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Biden got Obama call at dentist's

Joe Biden got the call from Barack Obama while accompanying his wife as she was getting a root canal.

As he waited in the dentist office on Thursday, Biden's cell phone rang with the presidential candidate's invitation to be his running mate.

It capped a six-week process of elimination that always pointed in Biden's direction even if the Delaware lawmaker could not believe he would actually be the pick.

The Democratic ticket, revealed Saturday in Springfield, Illinois, began to form when Obama approached Biden in July and asked him if he'd consider being a contender for vice president, according to two Biden associates.

Biden said he would and submitted the requisite paperwork to the vetting committee, but was skeptical that it would ever happen. A longtime friend who requested anonymity to speak freely said Biden wouldn't allow himself to believe he was in serious consideration because his hopes and expectations had been beaten down so much by such a miserable showing in the Democratic presidential race.

From all accounts, Biden told just a handful of close friends and family he was being considered. They included his wife, Jill; three children, Beau, Hunter and Ashley; sister and political advisor Valerie Biden Owens; and longtime Senate chief of staff Ted Kaufman.

Madonna defies age as tour starts

"Queen of pop" Madonna entered the stage on a throne on Saturday as she kicked off her world tour, and defied her age with athletic dance routines before tens of thousands of screaming fans.

The US singer, who turned 50 a week ago, opened her Sticky & Sweet tour at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, with Candy Sho. She wore a black leotard-style outfit designed by fashion house Givenchy and black, knee-length boots.

For her second number, Beat Goes On, Madonna drove along the stage catwalk in a white car from which she emerged wearing a white top hat.

US rappers Pharrell Williams and Kanye West, who featured on Madonna's latest chart-topping album Hard Candy, appeared in video clips, as did Britney Spears.

Madonna will be hoping to shatter her own record for the highest-grossing tour ever by a female artist and prove that the musical master of reinvention still has what it takes to pull in crowds young and old.

"It was so charismatic," said Paul, from the Welsh city of Newport, after the show. "I don't believe she's 50. She's more like 30."

"I think she's amazing," added Morgan, a young girl from Cardiff. "I want to be that way when I turn 50."

Irish comedian wins top UK award

Irish comedian David O'Doherty was presented with the top British comedy award at the Edinburgh Fringe festival on Saturday night.

O'Doherty, 32, from Dublin, received the 2008 Intelligent Finance Comedy Award and a cheque for 8,000 pounds, nine years after he won the best-newcomer comedy award at the Fringe.

His first stage appearance was at Dublin's Comedy Cellar in 1998, and he has made five appearances on the Fringe, which in parallel with the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Book Festival make up the largest annual arts gathering in the world.

Asked about trends in political satire, O'Doherty saw a new generation with different targets arising.

"I think there is a new kind of satire that's coming out out. It isn't necessarily targeted at individuals, but rather at the system which people seem rather tired of," he said.

Agencies

(China Daily 08/25/2008 page14)