Miami, Florida will host the 54th Super Bowl this Sunday. The Super Bowl is the championship American football  game for the top two teams in the sport’s two separate divisions. Thousands of fans, hotels and restaurants are getting ready for an entire weekend of celebrations. And there’s high security to match this giant event. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit reports. 
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Archaeologists on Thursday unveiled 16 ancient Egyptian tombs filled with sarcophagi and other artifacts from a vast burial ground.Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry announced the discoveries in the village of Tuna al-Gabal, near the Nile Valley city of Minya in central Egypt. The site boasts an array of previously excavated finds, including funerary buildings and catacombs filled with thousands of mummified ibis and baboon birds.The long-abandoned tombs date back to three dynasties, from 664-399 BC, in the Pharaonic Late Period.Among the new treasures presented: 20 sarcophagi made from limestone and etched with hieroglyphic texts, five wooden coffins, hundreds of amulets and 10,000 blue funerary statues, known as ushabti figurines, which are fixtures in the ancient tombs of the area. The sarcophagus lids are molded into mummy-like figures of men.While such contents can be looted or decay over time, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, described the tombs as “in good condition” and the sarcophagi stone as “well-polished.”Waziri said the tombs likely belonged to the high priests of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of writing and wisdom, among other senior officials.The Ministry of Antiquities invited journalists to tour the site, shepherding film crews down ladders into dark, narrow shafts full of skeletons and sarcophagi.The Egyptian government frequently promotes archaeological finds to boost its vital tourism sector. The industry was hard hit by political turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak.
 
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Coffee is one of the most popular hot beverages in the world and is drunk almost daily by about a third of the world’s population. At a coffee shop in Jakarta, Indonesia, the owners want to promote communication, understanding and tolerance by employing people who can’t hear. VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana reports
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The helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant didn’t have a long-recommended warning system to alert the pilot he was too close to the ground, but it is not clear whether it would have averted the foggy-weather crash, investigators and other experts say.At issue is what’s known as a Terrain Awareness and Warning System, or TAWS, which would have sounded an alarm if the aircraft was in danger.While the cause of the wreck that killed the former NBA superstar, his 13-year-old daughter and the seven others aboard Sunday is still under investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board may again recommend that helicopters with six or more passenger seats be required to have such equipment.The pilot in Sunday’s crash, Ara Zobayan, had been climbing out of the clouds when the chartered aircraft banked left and began a sudden and terrifying 1,200-foot (366-meter) descent that lasted nearly a minute, investigators said Tuesday. It slammed into a fog-shrouded hillside, scattering debris more than 500 feet (150 meters).”This is a pretty steep descent at high speed,” the NTSB’s Jennifer Homendy said. “We know that this was a high-energy impact crash.”The last of the victims’ bodies were recovered Tuesday, and coroner’s officials said the remains of Bryant, Zobayan and two other passengers have been identified using fingerprints.The NTSB recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration require TAWS after a similar helicopter, a Sikorsky S-76A carrying workers to an offshore drilling ship, crashed in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas, killing all 10 people aboard in 2004. Ten years later, the FAA mandated such systems on air ambulances but not other helicopters.FAA officials had questioned the value of such technology on helicopters, which tend to fly close to buildings and the ground and could trigger too many false alarms that might distract the pilot.”Certainly, TAWS could have helped to provide information to the pilot on what terrain the pilot was flying in,” Homendy said of the helicopter that was carrying Bryant.At the same time, Homendy said it was too soon to say whether the pilot had control of the helicopter as it plummeted. And Bill English, investigator in charge of the NTSB’s Major Investigations Division, said it was not clear yet whether “TAWS and this scenario are related to each other.”Helicopter pilot and aviation lawyer Brian Alexander said any collision warning system on aircraft going over mountainous terrain is welcome. But he said the FAA recognizes such systems sometimes do more harm if they are going off constantly and distracting the pilot.In any case, he added, it is not clear one would have helped Bryant’s pilot if, as some aviation veterans have speculated, Zobayan had gotten disoriented in the fog.”Another warning system screaming at you isn’t going to help,” Alexander said.
The helicopter did have a warning system using GPS, said pilot Kurt Deetz, who flew Bryant dozens of times in the chopper over a two-year period ending in 2017. English said the NTSB is looking to confirm that.At the time of the crash, Bryant was on his way to a youth basketball basketball tournament in which his daughter Gianna was playing. Two of her teammates also were on the helicopter with parents.Zobayan, 50, was well-acquainted with the skies over Los Angeles and accustomed to flying Bryant and other celebrities, racking up thousands of hours ferrying passengers through one of the nation’s busiest air spaces. Friends and colleagues described him as skilled and cool-headed.His decision to proceed in deteriorating visibility, though, led experts and fellow pilots to wonder whether pressure to get his superstar client where he wanted to go played a role in the crash.Randy Waldman, a Los Angeles helicopter flight instructor who viewed tracking data of the flight’s path and saw a photo of the dense fog in the area at the time, said Zobayan should have turned around or landed but may have felt pressure to reach his destination, an occupational hazard often referred to as “got-to-get-there-itis” or “get-home-itis.””Somebody who’s a wealthy celebrity who can afford a helicopter to go places, the reason they take the helicopter is so they can get from A to B quickly with no hassle,” Waldman said.”Anybody that flies for a living there’s sort of an inherent pressure to get the job done because if too many times they go, ‘No, I don’t think I can fly, the weather’s getting bad or it’s too windy,’ … they’re going to lose their job.”Deetz said he often flew Bryant to games at Staples Center, and “there was never any pressure Kobe put on any pilot to get somewhere – never, never.”Coroner’s officials confirmed the remains of Bryant, 41; Zobayan; John Altobelli, 56; and Sarah Chester, 45. Relatives and acquaintances have identified five other victims as Gianna Bryant; Chester’s 13-year-old daughter, Payton; Altobelli’s wife, Keri, and daughter, Alyssa; and Christina Mauser, who helped Bryant coach his daughter’s team. 
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The death of American basketball star Kobe Bryant has caused worldwide mourning, and Africa is no exception. But along with the grief, there are signs of new enthusiasm for a sport that has, until now, not taken hold in much of the continent.Promoters have been trying to grow basketball’s presence on the continent for the past 20 years. With a rising number of African players now in the American NBA, those promoters hope Africans will embrace the region’s talents and efforts when the Basketball Africa League, or BAL,  launches in March.Twelve African teams from Mozambique, Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon  and many more will compete. The rules of the game will be up the standard of America and the world. The aim is to be excellent — and take on the best of them. “Ultimately we want to grow our business on the continent and the Basketball Africa League is a professional basketball league,” said Amadou Galo Fall, the NBA vice president and managing director for Africa, and the head of BAL.
“It is about building an industry and using basketball as an economic engine that is going to contribute to GDP of countries. The sports and entertainment industry and the creative industry in general contributes trillions of dollars in global GDP, and we want to make sure Africa starts to earn its part of this massive industry,” he added.FILE – Team World’s Jaylen Brown of Boston Celtics, gives away his shoes after playing the NBA Africa Game between Team Africa and Team World, at the Dome in Johannesburg, South Africa.Morocco’s AS Sale basketball club was crowned African champion in 2017 and is among the 12 teams winning a spot in the BAL. Other countries with participating teams include Mozambique, Senegal, Egypt, Nigeria, Mali and Cameroon.ElHassouni Abdallah, AS Sale’s secretary-general, says representing the African continent is a source of pride and the team is eager to present a good image.The National Basketball Association partnered with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to launch the new league. Among the challenges the promoters face: improving infrastructure — such as building more basketball courts — and persuading the region’s governments to invest more.   “To solve this problem of infrastructures, we need the commitment of the governments,” said Anibal Manave, head of FIBA Africa and a BAL board member. “For now, the best principle is to have public private partnerships. We believe this year Congo will build infrastructures, Guinea and Nigeria too. And we believe next year more countries will build infrastructures.”The participants of the Jr. NBA World Championship battle for the ball during the a basketball tournament for the top 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls teams for the NBA and FIBA’s global basketball development and community outreach program.Gender gapThere is also a gender gap to address. Organizers are focusing on helping more women and girls gain access to the court.”In all of our initiatives, we have boys and girls competing, training and learning from role models,” Gallo Fall said. “We are committed to really grow our sport across genders. The WNBA has been around since 1997, and the good news in Africa is that the women’s game is very strong.”Each BAL team is scheduled to play 5 games in the regular season. The final four tournament for the league will take place in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, around mid-year.
 
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An American artist is using a unique glass thread technique to create beautiful luminous glass vessels. Toots Zynsky helped invent a special machine that produces the threads which are a signature of her pieces.  Her most recent art reflects her love of birds, especially those that are endangered.  VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to her studio in Providence, Rhode Island
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Ricky Martin’s wide smile began to fade as the Puerto Rican superstar talked about his next album.It’s influenced by the U.S. territory’s political turmoil as people struggle to recover from Hurricane Maria and a recent 6.4 magnitude earthquake that killed one person and destroyed hundreds of homes amid a 13-year recession.“I’m going to use my music to carry the message of all those who aren’t being heard,” he told The Associated Press on Monday while preparing for a concert on his native island.The 48-year-old father of four children joined in the big demonstrations last year that led Ricardo Rossello to resign as the island’s governor, and although he hasn’t been at the most recent protests against current Gov. Wanda Vazquez, he has gone on social media urging her to step down.Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin, who will perform in concert Feb. 7 at the Puerto Rico Coliseum Jose Miguel Agrelot, poses for a portrait in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 27, 2020.“It would be an act of justice for our island,” he said in a video Thursday. “There are no immediate legal mechanisms for you and your entire team to leave and pay for all our suffering. But I have good news. The elections come in November and I am certain, certain, that the people will rise up more than ever.”Protests change albumMartin’s upcoming album is not the one he originally envisioned. He said he was going through a very romantic period in his life when he began recording, but all that changed when the 2019 protests in Puerto Rico erupted. The demonstrations were fed by anger over corruption and over the way the government responded to Hurricane Maria, the September 2017 storm that wreaked havoc on the island, killing an estimated 2,975 people in its aftermath.Martin participated in the demonstrations alongside other artists and found a new idea for the album.“When I returned to the studio, everything that I had done musically expired because I had poetic material in my head to share with the world after what happened in the streets of Puerto Rico,” he said.Martin said the album will be titled “Movimiento” and will contain 12 songs.“In all of them, I will in some way express everything that I experienced,” he said, alluding to the demonstrations. “All of the stories I heard from people who simply were not being heard.”One of the album’s songs is the newly released single “Tiburones,” which means sharks in Spanish. The video was shot in Puerto Rico and shows a woman face to face with police in riot gear. Around her neck is a green kerchief that Martin said was the actress’ idea to wear and one he fully supports since it symbolizes the fight for a woman’s right to have an abortion.“What I’ve always wanted is a woman to have the right to do whatever she wants with her body,” he said. “I’m always going to defend that.”Singer criticizedSome have criticized Martin’s involvement in the 2019 protests and his recent comments regarding the current government’s response to the earthquake and strong aftershocks, accusing him of being an opportunist and of riling people up only to leave the island afterward. Others have posted online messages asking that he stay out of the island’s affairs.Martin remains unfazed.“I shouldn’t be interested in Puerto Rico because I don’t live in Puerto Rico?” he asked. “To the contrary. I believe that not being on the island has made me appreciate my culture more, appreciate my people more, my language, my music, where I come from.”
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Legendary British broadcaster and entertainer Nicholas Parsons, best remembered as host of the BBC radio game show “Just a Minute,” has died after a brief illness at 96.Parsons introduced the show in 1967 and hosted nearly 1,000 episodes before retiring this past September.The game requires celebrity panelists to talk about a given subject nonstop for 60 seconds without repeating themselves. The show has been broadcast globally on the BBC World Service, attracting millions of fans worldwide.Parsons was known for his arbitrary judgments and penalties, frustrating the players but amusing the audience.Parsons also hosted television game shows, and was the comedic partner to comedian Benny Hill.
 
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An artist known for work depicting his native Bolivia has died after being struck by a car in northern Virginia.
Alfredo Da Silva died Sunday. He was 84. Alexandria Police say he died at the scene after he was struck by a car Sunday morning. Police said Tuesday that the crash remains under investigation. The car’s driver remained at the scene and was interviewed by police.
Da Silva lived in Alexandria but was born in Potosi, Bolivia, and studied art in Buenos Aires.
Pablo Zuniga, director of the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, said Da Silva was in the vanguard of a generation of modern artists from Latin America who rose to prominence in the `50s and ’60s.
“He was a major player at a time Latin American art was being developed,” he said.  
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Her name was Gianna Maria Onore Bryant. The world, now and forever, knows her as Gigi. Her dad, Kobe Bryant, called her Mambacita. He was Mamba, of course, and she was going to be basketball’s female version of him. She was going to play at Connecticut and head to the WNBA. That was the plan.
    
Over the years, the world watched her grow from a baby in her father’s arms, to a small child trying to hold his Finals MVP trophy, to his companion at WNBA, college and NBA games around the country, listening to her father break down play and watching every detail on the court, just as he always did.
    
“Gigi was really turning into a special player,” said Russ Davis, the women’s basketball coach at Vanguard University in Southern California and someone who became close with Bryant in recent years. “It’s hard to predict her future, but with the way she was improving and the way she understood the game, she was going to have a bright one.”
    
Gigi was 13. She was one of the nine people, her father also among them, on the helicopter that crashed Sunday morning into a hillside in Calabasas, California, as the group made its way to a basketball tournament where she was supposed to be playing. The helicopter burst into flames. All nine, including two of her teammates, died, officials said.
    
Kobe and Vanessa Bryant had four daughters. Gigi was the baller of the group. She was going to carry on the Bryant name in basketball. Few things in life made Bryant happier than that realization.
    
“I try to watch as much film as I can,” Gigi said in an interview with Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS in 2019, when she and her dad attended the Las Vegas Aces’ WNBA opener. “More information, more inspiration.”
    
She was even sounding like her dad.
    
The film study was working. So, too, was the five- or six- or seven-times-a-week workouts that Bryant would host for Gigi and her teammates on the team he coached. They ran the triangle offense; the one Bryant had so much success with during his career. Grown men, professionals, the best players in the world, struggled with the triangle. Bryant had preteen girls figuring it out.
    
”He never yelled or anything,'”Davis said. “They just listened to him.”
    
Earlier this month, Bryant posted a short video clip of Gigi in a game. The sequence: dribble-drive, pass to the corner, post up, wait for the ball to come back, catch, footwork, shoot the fadeaway.
    
Her father's unstoppable fadeaway. She scored. Of course. “Gigi getting better every day,” her dad wrote.
    
Bryant and Gigi went to a UConn home game against Houston last March. Bryant wore a UConn shirt, just like Gigi was, and told SNY television during an in-game interview that he was thrilled that one of his daughters wanted to follow in his sneakers and take up the family basketball business.
    
“It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool,” Bryant said. “She started out playing soccer, which I love. But she came to me about a year and a half ago and said,Can you teach me the game?’ I said, `Sure.’ We started working a little bit and the next thing you know it became a true passion of hers. So, it’s wonderful.”
    
Many of Gigi’s favorite players had UConn ties, like Katie Lou Samuelson, she had played for Davis, which led to the initial connection between him and Bryant , and Gabby Williams.
    
“From what I saw,” Williams said Monday, “she was going to be heaps better than me.’”
    
Williams was floored when Gigi told her she was her favorite player. She would FaceTime with the Bryants before games, gave Gigi her Chicago Sky uniforms, even practiced with Gigi and her teammates and was blown away by how hard she had to play against them.
   
“She had the right mentality, so confident, relentless, so mean and aggressive,” Williams said. “And then (she would) walk off the court with the biggest, sweetest smile on her face. But my favorite part about her was just seeing how much she loved the game and loved to learn.”
    
“It’s intimidating to have to follow in those footsteps,” Williams added, “but she really embraced it.”
    
The UConn allegiance made all the sense in the world. Bryant played in Los Angeles, but he was a Philadelphia guy. So is UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who was heartbroken by the news of the crash Sunday. UConn has been the gold standard in the women’s college game for a generation, driven by excellence. Bryant identified with that quality.
    
UConn was aware of Gigi’s affinity for the Huskies and paid a fitting tribute. Before its game with the U.S. women’s national team Monday night, UConn draped a No. 2 jersey with a bouquet of flowers across it on the team’s bench. Gigi wore No. 2 for her dad’s team.
    
Jewell Loyd of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm knew plenty about Gigi. Loyd sponsors an AAU team in Seattle. They played against Bryant’s team, and over the years Loyd and Bryant forged an extremely special, extremely close bond. They looked at one another as family.
    
Her description of Gigi? “Awesome,” Loyd said.
    
“When I went to work out with Kobe, most kids her age would be on the tablet,” Loyd said. “She stayed still and watched the entire time. Didn’t say anything. She was studying the game of basketball. If that didn’t say Kobe, I don’t know what does.”
    
Even NBA players were impressed. Atlanta’s Trae Young couldn’t believe it when Bryant told him that Gigi was a huge fan of his and was trying to emulate parts of his game. So Young paid tribute Sunday by opening a Hawks game in a No. 8 jersey, before switching back to his customary No. 11.
    
Afterward, Young recalled some of his final conversation with Bryant.
    
“He said how proud he was of me and how he wants me to continue to be a role model for kids growing up, for Gigi,” Young said.
    
There were similarities in how father and daughter looked  the dark, piercing eyes, especially, but Loyd also saw similarities in the way father and daughter played the game. Both, she said, were methodical. Both were willing to outwork their opponents. Gigi knew who her father was and knew that meant a lot of eyeballs would be on her, that comparisons between her and her dad on the court were going to be inevitable.
    
Gigi didn’t care, either. She wanted to be like Dad.
    
“That’s his legacy,” Loyd said.  That’s now Gigi’s legacy as well.
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Fans call it The House that Kobe Built, and since Kobe Bryant’s shocking death in a helicopter crash mourners by the thousands have gathered outside the glistening steel-and-glass edifice where the Los Angeles Lakers legend made so much basketball history.The arrivals at downtown Staples Center began soon after word spread that Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people killed in Sunday’s crash. They continued unabated Monday as people took off from school or work to pay respects to a man with whom many felt a kinship.“The memories that he gave us as a family were great memories,” said Lawrence Perez or North Hollywood, who arrived with his wife, Maureen, and 15-year-old daughter, Desiree. “We could have been at home, but we wanted to be with other people who are kind of going through the same thing.”The Lakers had a game scheduled Tuesday night against the LA Clippers at Staples Center but the NBA postponed it “out of respect” for the Lakers. The next Lakers home game is Friday night against Portland.The Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Clippers, opened for the 1999-2000 season, just as a 21-year-old Bryant was blossoming. That season the team would win the first of five championships over the next 10 years.Although the mood there Monday was often somber as people hugged and wiped away tears, many couldn’t help but grin at times as they recalled joyful moments Bryant brought to their lives.“The greatest moment was when I got his autograph his rookie year,” Perez said, recalling how he told the teenage Bryant he was destined for greatness. Bryant smiled, shook his hand and said he hoped he’d just break into the team’s starting lineup sometime soon.Perez had planned to bring that ball to Bryant’s Hall of Fame induction, expected later this year, and ask him to sign it again.“But that’s not going to happen now,” he said softly as his wife hugged him and said, “He cried when he heard the news.”As people arrived at the arena they were greeted by a gigantic display of flowers, balloons, votive candles (some with Bryant’s photo on them), hats, jerseys, statuettes of angels and photos and paintings of Bryant and his daughter circling the entire area. Some showed father and daughter with angel’s wings. Others contained personal messages written in English, Spanish and Chinese, showing the international impact Bryant’s career had.“I left my shoe for him,” said Louie Guerrero of Los Angeles, who arrived at the memorial pushing a stroller with his 2-year-old daughter, Lexie, decked out in her own little Lakers uniform. He spontaneously decided to add one of his official Lakers basketball shoes to the memorial after scribbling on it, “We Love You, Kobe.”NBA’s Kobe Bryant Scores 60 Points in Farewell Game

        Kobe Bryant played the final game of his legendary 20-year career with the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night. The 37-year-old Bryant scored a season-high 60 points to rally the Lakers from a 15-point deficit to a 101-96 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz at Staples Center in front of thousands of fans -- including Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson -- who paid thousands of dollars a ticket for a chance to witness Bryant's last game wearing the Lakers's purple-and…

He walked away with only a sock on his left foot.Nearby, Michelle Rodriguez of Los Angeles wiped away a tear as she gazed at photos of Bryant with his daughter and his teammates. The 30-year-old emergency room nurse had arrived with her 12-year-old bulldog, Canelle, after working an overnight shift. Both were wearing Lakers jerseys.“I think everyone could say we loved the team as a whole, but it was different when you saw Kobe play,” she said.“And he was such an awesome man outside of basketball too,” she added. “All the work he did in the community, he’s a hero to this city.”
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The pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed basketball superstar Kobe Bryant apparently climbed to avoid a cloud layer just before slamming into a hillside, federal investigators say.Jennifer Homendy of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday the copter was about 700 meters off the ground before it plunged more than 300 meters into the hills north of Los Angeles.Air traffic say the pilot’s message that he had to climb to avoid the clouds was the last thing they heard from the copter.Homendy says the debris field is “extensive.””A piece of the tail is down the hill, the fuselage is on the other side of that hill and the main rotor is about 91 meters beyond that,” she said, adding that everything is looked at during the investigation — the pilot, the aircraft, and the environment.Federal rules do not require helicopters to carry black boxes.People gather at a memorial for Kobe Bryant near Staples Center Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, in Los Angeles.Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine killed in Sunday’s crash that stunned the sports world and left fans and his fellow athletes speechless.The pilot also died along with Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli. The helicopter was heading to a youth basketball tournament in which Gianna Bryant was scheduled to play.Kobe Bryant was 41 years-old and will be remembered as one of the greatest professional basketball players ever to step onto the court. He played 20 years in the NBA, nearly all of it with the Los Angeles Lakers — wining five NBA championships and the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2008. He is the fourth all-time leading scorer. LeBron James passed him for number three on the list just one day before the crash.Some of Bryant’s accomplishments include becoming the NBA’s youngest all-star in 1998, when he was only 19 years old; an 81-point game in 2006 – the second-highest of all time; and Olympic Gold medals in 2008 and 2012.
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Harvey Weinstein “got offended”  when his repeated advances were rebuffed, Mimi Haleyi testified Monday when she took the witness stand as one of the key accusers whose allegations of sexual assault led to charges and the trial of the former movie mogul.
    
Former production assistant Mimi Haleyi testified that before the alleged assault, Weinstein showed up at her apartment and begged her to join him on a trip to Paris for a fashion show. She said he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
    
“At one point, because I just didn’t know how to shut it down so to speak. …So I said, You know you have a terrible reputation with women, I've heard,' " Haleyi said.
    
The then-revered Hollywood honcho "got offended,'' she said. "He stepped back and said,What have you heard?”’
    
Asked by prosecutor Meghan Hast if she had any romantic or sexual interest in Weinstein, Haleyi firmly answered: “Not at all, no.”
    
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on Haleyi in his New York City apartment in 2006 and raping another woman, an aspiring actress, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. He insists any sexual encounters were consensual.
    
The 42-year-old Haleyi, whose legal name is Miriam Haley, is the first of the two women whose accusations are at the heart of the charges against Weinstein to take the stand at the closely watched #MeToo-era trial, which is in its fourth day of testimony.
    
Last week, “Sopranos’”actress Annabella Sciorra testified  that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s. While outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges, Sciorra’s allegations could be a factor as prosecutors look to prove Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior.
    
Haleyi went public with her allegations at an October 2017 news conference, appearing in front of cameras alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents Sciorra and other Weinstein accusers.
    
Haleyi, born in England and raised in Sweden, said she met Weinstein while in her 20s at the 2004 London premiere of the Leonardo DiCaprio film “The Aviator.”  They crossed paths again at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and, when she expressed interest in working on one of his productions; he invited her to his hotel room and asked for a massage. She declined, saying she was “extremely humiliated.”
   
“I felt stupid because I was so excited to go see him and he treated me that way,” she testified.
    
More meetings followed, and Weinstein secured Haleyi a job helping on the set of “Project Runway,” the reality competition show he produced. Later, she said, he invited her to attend a fashion show in Paris, but she declined by bringing up his sketchy reputation.
    
The alleged assault occurred at Weinstein’s Soho apartment after he sent a car to pick Haleyi up for what she thought was a friendly meeting about her career, she said at the 2017 news conference.
    
Instead, she said, Weinstein pushed her onto a bed and forced his mouth onto her genitals. She said she tried to get him to stop, even telling him she was menstruating, but he wouldn’t relent.” I was mortified. I was in disbelief and disgusted,” she said.
    
In opening statements, Hast said there was a subsequent hotel room encounter that Haleyi didn’t reveal in 2017. Hast said that though Haleyi didn’t want to have intercourse with Weinstein, she kept still and “let him degrade her.”
    
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they agree to be named as Haleyi and Sciorra have.
    
In testifying, Haleyi will have to deal with a defense team that said it plans to confront Weinstein’s accusers with their own words, messages they exchanged with Weinstein well after the alleged assaults. Weinstein’s lawyers argue the positive-sounding emails and texts call into question the accusers’ accounts.
    
The jury of seven men and five women also heard testimony from Dr. Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who said that most sex assault victims continue to have contact with their attackers, often under threat of retaliation if the victims tell anyone what happened.
    
Some of Haleyi’s messages were made public last year when Weinstein’s lawyers sought to get his case dismissed. One sent to Weinstein’s phone in 2007 reads: “Hi! Just wondering if u have any news on whether Harvey will have time to see me before he leaves? X Miriam.”
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For a city already familiar with losing a basketball hero, Kobe Bryant’s death made a particularly strong impact in the Italian town of Rieti.Nicknamed “the center of Italy” for its geographic location amid the Appenine Mountains, Rieti was the first stop on Bryant’s seven-year childhood tour of the country.It’s where Joe Bryant, Kobe’s father, made his Italian basketball debut in 1984 when Kobe was 6.”He was just a little kid,” Giuseppe Cattani, the president of the Rieti team and a former teammate of the older Bryant, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.”He had a unique vivaciousness. He followed his father around and would go out onto the court to shoot around at halftime and after his games,” Cattani added.”There were other kids, too, but you could already tell that he was going to be a great player.”As Joe Bryant jumped around from team to team in Italy – he also played in Reggio Calabria, Pistoia and Reggio Emilia – Kobe picked up the local language and spoke fluent Italian into adulthood.But the Bryants might not have ever made it to Italy if not for Willie Sojourner, another American player who spent six successful seasons with Rieti beginning in 1976.”Joe took over the legacy that was begun by Willie Sojourner, who really helped establish the team,” Cattani said of Sojourner, who had been Julius Erving’s teammate and good friend with the New York Nets – and came up with Erving’s nickname, “Dr. J.””Willie Sojourner was Rieti’s basketball godfather. Nobody wanted to mess with “Zio Willie” (Uncle Willie), as we called him,” Cattani said. “Back then when Americans came to play in Italy they were really viewed as legends. They taught us how basketball was played on the other side of the ocean. All the kids back then, like me – I was on the youth team – would look up to these players in awe.”Sojourner returned to Rieti in 2005 to coach the club’s youth team but then died in a car accident a month later on a rainy night by crashing into a tree on a twisty road. He was 57.Kobe Bryant, an 18-time NBA All-Star who won five championships and became one of the greatest basketball players of his generation during a 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, died Sunday with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash  near Calabasas, California. He was 41.”It’s tragic when you lose these champions,” Cattani said. “It felt like we lost a family member last night. The entire city.”Tragedy, unfortunately, is common in the Rieti region, which is still recovering from the 2016 earthquake that destroyed nearby Amatrice.Rieti was once home to a prestigious international athletics meeting, where Asafa Powell set a world record in the 100 meters in 2007. But since the quake and all of the region’s resources poured into the recovery, the meet has not been held.The headlines of the local newspapers in Rieti on Monday read: “The city is in mourning. Kobe Bryant, who grew up in Rieti, is dead.””It’s like we’ve lost our superhero,” Cattani said. “He was an icon to us, like Spider-Man or Superman. One of these superheroes who can’t die. On the basketball court, they’re immortal.”The Italian basketball federation said Monday it has ordered a minute’s silence to be observed for all games “in every category for the entire week.””It’s a small but heartfelt and deserved gesture to honor the life and memory of Kobe Bryant, an absolute champion who always had Italy in his heart,” the federation said. “Kobe was and will always be linked to our country.”IOC President Thomas Bach called Bryant “an outstanding and true Olympic champion” for helping the United States win two Olympic golds, adding that he also helped Los Angeles land the 2028 Games.In Italy, Cattani recalled Joe Bryant’s exploits.”There were several games when Joe scored more than 60 points. He was the type of player that coaches today wouldn’t like,” Cattani said. “He didn’t play according to any specific tactics – just like his son. If he wanted to, he would play virtually by himself.”The lessons that Kobe learned in Italy, though, made him a more complete player than his father.”Kobe always said that he learned the fundamentals and tactics in Italy,” Cattani said. “Whereas in the U.S. maybe you learn more about dribbling through your legs and behind your back and those other spectacular moves, we focus more on the fundamentals and tactics – sometimes excessively.”At its next home game on Feb. 5, Rieti is planning a tribute to Kobe and will symbolically retire his jersey. The ceremony will take place in the PalaSojourner, the team’s arena that was named after Sojourner a month after his funeral was held there with Dr. J among those in attendance.A grieving Joe Bryant will be among those invited to attend this time. 
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John Altobelli, the longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College, was killed along with his wife and daughter in the helicopter crash Sunday that also took the lives of retired NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and Bryant’s daughter, Gianna.The 56-year-old Altobelli died along with his wife, Keri, and daughter, Alyssa, who was about 13 and played on the same basketball team as Bryant’s daughter, said Altobelli’s younger brother, Tony Altobelli, the sports information director at the school. They were among the nine people aboard the helicopter when it crashed around 10 a.m. Sunday in Calabasas, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.John Altobelli spent 27 seasons as coach at the community college in Costa Mesa, California. The team won a state championship last year and Altobelli was named national coach of the year. He led the team to more than 700 victories and four state titles.Among the players he coached were future major leaguers Jeff McNeil, now with the New York Mets, and Donnie Murphy, who played for six big league teams from 2004-14. McNeil played for Altobelli in 2012 with the Brewster Whitecaps, a summer collegiate team in the Cape Cod League, ESPN reported.”One of my favorite coaches I have ever played for and one of the main reasons I got a chance to play professional baseball,” McNeil tweeted. “Both the baseball and basketball world lost a great one today.”   Orange Coast College announced the creation of a memorial fund for the Altobelli family.  “John meant so much to not only Orange Coast College, but to baseball,” athletic director Jason Kehler said in a statement. “He truly personified what it means to be a baseball coach. The passion that he put into the game, but more importantly his athletes, was second to none – he treated them like family.”The team was scheduled to start its season on Tuesday.”He treated every player like his own son,” Orange Coast first baseman Justin Brodt told the Orange County Register. “He wanted the best for everybody involved. That’s what made him such a successful coach and such a great guy.”
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Controversy and sadness were part of this year’s Grammys show before it even began Sunday.”Here we are together on music’s biggest night celebrating the artists that do it best, but to be honest with you we are all feeling crazy sadness right now,” host Alicia Keys said at the top of the show, in a reference to the deaths of basketball legend Kobe Bryant  and his 13-year-old daughter who were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash Sunday morning.The recording industry’s awards show was broadcast live from the Staples Center where Bryant showcased his basketball prowess for years as a guard with the Los Angeles Lakers.  “We’re literally standing here heartbroken in the house that Kobe Bryant built,” Keys said.The controversy was the suspension of Deborah Dugan, the Recording Academy’s CEO.  Dugan, hired for the post earlier this year and the the first woman to head up the Academy, was suspended less than two weeks ago on misconduct charges. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission.But the sadness and the controversy did not stop the artists from producing a stunning song fest.Lizzo, the zaftig twerking singer and flautist, kicked off the beginning of the night’s many songs with “Truth Hurts” and “Cuz I Love You.”  Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” won the best pop solo performance Grammy.The big winners of the night, however,  were 18-year-old Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas who made an album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”  in their Los Angeles home.  Billie, who took home the best new artist prize, also won best album, and her song Bad Guy won best song and best record.Billie Eilish, as singer songwriter, arrives at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center, Los Angeles.Finneas won producer of the year (non-classical) and best engineered album  (non-classical).Together the sister and brother won best pop vocal album.Here is a list of winners in key categories at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards, which took place Sunday in Los Angeles.Teenage goth-pop iconoclast Billie Eilish was the big winner with a total of five golden statuettes, including a clean sweep of the “big four” prizes.Lizzo, the top nomination getter, won three prizes — best pop solo performance, best urban contemporary album and best traditional R&B performance.Album of the Year: Billie Eilish, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”Record of the Year: Billie Eilish, “Bad Guy”Song of the Year (recognizing songwriting): Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, “Bad Guy”Best New Artist: Billie EilishBest Music Video: Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, “Old Town Road”Best Rap Album: Tyler, The Creator, “Igor”Best Rock Album: Cage The Elephant, “Social Cues”Best Pop Vocal Album: Billie Eilish, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”Best Pop Solo Performance: Lizzo, “Truth Hurts”Best Pop/Duo Performance: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, “Old Town Road”Best Urban Contemporary Album: Lizzo, “Cuz I Love You (Deluxe)”Best Country Album: Tanya Tucker, “While I’m Livin'”Best Alternative Music Album: Vampire Weekend, “Father of the Bride”Best World Music Album: Angelique Kidjo, “Celia”
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Performers including Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and Billie Eilish are among those expected to be named winners at the 62nd Grammy Awards Sunday night.Singer/songwriter Alicia Keys will host the music award ceremony, which will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8pm Eastern time.Lizzo, who released her first major label album this year, has been nominated for eight awards including best record, best album, and best new artist. She will be performing at the ceremony as well as Eilish, who has also been nominated for best record, best album, and best new artist.Lil Nax X has also been nominated in those three categories, namely for his 2019 hit with Bill Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road.”The ceremony comes amid a scandal at the Recording Academy – CEO Deborah Dugan, the first woman to lead the institution behind the Grammys, was suspended last week after just five months on the job.Dugan said she was suspended after filing complaints about harassment as well as misconduct including voting irregularities within the Academy.Sunday’s show will also include a tribute to the late rapper Nipsey Hussle, who is posthumously nominated for three awards. Hussle was shot and killed last March.
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Sports fans around the world are struggling to find words to describe how they feel about the sudden death of retired U.S. basketball legend Kobe Bryant.Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna were among nine killed Sunday in a helicopter crash in the hills outside Los Angeles. They reportedly were on their way to a basketball tournament for youngsters.Bryant was known to use a helicopter from his home to games in Los Angeles to avoid the city’s notoriously bad traffic.The Los Angeles County sheriff’s department says the investigation is ongoing with federal officials helping, but have so far given no information on what caused the crash, including whether foggy conditions Sunday morning played a part.Sheriff Alex Villanueva refused to identify any of the victims, saying his office will wait until the coroners do their job. He called it “wholly inappropriate” that the entertainment news website TMZ reported the deaths before authorities could inform the families.Kobe Bryant was 41 years-old.Fans stand for a moment of silence honoring Kobe Bryant before an NBA basketball game between the Orlando Magic and the LA Clippers in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 26, 2020.In an uncharacteristically brief tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump called it “terrible news.”Former President Barack Obama, a well-known basketball fan, tweeted that Bryant was “just getting started in what would have been just as a meaningful second act” to follow his basketball career.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the man who scored more points than anyone else in NBA history, calls Bryant “a man who was much more than an athlete.”Another NBA great, Shaquille O’Neill, tweeted “I’m sick right now.”Stars from other sports – including football’s Tom Brady and hockey’s Wayne Gretzky — are also expressing shock. Fans at the NFL’s Pro-Bowl game chanted “Kobe….Kobe” as the news spread throughout the stands.Sobs were heard as moments of silence were held at NBA games across the country Sunday, but the league decided not to cancel any contests.Players with the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors declined to take any shots, deliberately violating the game’s 24 second shot clock in honor of Bryant, who wore the number 24 on his jersey.People gather around a makeshift memorial for former NBA and Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant after learning of his death, at LA Live plaza in front of Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Jan. 26, 2020.Bryant has gone down in history as one of the greatest professional basketball players ever to step onto the court. He spent nearly his entire pro career with the Los Angeles Lakers — wining five NBA championships and the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 2008. He is the fourth all-time leading scorer. LeBron James passed him for number three on the list just one day earlier. Bryant tweeted his congratulations to James.A native of Philadelphia, Bryant spent much of his youth in Italy where his father played pro basketball after his own career in the NBA.Unlike many NBA stars, Bryant skipped a college career after returning to the U.S. and was drafted straight out of high school by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996 before being traded to the Lakers.Some of Bryant’s accomplishments throughout his 20-year NBA career include becoming the NBA’s youngest all-star in 1998, when he was only 19 years old; an 81-point game in 2006 – the second-highest of all time; and Olympic Gold medals in 2008 and 2012.After announcing his retirement because of injuries, Bryant scored an amazing 60 points in his final pro game in 2016.His 2017 poem in which he bade farewell to the Lakers, “Dear Basketball,” was turned into an animated cartoon. Bryant surprised the audience when he stepped onto the stage to accept the 2018 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.Bryant’s life was not without its share of controversy. A female hotel worker accused him of rape in 2003. A court dismissed the charge, but Bryant pleaded guilty to adultery and settled a civil suit by the woman.His post NBA career included setting up a charitable foundation and running a summer basketball camp for kids. 
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The war film drama “1917” by Oscar winning filmmaker Sam Mendes has received 10 Oscar nominations making it one of the top Oscar contenders. The film follows two young soldiers during World War ONE on a mission to alert 1600 British soldiers that they are led into a trap by German forces. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more on the film
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It’s the defense’s go-to question at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial: If the once-revered Hollywood mogul is a revolting sexual predator, as prosecutors and scores of women allege, why did some of his accusers keep interacting with him for years after their alleged assaults?
    
Prosecutors hope to give jurors some answers and neutralize that line of questioning before too long with the help of Dr. Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychiatrist who testified about the same issues at the 2018 retrial that ended in Bill Cosby’s conviction on charges he drugged and molested a woman years earlier.
    
In her opening statement  earlier this week, prosecutor Meghan Hast told jurors the expert witness set to testify Friday will dispel “myths” about how victims behave during and after rapes and sexual assaults.
    
In evaluating hundreds of victims, Ziv has found most victims “are assaulted by someone they know, don’t physically resist or try to fight off their attacker, don’t immediately report the assault and reach back out to their attacker,” Hast said.
    
But Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis cautioned jurors in his opening that Ziv hasn’t actually examined any of Weinstein’s accusers. Cheronis zeroed in on a message from one telling Weinstein that she loved him and wanted him to meet her mother.
    
“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s not how you talk to your predator,” Cheronis said.
    
Ziv is expected to be the prosecution’s third witness at the New York City trial of the once-powerful mogul whose downfall catalyzed the (hash)MeToo movement.
   
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a New York hotel room in 2013.
    
The producer behind such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction” and Shakespeare in Love'' has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.
    
Thursday's court session was consumed by actress Annabella Sciorra's testimony that Weinstein overpowered and raped her when he showed up at the door of her Manhattan apartment in 1993 or 1994.
    
Keeping with strategy, Weinstein's lawyers seized on her actions after the alleged assault. On cross-examination, for example, defense attorney Donna Rotunno questioned Sciorra's decision to make the 1997 Weinstein-produced filmCopland,” considering their history.
    
Sciorra, now 59, claimed she wasn’t aware of Weinstein’s involvement until she agreed to appear in the film, in part because neither his name nor that of his movie studio appeared on the script she used to audition.
    
Rotunno, known as a #MeToo skeptic, also challenged Sciorra’s testimony that she was dismayed to find out she was booked in a hotel room right next to Weinstein’s on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival to promote “Copland.”
    
Sciorra told the jury of seven men and five women that she got another jolt when she opened her hotel room door early one morning to find Weinstein standing there in his underwear holding a bottle of oil in one hand and a video in the other.
    
“You already know Harvey Weinstein is in the room next door to you, correct?” said an incredulous Rotunno. “You already know that the last time you heard a knock at the door and answered it without seeing who was on the other end didn’t go well, correct?”
    
Sciorra’s allegations are outside the statute of limitations for criminal charges on their own, but her testimony could be a factor as prosecutors look to show that Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior.
    
Prosecutors plan to call three other accusers as witnesses for the same purpose during the monthlong trial.
    
With Sciorra’s testimony fresh in their memories, jurors could soon hear from actress Rosie Perez, one of two friends she said she told about the alleged rape long before she went public with the allegations in an October 2017 article in The New Yorker.
    
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon previewed Perez’s testimony in court after the jury went home for the day, aiming to persuade Judge James Burke to allow her to take the witness stand as what’s known as a “prompt outcry” witness.
    
Such witnesses are allowed to corroborate an accuser’s claim that they reported a sex crime to someone else soon after it happened. Weinstein’s lawyers are objecting, saying her testimony won’t meet that standard. Burke has yet to rule.
    
According to Illuzzi, Perez would tell jurors that she spoke to Sciorra one night after the alleged rape and that Sciorra told her, in effect: “I think something bad happened to me. I believe I was raped.”
   
 Iluzzi said Perez will testify she heard more about the assault from other people while Sciorra was out of the country for a film obligation and that they then had another conversation. Sciorra testified Thursday that, at the time, she was having run-ins with Weinstein banging on her hotel room door. Illuzzi said Perez will testify that Sciorra told her, in effect: “I don’t want him to get me again”
   
Through these conversations, Perez surmised that Weinstein was the person Sciorra was talking about, Illuzzi said, and in effect said: “Oh my God, Harvey Weinstein was the person who raped you, isn’t that right?”
    
“Sciorra was very upset,” Illuzzi said, summarizing the conversation. “She says: ‘My God, I don’t even remember telling you, but yes, he was the one and he did this to me.”
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Actress Annabella Sciorra confronted Harvey Weinstein in court Thursday after keeping her rape accusation against the former Hollywood honcho largely hidden for decades.
    
For more than a quarter-century, she told only few friends that the once-revered producer had pinned her to a bed and violated her, until she came forward publicly in 2017.
    
Now, Sciorra has become the first of Weinstein’s accusers to testify at his New York City rape trial.
    
Sciorra, best known for her work in “The Sopranos,” stands to be a key witness in a watershed trial for the (hash)MeToo movement.
    
Sciorra, 59, started acting in the late 1980s and soon drew acclaim for her leading part in Spike Lee’s 1991 film “Jungle Fever” and her role as a pregnant woman molested by her doctor in 1992’s “The Hand That Rocks The Cradle” the next year.
    
The New York trial involves just a pair of the dozens of allegations that surfaced against Weinstein in recent years. He is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
    
Weinstein has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual. As he left court on Wednesday, he told reporters he felt “very confident” about the case.
    
A guilty verdict could put the 67-year-old disgraced movie mogul in prison for the rest of his life.
    
Sciorra’s allegations date back too long to be prosecuted on their own, but her testimony could be a factor as prosecutors look to show that Weinstein has engaged in a pattern of predatory behavior.
    
Her testimony about events in the mid-to-late 1990s could give the  jury of seven men and five women a sense of the breadth of Weinstein’s alleged wrongdoing and insight into the power dynamics at play in his interactions with young actresses.
    
Prosecutors previewed Sciorra’s testimony in a lengthy, at-times graphic opening statement Wednesday that painted Weinstein as a sexual predator who used his film industry clout to abuse women for decades.
    
She’s one of four other accusers that prosecutors plan to call as witnesses during the monthlong trial.
    
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they come forward publicly.
    
Sciorra alleges Weinstein showed up at her Manhattan apartment after dropping her off from a dinner, forced himself inside and raped her sometime in late 1993 or early 1994.
    
“The evidence will show that despite her protests, despite her fight, despite her body revolting, Harvey Weinstein felt he was entitled to take what he wanted from Annabella ,forcing her to live in terror of him for decades,” prosecutor Meghan Hast told jurors in her opening statement.
    
That touched off several years of Weinstein tormenting Sciorra, Hast said, culminating in an incident at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 in which he arrived at her hotel door in his underwear, with a bottle of baby oil in hand.
    
A petrified Sciorra ran to the back of the room and started hitting call buttons, at which point Weinstein left,  Hast said.
    
Sciorra did not go to authorities because she feared reprisal from Weinstein, prosecutors said. She went public in The New Yorker in October 2017, telling the magazine that for years she had been “so ashamed of what happened.”
   
 “I fought. I fought. But still I was like, `Why did I open that door? Who opens the door at that time of night?”  Sciorra said. “I was definitely embarrassed by it. I felt disgusting.”
    
Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis, in his opening statement, made clear the defense intends to go on the offensive.
    
He questioned the validity of Sciorra’s account, saying she once told a friend that she “did a crazy thing and had sex with Harvey Weinstein” and that she had a consensual encounter with him.
    
“She didn’t describe it as rape because it wasn’t,” Cheronis said.
 
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For many people, pets are part of the family. So when pets die, it makes sense that some owners might want pictures to help them remember their favorite fur babies. Maxim Moskalkov found an artist who can help.
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