Usher To Preview Looking For Myself At Off-Broadway Show

Singer tells MTV News 'Fuerza Bruta' matches the 'more artistic' music on his upcoming album.
By Jocelyn Vena

Usher
Photo: Todd Williamson/ WireImage

This Saturday (and this Saturday only), Usher will appear in New York City's "Fuerza Bruta," an off-Broadway show where no one speaks, but the story is told through bright lights, music and dancing. In the lead role of Running Man, Usher will also use the show to preview his June album release, Looking for Myself.

Fans in the audience will likely get closer than they've ever been to the singer, as the audience stands during the performance, becoming another member of the company. With several weeks until his album release, Usher explained to MTV News at a rehearsal why he wanted to use this show to preview tracks.

"I felt like the natural elements as well as the emotion of 'Fuerza Bruta' would definitely speak or be significant to some of the stories and I guess hopefully a connection [was there]," he explained of tying this performance to his album. "When we began to explore different directions [for the performance like] maybe we use some of their music, maybe we use some of mine ... and before you knew it the idea came together. We tried it, I got on Running Man and it worked."

The show will stream his entire album, which drops June 12, and he thinks the mind-bending artistry of "Fuerza Bruta" works with the sound he's created on it. "This is more artistic of an album than I've had in history," he said. "And I felt like yeah, it would be a lot for me, but I was willing to at least try it. There were many times I had seen the show and I only hoped that I would be able to make it happen."

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Fla. boy struck by SUV, killed at softball game (Providence Journal)

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A 38-Ton Custom Bulldozer Crushes Leftover Landmines [Video]

After decades of strife, occupation, and conflict, Afghanistan has been left pockmarked with an estimated ten million anti-personnel landmines in its soils. It's a bad situation. There are mines like the the Soviet PFM-1 butterfly mine—especially popular with small children, who mistake it for a toy. But an anti-mine machine from Komatsu is working across the country to help Afghanis literally save life and limb. More »

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Five Reasons To See 'The Five-Year Engagement'

"The Five-Year Engagement" is not your typical romantic comedy. It has conflict built right into the title, instead of using a Nancy Meyers-esque turn of phrase. The writers behind "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, have reteamed to reflect on what comes after popping the questions, and Segel and Emily Blunt lead a [...]

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MSI GT70 gaming laptop review

MSI outs new GT60 / GT70 gaming laptops, we go hands-on (video)

Everything old is new again: NVIDIA rebrands Fermi-based GPUs into 600-series

Intel puts Ivy Bridge on the map: promises up to 20 percent faster CPU, doubled graphics, desktop quad-cores from $174

Now that Intel's let the cat out of the bag (and into the Ivy), it's high time we took a look at what manufactures are going to do with those fancy new processors. Behold: The MSI GT70 gaming laptop, one of the first gaming beasts out of the door with Intel's next generation architecture. Living up to its next-gen CES promises, this 17.3-inch behemoth falls squarely in the desktop replacement category, at 8.6 pounds, and packs a new 2.3GHz Core i7-3610QM processor, NVIDIA's latest GeForce GTX 670M chip with 3GB of video memory, 16GB of DDR3 RAM and a fancy RAID 0 dual SSD setup -- all wrapped in one hefty, formidable package. So how powerful a combination do Ivy Bridge and NVIDIA make? Let's find out.

Gallery: MSI GT70 review

Continue reading MSI GT70 gaming laptop review

MSI GT70 gaming laptop review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wanted 'Psych Each Other' Before Big 'Today' Performance

MTV News chills in the 'Today' green room with the band on the day of their EP release.
By Jocelyn Vena

The Wanted rehearse before "Today" performance
Photo: Brian Phares/MTV News

NEW YORK — "Oh my god, they're so normal!" one fan declared as she caught a glimpse of the Wanted leaving their hotel this morning. It was one of many exciting fan encounters the band would have on Tuesday (April 24), as they were out in New York City promoting their self-titled U.S. debut EP and the release of their new video, "Chasing the Sun."

MTV News was on hand with the guys in the early hours Tuesday while they chilled in the "Today" show green room chatting, eating breakfast and goofing around with a fat cat and a dog named Ted, both of whom were on the show today as well.

"We just arrived and we saw a 40-pound cat crawling across the floor," group member Siva Kaneswaran told MTV News about the early morning wakeup call and the show's other guest, a cat who is currently having his own moment chasing the sun. "This is the kind of stuff that happens to the Wanted. It's too early for this," he continued. "There's lots of big stuff happening today and were gonna do some crazy things."

Before they performed "Chasing" and their hit single "Glad You Came" on the morning news show, Siva explained how the guys prep for an appearance on a show like "Today."

"We prepared for this show this morning by having cups of tea and Cheerios, good for the heart," Siva, who declared he is not a morning person, shared. "Basically, just psych each other, gaze into each other's eyes and get excited, and that's what gets us through the day."

The "Today" show was the first of many media appearances the Wanted will make on Tuesday, leading up to their "MTV First" airing tonight at 7:53 p.m. ET on MTV. They will sit down with MTV News' Sway Calloway to debut and chat about the "Chasing" video.

Immediately following the MTV premiere, the fivesome are hanging around for an additional 30-minute live Q&A session with Sway on MTV.com. Fans can get in on the action by submitting video or text questions via MTV.com or @MTVNews on Twitter, using the hashtags #MTVFirst or #AskTheWanted.

MTV News will be on hand with the guys all day, so stay tuned for more Big Apple dispatches.

Related Photos

• 'The Wanted' Take Over NYC, MTV News Tags Along!

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Egypt rejects licenses for U.S. groups

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has rejected a request from eight U.S.-based civil society groups for licenses to operate in the country after a crackdown on their activities sparked the first diplomatic spat with Washington since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak.

In a move that may damage Cairo's relations with Washington, the Insurance and Social Affairs Ministry rejected the applications because it believed the groups' activities violated state sovereignty, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported on Monday.

It said requests from the Carter Center for Human Rights, set up by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Christian group The Coptic Orphans, Seeds of Peace and other groups had been rejected.

"I don't understand how a charity group like the Coptic Orphans, which works with over 35 churches in Egypt to provide medical and social aid, was rejected," said the group's lawyer, Negad al-Borai.

Sanne van den Bergh, field office director for the Carter Center in Egypt, said the group had not been formally notified of the decision to deny it a license "but we are aware of the media reports about it and we are looking into them".

The Egyptian decision came on the same day that Interpol's headquarters in France refused a request by Egypt to issue worldwide arrest warrants for 15 employees of a number of U.S.-based non-governmental organizations that operate in Egypt.

Interpol's statement said the request for arrest warrants for the 15, of whom 12 were Americans, was not in line with its rules that forbid "political, military, religious or racial" interventions.

Under Mubarak, foreign-funded democracy and human rights groups were allowed to operate in Egypt but were kept in legal limbo by the government, which repeatedly turned down their applications for licenses.

Under the military rulers who took over after Mubarak fell a year ago, Egyptian authorities have pursued an even tougher line, raiding NGOs' offices and pressing criminal charges against a number of Egyptian and foreign NGOs.

Washington threatened to withdraw $1.3 billion in military aid until an Egyptian judge lifted a travel ban on several American democracy activists last month and allowed them to leave the country and avoid possible imprisonment.

But just after the United States announced it was resuming aid to Egypt in March, Cairo asked Interpol to issue "red notices" for 15 other NGO workers who were not in Egypt when the charges against the organizations were made.

One of the 15, American Charles Dunne, told Reuters in Washington on Monday that he was grateful for the U.S. government's efforts to get Interpol to quash the Egyptian request for global arrest warrants, but noted that the criminal case against the NGOs had not been dropped in Egypt.

"Everyone is still under indictment and the case is proceeding. The Egyptians are doing everything they can to escalate this and the confrontation with civil society more broadly," Dunne told Reuters.

Dunne is a former U.S. diplomat who was based in Cairo from 1999-2002. He is now the Middle East director for Freedom House, which advocates for democracy and human rights worldwide.

Twelve of the 15 whose arrest was sought by Egypt were American, two were Lebanese and one was Jordanian, Interpol said in its statement.

Egyptian police raided the offices of Freedom House and other pro-democracy groups in late December. Prosecutors later charged 43 people including 16 Americans - one of them the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood - with working for organizations that received illegal foreign funding.

Tensions have since eased, but human rights campaigners say they fear the Egyptian decision announced Monday to deny them licenses may signal a new crackdown on their activities.

"This decision is moving illogically and in opposition to the path of history as the entire world is magnifying the importance of civil society," said Hafez Abu Saeda, the head of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights. "The government insists on stifling civil work in Egypt."

The military generals who took power after Mubarak are due to hand it to the winner of the presidential election at the end of June.

(Additional reporting by Shaimaa Fayed, Ashraf Fahim and Ali Abdelatti, and Susan Cornwell in Washington; Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Dan Grebler)

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Goodbye Charlie Card—Boston Bus Fares Could Soon Be Sold by Smartphone [NFC]

There are fare vending machines in fewer than half of Boston's commuter rail stations so most people buy their tickets on-board the trains. However the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority announced today that come fall, riders may be able to prepurchase their fares on their phones. More »

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Floor Tiles ? Info | Home Remodeling and Home Improvement

When you are buying a house, one of the things you would look at is the floor. Is it made out of concrete, do you need extra carpeting on it or will it be nice enough to walk around barefooted. Some homes tend to be built with floor tiles because they are better looking and have their own purpose. The most debated tiles flooring you often hear is marbles or wood tiles.

There is no straight forward answer to this. The right question is where they are suitable to be used. First of all, the marbles tiles are usually light in color while the wood tiles can range from light to dark. The wood tiles are also affected by the color of the shellac. If you want to give of a cold ambiance to the room, then marble will do the work. Wood tiles work better if you want a warm feeling to the room.

Marble tiles are suited to be used in the living room and especially in the bathroom.

If you try to use wood tiles inside the bathroom, it will soak up the water and will be ruined in no time at all.

As for the kitchen, neither is actually suitable. The oil and dirt will cause the marble surface to be slippery and this is especially dangerous when you are working in the kitchen. Wood floor tiles will get dirty easier and it will be hard to clean off the dirt.

If you?re using wooden tiles, be prepared to shellac them periodically to maintain the look and color. You?ll also most probably need to glue back some loose tiles or maybe even replace them if they are damaged. Marble tiles are easier to clean, are more durable and their looks last longer.

So it is best that you don?t just focus on decorating your house with just a single tile type. It is better to get a mix of them and place them in the appropriate places.

This way you can add some variety into your interior house design.

CLICK HERE for more info on Floor Tiles

CLICK HERE for more info on Bathroom Floor Tiles

CLICK HERE for more info on Porcelain Floor Tiles

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This entry was posted in Flooring and tagged Floor, Info, Tiles. Bookmark the permalink.

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French election outcome could complicate Afghanistan policy

Click image to see more photos. (Reuters/Philippe Wojazer)

The White House said Friday it was "monitoring" the outcome of France's elections, the results of which could pose fresh challenges for President Barack Obama on issues like the war in Afghanistan.

"We're certainly monitoring it in the sense that we follow the news and France is?a great, great ally of the United States and will continue to be so," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

But there's a real chance that a victory by Socialist candidate Fran?ois Hollande?could complicate Obama's policy in Afghanistan. Hollande?has vowed to pull France's roughly 3,600 combat troops from that war-torn country by year's end?more quickly than incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants them out at the end of 2013. Hollande led Sarkozy in recent polls ahead of Sunday's first round of voting.

Obama's own approach calls for drawing down to 68,500 American troops by later this year, and he?expects?a NATO summit in Chicago next month to set out a road map for handing over full security responsibility to Afghan forces next year on the way to a full withdrawal of Western combat forces by the end of 2014. "But our support will not end in 2014. In Chicago, we will agree how NATO will provide the training, assistance and support that your security forces need once transition is complete. And we will play our part in providing the necessary funding to keep those forces strong," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a joint April 12 press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney's campaign did not return an email seeking comment on France's election and its possible impact on Afghanistan.

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

? Orrin Hatch's challenger Dan Liljenquist on Utah Senate race: 'This is not in the bag'

? Mitt Romney raised nearly $12.6 million in March

? Obama to appear on Jimmy Fallon show next week

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

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Nokia's White Lumia 900 reportedly available now at AT&T stores

We'd previously heard AT&T's White Lumia 900 was slated for a release on April 22nd, but photos tweeted by the outfit's Chris Weber would suggest the Mango device is up for grabs now. By the looks of it, at least a pair of customers were able to walk into a Rethink Possible shop and grab a pale piece of the Lumia pie for themselves. Naturally, AT&T's site still doesn't have the Windows Phone handset listed, while the Cyan flavor remains out of stock. Perhaps, now it's a good time to head to your local AT&T store and cough up those 99 bucks, or get it gratis through tomorrow. Be sure to drop us a line if you were able to take one of Nokia's own unicorns home with you.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Nokia's White Lumia 900 reportedly available now at AT&T stores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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