A large bed with white sheets is a central feature of a new exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" for peace, a week-long protest against the Vietnam War.
Visitors to the Montreal exhibition, Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko, can lie on the oversized bed, listen to archive interviews and watch clips from the peaceful protest that Lennon and Ono conducted from their bed at the city's Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
The exhibition, at Montreal's Museum of Fine Arts, uses videos, sketches, photographs, and an omnipresent soundtrack of music and voices to examine the former Beatle's "War is Over" campaign and his relationship with Ono. Lennon, who was shot to death in New York in 1980, took his 1969 bed-in protest to Montreal from Amsterdam after it became clear he would be denied entry to the United States.
He and Ms Ono checked into Room 1742 at the hotel on May 26, and stayed in bed for a week. On June 1st, they recorded the single "Give Peace a Chance" from the hotel room. (Reuters)
Michael Jackson auction to proceed
A judge last Friday denied Michael Jackson's attempt to rescue his Neverland Ranch possessions from an auction that will include memorabilia from the height of his 1980s popularity, but the pop star will get another hearing before the sale happens.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brett Klein ruled in favour of Julien's Auction House, which plans to sell about 2,000 Jackson items between April 22-25.
Mr Jackson's production com-pany filed a lawsuit seeking the return of some items on March 4.
The auctioneer said that he still does not know exactly which items Mr Jackson wants back. The auction items in the catalogue include clothing, such as imperial-style military jackets and shiny belts, awards, statues, toys and furniture.
Mr Jackson last year averted a foreclosure sale on Neverland, and later handed over the title to a company made up of himself and the firm that held his loan on the property. (Reuters)
Berlusconi accuses Italian media
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is accusing Italian media of defaming him by painting him as gaffe-prone on foreign trips, saying he has been driven to the point of wanting to tell the press to "go to hell".
Mr Berlusconi's lament came after he was ribbed in Italian newspapers for startling Queen Elizabeth by shouting out to the US President during the G20 summit and then failing to greet his hosts at a Nato summit because he was chatting on his phone. "The thing that really upsets me is that the Italian press boycotts me," he told reporters late on Saturday. "It makes one want to say: 'Go to hell'"
Complaining of "slander" and "disinformation" by the press, the 72-year old media tycoon told journalists he was tempted to respond with unspecified "direct and tough" measures. (Reuters)
Fish breeder sees red
A fish breeder said he would cull 400,000 catfish and shut down his farm after a disagreement with Swiss authorities over the way he killed the fish.
Switzerland introduced new regulations on animal welfare last September, which also covered the way farm animals are treated and slaughtered but Hans Raab's method of first numbing the fish by chilling the water they swim in, before killing them in a spinning drum filled with ice-chips, was not among the approved methods.
Mr Raab, who invested up to 40 million francs to build the fish farm, has said that as a protest, he would not sell any of the 50 tonnes of meat arising from the slaughter at his Swiss fish farm.
The new laws banned certain treatment of animals, including flushing goldfish down the toilet bowl, using live fish as bait and carrying out line-fishing with the intention of releasing the fish back into the water. (AFP)
Villagers stop Google car
Angry residents of a Buckingham-shire village have blocked a Google Street View car that was filming the neighbourhood, saying they feared it would encourage burglaries.
One resident, Paul Jacobs, told BBC that he had alerted his neigh-bours after spotting the car in Broughton, southern England.
"I don't have a problem with Google wanting to promote villages. What I have a problem with is the invasion of privacy, taking pictures directly into the home," Mr Jacobs said, adding, "We've already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it's an invitation for more criminals to strike."
The Google Street View project aims to provide detailed 360-degree views online of streets all over the country but has already been strongly criticised by associations like Privacy International. (AFP)