.
"Definitely, if you were there, you were a friend or family member," Ferguson said. "They really wanted to keep it out of the press. They wanted to make that day for just them."
Nas' brother, Jungle, was best man. His father, jazz musician Olu Dara, also attended.
Kelis, 25, is best known for her chart-topping single "Milkshake."
The couple met at Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' after-party for the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, but Nas was already smitten with Kelis after hearing about her and seeing her on television, his publicist said.
Nas, 31, snared the hip-hop world's attention with his 1994 debut album, "Illmatic." He has since released several albums and has appeared in the movies "Belly" and "Ticker."
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Dozens of Haitian youths mobbed hip-hop star Wyclef Jean as he visited a slum to inaugurate a program to support education in his impoverished native country.
The youths watched the former Fugees rapper perform an impromptu rendition Tuesday of his new song "Gonaives" atop a truck in a soccer field in Cite Soleil, a seaside slum outside the capital of Port-au-Prince. They ran after him as he hopped on a small bicycle and rode around the field.
Jean was visiting the L'Athletique d'Haiti Sports Academy, an after-school program in Cite Soleil that provides tutoring and sports training for 650 youths. He inaugurated an initiative to provide scholarships to help new participants stay in school, a requirement for the after-school program.
Free schools are rare in Haiti, and many families cannot afford tuition.
Among the those mobbing Jean were 25 children who have received "Wyclef scholarships" with a grant of $23,800.
At least 100 more scholarships will be awarded in the first initiative launched by Yele Haiti, Jean's new foundation to help youths in his native country.
"What Sammy Sosa has done for the Dominican Republic, that's what I think I can do for Haiti," Jean said, referring to the Dominican-born baseball star who founded a charity for health in education in his country.
Yele Haiti is also planning a program to provide scholarships for 4,000 children in the northern city of Gonaives where floods killed more than 2,000 people in September. It also will rebuild 20 damaged schools. Many schools in Gonaives have yet to reopen due to flood damage.
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BEIJING - The Chinese Film Directors Association awarded Tian Zhuangzhuang the best director award of 2004 for his documentary "Delamu."
Tian's film documents life along a remote and treacherous mountain road known as Tea Horse Road, which lies in western China near the border with Tibet.
The award was given Tuesday at a ceremony in Beijing, the Sina Web site reported. Directors Jiang Wen and Chen Kaige were among those who attended.
Zhou Xun received the best-actress award for her role in "Baobei in Love," and Li Xuejian took home the best-actor prize for his role in "South of the Clouds," Sina said.
Director Zhang Yimou won the award for 2004 top box-office receipts for "House of Flying Daggers," a martial arts drama set in medieval China.
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LANSING, Mich. - A federal appeals court agreed that trademark and copyright infringement claims brought against singer Kid Rock should be dismissed.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld Tuesday a lower court ruling that Kid Rock's former business associates waited too long to file a lawsuit.
The Detroit rap-rocker, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, first sued Alvin Williams and Earl Blunt of EB-Bran Productions Inc. in May 2001. He said a 1989 contract that gave EB-Bran sole ownership of the Top Dog trademark and established a partnership with Kid Rock was a fraud. Williams and Blunt countersued.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds dismissed the countersuit in February 2003, saying that even if EB-Bran did acquire ownership of the trademark in 1989, the company abandoned its interest by not using the trademark for at least a decade.
The appeals court agreed, noting that Kid Rock wrote a letter to Williams and Blunt in December 1990 stating that he didn't intend to work with them on his songs.
"The plaintiffs have simply waited too long to bring their action," the court wrote.
The statute of limitations on federal copyright infringement lawsuits is three years.
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