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CANNES, France (AP) -- Two directors from countries with tough film censorship brought bold and probing movies to the Cannes Film Festival on Friday - one exploring China's social problems, the other delving into the mysteries of the human heart....

PETARE, Venezuela (AP) -- Stern-looking soldiers clutching assault rifles wave down the beat-up Chevy Caprice entering this sprawling slum on the outskirts of Caracas....

It's time for a town-wide ice cream social on the front lawn of Pioneer High School this Saturday, May 18, when Picnic Pops offers live music, presented by student bands and orchestras from the AAPS system.

Continue reading Picnic Pops to offer music and family fun on Saturday...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- He was a Russian-speaking truck driver in Idaho, among hundreds of Uzbekistan natives for whom the state has become a sanctuary from violence in their home country in the past decade....

Police confirmed Friday they are investigating an alleged assault and break-in at a home in Whitmore Lake in which intruders, one of whom was masked, struck a woman in the forehead.

Continue reading Police: Intruder hit woman during Whitmore Lake home invasion...

NEW YORK (AP) -- In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap....

2012 U-M film and English grad Perry Janes has won a Student Academy Award for the film he wrote/directed, "Zug."

Photo by Connie Huang

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected a University of Michigan graduate’s undergrad thesis film (Perry Janes’ “Zug”) as one of 15 winners in this year’s Student Academy Awards competition. This is the first time in the history of the Student Academy Awards (which began in 1972) that a film by a U-M student has won.

With three winners in each category (alternative, animation, documentary, narrative, foreign film), the competition culminates with all the winners convening for a week of industry activities in Los Angeles and an awards ceremony (hosted by Bob Saget) on Saturday, June 8, when each filmmaker will learn whether he/she has earned a gold, silver, or bronze medal in his/her category.

Janes, who grew up in different parts of metro Detroit (most recently Royal Oak), based “Zug” on a short story he’d written about two young men who are dared by classmates to visit mysterious Zug Island.

Continue reading U-M grad Perry Janes wins Student Academy Award for 'Zug'...

MILAN (AP) -- Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal....

Some Michigan football fans might be doing some double takes around Ann Arbor this weekend as some familiar faces may be walking around town. The seventh annual Brian Griese/Steve Hutchinson/Charles Woodson Champions for Children's Hearts Weekend is being held Friday-Sunday and some prestigious Michigan football alumni are rallying behind the cause of raising money for The Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund to benefit the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and the U-M Congenital Heart Center.

Continue reading Michigan football alumni take to airwaves to raise money for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital...

PARIS (AP) -- Thieves ripped a safe from the wall of a hotel room near the Cannes Film Festival and made off with around $1 million worth of jewelry, in a brazen late-night burglary just hours after the screening of a film about break-ins at the homes of Hollywood celebrities, French officials said Friday....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show....

Voting blew up on in the final 48 hours of the final AnnArbor.com Team of the Week poll and good old fashioned comeback was the result.

Midway through the day on Wednesday, the Saline High School girls soccer team was beating the Skyline High School soccer team 148-50. Both teams and their fan bases weren't even close to finished voting and between them cast 875 votes in two days. The results have the Eagles flying high with 636 (51.9 percent) of the votes, compared to Saline's 437 (35.7 percent).

Continue reading Skyline girls soccer comes back to win final AnnArbor.com Team of the Week vote...

Indiana resident Andrew Milliman explains a type of firework to Dexter residents William Derksen, 13, and his sister Claire, 10, as they look over fireworks recently at a tent on the corner of South Maple and West Stadium Boulevard in Ann Arbor. They were looking just for fun. While aerial explosives such as bottle rockets, mortars and roman candles are now legal, brother and sister Derksen will have to wait until they're 18 to buy them.

Jeffrey Smith | AnnArbor.com

Michigan's Fireworks Safety Act led to several noise complaints around the state last summer and possibly could be modified to allow some municipalities to ban overnight usage, MLive reported.

Continue reading Michigan Fireworks Act being revisited to allow cities to ban overnight usage...

PARIS (AP) -- David Beckham's pecs are at least as much a part of his brand as his kick; his brand of shoes ultimately more lucrative than the game he's giving up. Listed as the world's highest-earning athlete for 2013, Beckham's retirement from play still leaves him with valuable endorsements and unparalleled celebrity. The question is whether he can maintain it....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service is feeling the sort of heat that targeted taxpayers feel from the tax agency. It's the sense that a powerful someone is breathing down your neck....

NEW YORK (AP) -- To find their Mr. Darcy, the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota has turned to a Mad Man....

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles is releasing a solo album....

BRUNSWICK, Maine (AP) -- Patty Wagstaff is a Hollywood stunt pilot, three-time U.S. aerobatic champion, inductee to the National Aviation Hall of Fame and favorite on the air show circuit. One of her tricked-out planes is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum....

The Real Seafood Company restaurant on Ann Arbor's South Main Street will be closed starting May 21 for renovations.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

Real Seafood Company is getting a facelift after 37 years in downtown Ann Arbor.

Continue reading Downtown Ann Arbor's Real Seafood Company to close for remodel starting May 21...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is putting on a show at the White House next week for singer-songwriter Carole King....