Danny Puff

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) Debra Fine lived to tell of her encounter with a heavily armed gunman who killed five people and wounded her and others in a Santa Monica rampage.

Though the attacker had spiky hair, black clothing and a ballistics vest, what she remembers most were the eyes cold, hard, intense.

"No hesitation, no flick of a muscle, nothing. Just absolutely staring and going onto the next step," Fine recalled. "I just simply got in his way. And he needed to kill me. That was it."

She recognized the eyes in a 2006 high school yearbook photo of John Zawahri shown to her by The Associated Press.

Investigators trying to determine why Zawahri planned the shooting spree focused on a deadly act of domestic violence that touched off the mayhem. They were also looking into whether he had a mental health issue.

Police said he fatally shot his father and older brother at a home that went up in flames before taking the violence to the streets, which lasted less than 15 minutes until he was shot to death in a chaotic scene at the Santa Monica College library by police.

Investigators were hoping his mother, who returned early from a trip abroad and was interviewed Sunday by police, could help provide clues about what triggered the violence.

"A big piece of the puzzle just came home," Sgt. Richard Lewis said.

The killing began as a domestic violence incident when Zawahri killed his father, Samir, 55, and brother, Christopher, 24, in their home near Interstate 10 in a working-class part of town a few miles from the beachside attractions that draw tourists year-round.

The gunman, carrying a duffel bag with 1,300 rounds of ammo, fired shots in the neighborhood and took his rampage on the road.

Fine was the first stranger shot by Zawahri. She was using side streets after her singing lesson to avoid traffic from President Barack Obama's visit three miles away when the gunman motioned at the car of the woman in front of her with his rifle, telling her to pull over.

Fine thought the man was providing security for the president's visit. Then he pointed the rifle at the woman and started to yell.

Upset that he would yell at someone who cooperated, Fine accelerated.

"He looked right at me," Fine said. "Stared right at me and then shot. No hesitation."

Zawahri then walked toward her, shooting again. Fine was hit in the shoulder, arm and ear, and she lay on the passenger seat, pretending to be dead. Zawahri, meanwhile, carjacked the woman he'd stopped and directed her to Santa Monica College, firing at bystanders along the way and shooting up a city bus.

At the college, he blasted a Ford Explorer driven by Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, killing the driver and his daughter, Marcela Franco, 26, who died Sunday. The father was a longtime groundskeeper at the college and was taking his daughter to buy textbooks for summer classes.

On foot, Zawahri headed for the library, spraying gunfire around campus as students, who were in the middle of final exams, took cover in classrooms or bolted for their lives. He fatally shot one woman in the head and then casually strolled past a cart of books into the library where he fired 70 shots without striking anyone.

In a shootout with three police officers, Zawahri was struck multiple times. His body was taken outside, where he was pronounced dead.

A small cache of ammunition was found in a room of the burned down house.

The elder Zawahri brought his family to the neighborhood of small homes and apartment buildings tucked up against Interstate 10 in the mid-1990s, according to property records.

Not long after arriving on Yorkshire Avenue, Zawahri and his wife Randa Abdou, 54, went through a difficult divorce and split custody of their two boys, said Thomas O'Rourke, a neighbor. When the sons got older, one went to live with his mother while the other stayed with the father.

Public records show Abdou, who lives in an apartment a couple miles away, was the ex-wife of Samir Zawahri and former co-owner of the house where the first shooting took place.

John Zawahri had a run-in with police seven years ago, but Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks wouldn't offer more details because he was a juvenile at the time. She said the gunman was enrolled at Santa Monica College in 2010.

Home from the hospital on Sunday, Fine recalled the moments after she was shot. Neighbors had come to help her, one holding towels to her wounds. Fifteen minutes later paramedics arrived. Her husband Russell Fine said he rushed to her side by using the family GPS tracking feature on his phone to pinpoint her location.

"When I got ... into the trauma room and I heard one of the doctors say, 'Two more have arrived but they're DOA,' that's when I realized that this was part of something bigger, and that his intent had been to kill people," Fine said. "I'm just, I feel very, very lucky to be here."

"I've always been right in the middle on the gun control issue, and I'm not anymore," she added. "When are we going to get the guns out of the hands of the people who are mentally ill, or when is there enough proof that it's very dangerous to have those types of weapons out there?"

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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at: http://www.twitter.com/latams

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By John Ruwitch

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) - China's photogenic "first lady" Peng Liyuan played steel drums in Trinidad, strolled hand-in-hand with a coffee farmer's daughter in Costa Rica and snapped pictures with her iPhone in the shadow of Mayan ruins in Mexico.

But the glamorous and popular wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping stepped out of the spotlight for two days in California while her husband held unprecedented informal talks with U.S. President Barack Obama at a lush retreat in the desert on the last leg of a four-country trip.

Peng, a singer who many Chinese say was far more famous than Xi before he became a top leader, has decisively broken the mold of Chinese first wives who have kept an intentionally low profile since the 1970s.

Many in China expected to see more of her in California and hoped that she would have a chance to interact with U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, potentially adding a fresh dimension to the nascent relationship between their presidential husbands.

But Mrs. Obama's decision to stay in Washington with her daughters rather than meet the Chinese first couple sidelined Peng to some extent.

U.S. officials said it had been made clear to the Chinese side early on that a scheduling conflict would prevent Mrs. Obama from the summit at the Sunnylands estate near Palm Springs.

But the U.S. first lady did make a gesture.

"Mrs. Obama wrote a letter to Madame Peng welcoming her to the United States. The First Lady said she regretted missing her this weekend but hopes to have the chance to visit China and meet Madame Peng sometime soon," a White House official said.

Still, Michelle Obama's absence set the Chinese blogosphere and some Chinese media outlets alight with speculation, anger, pride and more than a few jokes.

It was an "arrogant show of fear of inferiority" which caused Michelle Obama not to meet Peng, and an insult to the Chinese people, an opinion piece carried by the semi-official China News Service said. The article appeared to have later been removed from the service's website but it was widely circulated on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog.

'DISRESPECT AND RUDENESS'

"Even if Xi's wife doesn't care, many Chinese believe this is a show of disrespect and rudeness towards the Chinese leader," it said.

Michelle Obama has had cordial interactions with other foreign leaders' wives who have visited the White House as well as with those she has met abroad. But lacking any major diplomatic role in the administration, she has shown few signs of forging close personal bonds with her foreign counterparts.

On Weibo, several commentators took their own stabs as to why Michelle avoided California.

"She was afraid of Mama Peng's charm. How shameful that the aura of the First Lady of the world's superpower can't beat that of the First Lady of developing China," wrote a user with the handle Chiki_Wang.

Another wrote: "Michelle decided to hide before being humbled. She was afraid that after dinner the two couples would sing karaoke and so she said she needed to be with her daughters - one of the most common excuses, even in China."

Peng stepped into the limelight in her new role as first lady in March, the same month that Xi became president, when she accompanied him to Russia and Africa. She became an instant internet sensation back home.

Images of her wearing a fashionable, made-in-China wardrobe have been popular back home - a parallel she shares with Michelle Obama, who Vogue magazine said in its April cover story had "inspired a modern definition of effortless American chic."

Chinese first wives have occasionally appeared in photographs when traveling abroad with their husbands. Most have appeared frumpy and awkward, though, and none of Peng's predecessors stretching back to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 could be described as glamorous.

All have kept a low profile because of the experience of Jiang Qing, the widow of the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong. Jiang was the leader of the "Gang of Four" that wielded supreme power during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. She was given a suspended death sentence in 1981 for the deaths of tens of thousands during that period of chaos.

By contrast, Peng's easy, casual and fun demeanor were on full display once again on the earlier leg of Xi's trip, which took in Trinidad, Costa Rica and Mexico. She has also been trying out her English, which sources with ties to the leadership told Reuters she has been learning.

In California, Palm Springs' local newspaper, the Desert Sun, snapped photos of her visiting the Palm Springs Art Museum on Friday afternoon. Almost no other media were present.

And Peng joined Obama and Xi for tea on Saturday before the Chinese first couple departed, U.S. national security adviser Thomas Donilon said. It lasted about a half hour.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in RANCHO MIRAGE and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Walsh)

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) The gunman who went on a chaotic rampage killing four people before being fatally shot by police at a college campus planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition, the police chief said Saturday.

"Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that's premeditated," said Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

The killer would have turned 24 on Saturday, but Seabrooks wouldn't identify him because his next of kin was out of the country. Police had an encounter with him seven years ago, but she wouldn't elaborate because he was a juvenile at the time.

The chief spoke near a display of weapons and ammo recovered from Santa Monica College where the killings ended Friday when police gunned him down in the library, where students were studying for finals.

Among items on display were surveillance photos of a man in black entering the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.

The gunman fatally shot one woman in the head outside the library before entering the building and opening fire as students ran for cover.

Students hid into what Seabrooks called a "safe room" in the library and barricaded the door for safety.

"They stacked items found in the safe room against the door, hunkered down and avoided shots fired through the drywall at them while they were in that room," she said.

The violence, which lasted little more than 10 minutes, started about a mile away when the gunman began shooting at a house, and it caught on fire. Two bodies were later found inside.

Two officials told The Associated Press that the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

As flames rose from the house, the man, wearing what appeared to be a ballistic jacket, he shot a woman passing by in a car and carjacked another woman at gunpoint. He directed her to drive to the college campus, having her stop so he could shoot along the way, police said.

He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. They were treated at a hospital and released.

The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.

From there, the chaos shifted to the college, a two-year school with about 34,000 students located among homes and strip malls more than a mile inland from the city's famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.

In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition after undergoing surgery UCLA Medical Center, doctors said. On Saturday, authorities identified the driver as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, of West Los Angeles, who worked at the school.

College employee Joe Orcutt was in the lot and said the gunman looked calm and composed as he fired at him. Orcutt jumped out of the way.

"He's just standing there, like he's modeling for some ammo magazine," Orcutt said, "seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice."

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Associated Press writers Greg Risling and Sarah Parvini contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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STOCKHOLM (AP) Swedish Princess Madeleine fell in love in the Big Apple. Now she has said "yes" to New York banker Christopher O'Neill in a lavish and emotional wedding ceremony in Stockholm.

Madeleine, 30, was wearing a stunning silk organza dress with a lace top and four-meter (13-foot) trail, designed by Valentino Garavani, when she tied the knot with British-American O'Neill on Saturday. Around 470 European royals, top New York socialites and celebrities were in attendance.

The 38-year-old O'Neill fought back tears as the princess walked down the aisle with her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, to a traditional Swedish wedding march performed by a children's choir. The bride and groom were visibly moved as the ceremony proceeded with hymns in both Swedish and English, and performances by Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson and Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera" star Peter Joback.

With a smile on her face, Madeleine read out the wedding vows in Swedish while O'Neill read his in English in the Royal Chapel, decorated with typical Swedish summer flowers. After the wedding, the couple kissed on the steps of the palace in front of a cheering crowd of several thousand who had gathered in the sunshine waving Swedish flags.

"We hope she will be very happy in the future, the princess Madeleine," Julia Huelsman, who had traveled from Munich, Germany, for the occasion, said.

Later, the newlyweds travelled in a procession through the crowded streets of the capital in a special horse and carriage. They then sailed to the royal residence and UNESCO World Heritage site Drottningholm Palace, 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of the city center, where a private wedding reception will be held.

Madeleine is the youngest of Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's three children and fourth in line to the throne. She became known as Sweden's party princess in her early 20s, when she was frequently spotted at Stockholm's high-end nightclubs, and has attracted widespread attention for her stylish clothes.

But her life hasn't always been a fairytale. Madeleine's extravagant lifestyle has often been criticized by Swedes, who prefer the down-to-earth attitude of her sister, Crown Princess Victoria, who married a commoner. And in 2010, she fled to New York after breaking off her first engagement to Swedish attorney Jonas Bergstrom amid media reports that he had cheated on her.

Since then, Madeleine has held a lower profile, working for the nonprofit World Childhood Foundation in New York, where she met O'Neill through mutual friends. The couple was first spotted together having lunch at the Central Park Boathouse in January 2011 and they announced their engagement in October 2012.

O'Neill was born into a wealthy family. His late father, Paul O'Neill, set up the European head office of Oppenheimer & Co. in London in the 1960s and his mother, Eva Maria O'Neill, is involved in several charities. He studied at a boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Boston University and a master's degree from Columbia Business School in New York.

O'Neill, who holds dual American and British citizenship, has declined a royal rank in Sweden, which would have required him to become a Swedish citizen. He has chosen to continue working and the newlyweds are expected to move back to their apartment in Manhattan.

Guests at the wedding included the U.K.'s Earl and Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward and Sophie; Princess Takamado of Japan and princes and princesses from Norway, Denmark, Greece, Luxembourg and Monaco.

O'Neill had also invited many of his super-rich friends, such as Opel heir Georg von Opel, Cadbury chocolate heir Joel Cadbury, Colombian billionaire Alejandro Santo Domingo, and Aidan and Fizzy Barclay. Other well-known invitees were Duran Duran band member John Taylor, the CEO of fashion retailer H&M, Karl-Johan Persson, and golfer Jesper Parnevik.

The marriage is the latest in a series of glamorous royal weddings that have mesmerized Europe in the past few years. In June 2010, Madeleine's older sister Crown Princess Victoria wed her personal trainer Daniel Westling in a grand ceremony in Stockholm and the year after, Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot in extravagant fashion in front of an estimated 2 billion television viewers. Also in 2011, Prince Albert II of Monaco wed Charlene Lynette Wittstock and in 2012, Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg united with Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy.

The Swedish royal family has only ceremonial duties, such as attending award ceremonies, promoting Swedish businesses abroad and supporting charities. As the head of state, the king also receives foreign dignitaries on formal visits to Sweden.

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AP Television Producer Yesica Fisch contributed to this report.

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NEW YORK (AP) The great comedian W.C. Fields is credited with the line, "Never work with children or animals." He would have had trouble on Broadway this season.

There were kids at every turn "Motown: The Musical," ''Kinky Boots," ''Annie," ''Matilda the Musical," ''A Christmas Story, the Musical" and "Pippin." And animals? Dogs in "Annie," ''Pippin" and "A Christmas Story, the Musical," a cat in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a dead crow in "Macbeth" and even a live vulture in "The Testament of Mary."

But now that it's Tony Awards time, it's the moment for the adults to shine. No kids or pets made it through the nomination process, so only grown-ups will emerge victorious Sunday night.

BEST MUSICAL

Will win: "Kinky Boots." Should win: "Matilda the Musical."

Though it's been a horse race between "Kinky Boots" and the import "Matilda the Musical" both coincidentally having actors adopting British accents and both featuring men in dresses the consistently high marks for all aspects of "Matilda" should sweep it to victory, but won't. "Kinky" is unabashedly sentimental with a classic message of acceptance, while "Matilda" is rebellious and edgy, a place Tony voters don't naturally feel comfortable.

BEST PLAY

Will win: "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." Should win: "The Assembled Parties."

Christopher Durang's comical "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," which takes characters and themes from Anton Chekhov and sets them in present-day Pennsylvania, is sly and funny and lovely. But Richard Greenberg's "The Assembled Parties," a meditation on time and family, leaves a lasting impression.

REVIVAL-PLAY

Will win: "The Trip to Bountiful." Should win: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

The Cicely Tyson-led revival of Horton Foote's play is lovely and well done. You walk out hopeful and sunny the opposite of what the revival of Edward Albee's play felt like. Superbly acted and directed, it was a cage-match with intellectuals. But Tony voters like sunny and inspirational.

REVIVAL-MUSICAL

Will win: "Pippin." Should win: "Pippin."

"Annie" is pretty good, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was rollicking, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" is sweet and smart, but "Pippin" is thoroughly thrilling, rebuilt with a circus inside. Diane Paulus rides the Big Top theme fire jugglers, teeterboards, knife throwing and contortionists but she also teases out the wandering nature of the mysterious players and zooms up the physicality of the story. Magic.

ACTOR-PLAY

Will win: Tom Hanks. Should win: Tracy Letts.

Everybody loves Tom Hanks. He is just so darn lovable. In "Lucky Guy," he gets to be funny and poignant and noble while dying. What kind of monster are you if you don't like Tom Hanks?

But, speaking of monsters, Tracy Letts showed a hint of one in the seemingly weak-willed history professor George in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" ''He was savage and sad, allowing years of pain and frustration to seep out of a semi-broken man." Hanks, David Hyde Pierce and Nathan Lane turned in fine performances, but nothing touched Letts, an actor at the top of his game.

ACTRESS-PLAY

Will win: Cicely Tyson. Should win: Laurie Metcalf.

Cicely Tyson's return to Broadway for the first time in 30 years to be in Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful" has been met by deserved high praise. But Laurie Metcalf was simply astonishing as she went from a snippy, bossy scientist to a broken, confused intruder wolfing down Chinese food on the floor in "The Other Place." The other three women in this category Amy Morton, Kristine Nielsen and Holland Taylor also are admirable, but Metcalf was soul-stirring.

ACTOR-MUSICAL

Will win: Bertie Carvel. Should win: Billy Porter.

Both men are deserving of the honor and, believe us, both actors look sensational in skirts, but Billy Porter in "Kinky Boots" bares his heart a little more and pushes his poor body a little more than his rival in "Matilda the Musical." Bertie Carvel won the Oliver Award Britain's equivalent of the Tony in the role of Miss Trunchbull and brought his terrifying skill to Broadway without being cartoonish, but Porter can make tears fall down your cheeks.

ACTRESS-MUSICAL

Will win: Patina Miller. Should win: Patina Miller.

While Laura Osnes from "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" is perfectly cast as a princess-to-be and sings beautifully, Patina Miller is a muscular creature with a hat and cane, a grimace plastered to her face, who dances tough Bob Fosse steps and does tricks on a trapeze while singing in Diane Paulus' retelling of "Pippin." Miller is fierce and that always beats cute.

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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by Virginia Heffernan | @YahooTechI've been wearing Google Glass, Google's wearable Internet contraption, since Friday. (You can read the first entry in my Glass Menagerie journal here, the second entry here and the most recent entry here.)So far, groovy Brooklynites seem to see Google's pricey headgear the way they see Gucci loafers like something for showoffs and chumps. It's sorta pathetic. I was hoping we could share in some good old American excitement over new technology. But they're ignoring me. Anyway, Glass wasn't a hit when I wore it to Smith Canteen, my usual coffee shop, so yesterday I decided to go somewhere seemingly more hospitable to technology: Momofuku Milk Bar. Hip people love cookies? Maybe I was grasping at straws. I definitely was grasping at straws. So here's the video I made, from my head, when I cravenly sought attention yesterday at Momofuku Milk Bar. Watch especially the snub by the cool-looking chick at the end. Sigh.

Transcript: "Since the people are using technology here, like a laptop, maybe they won't really hate this thing because they're not quite as steampunk as they are at Smith Canteen. But I'm still alone. And I'm still talking to myself. So let's face it. Oh, and I still have this hair. . .[unintelligible]. They have yoga mats and instruments. They're just like healthy, hearty people. Brooklynites. Without a care in the world. No straws, though. Ah, straws! That's like a person that would work at Momofuko. They just don't say anything. I feel like I'm a really low-level forgotten has-been reality contestant? who everyone just wants to avert their eyes from. Well, at least I found a straw. I can't believe I used to fit in here."

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by Rob Walker | @YahooTechWhat does the digital revolution mean to photography? The question can be or rather, has already been answered in myriad ways. The most recent high-profile excuse to wrestle with the issue: The Chicago Sun-Times decision to do away with its photo staff. One of the affected photojournalists reacted to being replaced by a reporter with an iPhone by starting a Tumblr. Laidofffromthesuntimes.tumblr.com, created by Rob Hart, promptly attracted a swarm of online attention.

So is that a story about a digital threat or a digital opportunity? Or both?

Just as I was chewing over this question, I had a chance to check out A Different Kind of Order, the International Center of Photography s fourth triennial exhibition aiming to offer a picture of the most compelling contemporary photo work.

While I d stopped by out of idle curiosity, what I got was a major jolt to my thinking about technology and the making (and consuming) of images today.

Sure, the smartphone revolution has extended the long history of photography s democratization. But A Different Kind of Order repeatedly reminded me that there are photographers, artists, photojournalists and other image-makers whose work rises far above the crowd. The best of this work both uses and critiques technology in ways that disturb, inspire awe, and generally blow your mind.

Here are five of my favorite pieces from from the show:

1. A chilling piece by Rabih Mour collects images and videos made with mobile devices in war-torn Syria. In one, a shaky video settles on a hiding soldier. Suddenly this blurry figure seems to notice the camera-holder, and raises his rifle. The image spins to the ground. Has this citizen documentarian just been shot? There is no way of knowing for sure: a grim reminder of how the explosion of visual information still resolves in maddening uncertainty.

2. Trevor Paglen s large prints resemble pleasing abstractions or luscious sksyscapes. But study them very closely and you will see a tiny blemish here or there and that speck is a Predator or Reaper military drone, flying over a test site that of course a non-military photographer cannot get near. Apart from forcing the viewer to stare intently, searching a large physical image for its subject (the pictures wouldn t translate well to a computer screen), Paglen s approach comments on the conundrum of these hulking and influential weapons that are, by design, invisible to their victims and to most of the rest of us, too.

3. A.K. Burns Touch Parade addresses something I had never heard of: highly specialized fetish videos found on YouTube. How specialized? Evidently these videos depict such actions as crushing vegetables with one s foot, or inflating a balloon until it pops. To most people, of course, such a video would just seem pointless and strange but to some small community they read as erotic. Burns reenacts five examples, which run simultaneously on five TVs. Apart from being freaky and creepy, the videos offer a vivid example of subversive imagery that hides in plain sight and a jarring variation of the familiar clich s about connecting over shared interests online. If YouTube understood what such videos were about, would it force them off the platform? And what does it mean to watch something that switches from inexplicable to disturbing once you understand its intent?

Touch Parade (crush), 2011 / excerpt from A.K. Burns on Vimeo.



4. Mishka Henner s images are documentation of counter-documentation. The satellite imagery on Google Maps turns out to include some interesting anomalies: governments demand that certain territories of military or other significance be kept obscured. As it happens, the Dutch method of censorship entails aesthetically engaging abstractions, plopped right into satellite pictures. In a sense these are found images but found in the digital world rather than the physical. Interestingly, while I d seen these pictures previously, online, they looked terrific in the form of physical prints.

5. Finally, there s Touching Reality, by Thomas Hirschorn. This meta-examination of the way we consume images now is short but incredibly affecting: A video shows a hand swiping and pinching an iPad, viewing a series of extremely graphic photos of war casualties. Such gory evidence of violence would likely be kept off the front page or evening news, but is now routinely documented by citizen photojournalists with camera phones, and easily found online. The hand flicks through these images, pausing now and again to zoom in on some horrifying detail. The viewer empathizes (this way of taking in pictures is now familiar) yet feels frustrated by the lack of control and vaguely judgmental of the hand, even while consuming exactly the same images its owner is consuming. It s disorienting. And for me, it was actually just too gruesome to watch all the way through. But with that warning in mind, you can see a short excerpt of the piece below.

Touching Reality, Thomas Hirschhorn from Anouli Patchouli on Vimeo.



None of this makes me think any less of services like Instagram and Flickr and the exploding range of work, from the casual to the serious, that emerges there. But A Different Kind of Order is a powerful reminder that the far edges of image-making are still being explored, with rewarding results. If you have a chance to see this show in person, do it. It will change the way you see.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) A judge said Thursday he was inclined to unseal portions of a choreographer's court filings alleging he was abused by Michael Jackson.

However, personal details and psychiatrist reports would likely not be released.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said he needed to address which records should remain sealed before he can deal with whether Wade Robson, a choreographer and television personality, can pursue his claim.

Robson requested on May 1 that Beckloff allow him to file a late creditor's claim against Jackson's estate nearly eight years to the day after he testified in Jackson's defense at the singer's molestation trial.

Jackson was acquitted after Robson told jurors the entertainer never touched him inappropriately. Henry Gradstein, an attorney for Robson, said a breakdown last year prompted Robson to address the abuse.

Howard Weitzman, an attorney for Jackson's estate and Thomas Messereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson, have attacked Robson's credibility and noted his repeated defense of the singer.

Weitzman has called the accusations "outrageous and pathetic."

"We are confident that the court will see this for what it is" he said at the time the allegations were first made.

On Thursday, Beckloff presented attorneys with possible redactions of Robson's sworn declaration and said it should serve as a roadmap for what information can be made public.

The judge believes some of the material could be made public, even though attorneys on both sides would like the case sealed in its entirety.

Some of Robson's private and personal information, including a paragraph that detailed his allegations of abuse by Jackson, should be sealed, Beckloff said.

He also said portions of the records that deal with mental health issues also should not be released.

"There aren't a lot of redactions," Beckloff said of his suggestions.

Attorneys for Robson and Jackson's estate will review the suggestions by the judge and report back at a hearing on June 25, the fourth anniversary of Jackson's death.

Beckoff, who is overseeing the probate case involving Jackson's massive estate, said he will also handle a separate lawsuit filed by Robson against Jackson and two other defendants listed as "Doe 2" and "Doe 3" that includes allegations of abuse by the entertainer. That lawsuit also remains sealed.

Robson, 30, has worked with Britney Spears and numerous other stars. He was 22 at the time he testified, telling jurors in Jackson's criminal case that he met the pop star when he was 5 and spent the night at Jackson's Neverland Ranch more than 20 times, sleeping in the singer's bedroom on most visits.

During the trial, Robson bristled at testimony by other witnesses that they had seen Jackson molest him.

"I'm telling you nothing happened," Robson testified when a prosecutor challenged his account in 2005.

Gradstein previously issued a statement saying, "Last year, on a career trajectory that was off the charts, (Robson) collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child."

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Russell Brand has a "Messiah Complex," and he's taking it on the road.

The British comedian announced Thursday that he's launching a world comedy tour focusing on Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Jesus Christ. Brand says the show examines "the importance of heroes in this age of atheistic disposability."

The 38-year-old says he plans to perform in theaters as well as "prisons, drug rehabs ... nationalist organizations, Mosques, foreclosed houses, protest sites, Synagogues and in people's private homes."

The "Messiah Complex" tour is set to begin Aug. 15 in Abu Dhabi and wrap up Dec. 9 in Iceland.

Brand's FX show, "Brand X," concluded last month.

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Online:

www.russellbrand.tv

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by Rob Walker | @YahooTechSo it s been about a month since I betrayed Apple, one of my longtime favorite brands as mentioned here earlier by buying an HTC One smartphone instead of an iPhone. How s that working out?

Pretty great, actually. I m feeling no pangs of regret. Every app I really use works as well as the iOS versions, and I positively love some of the HTC One s features. But best of all, it s made it easier for me to recognize that the iPhone is, in fact, a totally bourgeois device: The iPhone has become, in its six short years, the technological equivalent of a Polo shirt.

Toting a non-Apple device around the world, for the first time in ages, has made me see the Apple-toters with new eyes. If you ll allow me to be totally and arbitrarily judgmental for a moment: It struck me just how common the iPhone has become. And I mean that in the sense of not distinguished; not of superior excellence; ordinary, per definition 4 in my Webster s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary: Deluxe Second Edition. (I ll stop short of citing definition 7: not refined; low; coarse. )

Before everyone gets upset, I would actually draw a distinction between Apple in general and the iPhone in particular. The latter has become a brand unto itself, one that has long since crossed over from cool (meaning something embraced by a minority that thinks of itself as having elite taste) to acceptable, meaning it s a sort of cultural default, like a Polo shirt or Nike sneakers or, for that matter, Windows (in its heyday at least).

It s the brand for people who don t want to think all that hard about what brand they are buying, and just want whatever everybody else will accept without question. It s bourgeois.

There s nothing wrong with that, per se. Nike sneakers and Polo shirts are acceptable for a reason: They are perfectly fine. And to state the obvious, producing an acceptable default product is an excellent position for a business to occupy. (This is why trendmongers yammering about what a disaster it is for a brand to lose its cool so often miss the point.)

But what I'm getting at isn't business. It's personal. Personally, I don't go for Polo ponies and Nike swooshes. I'm not interested in mindlessly signaling that I have bought in to whatever the market has decided is "acceptable." Maybe you've had the same feeling: It's precisely the fact that the iPhone has attained this status in popular culture that made me curious about alternatives.

By now the (perhaps justifiably) offended iPhone loyalists among you would surely like to point out to me that the HTC One, despite plenty of nice reviews, is not exactly setting the world on fire. The product is a minor sideshow in press coverage of the Apple-Samsung battle; the company seems to be flailing; and its marketing has been a disaster. I wouldn t be surprised if most iPhone owners don t even know what an HTC One is.

This doesn t bother me in the least. First, I like an underdog. Second, any time a brand emerges as a default, I get suspicious: Surely I can do better than whatever the majority thinks is acceptable. I think with my HTC One I ve done exactly that. And this is not dissimilar from my insistence on sticking with Apple s computers when their market share compared to Windows alternatives had shrunk to practically nothing. As long as I could identify what made my choice better, I had to. And that, as you know, worked out just fine.

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