Danny Puff

By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump is withdrawing his lawsuit against television host and comedian Bill Maher seeking $5 million (3.3 million pounds) that Maher said he would give to charity, in a seemingly facetious offer, if Trump could prove he was not the son of an orangutan.

The lawsuit stems from comments Maher made during an appearance on NBC's "The Tonight Show" in January in which he said an orangutan's fur was the only thing in nature that matches the shade of Trump's trademark hair.

Records in Los Angeles Superior Court show the real estate mogul requested the lawsuit be dismissed without prejudice on Friday, eight weeks after he filed it. His spokesman, Michael Cohen, said Trump plans to file an amended lawsuit sometime in the future.

Cohen declined to offer further details, including a reason for the withdrawal.

Maher offered a $5 million donation to the charity of Trump's choice - "Hair Club for Men," he suggested - if Trump produced a birth certificate that proved he was not half-ape. A Maher spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Last year, during the presidential campaign, Trump offered to give $5 million to charity if Democratic President Barack Obama would release his college records.

Trump, who briefly considered a White House run, had previously questioned Obama's citizenship and boasted that his scepticism prompted the president to release his so-called "long-form" birth certificate.

In a letter to Maher before filing the lawsuit, Trump's lawyer wrote, "Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump's birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan."

Legal experts said Trump was unlikely to succeed in his lawsuit because Maher's offer was obviously a joke, and courts rarely enforce verbal contracts that are clearly satirical in nature.

In an appearance on Fox News after the lawsuit was filed, Trump said he was convinced that Maher was not joking.

"That was venom," he said. "That wasn't a joke."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Dobbyn)

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LONDON (Reuters) - Bogged down by a stagnating economy and sinking poll ratings, British Prime Minister David Cameron ventured into a new swamp when he waded waist-deep into mud to rescue a drowning sheep.

Cameron was on his way back from visiting a farmer near his weekend home in the Oxfordshire countryside last month when he heard bleating and spotted a ewe that had got stuck in the mud after following her two lambs.

In jeans and rubber boots, Cameron waded into the swamp, followed by his two bodyguards, wrestled the sodden sheep and hoisted it onto safe ground, the Sun newspaper reported.

"When I got there, David (Cameron) was in the swamp, waist-deep in mud, along with the two police, who had all gone in there to help drag this sheep out," farmer Julian Tustian told the Daily Telegraph.

"He was brilliant, pulling, pushing and shoving. He was covered in mud, he looked a mess."

The ewe, which has since been nicknamed Swampy, has fully recovered from the ordeal, which unfolded on the evening of March 1, Tustian said. The lambs drowned.

The story of the lost sheep's messy rescue could have passed for an April fool joke but a Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed it had taken place.

Twitter users mocked what they labelled Cameron's "ewe turn", describing it as an unusual show of compassion from a prime minister imposing harsh welfare cuts and talking tough on immigration.

"Are you sure it was not the over way round? The ewe saved #Cameron from the swamp he's in?" wrote one user calling himself @Brianma68.

(Reporting by Natalie Huet; editing by Estelle Shirbon and Guy Faulconbridge)

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) Australia is paying its biggest Hollywood inducement ever to bring "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" Down Under.

The Walt Disney Studios will film a new version of the science fiction classic in Australia, which will pay the studio 21.6 million Australia dollars ($22.6 million) to film there, the government said Tuesday.

David Fincher of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and "The Social Network" will direct, said Disney Asia-Pacific spokeswoman Alannah Hall-Smith.

"No casting decisions have been made," she said, so the filming schedule and locations haven't been set.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Tuesday that producers were believed to have been in discussions with Brad Pitt, who starred in Fincher's "Fight Club."

The newpaper reported that Fincher wanted Pitt for the film's hero Ned Land.

The story centers on Capt. Nemo and his submarine the Nautilus. Jules Verne's book was made into an Academy Award-winning movie in 1954 with Kirk Douglas starring as Land and James Mason as Nemo.

The announcement comes after "The Wolverine," starring Australian actor Hugh Jackman, recently wrapped filming in Sydney. The government paid Fox Studios AU$12.8 million to film in Australia.

Gillard said the "The Wolverine" created more than 1,750 jobs, contracted more than 1,027 Australian companies and generated AU$80 million in investment.

She expects "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" will create more than 2,000 jobs.

A strong Australian dollar buoyed by a mining boom has made Australia less attractive to Hollywood as a filmmaking location in recent years.

It wasn't known how much the payment would offset the film's budget.

"The securing of this film is a huge coup for the Australian film industry and for the near 1,000 local businesses that will be providing goods and services for the film," Gillard said in a statement.

"The Wolverine" in 3D opens in July in the United States, Australia and other countries.

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NEW YORK (AP) The chairman of CBS Sports had no regrets about banning further replays of Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware's gruesome broken leg and says if anyone wants to watch it on the Internet, that's fine with him.

CBS aired two quick replays Sunday from a wide enough distance for viewers to see the leg land awkwardly, but not any blood or bone. It hasn't been shown since on CBS.

"In today's world, if you want to see a piece of video instantaneously that you just saw on television, there are a million ways to do that," Sean McManus said Monday. "I've seen statistics on the millions of views this piece of footage has had on YouTube and I have no problem with that."

Ware was injured after attempting to block a shot in the Cardinals' regional final victory over Duke. The sight of his tibia bone protruding from his skin left coach Rick Pitino and his teammates in tears. Ware was operated on later Sunday and is expected to watch Louisville's Final Four appearance Saturday from the bench in Atlanta.

The network received praise for restraint, although McManus said he knew people would say CBS should have shown it more because the network was in a position to document history.

Several postings of CBS' coverage were quickly available with a search for Ware's name Monday afternoon.

"If people want to go watch the footage for whatever reason, they have a right to do so," McManus said. "I just didn't think we had any obligation to be the facilitator of putting that footage back on the screen. We documented it, we described it and we showed it, and I think that was enough."

It's considerably different from when Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann broke his leg during a Monday Night Football game in 1985. It was equally horrific, with bone jutting through skin. Back then, about the only way a viewer could see it again is if a television producer decided to show the replay, said Jeff Billings, a sports media professor at the University of Alabama.

Aside from the availability of footage online now, many viewers have DVRs that enabled them to replay the incident as much as they wanted, Billings said.

"Current technology makes it a whole lot easier for them to take the high road," he said.

CBS concentrated on the methods it had to tell the story that others did not have access to players and coaches and pictures of their reactions, he said.

The unedited video was hard to find on national news outlets within 24 hours, when it was still a fresh news story. CNN aired the sequence, but blurred out Ware's leg so the break was not visible. Fox News Channel and MSNBC did not show the video, representatives said.

ABC's "Good Morning America" showed footage, again with the leg blurred. NBC's "Today" show and the CBS morning news program did not show it.

At ESPN, executives set specific guidelines: Producers had discretion to use it on their own programs but they were to only show it once, not air it in slow motion and warn viewers in advance. Through Monday afternoon, spokesman Josh Krulewitz said he did not believe the network had shown it.

McManus said CBS producers had not discussed whether the footage will be seen again; opportunities may come if Ware shows up at the Final Four this weekend. But he said he didn't see any reason why it should be.

"I just think that it's not necessary," he said. "It's not journalistically important that we do that now because we told the story. I think we'll move on from that footage."

Decisions like the one made by McManus and his producers are made by broadcasters globally.

In Britain, sports broadcasters often self-censor footage they feel might distress viewers.

Often an incident, such as a dangerous tackle in football, will be frozen at the point of contact to judge a referee's decision but no further footage will be shown.

Sky Sports, which is operated by BSkyB, chose not to show replays in 2008 after then-Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva's left leg was broken following a tackle by Martin Taylor during a Premier League match at Birmingham.

During an FA Cup match being broadcast globally in March 2012, then-Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed after suffering cardiac arrest on the pitch at Tottenham.

ESPN's British channel, which was broadcasting the match live, showed no close-ups as Muamba, who survived, received treatment on the turf, instead it focused on the reaction of other players or wide shots of the stadium.

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AP Sports Writer Rob Harris contributed to this report from London.

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HONG KONG (AP) Almost 2 million origami made by fans in memory of singer-actor Leslie Cheung are being displayed in Hong Kong at an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of his death.

The "Miss You Much Leslie Exhibition" at the Times Square shopping mall is one of many memorial events in his hometown.

Many fans discovered Cheung after his passing. "I really miss him, and I regret that I did not get to know him until 2009," said Kang Lizhen, a mainland Chinese who was born in 1990.

Those who discovered him after his death feel like they lost a friend, said one such fan, Marie A. Jost. "There will be no new works, no new events, no news of Leslie ... It really does feel that we've lost a dear, dear friend," said Jost.

Cheung killed himself by jumping off the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in central Hong Kong on April 1, 2003. His death came at a dark time for his hometown as Hong Kong was hit with the SARS epidemic (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Hundreds died in the illness outbreak that also crippled the Hong Kong economy and cast a gloomy pall on the normally vibrant and energetic city.

Cheung, who was 46 when he died, made several hit albums and starred in classic films including 1987's "A Chinese Ghost Story," director John Woo's "A Better Tomorrow" and Chinese director Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine."

A memorial concert was held Sunday, and Cheung's fans mark his death anniversary each year by visiting the hotel where he committed suicide. One wall of the hotel is covered in flowers, candles and posters of the singer and actor.

Fans sent in volumes of crafted paper this year to try to set a Guinness record for most origami made for a cause. Organizers said 1,900,119 were collected.

The memorial origami are displayed in a transparent archway above a large statue of Cheung at the "Miss You Much Leslie Exhibition" entrance, and one large, red origami sits in the statue's open palm. The exhibition showcases costumes from his concerts, and a mini-theater plays films and interview clips.

The fans' effort and the origami display were encouraged by Florence Chan Suk-Fun, the former agent for the performer, said Vernon Ma, promotions manager for Times Square.

"Ms. Chan thought it might be good to gather all the origami together and put them in a nice display, and to showcase to the public that Leslie fans' love is so powerful. After 10 years' time, they still remember Leslie, and they still want to do something for Leslie," Ma said.

Hundreds of fans held a candlelight vigil at a nearby park at 18:41 p.m. marking the time of his death.

The concert in his memory included performances by Cheung's friends like canto pop singer Jacky Cheung, Karen Mok and Leo Ku.

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By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) - A white supremacist parolee suspected of killing Colorado's prisons chief and a pizza delivery man last month had been mistakenly released from prison in January - four years early - due to a clerical error, court officials said on Monday.

Evan Spencer Ebel, 28, was killed in a roadside gun battle with police following a high-speed chase in Texas, two days after the March 19 killing of Tom Clements, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Ebel had been released from prison in Colorado early after a judicial assistant failed to note on his prison file that sentences he received in 2008 for second-degree assault were supposed to be served consecutively rather than concurrently, the chief judge and district administrator for the 11th Judicial District said in a statement.

Ebel, who pleaded guilty to the assault charge and received a reduced sentence in a deal with prosecutors, was released on mandatory parole on January 28 of this year, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.

"The district has undertaken a review of its practices in an effort to avoid a re-occurrence of this circumstance," Chief Judge Charles Barton and District Administrator Walter Blair said in the statement.

"The court regrets this oversight and extends condolences to the families of Mr Nathan Leon and Mr Tom Clements," they said.

Authorities have also named Ebel as a suspect in the killing of Domino's pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon in the Denver area two days before Clements was shot dead when he answered the door at his home 45 miles (72 km) south of Denver.

KAUFMAN COUNTY KILLINGS

Ebel was a member of a white supremacist prison gang, the 211 Crew.

According to Colorado court records, he was arrested at least seven times between 2003 and 2010 for crimes including burglary, weapons possession, assault, menacing, robbery and trespassing.

Authorities have said they were looking for ties between the murder of Clements and the January slaying of Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office. Kaufman County is east of Dallas.

The January 31 murder of Hasse occurred the same day the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the Kaufman County District Attorney's Office was among the agencies involved in a racketeering case against the Aryan Brotherhood white supremacist group.

On Saturday, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found with fatal gunshot wounds at their home near the Texas town of Fourney. Fourney Mayor Darren Rozell has called the killing of McLelland and his wife a "targeted attack."

A search of Ebel's car following the shootout with Texas police turned up a pizza deliverer's shirt, visor, pizza box and heat bag. Ballistics tests established that the same gun he fired at police during that gun battle matched the weapon used to kill Clements and Leon.

Also found in the car were bomb-making materials and instructions for building bombs, according to Texas authorities.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing and additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and David Brunnstrom)

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NEW YORK (AP) Twitter did away with vowels, Google unveiled a button to add smells and the cast of the 1990s sitcom "Wings" launched a Kickstarter campaign.

The digital world celebrated April Fools' Day with the rollout of mock innovations and parody makeovers. Many of the top online destinations spent Monday mocking themselves and, in Google's case, playfully trying to lure users into pressing their noses against their computer screens.

Google, having already debuted its wearable Google Glass, on Monday showcased Google Nose to add scents to it search results. It urged visitors to lean in close and take a deep whiff for search results such as "unattended litter box."

"In the fast-paced world that we live in, we don't always have time to stop and smell the roses," product manager Jon Wooly said in a video. "Now with Google Nose Beta, the roses are just a click away."

YouTube, despite 72 hours of video uploaded every minute, said it was shutting down. The Google Inc.-owned video site joked that its eight-year rise was merely a lengthy talent search. At the end of the day, nominees were to no longer be accepted so judges could, for the next 10 years, sift through the billions of videos and declare a winner.

Google has always been one of the most enthusiastic April Fools' Day observers, and on Monday it trotted out an extensive lineup of satire. It also added a "treasure map mode" to Google Maps, complete with "underwater street view," and trumpeted Gmail Blue, in which the revolutionary upgrade is the simple addition of the color blue.

The comedy site Funny or Die parodied the recent Kickstarter campaign for a "Veronica Mars" movie with a number of crowd-funding campaigns for other 1990s shows, including "Wings" and "Family Matters." The mock campaigns included videos with original cast members trapped by nostalgia.

"You've been asking for it for years," ''Wings" star Crystal Bernard says in a video asking for $87 million. "Think of it like a $1,000 ticket to the film. Or $20,000!"

Instead of linking to a way to donate money, the mock campaigns led users to charities including the Make-a-Wish Foundation: "Please channel that giving energy into one of these very real, very worthy charities," read the site, slyly suggesting a more deserving cause for donation than Kickstarter projects.

Twitter, not content with the brevity of 140 characters, said it was "annncng" Twttr, a service that would limit messages to just consonants. In an apparent dig at the splitting in half of Netflix memberships between DVD and streaming, Twitter said users would now have to pay $5 a month for the premium use of vowels.

Netflix, meanwhile, boasted joke genre categories such as "Reality TV about people with no concept of reality."

Hulu offered a new slate of programming for its video site, presenting fictional series as if real, completed shows. "30 Rock" fans were baited with the promise of an actual "The Rural Juror" (a fake film frequently alluded to on "30 Rock" starring Jane Krakowski's character), and "Arrested Development" watchers were tempted by finally getting to see an episode of "Mock Trial with J. Reinhold."

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Online:

http://www.google.com/landing/nose/

http://www.funnyordie.com/

http://blog.twitter.com/

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

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NEW YORK (AP) Robin Thicke's new music video is too hot for YouTube.

A representative for the R&B crooner said Monday that his unrated video for "Blurred Lines" was banned from the website. The clip features nude models prowling around Thicke and rappers T.I. and Pharrell.

A rep for YouTube didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The video is still playing on the music video website Vevo.

Thicke's unrated clip was released last week and garnered more than 1 million views in days. It became a water cooler topic on the blogs and entertainment websites. The original video was released a week before and has 1.3 million views.

Thicke said in an interview last week that he had sought the approval of his wife, actress Paula Patton, to shoot with nude models.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) Rapper Rick Ross says critics have misinterpreted his lyrics on Rocko's "U.O.E.N.O" after uproar from women's advocacy groups.

Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with a woman in the song, "and she ain't even know it."

Although the song was released in January, the lyrics gained widespread notice last week when women's groups began to complain. Petitions were issued, including one asking Reebok to withdraw its advertising agreement with Ross.

The Miami-based rapper said in an interview on New Orleans' Q93.3 that "there was a misunderstanding with the lyric, a misinterpretation." He says the term "rape" was never used and it's not something condoned by him, his camp or hip-hop in general.

Messages to Ross' publicist weren't returned.

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Online:

http://rickrossdeeperthanrap.com /

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NEW YORK (AP) TBS says it's extending Conan O'Brien's late-night show through November 2015. O'Brien premiered "Conan" on TBS in November 2010, some months after his departure from a short-lived stint as host of NBC's "Tonight" show. He left NBC when Jay Leno was returned as "Tonight" host.

Although "Conan" averages just 900,000 viewers nightly, TBS says it leads the late-night pack in social media engagement and online activity.

"Conan," hosted by O'Brien with Andy Richter as announcer, airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. Eastern time.

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