Fifty Shades of musical

Shuffle under some Star of David stained glass windows and a rack of prayer shawls in a corner of the off-Broadway Actors Temple Theatre for this high-volume command at the start of its latest show: “Strap in! Strap on! And if it vibrates, put it between your legs!” There may not be enough exclamation points – or groans, depending on your fan status – for Cuff Me: The Fifty Shades of Grey (Unauthorised) Musical Parody, one of a few stage spoofs to take on the naughty books in song, and the first to hit New York.

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Brand It like Beckham

Here’s a tale for our times. Last week Ali Abbas, the 13-year-old Iraqi boy who lost his arms during an air raid on Baghdad, continued his recuperation in a hospital in Kuwait, wearing a T shirt emblazoned with a picture of his hero, an English soccer star who was about to start a promotional tour of Japan after having just been traded to a Spanish club in a deal–vital to the fortunes of a German shoe company–that merited an editorial in the New York Times and that was brokered by a sports agency owned by a company from San Antonio, Texas.

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A Bigger Screen for Mark Cuban

It’s three hours before a Dallas Mavericks home basketball game, and team owner Mark Cuban is sitting with his bare feet on the coffee table, surfing satellite-TV offerings on five huge screens in his courtside suite at the American Airlines Center. Clicking on Channel 199, he pauses to watch a bikini-clad woman conducting a tour of an Egyptian temple

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Unrest continues for third day in East Jerusalem

Israeli police on Tuesday arrested Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in Israel, in the third consecutive day of unrest in East Jerusalem, police said. Salah, an Israeli-Arab and former mayor of the Haifa District city of Umm el-Fahm, was arrested in Wadi Joz in East Jerusalem and was being questioned by police for incitement, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik ben Rubi said.

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Ancient synagogue found in Israel

In what was slated to be the site of a new 122-room hotel, archaeologists say they have discovered one of the world’s oldest synagogues in Northern Israel. The site, which was unearthed as preparations were being made for construction of the hotel near the Sea of Galilee, is believed to date back some 2000 years from 50BCE to 100CE

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Thai troops accused of crossing Cambodia border

Nearly 100 Thai soldiers crossed into Cambodian territory Wednesday near a disputed border temple that was the site of clashes last year, Cambodian officials said. The Thai army denied the claim. Thai soldiers crossed into the area of the 11th century Preah Vihear temple about 1:40 p.m., said Phay Siphan, secretary of the Cambodian Council of Ministers

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