Who's in
Support your local sheriff
Movie star Jackie Chan has taken on a new role promoting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to Asian Americans.
Chan will step out of a squad car dressed in a sheriff's deputy uniform in the advertisements and will urge potential recruits to join the force. The department hopes the commercial, which will be shown during recruitment fairs, will help boost the low number of Asian-Americans in their ranks.
Chan had been the police ambassador in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, as well as in Japan.
Tragic death of TV funny man
Popular stand-up comedian and Tonight Show regular Richard Jeni died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said on Sunday.
Police found the 45-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call on Saturday morning from Jeni's girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.
Jeni died at a nearby hospital.
Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing. An autopsy on Jeni would be done yesterday, said Lieutenant Fred Corral from the investigation division of the coroner's office. Jeni regularly toured the country with a stand-up act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently A Big Steaming Pile of Me during the 2005-06 season.
Korean star Rains supreme in Vietnam
Some 15,000 screaming fans cheered on Korean pop star Rain at the first of two shows in Vietnam on Saturday, billed as the most extravagant pop concert ever staged in the country.
More than 1,000 bodyguards and security staff were on duty at Ho Chi Minh City's Military Zone 7 stadium on Saturday night to shield Rain from the delirious fans who have mobbed the Asian superstar since he arrived on Wednesday.
Amid the "Rain fever", many teenage admirers were left outside the venue as tickets selling for as much as $160 were snapped up, with fans arriving from across Asia.
The pop singer and hip-hop dancer, whose real name is Chung Ji-hoon, is on a six-month tour of 11 countries and territories. Part of the proceeds will be donated to World Vision's project to help Asian children suffering from AIDS.
Agencies
(China Daily 03/13/2007 page18)
